Beach Day with the "Five Familes"

Today, we had the Acton families down for the annual beach day. We are now dubbed the "five families" because their are - guess - five of us. We are four now as one family is away in Zurich...but will be returning in Sept, just in time for our annual Storyland trip..yeah!
The day started off shaky weather wise but ended up being a fantastic beach day. Kids had a great time. Very busy catching fish with their nets, making all sorts of things in the sand, swimming(of course) and Luke's favorite...having ice cream from the ice cream truck!

Paige and Olivia checking out the fish their brothers caught and put in the bucket..and later back into the ocean -
Making a volcano -
Ice cream time. "I'm not melting, am I?"
Minute rest for some ice cream talk -

Boston Cousin's Day Trip -

Today, was our second annual trip to Boston with the cousins! Last year, we did the swan boats, the garden and Beacon Hill. This year, we opted for the duck tour and lunch at a pizza place by the Pru. We planned this and bought the tickets before we knew it was going to be 100 degrees and the hottest day of the year thus far. This ended up working to our advantage. The kids were so good on the duck (80min tour) I attributed it to the fact that they were too lethargic and drained from the heat to act up....this all changed of course at the restaurant when they got in the AC and downed a milkshake. Yeah to another fun Boston trip.

Ready to go!!



The kids got to drive the duck boat in the charles river...very cool! and we learned a lot of fun facts about the city that i forgot the first 4 times I did the duck tour.

Boys Weekend

While the girls will off at the beach, the boys were having some fun of their own. They went to NH for the weekend for a NASCA race and to spend some time with Papa at the farm. Luke was extra excited to bring his friend Jacob and his brother Caleb!

Girls Weekend -

Today, I went to the beach with Mommy, her (and my) friend Anne and some of her friends. It was great. Just the girls...hangin' out on the beach, talking girl talk! We had so much fun. Luke and Daddy were in NH for a NASCAR race...boy stuff.

Vacation Videos -

This is a glimps into what the car ride looked like -








Catchin' fish -

Return

Finally on our way back home, we stopped again in Hershey. This time at the Hershey Lodge. Kids loved the real vacation feel of staying in a hotel room, eating out, candy characters in the lobby and of course the pool!!

Vacation 2011, cont...

We had such an action packed first half of the week (The kids went to the zoo with Daddy one day) that we decided to dial it down for the last couple days. Aside from Mommy and Daddy getting to go out to dinner alone, this is some of what we did:

Dressed up like a princess -

Built a rain forest for the frogs with uncle Dave -
Loved working on the frog home...for hours -
Ran through the sprinkler -
More princess talk -
Went on a walk along the creek -


We fed the ducks -

Looked for birds -
And just looked cute -
Frog land has evolved -
We ate nice big breakfasts -
And finally, we played with lots of new toys -

Baseball game with Uncle Dave and Grandpa -

COSI

COSI was one of the stops on our fun filled vacation week in Ohio. It is a science museum for kids. It was very nice..lots to do. We went specifically because they had a dinosaur exhibit. We thought Luke would love this. We thought wrong. He made it through 24seconds of the 3D show before Luke and Mom ended up waiting outside (too scary I think) and he wasn't too into the exhibit either BUT he did LOVE some of the other rooms.

Happy 4th of July!!!

We were there for the annual July 4th party this year. It was good to see everyone and catchup a bit.

Party games...

Enjoying some water on a hot Ohio day...


Yikes, be careful with that thing....


Loved the fireworks this year (what a change from last year!)