Paw Sox

I had a great Mother's Day and my sweet husband gave me several hours in the afternoon to work on my pictures.  I hid in our room and worked on the computer somewhat undisturbed for quite a while... and I loved it.  The rest of the day was great too... lovely handmade gifts, a big breakfast, tulips.... a phone call to the doctor, a trip to the pharmacy and a kid with an abscessed tooth.  Well, that last part wasn't great, but that's a whole 'nother story. 

Anyway, back to those pictures I'm catching up on.  Last week we took in a minor league baseball game with the kids.  There is a farm team (is that what you call it?) for the Boston Red Sox near here... the Pawtucket Red Sox.  The kids has so much fun and definitely a favorite Rhode Island family memory for me.

These minor league games are so much for for the kids.  They all (especially Jake) thought the mascot was pretty cool. This is the "girl" mascot.  They have boy and girl polar bears as mascots.  Something for everyone, I guess.

We went to an evening game and managed to stay the whole time.  The weather was perfect.

Nathan did sooo well, especially considering we were out was past his bedtime. He smiled (although this picture doesn't reflect that) at everyone around.  And he even had his first taste of cotton candy.

Jake's favorite part was that all the seats had numbers on them.  He is beyond obsessed with numbers.  He also loved the scoreboard, the jerseys, the pitch speeds.  There are numbers everywhere at baseball games.   So he counted pretty much all night.  

The girls liked the baseball, but mostly enjoyed the other cool stuff....like the bear that threw out T-shirts...

...all the cool songs... like "Sweet Caroline", when everyone sang...

... the yummy ballpark food... snuggling  with Dad.  Claire told Ken during the game that this was the best night ever.

And, as if all that wasn't enough, the home team won.  

And.... it gets better... they had a huge fireworks show after the game.  So cool.

We didn't get home until about 11:30pm. With our car full of sleeping kids. Very fun night and great memory.

why ask why?

Remember the commercials back several years ago that asked, "Why ask why?"  I think it was a beer commercial or something.  I can't really remember.  Anyway, that question has been coming to my mind often lately, and it has to do with the design of our sweet little home here in the land of base housing.

Here's the thing.  Our bathrooms have no heat.  The rest of the house has radiator like things that span the baseboards, and unsightly though they may be, they do a pretty good job of keeping the house warm.  However, when these were being installed, it seems, someone decided that the bathrooms really didn't need heat.

Now, I may be overstating that a bit, because technically our 2 upstairs bathrooms do have what I would call a heat lamp.  It's an overhead light that warms the room up rather nicely, while you're in the shower, for instance.  However, it's a bright light with a loud fan that doesn't get left on at night.   So, of course, it gets downright freezing in there.  Let's just say that first thing in the morning, that toilet seat can make you wish that you were the luckier gender who can stand to pee.

Right now, it is 14 degrees outside with a wind chill of -1.  I am very thankful for heat of any kind and am not complaining about such a trivial thing.  But it really does make me wonder why.  Does it save that much money to skip the bathroom when installing heat vents?  Does the cold water in the pipes make it counter productive to try to heat those rooms?  Wouldn't the room where you are most likely to be naked and wet be the room that most needs heat?  Or is it a master plan to cut down on showers, thus water consumption?

These are the questions that keep me awake at night.  But why ask why?  There are some things the world may never know.

the zoo

On Sunday afternoon, we got to enjoy some long awaited nice weather.  I've been a bit surprised by how much is rains here and when it's not raining, it's been windy and gray.  Not my favorite things.  However, we've also been pleasantly surprised by an "extended" Fall.  It's still warm enough (on the nice days) to get out a bit and do a little poking around.  So we went to the Zoo.  It's not a very big zoo but still very nice and just the right size for the kids.  There weren't too many people there, so we got to just mosey around and see all there was to see.

We got to see elephants and giraffes.  We got to see a video of this little baby giraffe being born.  Very cool and, of course, raised lots of questions from my curious little people. 

I loved seeing their little faces peeking over all the fences.

And we saw zebras and wildebeests.

The zoo is in the middle of a big park with lots of lakes and other fun, historical stuff.  So we stopped and enjoyed feeding the fish.

It was time for a lunch break, so we fed our own wildlife too.

And I didn't forget about this one.  He spent the whole day on Daddy's back, but we plopped him in the stroller for a sandwich.


I don't remember what this bird was called, but he attacked the glass while we were watching him.  The kids thought it was very neat.  I love this picture of Jakey and the bird watching each other.  I think once I clean it up, it could be a really cool photo.

The kids hopped around on toadstools and there was even a huge wooden caterpillar to climb on.  Which Jake loved, of course.  Gracie and the girls all pretended to be frogs.

It was a fun afternoon and hopefully we'll get to go back again when the weather is nice.  This weekend we'll be decorating our Christmas tree and going to a community Christmas party that even includes a visit from Santa.  You think the kids are excited about that?  Just a little.  :)

The Cliff Walk

Sunday afternoon we headed out to the Cliff Walk.  Pretty much like it sounds, it's a path that goes along the rocky cliffs of the island.  It offers some beautiful views of the ocean and the rocks as well as the backsides of the mansions that line this stretch.  The kids were excited to get out and run along the Cliff Walk and enjoyed seeing the waves and rocks. 

From the walk, you could see the waves crashing into caves and chasms in the rock.  Even though the water was pretty calm while we were out there, it is a pretty awe inspiring thing to see.... from a safe distance.  I definitely see why they need so many lighthouses up here.

As we were closer to the water, Ken and I each one hand on 2 kids, plus one in the backpack.   We didn't want to have to go in the water after anybody.  The kids, however, did enjoy seeing everything, though Jakey was a little bummed that we couldn't "swim on the beach."

Little man rode perched up high on Daddy's back and had the best view of all.  He really is such a trooper.  Always just along for the ride... and usually pretty happy about it!

As the trail backed up to the backyards of the mansions (I'm not just saying mansions because they're big houses... they really are mansions.  That's what they're called. You can do tours and everything.), the kids had fun rolling in the grass and taking advantage of a few of the climbing trees.

They ran up and down the walk, darting around the other people out for a nice quiet Sunday stroll.  Needless to say, we made quite a spectacle of ourselves.  As we usually do.

As we (they) ran around, rolled and climbed, tourists were stopping to watch us.  One group that I think was from Japan was amazed that these were all our children.  While the kids climbed, these people stopped and watched us and laughed and said lots of stuff  we couldn't understand.  I would like to think that it was all very nice things about our lovely family.  I'm sure it was.

Ken sat the kids up in this beautiful old tree.  I thought that this would be a great Christmas card family picture, except for Nathan being asleep.  Oh yeah, and that I'm not in it.  But otherwise, so cute.

A fun day with lots of fresh air and pretty sights.

And at the end of our little hike, little man did quietly nod off. Safely snuggled on Daddy's back.

the cranberry festival

While we're living in this part of the country, we want to try to soak in as much of the local stuff as we can.  There are definitely a lot of things to do here that are very unique.  So, a few weekends ago, we headed up to MA for the day.  The colors there were pretty and close to peak foliage time.  We are now getting those colors here, and it really is something to see.  I grew up in Alabama.  Green and brown were our Fall colors... and our summer, spring and winter colors too, come to think of it.  Anyway, everything is glowing reds and oranges and yellows here.  I wish I had more chances to take pictures of all this, but the weather hasn't really cooperated.  But, back to the trip.

We went to Edaville, Massachusetts to go the the annual Cranberry Festival.  Yep, this is where they harvest cranberries.  And it's pretty cool.  Just like the Ocean Spray commercials.

We got to take a train (which Jake thought was the best thing ever) through 18 acres of cranberry bogs and watch them harvest the cranberries.  I've seen lots of peanuts harvested, but never cranberries.  The kids were really interested and so were we.

The farmland out there was really pretty and it looked almost surreal, all of the cranberries floating and waiting to be harvested.

As fun as it was to see the bogs, that wasn't the only thing to do in Edaville.  As part of the festival, they had a full carnival with rides and everything.  They had lots of trains and old-fashioned toys for the kids to play on.  They had a really neat playground in the middle of a grove of pine trees and trains they kids could pedal with their hands.  So much to do and explore.

And as it all that wasn't enough, there were full on carnival rides that were the perfect size for the kids.  It was so sweet to see all of the kids riding without us (except for Nathan of course).  They seemed so big.

Of course, some of the rides needed an adult and we were more than happy to step in.  I think Ken should get some kind of special Daddy award for riding the elephants, don't you?  Although, he does look like he enjoyed it, too!

We went early in the morning so it was none too crowed and no lines.  The kids just got to bounce from ride to ride.  It was like Six Flags for tots....only better.

I got to ride the Ferris Wheel twice, each time with 2 different kids.  I have to say it was alot of fun.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever and I haven't done that in years!

Here's another train ride, with the girls in the back and you can see Jake and Hannah in the engine.

Do you notice the train theme here?  Jacob is so into Thomas right now, so he thought all this was pretty great.

And, of course little man was there too.  Not riding rides, but he did get out of the stroller long enough to share a sandwich with Gracie.  I think he had fun too.

It was a fun day and was light years better than our trip to Plymouth last month.  It was one of those rare times when everyone just has fun and it doesn't feel stressful and you think, "Hey, we can do this!"   Good times!

horse and pony rides

We went to a fall fest a couple of weeks ago here on base.  MWR and the community housing here is great about providing fun family activities for families in our neighborhood.  At the festival they had a haystack, games, prizes, a concert by someone who really wanted to be Hannah Montana and, best of all, horseback riding.

The kids had so much fun riding the loop with the horses.  Only the girls were interested.  Jake was slightly afraid of the horses.

Hannah and Grace rode the big horse and Claire rode a pony.  And regardless of the expression on her face in this photo, she did have a good time too.  :)

tourists

I saw a bumper sticker today that said,

"If it's called 'Tourist Season', why can't we shoot them?"

Not that I'm advocating violence, but it did make me laugh. 

the field trip

We had a field trip this Friday to Plymouth, MA.

We saw Plymouth Rock.

And toured the Mayflower II.

We visited Plimoth Plantation and learned about pilgrims and native people.

It was all very interesting and educational.  A fascinating part of our history to be explored.  And admittedly very cool.

However, do not be deceived by the smiling children in the pictures.  It was the roadtrip from #!@*! a very long and tiring day for the little ones and I am determined, pilgrims or no pilgrims, to never go there again 

to wait until everyone's a little older before we try it again.

That's all I have to say about that.

garbage bandits

It's Tuesday, and you know what that means.  Well, maybe you don't.  But, lately around here, Tuesday means raccoons.  Tuesday night is the night before garbage day on Wednesday, and it seems to be the point in the week when the temptation of the garbage can is too much for the local raccoons to resist.  For the past 3 weeks, we've awoken on Wednesday morning to a mess of garbage strewn about the backyard.  We've guessed that we probably had a raccoon that was frequenting our backyard.  What we didn't realize is that we have 5 raccoons!  When we heard them banging around last week, we flipped on the light and coons were everywhere.  They are not, however, even the least bit afraid of us.  Ken and I were standing 15 feet from them and Ken was throwing things at them, and they just sat there and looked at us.  I personally think that's a little creepy. 

Notice how the one on top has the other one trapped inside.  "Dude, get off the lid!"

So, I just took some pictures of them and eventually they meandered off to the rest of the garbage cans in the neighborhood.  However, you won't be finding me taking garbage out by myself at night.   I've seen Old Yeller, so I know what can happen if you tie up with a coon.

the water taxi

Last night we went into the downtown area for a little poking around, and we took the kids on their first boat ride.  There is a water taxi that leaves from the end of our street and will take you across the harbor right to the heart of Newport.  This is definitely the way to go.  It was fun and easy and our whole family got a beautiful boat ride for $6 round trip!  To park in that area is $20 plus the hassle, so we're loving the water taxi!  We didn't have anything special planned; we mainly just wanted to go for the ride.  So when we got there, we found a Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shoppe.  The kids were excited to have a boat ride and ice cream.  We all enjoyed being in the heart of the city and soaking it all in.

We brought the stroller and, of course, the little man did great.  He can't have ice cream yet, but he did enjoy smiling at us while we had ours.



The boat ride back home was especially nice.  The sun was just setting and the water was beautiful.

 

The full moon rising over the harbor.

Right after sunset, looking towards the Newport bridge.

We're most certainly going to have to do that again sometime.  So beautiful and potentially romantic.  I see "date night" written all over this.  :)