Whale Watching

Another summer highlight--dang we've had so many of them.  I feel really lucky.

Back in May we were supposed to go whale watching with mom and dad but our trip got cancelled thanks to an off shore storm.  Fast forward to August...we still had the whale watch tickets and Megan and Nate decided to join us.

We headed to Gloucester, MA and got there early enough to have a picnic at a mini-park.

After multiple kid races, Nate and kid races, Dad and kid races, Megan and I finally got our turn.  Don't worry she beat me (after and only after some serious cheating--nice try Meg)

Then it was off to Cape Ann Whale Watch

Here are the kids in front of our boat, the Hurricane II

Our fun company (notice how Megan, Nate and Matt all matched...I didn't get the green/khaki memo)

We went out like 15 miles off shore.  A nice, windy ride.  Then the whale spotting began.  We didn't realize what a treat we were in for.

We saw so many and they kept coming up and diving back down over and over.  The captain kept assuring us that we got a very lucky day.  The whales were close and big and beautiful.  It was amazing how silent the boat got once we started spotting them.  We easily watched whales over an hour.  It was awesome.

Funny Whit.  At some point in the middle she found Matt's sweatshirt and put it on claiming she was cold.  It was defiintely not cold but she wore it the rest of the time. :)

I'm sure she saw some awesome stuff in those binoculars

I tried to get shots of people with the whales but those darn whales are so unpredictable.

This is about as good as I could get.

Posing as fish...

On the 15 mile ride back to shore, the crew came out and interacted with the kids.  So nice!

Our whale watch was from 1:30 to probably 5pm.  We then headed down the road to Good Harbor Beach for an hour of fun.  Oh, if we could have just stayed an extra day...

More Summer Highlights

Summer was amazing.

Now that school has begun, I think I am looking forward to structure and being productive, but man will I miss all the summer fun.  After vacation, things slowed down a lot.  We still had fun but it wasn't as go go go.

Here are few highlights:

My birthday--first one I've ever celebrated in CT because it was the first time our vacation didn't overlap with it.  Always fun getting home just before your birthday--that means a day of grocery shopping and unpacking. :)

I made my own birthday cake b/c I've been wanting to make one of these multi-color cakes for a while.  I did it fast and it was lopsided but I still loved how pretty it turned out.

Swimming:

Notice that Mary is at the DOCK.  The only way you are allowed to go out there is if you can swim alone and unassisted.  She and Andrew can both make it out there successfully and happy this year.  Hurray!

Our annual swim lessons.  Whit and Annie both passed level 1, Andrew passed level 2, and Mary only didn't pass level 3 b/c she needed to work on her dives.  Since lessons have ended she has done super well with her dives.  :)

Other summer fun:

Don't know how they got on this kick, but the kids did lots of card stacking.  Got pretty good too

Lot's of Legos, as usual

Bathroom painting

Check out that dive!

The goggles did the trick--this girl can go under!!

What a summer.  Sad to see it end.

Summer Lovin'--Vacation Part 3

After a great 2 1/2 weeks, we had to sadly end our vacation.  We realized that the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra, NY would still be taking place, so we decided to go home the upstate NY route to see it.  And since we were right there, we had to do Niagara Falls.  Talk about a highlight! 

We finally made it to Niagara, NY--getting tired of the car already, so we got some halleluia cheers!

We only spent about 3 hours at Niagara Falls but it was all awesome!

We took a ride on the Maid of the Mist--talk about 30 minutes of sheer happiness and fun.  I don't think the grins left faces at all.  It was cool just how close we got to the falls and how wet we really got.  It was the highlight of everyone's day.

You can see a Maid of the Mist boat in the background on its way into Horseshoe Falls.

From Niagara, we drove the 1 1/2 hours or so to Rochester and grabbed some fast McDonalds and checked into our final hotel.    Look at these happy kids--this was the state of our entire vacation...no wonder it was so wonderful. :)

We then made it to Palmyra for the pageant.  The last time I went was as a teenager--it wasn't what we were expecting because we were so used to the Nauvoo pageant (it's a musical).  It was nice being more prepared this time.  Definitely not a musical!

The kids enjoyed holding some of the props and weapons from shows past.

Before the show, cast members were walking around and greeting the audience--the kids were excited to meet them. 

If I'm being honest, I definitely prefer Nauvoo to Palmyra, but it was a good experience.  Definitely mesmerizing for the kids.  I think they really enjoyed seeing stories from the Book of Mormon come to life. 

By the end, we were exhausted and just ready to be back home in Connecticut.

A great end to a great trip.  Lucky us.