Catchupcatchupcatchup

So I've been slacking. You probably noticed the improved quality of the blog since about June 1 -my beautiful wife has pretty much taken over since I started school again. But since I had a few minutes I figured I'd sully up the blog a bit with my presence. To start, about a month and a half ago Tiffany's family came out to visit. We had a lot of fun, saw the many historic sites of Boston, Plymouth, and Salem, went to the beach, and really just had a good time with family. Pictured below we're on the Old North Bridge, site of the famous "shot heard round the world", where colonists were first ordered to fire upon the British troops.

One of the highlights was this guy cruising down the highway - we tried to let him know that he'd dropped his skier about a mile back, but we couldn't get his attention.

As well, we checked out this old estate that we thought might make a good starter home, but the hedge maze wasn't yet finished - that was a dealbreaker.

In some of our beachgoing adventures, kayla took up both hermit crab-hunting and flying - both were phenomenal successes.

To round out our summer, we finally made it to a Red Sox game at Fenway! It was the first MLB game for both Tiffany and I, so we were pretty excited to take it all in. We got pretty good tickets through the business school, and even a (semi) personalized welcome to the game!!

Sadly, this is not a good year to be a Red Sox fan, but even though the game wasn't that exciting it was still a lot of fun. Tiff loved her hot-dog, and got a pink tongue from cotton candy - she was in heaven.

Now that fall has begun, we got out for another hike. Destination? PANTHER CAVE!!! I know, we're hardcore. Kayla didn't find the cave especially scary at first...

But then Tiffany told her where we were!!!! She seemed a little more uneasy.

But no worries, we saw no panthers, and had a fun time together. Kayla LOVES being outside (although that isn't obvious below, but trust me, she was playing in the dirt and trying to eat acorns whenever she wasn't strapped in)

And finally, my new favorite picture of Kayla to sum up this catchup.

Bed Head

Kayla woke up from an unusually long (3+ hours!) nap today and had some sweet hair. I thought I'd share the hair awesomeness with you.

Two angles for double the experience.

Shoes for Little Feet

During the summer I took Kayla shoe shopping a lot. Of course we didn't buy any of these shoes, but Kayla had fun trying them on and showing off her beautiful feet!

Kayla also enjoys trying on hats...

Camping!

The weekend after Pleasure Bay Beach we went camping with some friends. It was so much fun! Harold Parker State Park is only about 30 minutes away and there are tons of trees so even though it's pretty close to the city, it feels like you're in the real woods!

We headed out after Braden finished class for the week. Knowing we only had a few hours of daylight left, we quickly set up the tents and started the fire to get the dutch oven dinner started. What a dinner we had! Spare ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, and cherry-peach cobbler and peanut butter cup s'mores for dessert. Delicious! (We don't have any pictures of dinner, unfortunately. We were hungry enough by the time it was ready that we just wanted to get that goodness in us!)

After getting a stern talking-to by the rangers for being too noisy we decided it was probably time to go to bed. The kiddos had been sleeping until that point, but I think all the zippers woke them up. Kayla thought it was awesome that Mom and Dad were there to play with her. I thought otherwise. I don't think anyone got a ton of sleep that night...

For breakfast we made breakfast burritos with eggs, peppers, bacon, and cheese. We also had delicious hot chocolate. Katie and I took the kids for a stroll around the campgrounds while Braden and Brad took down camp.

Then we headed off to find a good hiking place. The hike we found led to a beautiful pond completely covered in lily pads and frogs. There were thousands of lily pads! We took some family pictures and had a simple lunch of pb&j at our little resting stop then headed back to the cars. We had so much fun (in spite of the lack of sleep) that we're going camping again this weekend!

Time to Catch Up

We've been having so much fun in Boston that we've neglected our blog a bit. Our apologies. So now it's time to catch up on all those exciting adventures we've been having!

Several weeks ago we headed to Pleasure Bay Beach. It's only about 20 minutes away and is free! We played on the beach for a while then walked around to the old fort.

We saw this awesome sail boat taking off.

Kayla found some apples on the beach and thought eating the sea foam would be a good idea. We, however, did not and promptly discouraged this (after a quick picture of course).

Daddy and daughter testing out the water.

The Fells

father: [fah-ther]

-noun

1. a male parent

2. any male ancestor, esp. the parent of a race, family, or line; progenitor

3. Informal - valued as a work animal, having strong muscles, a body shaped like a horse, donkey-like long ears, small feet, and surefootedness. Compare "mule"

School has been incredibly busy of late, but we've still managed to get in some quality family time on the weekends. This last week we went on a hike in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. It was a little odd - it's a patch of forest in the middle of a major interstate corridor, so while everything looks very "nature-y" you can hear traffic until you get 1/2 mile or so in. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, we'll likely go back, and we're enjoying the adventure of getting to know New England!

Kayla loves being outside and getting dirty (daddy's little girl!!), so on our hike we let her free to roam for a while - she promptly got in touch with her inner squirrel and tried to hoard some acorns in her cheeks. It took some doing, but we finally convinced her that a cracker would be more her style, at least until she gets her molars in.

Just like Kayla, Tiffany also loves being outside and getting dirty, so when we came across this downed tree (I bet it made a sound) she first posed for a picture, and then simply insisted on getting the full experience of clambering.

What a gal! That's 10 points for sure!

Revere Beach

Yesterday we enjoyed one of the country's biggest sand-sculpting contests, just a 20-minute drive away! It was very cool to see what people can create out of a big pile of sand.

(Kayla thought the sculptures were really exciting...)

After viewing the sand art, we headed down to the water for play time!

After so much fun in the sun, time for a nap!

The beach was a success and we will definitely be coming back!