The Beach House - Part I

My grandmother, who passed away when I was in college, lived in a beachside community outside of Boston. My brothers and I fondly remember spending our summers visiting Gramma and the beach near her house. We are fortunate that her house is still in our family - it has actually never been owned outside of the family - giving us the ability to enjoy summer days there at the beach.

I mentioned to Rich a few weeks ago that it would be nice to be able to take the girls to the beach house before the summer season ended. I was imagining them running around the uncrowded beach, soaking up the late summer sun. I began stalking all the online weather sites and picked Sunday as the day. Would you believe that it was the most beautiful day. The temperature hovered around 73 degree, the sky was clear and there was absolutely no humidity. A picture perfect late summer/early fall day in New England. If you live here, you know the type of day I'm talking about. And you know to take advantage of it.

Before I talk about our visit to the beach house, here are some pictures from Sunday morning at our house. Look at how swollen Anna's eye was when she woke up.



Allie and Elmo watching television. And yes, we do sometimes wear mismatched jammies.



We purposely left our house for the drive to the beach house later in the morning hoping that the girls would nap in the van. And they did! They had a snack of apple juice and crackers in the van while they waited for us to pack up. The girls woke up from their nap when we exited the highway. Grammy and Papa were at the beach house so we decided to stop and pick up some lunch to bring to the house. Rich was parking the van on the street and just as he started to reverse, Anna threw up. More good luck was on our side. The puke didn't really smell bad at all - it was just like apple juice - but I still had to clean it up. She had thankfully been looking off to the side so it landed on the side of the car seat and not all over the straps.

Grammy picked up this vanity play set FOR FREE from a neighbor. The girls kept saying, "My hair is a mess." And you can see Em and Anna fighting over the mirror in this first picture. I'm sure this is just the beginning.





That is now in our family room. The other morning Anna said, "I'm gonna make myself cute."

Alright, on to beach pictures. I just LOVE these.

Anna and Papa



Allie





Anna and Em





This is how Em came back after exploring the ocean.



This is how she returned to continue exploring the ocean.



More pictures tomorrow ....

(I want to note that the swelling around Anna's eye starting going down before we could call the pediatrician and was almost gone by the end of the day. She is expected to make a full recovery.)