Our First Beach Trip of 2011!

Last week the stars aligned and both of my parents, my sister, and I had a week day off AND it was perfect beach weather! (And by perfect, I do mean 90's!). We decided the night before that we would pack a picnic and go to the beach. We decided (well, my Dad bailed) on Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester because it's gorgeous and easy to get to despite it being about 45 minutes away.

Since Eliot's favorite thing in the whole world is to dig, he was in love. The fact that there was water to spash in was just the icing on the cake. Being that I grew up with a Summer house in New Hampshire on a pond, I was never really a beach person. It seems like a lot of work for too little reward (personally speaking of course). It's a lot of prep time, packing, hauling to and from the car, then there's the sand that gets on everything (including your food and drink) and the salt water. Not to mention it's usually crowded and there's very little shade to which you can escape. A cottage, a dock and a pond just SEEMS easier.

Well, wouldn't you know, I had a good time anyway. I even frolicked in the water myself. It's not something I would do every week, but once in a while, it is certainly worth it to go to the beach. Eliot certainly thinks so.

And here's a few photos I snapped real quick of Eliot taking photos around our condo. I love that he loves to take pictures! He definitely needs a better camera (one with flash perhaps) because none of his pictures ever come out because its too dark in our condo cave.



I thought I would end this post with some anecdotes about Eliot. He seriously says the funniest things ever! The other day, we were getting ready to go to my niece's birthday party and I told him we couldn't leave until he went to the bathroom to which he responded "No! That's NOT FAIR."

After the birthday party, we stopped at Subway to get subs for dinner. I thanked him for helping me hold our food and for picking up my sunglasses after they fell and he answered me "Your pleasure."

Just this morning Eliot and Ted were getting up out of bed and I was going to sleep for another 45 minutes and Eliot asked me "Are you going to be OK in here by yourself?" I love that he has empathy at such a young age. He makes me so proud.

One of the cutest things he does recently is that he will answer a question about himself with "I."

"Did someone ask for more juice?"

"I."

"Who made this mess?"

"I."

It's just too cute to correct. I know soon enough he will learn to use proper grammar and phrases and this stage will be just a memory so is it THAT wrong to just let him say those cute little things for now? I just want to savor this sweet, innocent time that I know won't last forever. Oh, how I wish we could play with "excabators" forever.

Wild Weather!

It's taken me a few days to actually sit down and write this, but last Wednesday, we had some wild weather! The forecast for the day and said something about afternoon thunderstorms. We had a little thunderstorm in the morning and then my mother-in-law came to pick up Eliot at around 2:45 and everything was still calm; no rain; no thunder; nothing.

I'd say it was probably an hour or more after Eliot had left that Ted told me to turn on the TV. They were saying tornado warnings. Usually, this wouldn't impress me much, but given what we've just seen happen in some southern communities like Joplin, Missouri (and given the natural disasters that have been striking in ALL parts of the world), I was a little nervous.

Well, I became a LOT more nervous when I learned that a tornado actually touched down in Springfield, MA. I believe at least one more touched down after that too. Nineteen Massachusetts communities were effected by last Wednesday's tornadic activity (my spell check tells me that tornadic isn't a real word, but I'm pretty sure the weather men on channel 5 were using it in about every other sentence. So THERE, spell check!)

The warnings on the TV were to get to your basement or inside room and to take these warnings seriously. Well, since I was here alone and freaked out, I packed up my laptop and work and went to work in Eliot's room.

After maybe an hour in there, I realized I was probably being kind of silly and I came out. I warned Ted not to come home from work, but of course he did. I was SO glad to have my family home.

We put Eliot to bed and Ted and I sat on the couch and I looked out the window and saw this light reflected off the building across the lot from us at 8:15pm:

(and of course, uploading them to the web distorts the color, but I assure you it was VIVID and BRIGHT!)

Ted and I quickly ran outside to capture a few more photos:

(straight above me)

(To the right of me)

Ted snapped this one of me to get the wind effect, but it's kind of hard to make out.

And then less than an hour later..


It was scary. It hit way too close to home. We get nasty winters and nor'easters and blizzards, not tornadoes! I'll take a blizzard over a tornado any day!

Thankfully all WE got was wind, rain, thunder, and lightening. My heart breaks for all those MA families who lost their homes, cars, and family members in the storm.


To end the post on a lighter (cuter) note, here are just a couple of snapshots from last weekend up in NH:

And YES! That's Diego's face you see under Eliot's clothing. He is potty trained! Woohoo! I'm so proud of my big boy!