back from vacation!
We had a nice week away with my BIL and my folks up in the White Mountains. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best, so it was a good thing that Pete had brought the Wii for entertainment. It was the first time we'd ever tried it, and the girls love it! The surprising convert is my Dad, who quickly became a fan of the Bowling game and says he's going to "ask Santa" for one for Christmas.
Mom and I did our part to stimulate the local economy, heading off in the pouring rain one of the days to visit the outlet mall in North Conway. I found a couple cute tops on clearance at the Gap outlet, and Mom found the girls much-needed new raincoats at the Children's Place outlet, so it was a productive trip. It turned out to be an adventurous one too: when we returned to the car to drop off our bags before lunch, we discovered an extremely flat tire! Luckily, we have AAA, so about an hour later we were good to go with a patched tire. Thank you, AAA!
We were able to take advantage of our memberships at Santa's Village during the sunny breaks of the only two good days we had up country. The girls are serious ride fanatics, and they are old enough to ride alone on most of them now, so they had a blast. Uncle Peter loves rides too, so on the ones that they needed company, Daddy went with one and Pete went with the other. (Mama does not do rides, except for the merry-go-round and the antique cars!)
On the rainy days, the kids played Wii, or swam in the pool, or hung out coloring and playing with their Polly Pockets. Sadly, there was no internet connection at our condo this time, so I had some major computer withdrawals going on! We'll have to make sure that when we go back next year, we request a condo "up the hill" - lots of wireless connections up there!
I read a few books during my "downtime" - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (absolutely LOVE that book, I'd give it 5 stars and a super recommendation!) A Dangerous Dress by Julia Holden (lots of fun, would make a great screenplay, I'd give it 4 stars) and The Boy Book by E. Lockhart (one of the YA books I checked out for over the summer. Cute story, but I didn't realize it was a sequel. I'll have to find The Boyfriend List somewhere this summer so I can fill in the blanks!) I'm in the middle of another YA, Peace, Love and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle right now and am really enjoying it too. I love having a string of good books in a row. :) I picked up a couple of "scrapbooking" novels at the Book Warehouse when Mom and I went shopping, so I have added A Page Out of Life by Kathleen Reid and Prints Charming by Rebeca Seitz to my summer reading list.
We're settling into our summer routine this week. Today was "errand day" and I went to get my license renewed and am making all of our summer check up appointments today as well. Tomorrow, Brigid has requested a trip to the mall to indulge her Build a Bear dreams and spend her birthday moolah!
Here are my LOAD pages for yesterday and today - hopefully I'll be able to keep up all summer long!
This one uses the new Making Memories collection "Great Escape" mixed up with some Scenic Route and a little bit of older MM "Garden Party" too. The little crocheted flip flops are from a Anna Griffin embellishment set, but I can't remember what collection they matched!
This second one uses Sassafrass Lass "Bungle Jungle" collection pp's, some Sass and Pink Paislee alpha stickers, some Scenic Route (the green grid) and an Anna Griffin felt owl embellishment that has been hanging out on my bulletin board over the scrapbook table for ages!
Heading out to the pool to see if we can enjoy an hour or two before the rain moves back in again. Tomorrow is supposed to be cool and rainy - we're definitely socked into a really soggy weather pattern that doesn't seem to have an end in sight. :P
Hope you enjoy your day today, wherever you are!
