A 10 day vacation: Sounds. Like. Heaven. No work, no
meetings, no appointments or obligations, just time to relax...ahhhh. I was imagining
lazy days on the beach, sleeping in, sipping a cold drink while flipping
through magazines…
**NEWSFLASH**
Vacations with a 6 year old, a 2 year old, and a dog are *not*
relaxing. In fact, I think they are actually a little more work than being at
home, where they have all of their favorite stuff, toys and routines. While
both of my kids are pretty adaptable, let’s just say there wasn’t a whole lot
of relaxing while they played nicely and “entertained themselves.” I was pretty
much the entertainment. All of the time. And sleeping in? Silly, silly me. They
still got up at 6:30 even if I stayed up until midnight. I feel like I could
use a vacation from this vacation. But, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Here’s a recap of some of our favorite family moments.
Bonnet Shores, RI; a place I’ve been coming to since I was
10. Reliving some of my favorite childhood memories with my kids, and seeing
the excitement in their little eyes was such a gift. I was so proud of
Charlotte for learning how to catch crabs under rocks, and for letting them go
to be “back with their families”.
Searching for snails and mussels is all Chad wanted to do, and he
laughed in hysteria when a hermit crab popped out of its shell. I love that
they learned to appreciate the ocean, and what lives inside of it.
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| Low tide is best for catching little crabs under rocks. |
Here’s my plate.
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| Lobster sandwich on homemade bread, 2 clam cakes (not to be confused with crab cakes) and clam chowder. |
Have you ever seen anything more beautiful? My
sandwich was STUFFED with lobster. And Chad chowed down on those clam cakes like
it was nobody’s business. We were so proud that he tried something new and loved it.
Nothing says “healthy toddler food” like a big ball of deep fried dough stuffed
with clams.
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| All kids meals come with an ice cream voucher to claim across the street. Cherry Vanilla Chip for the little lady. |
As Chad was turning 2 on this vacation, and is completely
OBSESSED with elephants, we thought a trip to the Roger Williams Zoo in
Providence would be right up his alley. We were right. The Birthday Boy loved every second.
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“El-fants! Giraffes! Zebras!! Go see em’!”
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The only problem? It was hot.
Really, really hot. The high in Providence that day was 95 degrees, with a heat index of 103. But we made the most of
it, stopping at some spritzing stations throughout the park, and capping off
our visit with a refreshing, thirst quenching Dell’s Lemonade. I never really
understood the fuss about this stuff before, seeing the signs all over RI, but
I get it now. Oh, do I get it. That stuff is Dell-iscious.
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| I'm totally amazed we were able to leave the gift shop without buying anything. |
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| Yay! Bumper Boats! Woo Hoo. Sounds fun! |
Note: Do not
wear white shorts on bumper boats. In fact, don’t even bother blow drying your
hair or putting on makeup because YOU WILL GET SOAKED. There’s no escaping it.
The kids LOVED it. Getting sprayed, spraying ME, I have never heard them laugh so hard. I, on the
other hand, cried a little, mainly from the burning of mascara in my eyes. Not
sure bumper boats are for me. But I pulled it together, and we all enjoyed the
Carousel. “Up and down horse again mama!” So stinking cute.
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| Jeff thinks this picture is going to end up on Awkward Family Photos some day. I think it's cute. |
After our Adventureland morning, we were all craving seafood
again, so we headed south to Galilee, another family favorite from my youth.
It’s a little tourist town where you catch the Block Island Ferry, so there are
cute beach shops, fish markets, and of course, plenty of boats to watch coming
in and out of the harbor. Since we were still soaked from the infamous bumper boats,
sweatshirts were in order. I was lucky enough to find a clearance rack of $10
kids sweatshirts, and even luckier to fit into a Boys size Large. The ladies
sweatshirts were $42! There’s nothing I love more than a good bargain.
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| 2 sweatshirts for 20 bucks! I was so happy to be dry. You can see people loading onto the Block Island Ferry behind us. |
We settled on Champlin’s for lunch...the best part? You get
to pick your own lobster, and they cook it for you. We found a chunky 2
pound-er for all of us to share.
Here he is:
It’s almost like he’s waving goodbye on the scale. I’d be
lying if I said this didn’t make me sad. I actually shed a few tears and I
could see Charlotte was getting choked up too. But Jeff suggested this
experience will all make us appreciate the food we eat more, and he was right.
We like to think that little guy would be happy knowing he was the juiciest,
tenderest, tastiest lobster we’ve ever had.
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| "I like it plain mommy, but I really like it with butter!" |
But what really made this meal special was watching and waving to the boats going by; some going fishing, some going Whale Watching,
and of course the "big one" going to Block Island. Maybe we’ll tackle that in a couple of years. When a certain someone can actually sit for the hour long ferry ride.
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| Boat Watching is the PERFECT 2 year old boy activity |
So as for that stack of magazines and books I planned on
reading this vacation? I didn’t get to any of it. Not a single page. But you
know what? I don’t care. When they’re teenagers, I’m sure they’re going to want
to spend much more time with their friends than with me (sniff), so I’ll have
plenty of time to catch up on my summer reading list then. I don’t want to wish
away these years when they’re little. It’s already going by way too fast. Which
reminds me of a quote I saw in one of those cute beach stores:
“Life is not
measured by the number of breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath
away.”
So even though we were out of breath from keeping
up with the little ones, I think we all came away from these 10 days with
plenty of memorable moments.
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| Everyone look at the camera! Smile! Say Cheese! |
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