Seems like many of my posts have come from a guilty place. I REALLY just need to get back in the groove.
So summer has arrived - by the calendar if not by the weather. We spent a week in Newport at the end of June which was, well, freezing cold and damp. As I've been telling people at work, at least it felt like a LOOONG time off! We rented our friend Cathy's cute cottage in Middletown which is in a super location and the kids know the space. Here is a shot at the circus, which we hit up on Day One because the weather was SO crummy and we figured it couldn't last.
But it did, and it was rainy and cold all week. Luckily on Wednesday we had dinner at the Friedman's which was a nice way to break up the weather! The new house is great and it is super close to the beach. For some unknown reason Betsy and Ted haven't BEEN to the beach yet - but we'll give them so time to get there. After we left Rob discovered that it has super fishing, so Betsy - you supply the beach and we'll bring the pizza from CT! :)
We left Newport early because my brother Tom and his family were in CT. So we left RI and drove to Portland for an afternoon/evening of fun with family. It was so nice to see all of them - especially to watch the cousins whoop it up. Finn literally embraced Kevin for a full minute before he even said a word. "Finn, this is Kevin" - full bear hug that you could feel across the room. Finn was instantly in love with his big (boy) cousin.
Margaret is bordering on too old to enjoy the antics of 5,4,3 year olds - but she wasn't over the line yet. They sucked her in and then Keelin had someone to yak with too.
So June has now passed, but as I reflect on it, I choose to suppress the grief from all the bad news (financial: great recession, home prices in the toilet, neighbors possibly losing their homes, most households seemingly losing a job; and non-financial: the woodpecker who decided to eat my house LOUDLY, this past week's loss of Michael Jackson - which is a circus in and of itself, and how can you logistically live addicted to anesthesia?? - Farrah Fawcett, Karl Malden and more) and focus on all the great news (the sun came out! I get to watch Keelin SWIM at the beach after scampering around "making new friends", Finn is finding himself while focusing on fishing like his Daddy, Lochlan's favorite saying these days is "Mommy, you are THE BEST" which he always accompanies with a big wet kiss on the lips, Rob has been catching fish almost every night at our town beach, we HAVE a town beach and we USE it at least 5 nights a week...I saw my brother and his family, my dad, my mom...). In general, June was pretty spectacular between all those rain drops, and I hope our luck will hold out through July and August. I'll try to be back before it is all over :) So far so good for the July 4th weekend - Sue & Riz came, we had two parties and a boat ride, plus plenty of beach time.
Now some parting shots...
Rob sending the boys (Loch and a new friend at Compo) away so he can cast for the next striper!
Finn hamming it up on the kids picnic table
And finally - the arrival of "Super Friends". My heart be still...
Just beach grilling and chilling out. Keelin's friend Violet happened by too - so kids had a ball.
