July adventures

Wakeboarding and Waterskiing 

Brett's wake jump

Joyce's wimpy jump - can you see it?  Really, I did leave the water (maybe an inch)

Riley waterskis!  Alex did it too but somehow I don't have pictures.   We had all the kids out last weekend skiing with the new training boom Brett ordered.    Cameron, Adam, Sierra, William, Danny, Riley and Alex all waterskied.  We need to work on the arm strength so they can last longer but they all did it!

Cal Ripken cookout-  

A fun day at Alex's T-ball cookout.  Rock climbing, swimming, jumpy house, obstacle course, and even a water balloon toss.  Haven't been to a real cookout like that in a very long time.   Both kids tried the rock wall (Alex was too small to really reach but Riley got about half way up).   Mommy of course had to get in on the action and rang the bell at the top but I will admit, I am getting more chicken in my old age.

June update

Shirley and Rick's wedding

So many people are so happy these two found each other.

Rick, Shirley and her son Todd.

Alex turns five!

Monster Mini Golf party was great fun!

Oops!  We lost Gregory.

They have a little skit and make Alex play with a giant club to win tickets.

His handprint will go on the wall.

MMMM.  Monster Allies donught cake. 

Riley's Field Trip to the Zoo

It was a very wet day but we still had lots of fun.   

Elephant Fun- This was a blast to watch. 

The butterfly exhibit (thought it kept steaming up my lens), was beautiful.

The 1st graders were in the midst of observing the life cycle of the butterfly in their classroom.

One of Riley's buddies, Paige.

Pawsox Game

Spring 2009

A day at Mystic Seaport with friends....

                                             

 Spring vacation Day 1

We started at Boston Children's Museum the night before our flight out of Logan

Isn't Boston awesome?

Day 2:  St. Thomas

We flew into St. Thomas saturday, walk over the hill to the beach where my parents are waiting with the dinghy to take us to the boat.  Not a bad taxi.

Easter Egg Hunt Sunday Morning;

Bet you didn't know the bunny could swim?

Later that day we took about a 4 hour sail to St. Croix.  

Poor Riley got seasick on Easter. 

A fort in Christianstead Harbor

One of the many ruins on the island.  Many old sugar mills and then came the rum :)
This one was occupied by quite a few tortoises. 

 Riley and one of them were checking each-other out.
My father feeding the local beer eating pig.   It was non alcoholic of course... totally nasty.
Hermit Crab races at Cheeseburgers Restaurant.   You get to pick a crab and name it.  They tape the name on the back of the crabs, then tip the bucket of crabs over.   They gave prizes for the first few over the yellow ring.   Riley's crab one a gift certificate to a restaurant!

Four dolphin friends decided to swim along side the boat for a while.  They were checking out the snorkeling humans before that.  So awesome!

That was the last day of our trip.  We flew out of St. Croix on a tiny seaplane back to St. Thomas.   We had such a great week.

Opening day for Alex's T-ball.  He is #7.  

This was the best picture I could get, we were so far away.

That night was Riley's 1st grade Ladies Choice Dance.  

Someone was pretty exited.

Skiing in North Conway

Riley and Sierra on the chairlift alone!  Too cool for grown-ups.  And the bunny slope is "boring" according to Riley.

Alex is still working on the snowplow.   Stopping and turning are just starting to appear.  So my little Kamikazie needs to stay on the bunny slope for a while to his dismay.

Tommy reads to Alex and Aiden wants in on the excitement.

Our Holiday Adventures

Our Christmas Adventures 2008

Riley loved her new princess blanket form Grammy and Grampy.

Alex on his first pair of "real" skiis at Crotched Mt. New Hampshire

(I used to ski there with my Grandmother who lived nearby).

San Diego here we come!

Pirate playtime.  While we visited the Ramer's in California we toured some old 

war ships and submarines on San Diego Bay.  

Look at all the seals sunning 

themselves!    

We needed to sun ourselves too since it was actually cold in San Diego.

Riley and Allessandra at La Jolla beach.

Brandon and Alex enjoying the shops and tire swing shop at the 

Seaport Village.

Below:   Lego Land meet the crew!

Ricky Jr.,  Allessandra,  Riley,  Brandon, Alex, and Domenic

Lego Land was great fun.   Every ride, every statue, everything was made of lego's!

Well, not the food.

Our Christmas celebrations were of course planned to the hilt by Karen. 

 Something every day to look forward to.     

Christmas Eve we had a wonderful dinner with homemade pies.  Then we made cookies, sang carols, put out the reindeer food, and then Santa came to visit on Christmas Eve.   Then... mommy got the stomach bug and lost her nice dinner and went to bed before the kids.  

Santa (Rick) came to visit on his free time Christmas Eve.

Caroling and then we spread the reindeer food.

Christmas morning at the Ramers.

It was a wonderful trip and great to see our dear friends.   The kids had a blast with Allie, Brandon, Domenic and little Ricky.   Hope we can do it again some day and that poor Karen has re-cooperated from having house guests for over a week!   Thanks Karen!