Yukica's Visit & Other Summer Things

I realize that I have been terrible about blogging this summer, BUT things have been SOOOOO busy.  August has been a difficult month for us.  Gabe has been in the Pediatric ICU which is in itself emotionally draining, but the hours have also been long and we don't get to see him often; more over, the residency schedule is just getting old... ugh!  Looking back, we have had a great month, visiting with lots of friends and relatives, but all of our visits have been short. I have become somewhat of an expert on "efficient/quality" family time...  So, no time for pics and no time to blog.  Just know that we do think of you all often and appreciate what little time we get to spend with each of you (in person or otherwise)... some day maybe Gabe will have a real job and work less hours (I can dream).  In the past few weeks we have gotten to see: Alane & Silas and have a great morning visit; Nanny, Aunt Amy & the Pelkey's at the Folk Festival; "Oliver, Isaac, & Becca" -per Noah; and catch-up with many others over the phone or via email.  I realize that we are ALWAYS going some where or doing something b/c now when I pick Noah up from daycare he asks who is going to be at our house when we get home, or "where we going now?"... 

I was able to get a few pictures from the Yukica's visit last weekend. James was REALLY jealous that he wasn't able to get into the bathtub as well... I think this will be a good graduation party picture for HS graduation;) We went shopping in Freeport, "hiked" Bradbury Mountain, played in the sprinkler, and just had a great time!

Santa's Village- 2010

I didn't think we were going to make Santa's Village this year, but it was Noah's last year before we have to pay... so we made a bit of an extra effort:)  We have been very fortunate to be able to visit our summer parks AND be able to spend time with friends we miss from living in the Upper Valley.  We met the Burke family and Noah's little friend Reid who he had a ball with all day.  Let me start at the beginning... I had to "work" or at least be on call on Saturday until 1pm.  At 1 the kids and I hopped in the car and drove up to Jefferson, NH.  We got to the campground, I set up the tent while the kids played, or more accurately while James screamed (He started with a fever Friday night, by Sunday he had a raging ear infection, but we largely ignored it, treated him with ibuprofen and he was fine... except for when the ibuprofen wore off). Anyhow, we had a blast camping- we went for a hay ride with the Easter Bunny, attempted to play candy bar bingo, but they were full by the time I got Jammies on the kids, so Noah and I sat around and ate our candy bars ourselves:)  Then Noah decided he wanted to go swimming (7:30 at night) we were on vacation, why not?  There was a wading pool there which he thoroughly enjoyed while James and I froze in our pants, sweatshirts and sneakers.  After swimming Gabe (thankfully) arrived to stay the night with us, and just in time for s'mores.  James did well in the tent except for the fact that he was sick and woke up screaming, the upside though, was that he slept until 8:30 the next morning... Noah was up at 6...  Oh, AND, take note Pelkey's, it rained all night...

Sunday was Santa's Village... we took down the tent in the rain, it was freezing.  Unbelievably, it has not rained all summer, but the day we choose to go to Santa's Village it rains, which makes me look back and realize that I have never been there without rain or 30 degree temperatures.  Anyhow, it was down-pouring when we went into the park, I wasn't planning on staying long in the rain, so I didn't bring my camera... LUCKILY, Christ and Broc brought theirs and shared pics with us, THANKS GUYS!!  It turned out to be an perfect day to be at the park- after noon time it was light drizzle, no lines, no crowd, nice temperature.  Best of all, Noah got to spend time with Reid and had a great time. Yes, they are riding on the animals in the manger scene... Reid went on all of the rides, Noah went on almost all of the rides (I think we may have traumatized him a bit with too many forced trips on the roller coaster and log flumes;). Thanks for coming with us guys we had a great day! 

Dance, Dance, Dance

I am not sure what it is in these two, but they seem to have some type of inborn knack for music and dancing.  In the last few weeks James has started to dance (which is the cutest thing ever I must say) and his rhythm with the instruments is surprisingly accurate.  I haven't been able to get great video of James dancing yet, but I am sure he will soon rival Noah in his dancing skills (see August 2 and 18, 2008 blog posts) in the next few months;) In the video Noah is showing off his new moves.  I am not sure where he comes up with these, but break dancing may be the next phase. I have decided to save a bit of money this fall and skip the formal music class, but I did buy the CD for us to do at home so I am sure there will be more pictures/video of dancing to come!

Maine Wildlife Park- 2010

We have taken lots of small trips here and there this summer and most of them I don't have the opportunity to take many pictures... this was no different.  Gabe's schedule has been tight this month so we have had to be a bit more creative with our family time.  This morning we had about 1 hour to see the Maine Wildlife Park before Gabe had to go into work AND it was really hot, so I am not sure we would have lasted much longer than that.  Last year this park was my first trip alone with the 2 kids... though, I am not sure a year has made all that much difference in the difficulty of taking 2 kids here, but just a different kind of difficulty;)  Luckily Gabe was there and we all enjoyed the deer, bobcats, fischer cats, possums, skunks, bears, moose, etc.  It was a great morning together!

Noah & the campfire

One night James was so tired he couldn't possibly handle himself past 6:30 so he had a regular bed time and Noah had taken a good nap... SO, we let him stay up and have a campfire with us (we did also tell him we were out of marshmallows, which to this day he has not let us forget).  He was an absolute RIOT!  It was on this day we realized that his speech had come a long way... he just wouldn't stop talking.  We knew this day would come and here it is.  Mostly he was talking non-sense, but it was entertaining none the less... he kept telling us to stop talking while he would go on and on about nothing.  He was also in a great mood for posing for pictures, video and just seeing what he could get into.  Or, maybe he was just super excited to have a campfire and have mommy & daddy all to himself.... Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Nanny!

My mom was visiting recently (and helping to get some chores done:)) and it just happened to be her birthday.  Noah is pretty excited about birthdays these days so here he is with his cake (note his continued fascination with American flags) and my new sunglasses singing "Happy Birthday" to Nanny.  The bottom picture is a rare shot of me playing with the boys... no other story... just that such a picture does exist;)

Storyland 2010

Last weekend was Gabe's last one off until September, so we decided to take full advantage and spend Sunday at Storyland with the Yukica family (minus Jack).  We had a perfect day!  Not too hot, not too crowded, all the kids were well behaved:)  It was difficult to take too many pictures with only 3 adults and 4 boys, but the ones we did get capture the day well.  Noah had a blast with his two friends Oliver and Isaac.  It is so fun to see him interacting with his friends... and for the first time ever he jumped with both feet off the ground at the same time!  Yay Noah!  Noah was surprisingly fearless, he insisted on going on the roller coaster, the crazy barn, and other things I thought for sure he would be afraid of.  James really wished he were older to run with the big boys, but he was surprisingly patient all day.  Noah is already planning for next year- Yukica/Civiello annual family vacation:)