Work travel

I’ve been to Florida for work two weeks in a row. I’m hoping for no travel in October. I’m feeling a little burnt out.  I don't mind it and I 100% think me travelling strengthens Bill and Cassidy's bond. Two weeks in a row was too much though. I did get some jogging done in FL and saw some lovely sunrises over the bay.

 

 

 

The brief days I’ve been home I’ve tried to spend time with Cassidy – in between laundry, paying bills etc. I haven’t taken many photos lately so this post will be short!

 

She's obsessed with the car carriage at the grocery store.

 

 

 I’m doing great fundraising for the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk in a few weeks. I’ve passed my fundraising goal! My sister ordered us all t-shirts. Even Cassidy!  It should be a fun day and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m looking forward to October! It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was a stressed out mess worrying about my upcoming surgery. Bill asked me recently, “Did we go apple picking and do the maze last year? I don’t remember doing it” and I had to remind him that no we didn’t because September we were crazily going to fairs, football games and dinner trying to cram in lots of fun prior to surgery. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year as it already feels so far away.

Great Vacation

We were on vacation last week. We started vacation at home. Cassidy got a new pillow (she loves it) and we put new tires on her bike. Now it's higher so she cannot get on by herself but she does try to ride it though. The video below is funny at the end.

 

 

Then we went to Martha's Vineyard for a week. You see some pretty funny GPS photo's on an island. Cassidy thought it was "so silly" that we brought the car on a boat.

 

 

We went to the beach.

 

We rented bicycles and pedaled from Oak Bluff's to Edgartown. We walked around the gingerbread cottages. Cassidy loved riding behind Bill. The rental shop nicely got her a helmut with pink straps. Her stuffed animal rode along one way in the seat with her too. I'm not sure Bill was too thrilled with her goosing him while he was pedaling though.

 

We had rented a house so it was nice to be able eat breakfast, pack lunches and cook a few nights. Also it gave us more room for when someone in our family had too much fun at the beach and was crabby and needed a nap.

We visited the Aquinnah Cliffs and Gayhead Lighthouse. You wouldn't think a two year old would be interested but she badly wanted to climb to the top of the lighthouse.

A man asked us if we wanted him to take our picture. We said sure and he asked Cassidy's name. I suspected she'd hide her head in shyness and she surely did!

We went on the Famous Flying Carousel. We had told Cassidy about the merry-go-round before we left home. She asked the entire first day about it. After her nap we went right there - only to find out it was closed during the week! She was a good sport when we explained that the horses were resting and sleeping and we'd go on the weekend. We let her go on twice on Sunday and she was satisfied with that.

On our last night we saw a rainbow while eating dinner

 

 

 

Our entire trip Cassidy was in a singing mood. We heard the color song and the ABC's many, many times. On our drive home she started adding on! At the end of the ABC song she would say "next time won't you sing with me. me. me. meeeeeeeeeee!" LOL  She's pretty cute and really such a good girl. She's a good little traveler which is nice for us.

 

 

Happy Labor Day

Wow I guess I forgot about blogging.  yeah, it happens.  Happy Labor Day!  I'll be honest, I never really knew what Labor day was all about. It's a Monday off so it makes me happy. But know that I have a 2 year old who I have to teach like, everything to, I googled it. From Wikipedia "celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers".  Wait a minute - labor day is celebrating me!  Nice to have a holiday for the workers, but this blog is not about work! It's about fun! We've been busy since the zoo. We went to a baseball game. Cassidy loved clapping and eating ice cream.

We attempted to put air in Cassidy's bike tires (We got a Barbie bike from friends). After Bill pumping and Cassidy pumping we realized - there's got to be something wrong with these tires!  Cassidy can get on the bike but with the flat tires its too difficult to pedal. Her new tires are already here and we're just waiting for the tubes.

 

She's such a big helper! God help you if you don't want her help!

Cassidy loves to play picnic - probably thanks to her super cool Leap frog picnic basket that Auntie Barbara got her for her birthday. So she had been asking to go on a real picnic so we packed up some sandwiches and went to Newburyport. We go there often enough for the Spring and Fall Festivals that we know where to park and where a shady spot to sit it. Cassidy had a good time playing ball and looking at the boats. 

We kicked off Labor day weekend by going up to my folks cottage for the day Saturday. My sister and her family were there so its always nice to spend time all together. It was also a lovely beach day.

 

I love the sandy wet butt!

I know many people consider labor day the end of summer but I don't. It's not until September 21st people! I'm happy to say that unlike a certain friend of mine who said to me last week "Oh my god it's the end of summer and I didn't go to the beach once" I cannot say that. I enjoyed this summer to its fullest  and I'm hoping for a few more good weather weeks.  Especially since we're heading off on vacation this week!  I'll have lots of beach pictures when I get back!

Yippee the zoo!

It's so nice to have a child and a reason to go to the zoo.  Though Bill and I used to go prior to having Cassidy, now we feel like we have a good reason to go. multiple times a year :-)  Last weekend we went to Southwick Zoo. I like it there because the animals have nice big area's to live in. I feel like they're well cared for.

We love the petting zoo and feeding goats and sheep. They also have a deer area where you can feed corn to the deer. We learned that deer don't really like to be petted.

Cassidy rode the merry go round twice!

Are we there yet?

After being in Florida all week for work I was happy to be home with my family. Cassidy and I met my sister and nephews at the beach on Friday. While driving there... not far from our house, Cassidy said something. I turned down the radio and said "What?" and she said "are we there yet?" LOL Her first are we there yet! 

Busy at work, slacking at home

It's always the week you have plans after work that work becomes crazy busy. But... I still leave work. I may boot up the laptop when I get home from shopping and dinner with my sister but I went shopping and out to dinner so I feel I still maintained my new motto of everything being more important than work.

But yes, work is crazy busy. My Friday off wasn't really off. I worked a bit today. I'm off to Florida for the week but the good thing about that is there's lots of time to work when you're alone in a hotel room at night.

The result of all this craziness is not too many pictures. But in our playtime we've done lots of puzzles. Cassidy is getting really good at them. We bought her some 25 piece puzzles. They are all Mickey Mouse. One is missing a piece and upon finishing it she always says "and we can't find the missing piece" LOL.  I think she thinks we're still looking for it. We're not.

We built a Lego tower taller than Cassidy. I think her favorite part is knocking it over. Which makes a mess.

And watching TV while reading a book. I know she's copying us because we've reached the point where we can't stand any of her kids shows anymore so we read while she watches her shows at night.

Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend! Friday Cassidy and I visited my best college friend and had a lovely lunch and swim in her pool (OK, Cassidy refused to swim but she happily played with Lego’s on the deck while the rest of us swam). My friend’s daughter is the only girl in her family so we also got a sweet Barbie 2 wheel bike (with training wheels) for Cassidy. My friend’s daughter was so sweet to Cassidy. She made her a goody bag with hair ties. Which works out great for me because Cassidy wouldn’t wear her own hair doodads but “Olivia’s barrette” is getting lots of use.

Asleep in the car on the drive home

Big smile for her new barrette (which you can't see in the midst of all the curls)

Saturday we just did normal house things – lawn, grocery shopping. But we grilled (chicken and steak tips) and had a nice dinner. Cassidy loves corn on the cob!

Sunday was great! We went to the Aquarium. We got there on the train because something was going on in Boston and the roads near the Aquarium were closed. It was Cassidy’s first ride on the train and she didn’t want to get on when it arrived at the station. She was crying and had me in a choke hold. But she calmed down and we explained that it’s just like a car but it carries lots of people and mommy & daddy don’t have to drive.

At the train station

The aquarium was fun. Cassidy kept saying “more animals”! She got a pink penguin at the gift shop which she appropriately named, pink penguin. We had an awesome lunch at Tia’s (man that was a good salad!). Cassidy rode on a Merry Go Round with no tears for the first time! I was so proud of her. We walked over to Faneuil Hall but now it was starting to shower (it was unbearable hot & humid) so we headed towards the train pretty quickly. Cassidy slept briefly in the car on the way to ice cream near our house, where of course she got purple ice cream (black raspberry). She wanted to share with mommy, but mommy is sick of strawberry & black raspberry so she declined.

Then we headed home, we crashed on the couch ready to just relax for the evening (especially since no nap was making someone a bit testy). I hugged Bill and said “today was awesome”. I urged Cassidy to hug us both from the other side of Bill. Doing so she head butted him in the eye socket! As Bill writhed in pain I scooted over to make sure her head was OK (it was). Just then I heard the rain come pouring down and I pushed aside the curtain and said Wow look at that rain! I hope we don’t lose power. And one minute later we lost power.

It came back after about three hours, a hundred explanations to Cassidy of why the house had no power (storm, electricity, no TV or light) and a quick dinner out. So it was a super busy Sunday but really very fun. Can’t wait for next weekend!

Last weekend I got some great scrap booking done. June and July. I love the summer colors and the beachy items.