Christmas 2015 :)

To each their own

We had a great afternoon taking turns running and biking along the Greenway with Grandpa and Grandma.  Abby rode along too for the first time!  She started riding without training wheels at the end of September and hasn't looked back.  She rode about three miles with me while I ran.  Great job, Sweet Girl!  Grandma and Ryan rode bikes (they left us in their dust and went about seven miles), and Grandpa was awesome enough to hang with Chloe and push her on her pink tricycle.

Afterwards, we stopped at QT.  Mommy got a much desired coffee!  It was a little chilly and I'd been coughing, so the hot liquid was wonderful.  I told each kid they could pick one thing from the convenience store, either a food or drink, but not both (they all had their own water bottles in the car anyways).   Their choices were a bit unique and yet perfectly suited to each one individually.  Chloe picked a little jug of milk.  Chlo-Chlo loves her some milk!  Abby, my salty eater, picked a bag of plain potato chips and devoured the whole thing before I could suggest portion control and saving some for later.   Ryan, my spicy and minty fan, picked a small canister of breath mints.  I love my kids, and I love how completely different they are sometimes!!

Happy 8th Birthday, Ryan!

Ryan Hazen Chase!  Eight years old!

*Ryan's eight year checkup was on 10.15.15. 
He weighs 58lbs 6ozs and is 50.2" tall

Chloe Chase, age three

* On August 20th, 2015 Chloe weighed 31 lbs and stood 37" tall. 

* I love it when Chloe says "Lub You!!"  Although, last night she did say, "I lub you, Mommy."  Bittersweet to hear her starting to say it correctly :)

* Almost any time she asks a question, she follows it up with "how bout that?!"  It's hilarious.

* She loves swimming, playing outside, tormenting Maya, eating cheese, anything owls, going to preschool.

* At the ripe old age of three, she has mastered playing on the tablets and is probably better at them then her Mommy...

* If she had complete freedom to dress herself, she would wear her Duck shirt, Sophia socks, and rainboots every day. 

* She is starting to pick up on song lyrics.  I've heard "buy me boat" and "take your time" repeated more than once.  [Chris Janson's Buy me a Boat and Sam Hunt's Take Your Time].

* She's getting quite verbal, although she still needs some speech help and her sentence structure isn't quite there yet.  A cute example : "Not me reach that"

my kids are awesome

From Ryan's 2nd grade teacher at Avery, Ms. Rudin:

I am going to miss Ryan this school year. He is such a sweet and smart boy.

 

From Abby's K teacher at Avery, Ms. Smith:

I am crying reading this!  She is adorable, sweet, funny, and kind.

 

From Ms. Smith the first week of school:

Abby is just great… so cute and such a good listener!

 

knock knock

Ryan's been big into jokes recently.  We stumbled upon this one probably two months ago, and it's quickly become the family favorite:

.Knock-knock
.Who's there?
.Interrupting cow
.Interrupting c....
.MOO!!

It just doesn't get old.  And here's the best part.  Chloe's all about it too.  Her version is soo super cute!

Chloe: knock- knock
.who's there?
Chloe: DOW!!!
.cow who?
Chloe: MOO!!!!!

When she gets going, she'll say it over and over.  And laugh and giggle, it's adorable. 

The long drive home

Saturday morning we woke up in Rhode Island.  Rick made us a wonderful breakfast of French toast out of cinnamon raisin bread, along with fruit and bacon.  Afterwards we hung out on the beautiful back porch for a little bit.  The views are just gorgeous, and it's such a peaceful place.  We chatted with Aunt Cheryl while Uncle Rick played checkers with Ryan.  It was really hard leaving that to pack up!  We were sad to go, and we hit the road about 10am.  The kids are troopers and do awesome in the car.  We drove about eight hours on Saturday and ten on Sunday.  For the most part, they just chat and color and Ryan reads or blogs and they do their own thing.  Our DVD players have died a slow death, but honestly, that's okay, the kids did fine without them.  We used them very sparingly anyways; you know me, I'm not a big fan of screen time.  We played a couple of family games - we found the ABC's on signs and we even attempted to play Ryan's version of the license plate game.  We had to find the states in alphabetical order, although just one for each letter.  So first we had to find either Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, or Arkansas.  We found Alabama.  Ryan then decided that also counted for B since there are no B states and some people refer to Alabama as Bama.  We saw several Connecticut's for C, despite being in the southern corner of Virginia by then.  We never did find Delaware for D, and thus the game fizzled out. 

Driving down through New England and New York and New Jersey, we paid ridiculous amounts of tolls, as per the norm.  We drove across the George Washington bridge and saw the cool views of the city.  Sarah and her family had arrived at Granddaddy's on Friday night and spent Saturday with them, so they were there when we arrived Saturday night.  Having the cousins all together was a fun treat!  We arrived in town about 6:15 and meet the crew at the Greene Turtle for dinner.  After dinner we took a much needed walk in Granddaddy's neighborhood and the kids played together on the nearby playground.  The kids also enjoyed playing together with Granddaddy in the basement before bed.

Sunday morning, we were up bright and early.  We hit the road a few minutes after six for home, and the Zerings left a little later to begin their trip up north.  We had picnic lunches in the car both Saturday and Sunday - thanks to Aunt Cheryl for supplying us with a fresh loaf of bread!  We hit a couple of rainshowers in Tennessee, which saved us a carwash when we got home.  We had contemplated winding our way down North Georgia instead of taking 75, and then when we saw there was a wreck and about an hour long delay, we absolutely went the back way!  We came down 411 right through Chatsworth, within a few minutes of the cabin we love to stay at.  It was supposedly only three minutes longer then going 75 and with the traffic the way it was, it was definitely the right choice.  Gotta love the Google Maps app :)

We arrived at our house about 4:45 on Sunday.  While sad that our vacation was over, we were certainly ready to get out of the car!  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for having us over for a home cooked meal.  And Maya was at their house, hooray for being reunited with our pup.  Thanks to Nana, the Brandon family [Abby's best twin friends Levi & Larsen and their black lab Scout], and Grandma & Grandpa for taking turns watching her.  It was nice to know she was always in good hands and well cared for.  Thanks also, especially to Nana, for watching our house.  Abby's plants on the back porch were thriving under her love and care; perhaps she can continue to look out for them even now that we've returned.  As much as I love the idea of planting and someday gardening, I seem to have a black thumb. 

It was a wonderful ten days!  I can't believe how fast it went.  But I guess that just means it was a really good trip, right? :)  We loved all of New England, especially the different stops within Rhode Island - the Block Island ferry and then of course Westerly, Weekapaug, & Watch Hill.  And the kids loved Aunt Betty, Uncle Rick, and Aunt Cheryl.  They've been asking when we can go back to see them all again.  Happy vacation to us!  And now back to vacation recovery - tons of laundry, a Kroger trip yesterday as we had zero food in the house, a total cleanout of the car, and my current project : reassembling all three carseats after taking them apart to wash them. 

Day 1 of driving home by Ryan

Today we woke up and had French toast for breakfast. Then me and uncle rick played checkers. I won both games. After we wached octanaunts. Then we went. To the bath room and we left and we were on the road. We drove 8 hours. Then after 8 hours we ment Maxims and Granddaddys family at green trutle for dinner. Then we went back to Granddaddys house. Then we went a park and played. Then we came back to the and put are pjs on and took a shower. Then we went to the basement and played. Then we went to bed.

Day two at Rick and Cheryl,s house by Ryan

Today we woke early like seven. For breakfast we had Cris and Megan and we all pancakes for breakfast. Then uncle Rick and Aunt Cheryl went to pick up there jeep then uncle Rick came back to the house and mommy went on a run to a Weekapaug farmers market and Aunt Cheryl drove their from picking up the jeep and the rest of us rode in are car. At the farmers market Abby and Chloe song then we went to the beach for a sand castle contest. So when we got there we did not see enay buddy so we played in some rocks and after we played on rock e still did not see enay buddy so we practised in the sand then we found out it was not in till tomorrow so we had are own then we went back to the house. At the house we had sandwiches for lunch. After lunch we put on are bathing suit and went to the beach first we put on are sunsreen . After sunscreen we went boogebroding then we builded a sand castle. Next we rested in the shad. Then we went boogebroding and when we got I was shivering and caplaning to go back to the house then uncle Rick, Aunt Cheryl, Abby, Chloe, daddy, and mommy went to the rocks and me and Cris Doug a big hole and put me in it then we covered half of my body with sand then when rest came back the girls wanted one to so we builded two more then I Brock out and Aunt Cheryl took me back to the house and I took a outside shower. Then I went inside and put some chloths on and when I came down I wached octanaunts and then the others got here. Then we had hot dogs, burgers, and ice cream. Then Chloe went to bed. Then me and Abby watced octanunts while the grown ups ate their dinner. Then we went upstairs and put are pj,s on and brushed are teeth. Then we went downstairs and said goodnight to every buddy. Then we went upstairs and went to bed.

Day Eight : Westerly again :)

We woke up in Weekapaug!  Well technically, Westerly, but close enough :}  Uncle Rick made us some delicious pancakes for breakfast, along with bacon and fresh fruits.  Cousin Chris and his fiancée Meghan joined us for round two of breakfast [they don’t have small kids, thus they don’t get up at 6:45am.  Gotta love being really far east in the summer time!].  After breakfast, we met up at the Weekapaug inlet.  Rick and Cheryl had to run a quick errand on the way; Coleson, Chris, and Meghan drove the kids; and I ran there, hooray!  There was a small farmer’s market that morning and one of Cheryl’s friends told her about the sandcastle building contest.  Thus Rick and Coleson left in search of shovels and other necessary sand stuff.  We were able to stroll right onto Fenway Beach, even without a beach tag, by telling them we were there for the sandcastle building contest.  The contest was supposed to start at 9:30, but we saw no signs off anyone building.  We strolled for awhile and climbed the rocks.  We found some really cool snails – they were slithering on a rock just under the surface and you could see the paths they were leaving in the sand on the rock.  We also saw fun shells and mussels.  The kids loved Chris and Meghan and Cheryl and took turns hanging out with each of them.  And they are all so good with the kids. 

Rick and Coleson made it back with all the new sand toys and we set to building.  We were still confused by the lack of other people building; it was close to 10:30 by now.  Suddenly Cheryl said it’s not Saturday is it?!  Oops, we were off by a whole day!  Oh well.  We still had lots of fun building and judging our own castles.  Rick and Coleson and Chris has some pretty serious castle-building going on.  Walls and castles and dolphins and all sorts of details.  Cheryl and the girls specialized in drip castles, and Ryan and Meghan were working hard on a castle with a moat and a bridge and a snowman.  I was really happy to see Ryan having so much fun with Meghan!  Since we hadn’t planned to come down to the beach, we were all in clothes and without sunscreen.  We decided to head back to Rick and Cheryl’s for lunch and to regroup.  Cheryl had some awesome sandwich making ingredients, including an avocado hummus.  We changed and headed to Rick and Cheryl’s beach – Seaside.  Around here, you belong to a beach club, there’s not much in the way of public beaches.  Seaside is just across the beach from Weekapaug and is very nice.  Rick and Cheryl have a huge locker for keeping all their beach supplies right there, and there’s also restrooms and a snack bar.  The water was COLD, but the kids went in anyways.  Chris and Meghan and Coleson went all the way out with Ryan and Abby to help them boogey board.  They had some good waves!  They went in a couple of times, but didn’t last too long- they’d start to shiver and their lips would turn purple and we’d have to tell them to come in from the water!  The kids and I sat in the sand playing for a long while.  [our setup was a couple of rows back from the water, so they couldn’t really play alone].  We buried each other and built drip castles.  Cheryl came down and we chatted for awhile.  She and Rick are both great and so easy to talk with; I really enjoyed visiting them.  At some point, Rick and Cheryl and Coleson and I walked the jetty with the girls while Ryan dug in the sand with Chris.  Abby loved all the rocks and jettys around the area.  We saw a huge rock in the jetty that had been misplaced by Hurricane Sandy; hard to imagine, those rocks are huge and must weigh thousands of pounds!  We sat around and enjoyed the beach life a little bit longer before heading up to the house.

An outdoor shower and warm, dry PJs for the kids, followed by some Octonauts.  The kids ate an early dinner of burgers and dogs, mac and cheese, and strawberries.  I loved all the home cooked food we were treated to the last two days!  Thanks!  Chloe was asleep by about 7pm :)  Rick’s lifelong Weekapaug friend, Mark Barber, joined us, and we had a very nice adult dinner on the porch after the kiddos were settled.  Cheryl had bought us swordfish and some nice sides from the market.  We also had corn on the cob and wine.  It was a beautiful evening on the porch – it felt like fall at home, jeans and my new sweatshirt, but still barefoot :)  We enjoyed spending some time with Chris and Meghan.  We talked about the upcoming wedding, about life in New England [as awesome as the summers are, the winters are cold!  Chris showed us pictures of Boston covered in snow, no thanks], work and travels, and a few other things.  It was a nice, relaxing evening.  Two glasses of wine, and I was fast asleep!     

A couple of classic Abby statements while I’m thinking of them :

...In reference to Brady, their awesome little white dog : “He just loves me soo much”
...When she woke up Saturday morning: “I was like Chloe get your whole self off my head” 
             At Cheryl’s we had the whole upstairs – two guestrooms with a full bath.  The kids were all together; Ryan in a bed with the girls sharing an air mattress.  It was a very nice setup.