Maine Event

Every year we spend a few days in Scarborough Maine with a bunch of our friends. We have an amazing time with everyone! This year we had great weather, not warm but still gorgeous weather! The kids got to do some crabbing on the dock near where we stayed. We also enjoyed a lobster and steak dinner Saturday night, a tradition. So good!

Gloria got to fly her first kite this year with Tom and I (and Leo). The first full day we were there was perfect kite flying weather! Gloria was thrilled! So fun to watch her. Leo hung out with me, snuggled up in the moby wrap. :)

We are so fortunate to have friends like we have. They are our family! We love them all so much. Thank you Matt and Tricia for inviting everyone up for the weekend! Thank you also Mr. and Mrs. Barrett for allowing all of us to invade the house! We are quite the crowd. :)

Lots of photos from the long weekend in our Vacations 2011 album.


The gang in Maine!

In case you are curious to see photos from previous years, visit Maine 2010 and Maine 2009. Funny to see how the kiddos have changed! :)

Vacation Photos

I've posted some vacation photos in our June 2011 album if you want to take a peek.



Family vacation 2011 at the camp. Another fun year together!!

Vacation Bliss

We are at the end of our vacation today and we are so sad to see it come to a close. We had an amazing week together as a family! We stayed most of the week at Tom's uncle Frank's camp. We enjoyed the weather, the sounds of the river, the lack of a schedule and lots of R & R. I told Tom that we need to spend more time by the river. It has a very calming affect! Especially on Gloria. I couldn't believe how much the three of us were so mellow the whole week. It was the greatest feeling! Tom fished while Gloria played by the river and I even got to read two of my Real Simple magazines! I haven't been able to read them since March! haha

We didn't stay at the camp the whole time. We did make a day trip to the "beach" at one point. We also headed to Mike and Tony's in Colrain for pizza. So yummy!! On Friday, it was fun to have Tom's cousin Kerri and her girls join us on for a sleepover at the camp. The girls had a blast playing together! We enjoyed having them visit. We did dinner together, played by the river (got soaked!) and roasted marshmallows!

We also got to enjoy Tom's birthday this weekend at the camp. We were bummed out that it rained all day on his birthday but we made the best of it. I think Tom was just happy to be relaxing, what better way to celebrate a birthday?!

We just love going up to the camp for our summer vacation. We hope to be able to do this for years to come, if Frank lets us. :) Big thanks to Frank and Prescilla for letting us use their camp! We appreciate it so much! We've made some pretty wonderful memories during our time there!

One special memory for us is Gloria practicing her bike riding skills. Tom and I bought her a balance bicycle for her birthday this year. The idea behind this type of bike is to teach a child how to balance on a two-wheeler which then helps them transition to a real bicycle easier, without having to use training wheels. We brought the bike to the camp and Gloria got LOTS of practice! She loves it!

Here are two videos. The first is Gloria's first time taking her bike for a spin. You can tell she is a little hesitant on how to use it. The second video, taken only one day later shows Gloria's progress. She was all about trying to put her feet up and go fast! She loved going down hills and couldn't get enough of this bike! We are so proud of her progress already!





We'll have photos and more stories soon from our vacation. Until then, enjoy your week!

Honeymoon II

I keep calling our trip to Aruba our second honeymoon because it really felt like it. We had such a fun time together! The trip was all about relaxation and enjoying each other's company. There was no schedule, no expectations. It was perfect! We spent a lot of time lounging on the beach, walking, eating (lots of eating) and my favorite, sleeping in every morning! :) We didn't do any tours because we had last time we were in Aruba. We didn't want to get tied into any schedule.

I have to tell you that we did take advantage of the casinos but on the hotel's bill. They gave us $10 at check in to gamble with and then we received another $10 from the hotel restaurant. Tom didn't have much luck on his own but when we paired up, he picked the machine, I pulled the lever...we won $50! I know its only 50 bucks but we were excited that it was a free win — well, besides paying the many dollars to stay in Aruba! ;)

Here are more photos from our trip. Visit our Aruba 2010 Album for more. You'll have to read the photo captions for more trip details than I gave here.



















And finally...the big kiss to end the romantic week we had! :)

If you are interested at all in seeing photos from our Honeymoon in 2005, visit our Shutterfly Album. I didn't take some photos this time around because I already had them from 2005.

One Happy Island!

That is what they call Aruba. One Happy Island! And truth be told...it really is! When we spent our honeymoon there 5 years ago, we loved it so much we said we'd go back for our 5 year anniversary. We kept true to that promise. We returned home late Sunday night from our 5 night stay in Aruba, just Tom and I. We had an amazing week! I have lots of photos to share and stories to tell about our trip and about Gloria's "vacation" but for now, here is one of my favorite photos from our trip.

On our last evening in Aruba, Tom and I planned to go out to the private hotel island for sunset. We wanted to enjoy a beautiful sunset far from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. It was perfect! Tom and I and one other couple were the only ones on the beach watching the sunset. Besides getting some fun photos, we relaxed and took in the beautiful view. I couldn't believe our trip had come to an end. We had an amazing week and we felt so fortunate to have been able to share our time together once again in Aruba! It was like a second honeymoon...even better than the first! :)



This photo only slightly captures how gorgeous it was on the island!

The Maine Event

Finally got around to editing and uploading all the photos from our Maine trip. Visit our Maine 2010 album to see all the photos. Here are just a few fun ones. If you are interested to see last year's photos, visit our Maine 2009 album. It is fun to see the kids then and now! Boy have they grown!

















And last but not least, Gloria's first kiss!! haha These two were so cute! There are more photos of them on the stairs to see in the album. It was too funny!

This is the photo from last year of them on the steps. They have changed so much!

Life is Sweet

We've had a great couple of weeks! We've been apple picking, leaf peeping and just came back yesterday from a mini vacation to Maine. The weather has been beautiful and we've been taking advantage of our time together.

I've said this to many people this summer but I'll say it here too... When you have a young child, each thing you do each year is really the first time for them. For example, we went apple picking last year but Gloria doesn't remember it. We did it again this year and, for her, it was the first time! She was in love! The same for many other things. I just love how fresh and new each adventure is to her!

The same goes for Maine. Last year we enjoyed a long weekend in Scarborough, Maine and this year, we would enjoy another trip together! Gloria had been before but this year was a completely different experience for her. She really is at a fun age! Seems like I say that at every stage though. ;)

This year, we had 4 days up in Maine instead of 3. It was perfect! Gloria was extra excited about going. We told her Wednesday night we were going on vacation at which point she packed up her own little backpack and was ready to go! We didn't get on the road until about noon on Thursday but she kept asking about going on vacation from the time she got up in the morning until we finally got on the road. This kid was ready for V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N! I can't say I blame her! :)

Perhaps my most favorite memory from the weekend was Thursday night. Tom and I took G to the beach in the evening to walk around. It was low tide and there was plenty of beach to walk on. There were hardly any other people there.

Before we left, I decided not to take my camera. I wanted to be fully submerged in the moment. After all, this was Gloria's first time at the ocean this year, I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest! The last time we had been was when we were in Maine last year! I regret not taking my camera of course. The evening was so sweet and so beautiful, I hate that I wasn't able to capture it on "film!"

The joy of watching my husband and little girl experiencing the beach was beautiful! The look on Gloria's face was priceless! Her and Tom ran up to the waves and would then run away so as to avoid the waves "catching" her. She was in heaven! Her giggles were contagious! :) It may sound very blasé but for me, it was perfect. The joy we experienced that night is forever tattooed into my mind. I suppose if I had my camera I would have been too busy taking photos to completely appreciate the moment. :)

We were sad to see our vacation come to an end. We had an amazing time with our friends and each other! As sad as we were though, it is always nice to come home. :)

I am working on editing the many photos I took from these past few weekends. Vacation pics and more stories coming up soon. Until then, enjoy your week!

Vacation in the Woods

Over a week ago now our little family had a wonderful vacation together. We spent some time catching up on house projects, did some day trips and spent 3 nights at Tom's uncle Frank's camp. We had such a great time! It rained most of the days but we made the most of it. It helped that we had visitors stop by.

Friday night our parents came up for dinner and dessert to celebrate Tom's birthday. We even got to roast some marshmallows! Yum!! On Saturday, even with the rain, our friends stopped by the camp to wish Tom a happy birthday. The kids had a blast splashing in the puddles outside. What fun! It was wet but the kids didn't care. :) It was a great weekend with everyone. I think Tom really enjoyed spending his birthday at the camp. My handsome man is thirty-five years old now!! :)

I managed to get some really fun photos from our vacation. Gloria loved staying up at the "brown house" as she calls it. :) We really enjoyed ourselves. Big thanks to Frank for letting us stay at the camp! It was a perfect place to enjoy our vacation together! :)

To see photos, visit our June 2010 Vacation Album. I didn't take many photos on Saturday. Just a few in the evening. I wish I had taken more. Oh well. Enjoy the ones I did take though! :)

More Maine Please!

We love Maine!! Tom and I haven't been since just before he proposed in September 2004. We used to go at least once a year. We were excited about the opportunity to go this past weekend.

Our friends Matt and Tricia invited a group of us to spend a few days at Matt's parent's place in Scarborough, Maine. They plan this trip every year. This was the first year Tom and I have been able to go. What a treat! Matt and Tricia are pretty amazing people; especially to invite so many people (including 7 kids!) to spend a few days with them during their vacation.

Tom and I decided to go up on Friday. We took a nice slow, very scenic drive through New Hampshire up to Old Orchard Beach. We even stopped for a picnic. This is one of our favorite things to do...to take the scenic route. We aren't always in a rush to get to our destination especially when there are so many beautiful areas in New England.


Some photos from our picnic

Once we got to Scarborough, we were excited to see everyone and to check out the house. What a gorgeous place! It was an old farm house they renovated into a two unit house. It was huge!! And a short walk to the beach, which was nice. There were 19 people altogether for this mini vacation. We all had a great time! We are so very lucky to have amazing friends! I don't think we could vacation with just anyone. This group really is a fun group!

The vacation consisted of shopping, eating (big lobster and steak dinner on Saturday...mmmm!), playing cards, relaxing, playing with the kids, and so on. We all managed to spend time together with the group as well as go off on our own.

Tom, Gloria and I took a little bit of time on Sunday, our last day, to walk on the beach. It was so warm outside and the light was amazing! I had fun taking some pictures:) Lots of sun flare stuff too. It was Gloria's first time actually getting to enjoy the ocean. She really had a fun time running around on the beach. There weren't many people so it made it very intimate and such a special time for us as a family.

Here are some of our favorite photos from the beach.







Of course, I took photos during the rest of the weekend. I always think afterward that I should have taken more but...I still have plenty:) Here are just a few.





Big thanks going out to Matt and Tricia for allowing us to be a part of their vacation! We really enjoyed ourselves! What a special weekend it was!

Visit our Maine 2009 album to see all the photos.

"Ew! A Spider!"

Those were 3 words we heard a lot from Faith during her visit with us. It wasn't that spiders don't exist in New Jersey because, according to her, there are a lot of them there too. We had just spent a lot of time outside and in the woods so there were bound to be lots of spiders! Haha. Faith is so much like her mother! It made me smile every time I heard Faith say "Ew! A Spider!"

Faith is my very best friend Kimmy's oldest daughter. She is eight-years-old going on eighteen! I met Kimmy in New Jersey on a Sunday to pick Faith up for her to come spend a week in Massachusetts. This was going to be Faith's first time away from her mother for such a long time and in another state to boot!

Kimmy wasn't worried though, nor was I. All parties were excited, especially Faith! We all had been looking forward to this week for a long time. Faith is like a niece to me and we love spending time together. I had a great week planned for her!

Rather than sharing our week through the blog, you'll have to see all the photos from Faith's Visit and read the captions. I've posted a few fun ones here.

During Faith's time with us, I wrote down a few quotes from her and I thought I would share them with you. She was such a riot to listen to!

"Um, Tom? I thought we were only going for a short walk?!" After hiking with Tom for about 20 minutes. They got to hike up to Hidden Valley. Faith was so excited that no one knew about Hidden Valley;) This is what Tom told her anyway. They also got to see a deer bed, deer bones and some other animal traces. Tom was almost as excited to show Faith these things as she was to see them! :)

"I wish dinosaurs were still around but were friendly so we could get to know them better." This was on our way to the dinosaur footprint in Colrain.

"Dear Jesus, thank you for letting us go camping and thank you for letting me walk Bridgette." Faith said grace a few nights with us before dinner and this was in her first prayer:) She also referred to uncle Frank's camp as "camping." :)

"Does Tom like blueberries? Cuz if he does, I'll leave him all the sour ones and I'll eat all the sweet ones." She sure did enjoy teasing Tom...and vice versa:)

"Ruthie...I think during this vacation I had the most exercise I've ever had!" She said this on the last day as we are getting stuff packed into the car. We did do a lot:) She couldn't complain she was bored, that's for sure!

I miss Faith so much! Not only do I miss Kimmy dearly, now she has 3 awesome kids I get to miss just as much! We do look forward to having Faith here again next year though, and hopefully the years after that. When the other kids are old enough, they'll get their chance too.

Before I sign off, I just want to thank everyone who helped make Faith's week here so special. Frank, we had SO much fun at the camp! Thank you for letting us use the camp for a few days. I think it was the highlight of Faith's week! Also, thanks to Liz and Corey for letting us swim in your pool, thanks to Heather for letting us pick blueberries and last, but certainly not least, thank you Tom for being such a wonderful hubby and for helping to make Faith's week here unforgettable!

Open Road

As far as I'm concerned, not every vacation has to be carefully planned out. Don't get me wrong, I do my fair share of planning when it comes to traveling but there are times when 'winging it' can be a great adventure! No schedule restraints, no reservations, just a free to do what we please kind of vacation.

Tom and I used to go on long weekend trips together back when I was in college. We didn't have a lot of money to spend on our vacations so we were limited to places within driving distance. Although those vacations were on the tighter end as far as budget went, they certainly didn't lack in fun and adventure!

Tom and I love to explore! We get a kick out of traveling the 'road less traveled.' We've done several trips where we just played it by ear. We didn't make reservations anywhere, didn't have a plan mapped out and those were some of our most fun vacations.

One year, we decided to take a trip up to Guilford, Maine. Why? Tom wanted to check out some land that was for sale up there. So...we made a long weekend of it. Now, mind you, Guilford, Maine is VERY far north! Way out there in the middle of nowhere for sure! We took our time getting there by taking side routes and random roads. We are very good map readers:)

We did the same thing one year when we decided last minute that we wanted to go to Niagara Falls. We packed up and drove to Niagara. After a few nights in Niagara we decided to drive around lake Ontario and came back down through the 1000 Islands...so beautiful! I had never heard of them before. We took a tour of the islands and had lunch in this very cute town. What a great discovery for us! So fun!

This past weekend Tom and I decided to do another one of these 'spur of the moment' trips. We decided on Saturday to travel through the Berkshires. We have both visited various towns in the far Western part of Massachusetts but there were still things we hadn't done or seen and roads we hadn't taken. We took a lot of side routes and and traveled through some amazing countrysides.

Our trip started off driving from Greenfield through route 2 to Lee, then through to Lenox where we had dinner and spent the night. The next day, we decided to drive to Hancock and into New York. At one point, we got a bit lost...we were on some very side roads! Dirt roads to be exact, lol! I was a bit worried there for a while. However, this slight detour was worth it because we saw some beautiful countryside, lots of deer (that made Tom a very happy man) and even saw a large group of Turkey. We did manage to find our way back to the main road eventually, what a relief!

Our trip continued as we made our way North to Bennington, Vermont where we had lunch at an Irish Pub called Carmody's...very good food. We also walked around (in the very cold and bitter wind) and visited some galleries and small shops. And then, of course, we stopped and relaxed (and warmed up) at a local cafe.

We decided that we wanted to head down to North Adams where we could visit Mass Moca, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary art, a very well-known and popular gallery. First though, we stopped at William's College in Williamstown to visit their gallery and walk around downtown for a bit. Unfortunately, not much was open since it was a Sunday but it was nice to check out the town anyway. Once we had had enough, we headed to North Adams, right next to Williamstown and checked into our hotel. We ended up staying at Porches, a very cool hotel! We both loved it there! One of my favorite parts about it was when we got room service for breakfast, our breakfast came in aluminum lunch boxes (see photo below). So unique and unexpected!


Breakfast is served!

After we checked in, we enjoyed a few games of cribbage (something we did a lot over the weekend) and then went out for dinner. There were only 2 restaurants open so we didn't have many choices. We ended up going to The Freight Yard, which was yummy! It wasn't the fine dining we were originally looking for but the food was very good.


Lots of cribbage time during this vacation.

I wish we could have stayed another night at Porches but we had to be on our way. We were headed out to visit Mass Moca and then planned to head home. The gallery was a wonderful experience! I always get inspired when I see other people's art. The exhibits they had weren't all our cup of tea but we enjoyed our time there very much.

Instead of heading straight home, we thought it would be nice to drive back up into Vermont and work our way through to Brattleboro. What an amazing drive!! The mountains were beautiful! A common theme throughout the weekend:)


View from the top of a mountain in Wilmington, Vermont.

Overall, our weekend was perfect for what we were looking for. We wanted some quality time together, some time to relax and time to explore and experience some of the beauty that New England has to offer. At the end of our weekend, Tom thanked me for our trip, lol! It was so sweet because I could tell that he truly enjoyed our time away together. We both did. It was a weekend we didn't talk about work, the house, our to do list, etc. We did, however, talk about baby...A LOT! :) That part was fun though! This will be our last trip together before our lives are changed forever. It is the end of one life that we've known and the beginning of a wonderful and exciting adventure! Love that!

To see a few pictures from our trip, visit our Berkshires Vacation album. I have to say, there aren't many pictures but please check them out. I took a lot of the Porches hotel room (just because it was so cool) and a few scenic photos.