On the Cape

We had a truly wonderful vacation with our friends back in August in Dennisport.

One thing that struck me was how fluid our days were because we were sharing them with people who had roughly the same daily schedule, eating and sleeping habits, and level of chaos as our household does.

There were overcast days at the beginning of the week that forced us to find fun diversions outside of our little piece of beach; then there was plenty of sun in the second half so we could take full advantage of the little float boat and giant shovels we'd brought along. 

Will never likes to break up a party, and this goodbye was particularly hard. Over a month later, he still asks to go back to the Cape house, and I'm pretty sure he'd be perfectly content to have a sleepover with Connor and the rest of the Flemings every night of the week. It's a good thing they only live a mile away from us year-round!

FIRST DAY OF VACATION!!!!!

Five little monkeys, sitting in a boat...

The Big Dig

Ice cream while watching "Cars movie"

Our cloudy day activities (above and below)

Our sunny day activities:

Dads and kids:

 Finny Loves Riley:

 The Whole Gang

The three youngest:

And the two "big boys":

 Noon boys behind the wheel:

Summer's Here!

It all started when Will got his summer haircut:

We knew the season was (almost) upon us!

So we got Mamp on board and headed to Ward's Berry Farm

for some strawberry-picking...and goat-feeding.

Thanks to Will's (Dave's) tireless work,

we came home with quite a haul.

(Finn just kept eating the berries as he picked them.)

When life gives you strawberries,

make Strawberry Cake!

This weekend, we celebrated our first true-blue hometown July 4th!

But...in the middle of it all, we escaped to the beach with Auntie Lo:

and buried our feet (not our heads) in the sand.

We came home to finish the weekend with more fun:

pony rides, face-painting, cotton candy,

and the big parade on Monday morning.

Will and Finn get along so well these days.

The other day, Will told me, "I like it when Finny's awake!"

And today he described where he and Finny will sleep

when they share a room again.

In between the field trips and holidays,

there's camp (see above),

and playdates (see below)...

...both of which result in flat-out exhaustion:

We try to make room for some downtime

(or at least watch someone else relax):

and that's fun, too.

Happy summer!

Flashback to August

Grandmom and Grandpop paid a visit last weekend, which meant a few things:

1. Will clung to one of Grandpop's hands at all times.
2. We got to eat some decadent dessert, courtesy of their hotel restaurant.
3. I finally got my hands on an enormous set of pictures from our Jersey Shore vacation.

(I'm wondering if "Jersey Shore" will ever be an innocuous phrase, ever again?)

There are a lot of people who take a lot of pictures in our immediate family on the Noon side, so please believe me when I tell you that I practiced restraint in choosing "only" these photos to post:

 The first thing Will said every morning was "Go see cousins!"

 I think you can see why.

 He has so much fun with this gang.

 The shirt says it all.

 "Jenna pick Will up!" was also a common refrain.

 Finn snoozed on Auntie Cindy at the beach...

 ...while the rest of us played.

 Finn loved the beach, but he was frustrated with us for not letting him eat the sand.

 The family shot.

 The four of us.

 Celebrating Will's birthday early--do you think he liked that plan?

 Dolphins!

 A sunrise documented by Grandpop...

while I slept soundly inside.

(I had to take advantage of Finn's wonderful nights of sleep, didn't I?)

The Boston Noons head back home.

I don't have a lot of pictures of Finn sans pacifier, but it was shortly after that trip that we decided to wean him off it. And then we decided that we really preferred full nights of sleep to a frustrated, vocal baby who missed his pacifier, so now he gets it once in a while--about as often as we get to sleep through the night.

These pictures make me miss the beach, the summer (even the humidity), and mostly our faraway family. Hopefully Christmas will be here before we know it.