Chicago Quick Stop

Our last hurrah of the Summer included a quick 4 day trip to Chicago to celebrate Nana's 70th birthday and check in with some old friends before the official start of the school year. The trip was filled with a birthday trip to The American Girl Store with Lexi, Nana and I, a trip to the Aquarium, and more visits with friends and family. It was quick, but we had a blast. Thank you Chicago!  We miss you!

After leaving the Aquarium Finn said, "I wish we could move to Chicago!"
"Really, why?" I said.  "Because then I could see dolphins every day!"

A day at the park with a few of our besties.

Lexi with her new American Girl Doll. Nana treated Lexi, Nina (her new doll), and I to a ladies lunch at the store.  Lexi loved the treats and especially the endless lemonade.

Celebrating Nana's bday with the family.

The Good Life

We set off for vacation number two. Yes, another vacation just weeks apart from the Cape.  Lucky for us I know. This time we headed to West Virginia to meet with 38 other members from Patrick's family.  Imagine this...43 people, together for a week,  with 36 under one roof.  15 were kids.  14 under the age of 6. No fights, no tension.  an easy pace. I know, you can't imagine it, but this is how it all went down.  really. I consider myself lucky to have married into such utopia. We hiked, swam, rode horses and paddle boats, visited the Good zoo, golfed, went to the spa, mini-golfed, played games, ate, ate some more, and hung out. delightful.  Thank you to Ogelbay, the plethora of deer, and mostly to the entire family for a truly wonderful, easy, and carefree vacation.

Biding time at Logan airport.

 Aunt Colleen and cousin Ryan

 Grammy and Ryan

 Lucy, Lex, Emme, and Lily

 Lily, Lex and Finn  (Lex and Lily took about 4 minutes to become fast friends.)

 Lily and Finn --love this one.

 The Radkowski clan

 

Chris and Luke

The Funari clan

 BJ, Lucy and Dana

 Kevin, Bobbe Jo and Ethan

 Chris, Jenny and Norah

 Marsha, Matt and Jillian

Adam and Erik

 BJ and Patrick

 Lucy

 Norah

 The Lennon clan

 Uncle Dennis and Lucy

 Uncle Chip and Norah

 Grammy and Aunt Carol

 The four siblings

 The mini Lennon clan

Friends

I have to alert all our future house guests that our recent guests, James, Maya and Hunter have set the bar pretty high for all future guests.

James and Maya (the parents), arrived with Hunter (6 months old) on a Friday afternoon.  They brought fresh caught fish (by James) and made fish dinners for us every night of their visit.  Quite the house guests! We enjoyed the fish, their company and doting over sweet Hunter. We spent the weekend giving them a taste of Maine--Winslow Park in Freeport, LL Bean, a hike up Bradbury mountain, and blueberry picking.

Thank you Stewarts for an awesome visit! We hope you come back soon so we can show you more of the coast of Maine.

It would be wrong to end this post without mentioning Heath's experience picking blueberries.  He set out as instructed to pick blueberries, diligently putting over 50 in his bucket. I pulled out a blueberry from his bucket and told him he could try one.  He seemed delighted at the prospect of changing the game and eagerly popped the berry in his mouth.  From there, he sat down on the grown and ate every last berry in his bucket.  Realizing that there were new rules, he opted for delivering the prize directly to his mouth each time he picked. All-in-all we figure he ate over 100 blueberries that day.  We're pretty sure he was drunk from all the blueberry consumption. I'm hoping that over indulgence in blueberries can't be that bad, right?

Waking up on the cuter side of bed

Heath has definitely turned the corner to becoming a "big boy". Not only did he officially move into his big boy bed this past week, but his vocabulary has blossomed over the the past 6 weeks, turning screams into "excuse me" and "please". His personality is shining through and he's becoming a strong threesome with Lex and Finn. 

Some of his favorite current sayings include, "I so cute" and "I sillllweeee" (I'm silly).

He's become quite the charmer. We look forward to watching him grow.