It Was a Dark and Stormy Trip...

Ally and I ventured off to visit Aunt Beth on Nantucket two weekends ago. It has been a beautiful summer here, and very little rain. All the rain came during our trip.

We made it very early to the 8am ferry over, and got to Aunt Beth at 9. We ventured off to see Beth's new place (she moves in next week). Ally liked the porch.

We went back to Beth's August sublet. After settling in, we went right to the beach!

We saw some cool sand sculptures on the beach from Saturday's contest.

Then we hit the playground. The views from the top of the playground equipment are awesome - But what really amazed us was her climbing!!!

We had a nice walk around town, and Ally assumed her Nantucket napping posture in her stroller.

The next day, it poured. We made the best of it, but the camera didn't make much of an appearance. We were out in the morning, but ended up hanging out at home most of Monday afternoon.

Tuesday, it poured. Ally and I hunkered down inside while Beth went to work. She got out for a late lunch and took us to the beach!! Not exactly the summer scene I had envisioned...

...but with great company, who can complain!
Thanks Aunt Beth for hosting us in the worst weather of the summer. We enjoyed seeing you, and had a great time.

Gymnastics

This summer Ally started taking gymnastics class. She loves it! Never complains about going, is excited before and after class and loves to practice her new tricks. We signed her up for a 20 week session starting in September. Here she is modeling her new leotard, pink of course! Now she looks like the "big girls" she really enjoys watching the older girls use the equipment and do impressive tumbling. We're just happy she likes it!

More family visits

My cousin Katy was in Boston this weekend for a wedding and she and Jim made time to come over for brunch on Saturday morning. Ally watched Olivia the whole time, but it was great to catch up with her and to get to know Jim a little better. Thank-you Katy for the cute outfit for Ally, it looks perfect for back to school!

I wish

My older brother Frank was in Boston for 1 night for a job interview and we met up with him for dinner. I so wish I had taken some pictures. It would have been nice to get a shot of him and Ally. But I was so focused on getting downtown, meeting him, and then eating dinner and keeping Ally happy and well behaved during dinner that I totally forgot about taking pictures.

It was nice to see Frank, and we appreciated that he worked his reservations so we could meet up with him. Thanks for dinner!

After dinner we stopped at the Carousel and this time Becky rode with Ally. She picked the same horse she rode with me a few weeks ago.

Funny Girls

We had Alice and her parents over for dinner and for dessert we had ice cream cones.

Can you tell the girls (and Tom) liked them?

Alice had Ally come stand next to her at the gate and then asked me to come take a picture of their "ice cream faces"

They sure hammed it up for the camera!

After ice cream it was bath time and then the girls played "sleep" while the parents talked about schools. Navigating the urban public school system can be stressful!

Of course the sleep did not last long. Here they are touching their bellies, in an attempt to get a picture of both of them smiling at the camera.

Then it got silly and they clapped and laughed.

One last picture - Ally was so tired, but Alice seemed to get her second wind!

Bar B Q Party

We attended the annual Guatemala Adoptive families bar-b-q at some friends' house recently. It was a beautiful summer evening and all of Ally's Guat-Girl-Friends were there. Ally made a bee-line for the play set right away.

Showing off her impressive hanging skills.

And her abs of steel - it is unbelievable.

After her ring workout Ally braved the pool.

She got all wet - all the way in. She and Roxie were in the pool for almost an hour!

After a quick bit to eat it was back to the swing set.

Becky tried to get them all looking, but I think this one is pretty cute.

Then it was time to race down the hill. First there was 3.

Then 4

And finally all 5 of them. We are so lucky to have found these wonderful families to spend time with.

Green Thumb

Ally is turning out to have quite a little green thumb. She loves to water the plants. This week we planted herbs in a pot on the front porch, which Ally likes to smell, and we got this really interesting looking flowering plant. When it came time to water them Ally put on her rain boots to go outside.

It just so happened that her rain boots matched her shirt.

I especially love the leggings scrunched up into the boots and the tousled hair.

Sometimes Ally gets to taste the fruits of her labor. She knows to only pick the tomatoes when they are red, and she always asks first.

Day trip to the beach

We did it! We finally made a day trip to the beach. We asked all of our friends for recommendations, we researched beach umbrellas/tents/shelters. We checked the tide charts. We planned, we packed. I took a day off work so we could go when it was not so crowded. I wish I could say it was fabulous and wonderful. But at least I can say we did it!

These are the only 2 pictures I took. Above Ally and Becky are walking down to the water. The tide was out, which is when everyone told us to go, so Ally could walk out a long way and explore tide pools and such. But it was so far to get to the water.

For some time Ally and Becky sat in their beach chairs in a dried up tide pool, while I sat at the beach tent, acting as dead weight so it would not blow away in the wind.
I knew it was not going to be so much fun when as soon as we reached sand in the parking lot, Ally asked to be picked up. We changed her shoes - to the Tinkerbell beach flip flops - but even the sparkly purple flip flops did not help. Her skinny little foot does not stay in the shoes well enough to walk. So there we were, 2 bags of stuff, the tent, 3 beach chairs and now I am carrying Ally as well. Once we got set up Becky asked if I brought any adult beverages in the cooler. As you can see - I only had diet coke, which was not what she had in mind at the time!
After a while Ally got into it some - she refused to walk on any seaweed, but she would patiently fill up her sand bucket with water by scooping water out of a puddle into the bucket. Her patience is amazing. When she finally drained the puddle she asked to go to the big water. After about 30 minute there, and 2 hours total at the beach Ally was done - she asked to go home. Frankly, we were ready too.
Then Ally proceeded to fall sound asleep in the car on the way home, which made for a quiet drive but it was so late in the day, she did not fall asleep at night until midnight. We were 2 tired mothers.
We decided we'd try again sometime, but that maybe we weren't beach day-trip people.

Tradition

Every year we attend our neighborhood's National Night Out event. Its held at a park just down the street and there is free food and fun for kids. This year Ally wanted to bring her "special kitty" but the catch is that kitty is not supposed to be at the park, or she might get dirty. Ally said "I have an idea" and she ran and got her little back-pack to carry "just like mama" and put kitty and her blanket inside. She then wore the backpack the whole time. Kitty never came out, but I know it helps Ally sometimes just to have her nearby.

Love the mama daughter backpacks.

Of course Ally had to try out the swings. She refused popcorn, cupcakes, hot dogs and ice-ees until after the swings.

We got a free book. A good one that Ally sometimes gets from the library called When Sofie Gets Really Angry...

And we waited in a really long line for Italian Ice - but they were yummy and refreshing on a hot night.

Fountain Fun

On a recent trip to our local park Ally decided to play in the fountain.

So she gets undressed out of her clothes and puts on her bikini.

I just have to say I LOVE this bathing suit.


Ally insists on having "buckets" - actually plastic gladware bowls from the backpack to play with in the fountain. Above she was messing around at the fountain.

Oops then the water came shooting out.

after she fills her bowl she runs and dumps it out.

but she really enjoyed playing with the water.

She doesn't run thru it or get soaking wet, just nice and cooled off and with a purpose.

If you click on this photo you can see her grin in profile. I wish I had the sly smile. Sometimes she knows when I am trying to capture it on camera.

Fun in the city

Sunday we spent the day downtown in the city! First we went to the Aquarium. We are sure happy to have a membership (thanks Aunt Beth), because the line to get tickets was huge and it was very crowded inside so we only stayed for about an hour. After the Aquarium we walked over to the Carousel, and I got to ride on it with Ally. It was pretty fun - she loved it as usual. And this horse really went up and down on the pole, so she was taller than me sometimes!

After a picnic lunch we walked over the Greenway. There is a fountain there for kids to play in and in the summer the Greenway Foundation has staffers in the park with all sorts of games and books for families to play with. We used the instruments, read books, played horseshoes and bean bag toss. We were there for a couple of hours. Lots of fun.

I think Becky looks like a celebrity here - she has the hat and dark sunglasses, do you think she's hiding from the "Julie-razzi"?