Cape Cod

Our second weekend with Grandpa...

A quick stop at the potato chip factory

free sample

and then to the beach

We went to a museum that had artifacts from a real pirate shipwreck, which was really cool.  The kids' favorite part was playing in the gift shop :)

The real pirate treasure!

Provincetown

"Mommy, take my picture!"

On the way back to our hotel we decided to join one of Rachel's school friends at the drive-in to see the new Planes 2 movie.

The next morning we went on a whale watching cruise.  I had heard lots of good things from people that live in our area about this, so my expectations were high...and I was still blown out of the water.  It was so amazing!!  The boat ride was a little long, but the kids had a great time too.

Jake calls this girl Sunny Kate for a reason

Slightly seasick

This was the first little creature we saw

Then we saw lots of these, I think they were called Minke whales.

and then the Humpbacks.  We were able to get quite close, and it was fascinating seeing these huge mammals moving in the water.

This was a mother and her baby...waving hello

Such a trooper

More beach time.  We were informed there were lots of great shallow tide pools to catch lots of sea creatures in, but we must have gone to the wrong beaches.  But there really are no wrong beaches, any beach is a great time.

Have I mentioned how much Lily loves to eat sand?!

On Sunday we visited the JFK museum

And I really wished I liked seafood more.  The many burgers I ate didn't seem to measure up to the quality of the fish.

We were really lucky in terms of traffic, as we have heard many horror stories about.  We really had a perfect time!

Grandpa visits

With Grandpa's new job he has training and meetings here on the east coast, in DC and Boston.  So we had the pleasure of his company on a couple of weekends this summer.  They are short visits but we sure know how to pack it in...especially the treats.  We made two stops to the ice cream shop.  Why not?!  Our favorite flavors this summer were basil and sweet corn...sounds crazy, but they were amazing! 
This is when Lily got introduced to ice cream, and there was no turning back.  She is quite a fan and it is the secret to getting past her separation anxiety.

 We went to one of our favorite farms to go blueberry picking.  It was hot!  And blueberry picking can be slow going.  The kids tired out quickly, but the thought of blueberry buckle, pie, icecream and crisp had me going strong.

 They're so beautiful aren't they?

 They didn't seem to notice the heat as they were playing

 After the farm we went to a horse jumping show.  Jake had seen this free event over the past several weekends on his bike rides.  He put it on his to do list early in the summer and we finally got around to doing it.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  It was really cool! 
The kids got to use some of their money to buy a treat.

These animal are just incredible!

Babies are too :)

 Sunday afternoon chillin

 For those of you who don't know...her favorite color right now is red

 I signed up Rachel for summer softball.  It was advertised being very casual and low key and just for fun.  But when Rachel showed up, all the other girls brought all their fancy gear (special bags for their own bats, field masks, etc) and she felt really out of place.  She didn't know all the rules of the game either and everyone else seemed like they had been playing since they were 3.  The parents killed me too as they watched and critiqued and made an excuse for every wrong move their child made.  We stuck it out, borrowed some equipment, and Rachel seemed to learn a lot from her experience and enjoyed it...but I don't think it's for either of us.  It has brought me to some deep thinking and questioning about activities for kids. 

 My dad had training in Boston so we planned to meet him the following weekend in Cape Cod.  During the week we decided to pay our friends a visit.  We spent a fun day at the Providence zoo.

 We enjoyed seeing the kangaroos up close and personal.

 What a girl's got to do to get some beauty rest