Sail Boston 2009 took place this past weekend in Boston Harbor. That is where all sorts of Tall Ships from around the world come to Boston and people can go and tour them. Tracy's friend John has actually been sailing around the world on the Picton Castle for about 15 months now and she arranged to get us a VIP tour of the ship with the kids this weekend. Last weekend the ship was up in Gloucester and the two of us went on a tour. Yesterday we went back with Tracy's Mom, Hunter, Lincoln, Jake and Hannah. It was a nice morning down on the water and the kids enjoyed the tour very much. After words we headed back from the Charlestown Navy Yard and went home to hang out by the pool. The weather was absolutely perfect in the afternoon. I'll have more on our Sunday afternoon and evening later. It has been a very busy weekend.
Every year over the 4th of July Franklin holds their town carnival. Papa Michael is the co-chair of the carnival and usually also runs the booth sponsored by the Franklin Democratic Committee. This year his daughter Kristen is pretty much in charge of the booth. Every year Lincoln and I volunteer to help at the booth which sells bottled water, pizza, and calzones. While Lincoln and I work the booth Shani takes the kids around on all the rides. She works out a deal with the real carnies that in exchange for food they let her (and the kids) go on rides for free. It's a great deal. Today Hunter, Tracy, and Cheryl joined us and the kids had a blast. Here is a picture of Hannah and Hunter on "The Crazy Bus" ride.
While the kids had a blast, and Jake was even excited that he was tall enough to go on the swing ride right before we left, it didn't end on the best note. Jake ended up throwing up in the car on the way home. Luckily he made it into the trash bucket so there wasn't any real mess. Obviously we need to keep him off the wild wides for awhile. Hannah, on the other hand, LOVES them. She's quite the little daredevil at the carnival.
Here is a picture of Jake and Hannah on the ride that eventually did Jake in....
Jake was very concerned about the seagulls while we were down at the beach last weekend and kept asking me where they were. When we were packing up Tracy noticed one on the sand right behind us.
At the beach: Jake and Lincoln had the foam swords at the beach again this year. Don't worry, they defended mankind against the great waves once again. We are all safe for another year.
Twins: Anything that Hunter did this weekend was something that Jake had to do too. If Hunter ordered a hamburger than Jake ordered a hamburger. If Hunter watched the grown-ups play Baggo then Jake did it too. If Hunter sat on the beach......you get the drift.
Ahhh....vacation: Hannah's crush: Hannah developed a major crush on Mikey this weekend. She hung on his every word and followed him around everywhere.
A brief glimpse of sun: This picture was taken while walking back to the house from town. Usually I get a million of these gorgeous scenery shots while we're down at the Vineyard but this is the only from this summer.
Bike riding: I couldn't get a still shot of Hannah on her bike. She is loving the freedom that she's discovered on her bike this summer and is constantly on the go.
Jake playing catcher: I'll give you three guesses to guess who was batting. And the first two don't count.
Jake "butt boarding" with Mikey:
Climbing trees: My little tomboy in pink.
The Cookie Caper (and the Post Cookie Crash): Lincoln bought a container of cookies on Saturday and Jakey had three of them right in a row.
Laurie: Make sure you ask your Mommy if it's okay to have another cookie.
Jake: They're Daddy's.
As though that justifies everything.
Ahhhhhh......vacation: Tracy enjoys a nice cold Corona.
The end of our long weekend. Our final meal before heading for the ferry:
Well, we made it back from Martha's Vineyard late last night. This was our third year that we've been down there and while the trip was lots of fun it definitely wasn't as great as the last few years thanks to the weather. New England, for some reason, has decided not to celebrate summer and has been cold, rainy, and windy for the past week or so with not much hope of anything different for at least another few days.
Thursday morning we packed up the car and headed down to catch the ferry in Woods Hole, MA. The car was fully packed to the brim and despite my husband briefly questioning my car packing abilities I was able to get everything in the car. The trip was fairly uneventful and both kids actually fell asleep on the drive down. The trip down only takes about an hour and a half and we made it down in plenty of time to let the kids get out and walk around before getting onto the ferry. For the first time ever we were put on one of the freight ferries. I'm always amazed because the "big" ferry is actually about 1/4 of the size of one of the Washington State Ferries but the freight ferry was even much smaller. It only had 4 short lanes for cars and you actually drove down the far left one to turn around and drive back to the right in order to drive back off the ferry in the direction that you came from. Basically you do a big U-turn on a boat. There is a small area at the top where you can go inside but it's nothing like the usual ferry that serves food and drinks and has a few games.
The freight ferry:
We got to Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard around noon and quickly unloaded our car. Once we got everything unloaded, and received a brief visit from the Oak Bluffs police about a vagrant discovered to be camping in the bushes at the bottom of the property we were renting, we headed into town for lunch. Oak Bluffs is a great little town and we ate lunch at Sharkey's before the guys headed back to the house with the kids and Tracy and I went shopping at the famous Black Dog store. After that we obviously had to stop at the Sand Bar because, you know, shopping is thirsty work. After that we headed back to the house to meet up with another couple, Jim and Laurie, who had arrived at the house. Mike had also ridden over with them and would be joined by his wife and son, Grace and Mikey, the next day. Usually Denise and Brian and their two kids come with us too but this year they weren't able to make it. It's a 6-bedroom house and while it's tight quarters it's a lot of fun with all those people. Thursday night we ordered pizza and hung out on the deck. Despite the clouds it wasn't really raining much that night so the kids ran around and the grown-ups played Baggo and Washer Toss in the front yard.
Friday morning Jim, Tracy, and Mike decided they were going to go out on a chartered fishing boat but due to the massive downpour, and the small craft advisory, that trip was cancelled. When the rain stopped we headed over to Chappy to play on the beach despite the cloudy, dreary day but by the time we drove over to Edgartown and caught the Chappy Ferry it was raining pretty hard again. Basically we paid to ride the ferry across and be told by the ferry operator that we had an almost flat tire. Obviously we were not "Happy on Chappy" this year.
After coming back and resting during the afternoon we had Mexican Night out on the big front porch. By evening the weather was actually very pleasant and we even had some blue skies. We played some more lawn games and everyone just sat around socializing and having a few drinks. After dinner we walked down to the carousel (the oldest one in the country) and then the arcade. Saturday was actually a fairly nice day. While it was fairly cool and mostly cloudy there was sun every now and then. We decided that we wouldn't chance heading over to Chappy again and instead went down to a small beach within walking distance of the house. The kids had a great time and even went in the water although I'm sure it was pretty cold.
Hanging at the beach:
Afterwards we headed back and tossed the kids in quick showers and put Jake down for a nap. Tracy and I then headed down to a small street festival along the water while Cliff kept an eye on the kids and Lincoln ran to the grocery store. Conveniently the street festival ended at the Sand Bar again so we stopped for a few drinks before heading back to meet the guys, along with the kids, at a traveling rock wall. Hannah discovered this the first year we were there and she loved it. She is quite the little monkey and climbed up all three levels of easy, medium, and hard. Jake decided to give it a try too but didn't make it too far up the easy level. Lincoln climbed with him and did the "hard" level right next to Jake. Even having Lincoln next to him didn't encourage him to go up very far but we were both very proud that he gave it a try.
Hannah on the rock wall: Hannah on the rock wall (video):
Lincoln and Jake at (and on) the rock wall:
Lincoln and Jake on the rock wall (video):
Saturday night we headed back to the house and the Jim and Mike grilled up a wonderful BBQ dinner. This was probably my favorite night of the weekend as we all just hung out and had a blast on the porch. The kids road their bikes up and down the street and Mikey taught Jake how to "butt board" on his skateboard. Mikey is Mike and Grace's 16 year old son and he was FANTASTIC with the kids. We will definitely be taking him up on future babysitting services.
Jake and Mikey:
Sunday morning we got up, packed up the luggage and Lincoln cooked a great Father's Day breakfast for everyone. Yes, I know that I should be cooking for Lincoln on Father's Day but breakfast is his thing. He loves cooking breakfast and even took his griddle and bacon press down with us. After breakfast we finished packing up the house, washing the sheets, and cleaning up the bedroom before heading out for lunch. Wow....that make it seem like all we did was eat but I'm sure we must have done something else in between. I just can't think of what it was. Probably just sat on the porch and vegged out. Sunday was a very cold, misty day and even though it required a good warm blanket we spent a lot of time sitting out on the porch and looking at the water and mourning that our "beach" vacation was coming to an end.
After lunch Jim, Laurie, Grace, Mike, and Mikey headed back on a mid-day ferry while the rest of us headed back to the arcade. I have to say, the arcade is not that big of a money suck. For $20 you get 96 tokens and most of the games are fairly generous in giving out tickets. You usually end up with about 400-500 tickets and yet the prizes are not too "expensive" when you cash out your tickets. On the upside the kids love it because they can get tons of stuff. On the downside your kids come home with an obscene amount of junk. The first night they got a few plastic swords, some candy, a whoopie cushion, some super balls, and one or two other things. Sunday afternoon they went for the bigger prizes and Hannah got a magnetic sculpture and Jake got a basketball hoop and ball.
Once we got back to the house we loaded up the car and then vegged out on the porch looking out into the drizzle for awhile. I'm not sure where Cliff went off to but the kids played around inside the house while Tracy, Lincoln, and I played Phase 10 which is a wonderful card game. And I'm not just saying it's a wonderful card game because I won although I do love beating Tracy. She is wicked competitive so whenever I can take her down I love it.
Before heading for our ferry we went out for a Father's Day dinner at Offshore Ale Co. This is a great little brewpub in Oak Bluffs that we've never come across in the past few years. The food was phenomenal and the beer was great. If you're ever in Oak Bluffs I highly recommend giving it a try.
After dinner we hopped in the car and headed towards Vineyard Haven to catch our ferry. At this point it was getting very windy and there were a number of whitecaps on the water. When we drove through Tisbury we saw a sailboat that must have slipped its mooring and washed up on shore. I'm sure that will be an unpleasant surprise for the owner. We got on the ferry and headed home and it was pretty rough. I have to say, I don't usually get seasick but it was a pretty rough crossing. The drive from Woods Hole to Upton took a little longer than on the way down because it was raining pretty heavily and super windy. Lincoln got us home safely and after getting the kids into the house and into their beds we unloaded the car in a drizzly rain. At least by that point it wasn't a outright downpour.
Beached sailboat:
All in all it was a very good weekend but it definitely wasn't the fun, summery, heavenly delightful Martha's Vineyard vacations of the past few years. Hopefully our upcoming trip to go camping in Maine with Lincoln's brother and sister-in-law will have a little more sun.
The last few days have been incredibly busy. Friday night Hannah, Tracy, Hunter, and I went to the Brad Paisley concert down at the Comcast Center. It was a great show and I highly recommend going to see him if you're a country fan. Hunter is a huge fan of Brad Paisley and knew all the words to the songs. He just sat there with the most mesmerized look on his face the entire time. Hannah is less thrilled with concerts but I think she had a fun time anyway.
Saturday morning Hannah had Little League and it was a beautiful sunny day. The kids played a good game although now that it is kid pitch they don't actually do much hitting which is rather unfortunate. The other team had a pitcher yesterday who threw a great fast ball but didn't have much control. Unfortunately he took out a few kids in the process. Hannah got a nice hard ball on the hip but luckily she just shook it off and took her base. She is usually such a baby when it comes to injuries but when she's playing with the boys she does a great job of taking everything in stride.
Saturday afternoon Hannah, Tracy, and I hung out at the pool. Hannah and I are still the only two that are willing to brave the cold water but we all had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the sun. Jake is definitely going to grow up to be just like his father. He kept coming out and asking us if we wanted lemonade and then he'd bring us out a glass. Then he wanted to serve us something "on a tray" so he took our orders for snacks and brought them out to us. It was a very fancy bowl of Cheez-its and cheese and crackers. He will make a GREAT husband someday.
Saturday evening Kristen came up to babysit and Lincoln and I headed out for dinner and then to see Kathy Griffin at the Wang CitiCenter before going to a late showing of The Hangover at the movie theater. The "double feature" date was us taking advantage of having a babysitter that we didn't have to worry about wanting us to rush home. Kristen just ended up crashing here and heading home in the morning. Today was supposed to be Hannah's last day of Little League, and my day to work the snack shack at the baseball fields, but luckily it poured rain all night and has continued on and off all day. Instead of baseball we're all spending a quiet day at home. The kids are playing Clue in the next room, Lincoln is doing laundry, and I'm working on getting our stuff organized for our upcoming trip to Martha's Vineyard.
This week is Hannah's last week of 2nd grade. It's hard to believe she's going to be a 3rd grader next year. She has class on Monday, a field day on Tuesday, and a half day on Wednesday and that's it for 2nd grade. I remember her starting kindergarten like it was just the other day. Times flies by way too fast.
Hannah's Little League team started out this season as "coach pitch". A few games ago they switched over to "kid pitch". I didn't figure that Hannah would ever actually do any pitching. She loves playing but her heart definitely isn't in it like some of these little boys who are fantastic at the game. The really cool thing though is that she is game for anything. She is the only girl on the team and nothing seems to intimidate her. I was really surprised when they asked her to play catcher one day but she loved it. She has done it a couple of times since then.
Last Sunday was a beautiful day for a Little League game. Tracy and I were sitting on the hill in the sun watching the game. Her son Hunter is also on the team and in the videos below he's the one catching. Lincoln had Jake off playing in the shade but was standing and watching the game. As a new inning was starting we watched Hunter get suited up to play catcher. All of a sudden I could have sworn I heard the coach say "Hannah" and "pitch" in the same sentence. I looked at Tracy and said "What did he just say?" and then up at Lincoln who was looking at me with an equally astonished look on his face. Yep, Hannah was headed out to the pitchers mound.
Hannah is okay at baseball. I would say she's average at batting, catching, and throwing but she doesn't love the sport enough to practice when she's not at a game so she's not great at it. I was a little worried she wouldn't be able to pitch and people would get frustrated with her. She was a little wild and she did load the bases with a lot of walks (and give up a few points along the way) but no one said a single thing about it. Even the boys that are really intense about their baseball were very encouraging about her pitching. Tracy said she was impressed that Hannah even agreed to do it and said she didn't know if Hunter would have. Hannah managed to get a few good ones across the plate and a few boys managed to get hits off of her but she did awesome.
Despite my nervous laughter in the videos I was incredibly proud of her. Like I said, she shows no fear out there and absolutely no self doubt. It is amazing to watch such a self-confident little girl handle herself in a "boys world".
I think my favorite part is at the end of the 2nd video when Hunter throws her the ball and she misses it. Another kid scoops it up and tosses it to her and she misses again as it heads back towards home plate. Instead of getting flustered or embarrassed she makes a joke of it and just yells "It's not keep away!" That's my girl.
Today I drove Hannah and her friend Hunter to a birthday party. On the way there Hunter was flipping through a Thomas the Tank Engine catalog that Jake had left in the car.
Hannah: I put another top coat on my nails today.
Hunter: Umm....okay.
Hannah: I put on a first coat yesterday but then today I put on a second coat.
Hunter: Umm....okay.
Mommy: Hannah, Hunter's a boy. He doesn't care about your nail polish.
Hannah: Yeah, and I'm a girl so I'm going to talk to him while he's trying to read.
I am a 33 year old mother of 2 married to the most perfect man on the earth. Since the rest of my family and friends are scattered all over the country I started this blog to let them all know what was going on in our lives.
DEBBIE AND MARK - my sister and her awesome husband. They live in Seattle and I don't get to see them as much as I'd like but hopefully they'll be coming out to visit soon.
HANNAH - My 9-year old daughter. She is brilliant, precocious, and wise beyond her years.
HUNTER - Tracy's 9-year old son and a good friend of Hannah's. Jake's idol.
JAKE - My 5-year old son. He is constantly in trouble for hitting, kicking, and punching and I fully anticipate having to visit him in jail someday.
JEN - my former assistant. She may have moved up to nice, quiet Portland, Maine but I'm sure she still calls in late to work while doing the walk of shame and she's also the one that had Bret Michaels autograph her breast.
KAYLA (KIKI) - My 11-year old niece and one of my childrens' favorite people in the whole world. Jake gave her the nickname Kiki when he was a baby. She's the ultimate tomboy and is fantastic with the kids. They adore her.
KEGAN - The little brother I always wanted and Mom and Dad never gave me. He worked for me briefly before moving up in the company. Now he's just a thorn in my side but I adore him anyway.
KYLE - My 17-year old nephew and a great kid. He may be a big, cool, important high schooler but he's so great with the kids. He'll let Jake think they're doing serious wrestling without ever letting him be in danger.
LINCOLN (LINK) - My wonderful, perfect husband that I don't deserve.
MA AND PA SNOW - Lincoln's parents and my fantastic in-laws. They live right around the corner from us and are a true godsend.
MELISSA - my favorite co-worker. Melissa and I spent the first couple years of our acquaintance sharing a small office at work. She mocks my lack of music knowledge and I do her expense reports in exchange for wine and other gifts.
MOM AND DAD - my parents (duh!). They live in Seattle and come to visit often.
MY HAREM OF 20-SOMETHING BOYS - The young boys that I hire to work for me as runners.
RACHEL - My bestest and most longtime friend. My mother started babysitting for Rachel while she was pregnant with me so I've literally known Rachel since the womb.
THE OTHER DIANE SNOW - my sister-in-law who bears the same name as me and lives two houses up on the same street.
THE WALKERS - My second family. Deb and Michael are my Boston parents. Deb was my 10th grade teacher when I lived in Arkansas and she and Michael took me in when I moved to Boston. I even lived in their basement for the summer when I first moved here. Their daughters, Shani and Kristen, are my little sisters. They go to concerts with me, babysit my kids, and are just generally cool chicks.
TRACY - My BFF. Between bail bonds and locked psych wards we have it covered.
While the kids had a blast, and Jake was even excited that he was tall enough to go on the swing ride right before we left, it didn't end on the best note. Jake ended up throwing up in the car on the way home. Luckily he made it into the trash bucket so there wasn't any real mess. Obviously we need to keep him off the wild wides for awhile. Hannah, on the other hand, LOVES them. She's quite the little daredevil at the carnival.
Hannah's crush: Hannah developed a major crush on Mikey this weekend. She hung on his every word and followed him around everywhere.
Afterwards we headed back and tossed the kids in quick showers and put Jake down for a nap. Tracy and I then headed down to a small street festival along the water while Cliff kept an eye on the kids and Lincoln ran to the grocery store. Conveniently the street festival ended at the Sand Bar again so we stopped for a few drinks before heading back to meet the guys, along with the kids, at a traveling rock wall. Hannah discovered this the first year we were there and she loved it. She is quite the little monkey and climbed up all three levels of easy, medium, and hard. Jake decided to give it a try too but didn't make it too far up the easy level. Lincoln climbed with him and did the "hard" level right next to Jake. Even having Lincoln next to him didn't encourage him to go up very far but we were both very proud that he gave it a try.
All in all it was a very good weekend but it definitely wasn't the fun, 
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