A Snow Day!

Vacation Time 2014

We headed to Beech Mountain North Carolina for the second year in a row. They had a big snow storm, and we ended up being snowed in the last two days. But we had a blast, making a snow igloo, a very modest snowman, and spending good quality time together.

Edmund got to snowboard at night this time, it is really cool to watch the slopes, with lights and being able to sit on the porch and here people come down the mountain. We had a fire in the fireplace every night. Matthew took a couple days to get used to wearing gloves and a hat, he kept taking them off and then crying because he was cold. They also had a blast swimming in the indoor pool, go figure.

The drive home was a bit crazy, I-95 was closed and we were diverted and then they were paving the highway a few hours later. Took about 4 extra hours to get home. The boys were great on the drive, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Relaxing

We went to the Keys when I was 7 months pregnant with Benjamin- to continue the tradition we went to Prince Edward Island for a week of relaxation before "D-Day".  We stayed at a friends cottage on the beach- the island is a fishing and farming community, some of the most picturesque landscape I've seen.  We ate fish and chips the first night at the "Blue Goose" and then settled into the cottage- no TV,phone, computer, no traffic noise or AC units running. We kept the windows open and really the loudest thing all week was Benjamin (felt a little sorry for the neighbors!) Every morning and night we had that sweet smelling cool weather with a light breeze, and then it would warm up and the sun would shine all day. We spent most of our days driving the roads looking at the scenery and visiting shops, general stores and side of the road "honor system" farm stands. I even found an honor system honey stand! We ate seafood every night, live lobsters that the locals insisted you boiled in ocean water, mussels, seafood chowder, clams, oysters and  quahogs (ask Edmund!) Barb had a small dirt bike that Benjamin had to ride at least three times a day, and Edmund and Benjamin would take off and go exploring the countryside looking for cows- and Edmund had to control Benjamin's "throttle junkie" ways (go figure!)

Dirty

Last Day of our first camping trip as a family of Three. Edmund and I use to go camping almost every weekend. And we haven't gone in a year and a half, not just because you can't spray a newborn with bug spray and sunscreen,but also because it is not the kind of activity that works well with my job. Having no access to phone or computers does not really work, even for a day or two.  So, this trip was actually our third attempt to go, but it was worth it. Benjamin absolutely loved the entire concept of camping. When we were setting up we told him that he would be going "night" in the tent. For the first time ever, Benji was asking every 10 minutes to go "nite" and did it the entire next day too (and he slept like a log) He also loved cooking on a stick, playing in the dirt (see pictures) and playing with his stick in the dirt. This last day we spent the morning at the beach and then headed over to the lighthouse. We bought tickets to climb to the top and then found out you have to be 44 inches tall to climb. You should have seen the little guys face (both of them actually), when we turned around to leave, Edmund and Benji were so excited to climb to the top... Benji cried. Then we went downtown, where we thought a train ride would cheer Benjamin up (trains are his new thing) Every time a train rounded the corner, his face lit up "train, train" then we found out it was $20 a person to ride. We decided to go for it and it was worth it, we got a really nice scenic tour of St Augustine, Benji got his train ride. As we rounded Magnolia street (named one of the top 10 most beautiful streets in America) something rammed Edmund's shoulder, when he looked down he saw one sound asleep (sitting up) little boy.