Day 201 -- Essex Steam Train

We took the morning off to rest up and then headed to the Essex Steam Train and Steamboat for a ride through the countryside.
When we finished riding the train and the boat, a huge storm hit. It was crazy! The rain and lightening we pretty amazing to watch. We were glad we weren't on the water when it happened!

We had dinner at home and opened up Disney Dance Dance Revolution for a dance party in the basement. What a kick! It is so much fun to play -- everyone was taking turns and getting their grove on!

Day 200 -- Boston

Oh my! What a day in Massachusetts. We started out at 8:30 AM from my house. After driving for three hours -- Boston is only a two hour drive we spent one extra hour lost in traffic trying to find Boston Common -- we finally made it to the public parking under the Common. We met up with Doug's brother's family and headed off for the intended adventure. Boston. Here's what we did and saw:

First things first -- mud and puddles.

Darcy & Maddie at Quincy's Market. We walked from the Common along the Freedom Trail to Quincy's Market for lunch. Then, we walked back along the trail again.

A British Loyalist and our children in front of Faneuil Hall.
The mandatory visit to the Frog Pond for fun in the sun(John slept for the first little bit, then joined in the fun)
A tour on the Swan Boats on the lake in the Public Gardens.Sitting on the ducks from the book Make Way for Ducklings.Then, the adventure overtook us and motivated us to go to Cape Cod since we were in the area. Um, we realized while driving that Boston and Cape Cod are NOT in the same area. It took us about 2 hours to get from the city to the lighthouse in Chatham. We were racing the sun most of the time, hoping to get there before dark. We just made it as the sun was setting. We took some time to play on the beach and enjoy our moment in Cape Cod.

We attempted to clean up a bit. Then we piled in the car for the drive home. We decided to grab some dinner, since it was now 8:45 PM and take it in the car. There is no fast food in Chatham, MA. We had seen a pizza place on the way in, and decided to go there. We pulled into the parking lot at 8:59. They closed at 9:00. After some desperate pleading, they agreed to make us a cheese pizza to go. We were extremely grateful to the people at Alecsie's House Of Pizza, and I'd recommend them to anyone! The pizza was so good(starvation might have had something to do with our opinion) and it helped make the trip home easier. The kids fell asleep after eating dinner and we pulled into the driveway just before midnight. What a day!

Day 199 -- Gina & Josh arrive

Late last night, Gina & Josh arrived. We all got a bit of a late start on the day. Probably the most adventurous moment was John climbing into his highchair and thinking it was just fine to be up there as the chair slid all around the tile floor -- Thanks Gina for coming to the rescue!

We spent the day driving. Seriously -- we were in the car for five hours on a long driving tour of the airports in New England.

First, we went to Hartford(after a series of wrong turns by me) to pick up their lost luggage. Second, we went through the backwoods of Connecticut and Rhode Island to get to Providence airport to pick up Doug. Then we drove back home. A beautiful drive, but quite the long one.

Day 198 -- New clothes

We've been haunting the Gymboree sales this summer. We had to spend our Gymbucks in July, so Maddie was able to get some new clothes for school. They're not really weather appropriate now, but should fit and be just perfect once school comes.

Day 197 -- Bargain Shopping

I've taken a six-month break from my bargain hunting. But, I just couldn't resist this opportunity. I got $58.64 worth of stuff for $1.92 out-of-pocket. YAHOO!!!! That's the kind of bargain I love -- corporate sanctioned shoplifting!

Day 196 -- Sunday at 5:00 AM

You guessed it -- the stomach flu. After spending the night in bed with us, Maddie was unable to contain her stomach contents. They spilled out all over our bed. We spent the next hour cleaning and making sure she was OK. The big white bowl was her best friend all the rest of the day

Day 195 -- Urine in Costco

Now to look at that sweet little boy, you'd never know what a ruckus he caused at Costco today!

We went as a family to IKEA, Costco and Arby's. It's becoming a trend. I wanted to finish getting our toy organizer from IKEA and we needed some food from Costco. Well, as you probably know, these things take time. Quite a bit of time.

In Costco, we were distracted by a dining room table. We've had one in mind, but can't bear to part with the cash for it. The Costco table is much more in our budget. We were sitting contemplating the wonderfulness of the table when John starts screaming from the cart. We really couldn't see a reason for it, so kind of ignored it while we finished our conversation. Well, the screaming reached a fever pitch. Suddenly, I see that John has just urinated all over the cart, our groceries and the floor at Costco. Apparently, he recognized that his diaper was full even if we didn't.

I started to laugh. Jared didn't think it was funny at all and John was pretty ticked. Jared picked him up out of the cart, holding by one armpit and out at arm's length. He looked like he was inflicting child abuse. I told him so. He fixed it by holding him by both armpits at arms length. Jared is so not thrilled with urine.

I found a Costco employee and explained what my cute little boy had done and told them I had no way to lean their floor. They told me they'd take care of it.

Jared was slowly walking John to the front of the store--still holding him at arm's length, having been instructed to take him to the car and clean him up while I bought a new outfit for him(we were one hour from home with no back-up clothing).

Suddenly I realized that the only credit card we had was in Jared's wallet, so he was forced to stay while we paid for the very full cart of now wet groceries. He was so seriously unhappy!

I grabbed an outfit from the kids section. I just had to laugh. They only had one choice in his size -- an Oscar-the-grouch matching set that says, "Love it, don't trash it." Oh, how appropriate!

I stopped at a sample station and asked the 200-year-old woman if she had a paper towel. She politely answered that the samples had small cocktail napkins, would that do? No. Very much no. I explained that my adorable son had urinated on the groceries. She started to chuckle and got out this giant sized box of paper towels from under the little stand. She handed me a large bunch and I went off to sanitize the things that had been under John-John. I wasn't touching them until they were at least dry!

We finally got out of there and out to the car. I found Jared and John at the side of the car -- John laying on the pavement in his wet, white, adorable outfit. UGH! But, they were progressing to cleaning him up.

We pulled ourselves together, went to Arby's for much needed fuel and then got stuck in traffic on the way home for about 2.5 hours. What a day!

Contemplating new dishes

I'm getting ready to purchase new dishes. We're going to go with white this time and add interesting contrast pieces(I hope). Which do you like better? For 24 place settings, there is only $25 difference in total cost, so the cost is pretty much the same.

Day 194 -- Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

These pancakes really are the best. I made them and Little John just started gobbling. I love pictures of messy kid faces! For some reason, this one doesn't seem like John's real smile, but I love it anyway.

Day 193 -- Second Nautilus

Most of us had great fun at the Nautilus. The kids all ran around and played tag. John climbed in and out of the submarine's propeller. We had fun visiting each display inside and climbing through the actual Nautilus again.

We also learned all kinds of new things, especially -- don't run into a submarine. Kids never come out ahead when large metal objects are involved. Ever.

Day 192 -- Baking

In preparation for our next visitors, I spent most of the day baking or trying out new things. We found that Maddie LOVES what she calls 'pizza empanadas' (where I had no choice but to use my new rolling pin and mat). They are really hot pockets or calzones. We made pizza dough, put cheese, sauce and olives inside and baked them. She gobbled them up and has been begging for more since. Success!!! Stock the freezer!

Day 191 -- Maddie's Note

Maddie and her friend were playing with the baby dolls during their time together. Maddie wrote this note for her Bitty Baby:

"The Doc says the baby has to sleep a long time. Try not wakey the baby up." Doc M.E.P. (her initials)

I just love the way a little girl's mind works!

Day 190 -- The Nautilus

We went with our visiting friends to the Nautilus submarine in Groton. It's a great little place to see -- stuff for the kids, a cool boat and very little to purchase. Oh, and it's free. While we were there, we saw the sub the USS Texas going out to sea. All in all a very pleasant visit.

Day 189 -- The Marshland

Some good friends came to stay with us today. We chatted and then took them on the tour of our town. One required stop is the marshland where the river meets the Long Island Sound. It's a bird sanctuary as well as the local fishing ground. On Sunday afternoons, the walkway is a fun little place to walk and enjoy the view.

After the tour of Old Lyme, we went down to the Niantic Boardwalk with the hope of a leisurely walk. John saw the sand and that was that. It was fun to watch everyone play on the beach throwing rocks and just enjoying the peaceful afternoon.

Day 188 -- Garden Harvest

This was our harvest from the garden today. Since we left home for two weeks, the garden was very neglected! The lettuce went from normal looking lettuce to a two-foot-high stalk.

We harvested these beans, peas, cilantro and lettuce. Not bad for absolutely no effort over the last month or so. I put in a lot of effort at the beginning of the garden, but I've been surprised how little effort it has been since May.

Day 187 -- IKEA, Costco & Arby's

We have a new route in New Haven -- IKEA, Costco, Arby's. It seems to be working for me :) I've been wanting these toy storage things from IKEA forever. So, we went to go check it out and maybe pick up one. Well, we picked it up. LOVE IT! It's perfect for what I needed -- stay tuned for the vinyl labels that will be put on the bins, they're currently being designed.

Costco and Arby's worked equally well.

We've been trying to encourage fruit as a dessert around our house. We all had way too much sugar on the vacation. So, to stop it from being a habit, we've been pushing fruit instead. Man! My kids love fruit! John in particular -- any kind of fruit. If he can see fruit, he wants it and he will make sure you understand that he wants it.

I bought a huge package of nectarines -- about 8 nectarines that were over one pound each. They ate the bunch of them in less than 24 hours. Talk about your vitamins! I don't know if they're eating that much fruit, isn't it about the same amount of sugar as candy?? Is there some rule of exchange for candy and fruit??

Stuck in Traffic

When we were driving home from Florida, we got stuck in some pretty thick traffic somewhere in the Carolina's. This is how we kept from going crazy.

Day 186 -- Fort Trumbull

What a little gem hidden in the city of New London! We've been talking about going to Fort Trumbull for ages, but just hadn't quite convinced ourselves that it was worth it. Such a fun place! We were there for about two hours, but could have definitely stayed longer!

Again with the dirt and the rocks! We walked inside the fort and John just parked himself right into the pebbles and started throwing them up in the air. He was trying to get them to land on his head. When they did, he'd let out a little giggle. So cute! What wasn't so cute was the diaper afterward. How many diapers full of rocks should I expect in the next year from this little man?What cute little friends -- oh, so sweet and innocent!