6.30.2012

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Abby and I went to lunch with one of Abby’s friends and her mom. Abby was so excited to see her friend and the two of them couldn’t stop laughing and hugging each other.  Mckenzie and Scott went to lunch too and then they ran to the grocery store! We had friends over this evening that we haven’t seen in awhile. Scott did a shrimp boil and it was amazing!  A little Trivial Pursuit, a delicious cake made by our friend and four kids that played nicely together made for a wonderful night!.

6.29.2012

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The girls and I made our first trip to the library for the summer. Abby has gotten much more efficient at picking out her books. As soon as she had her three books, she found a table and sat down to read them. It amazes me to see the change in her after checking out books at school all year long. Mckenzie seemed pretty disinterested in picking out her own books. She sat down at the table with Abby and “read” the books Abby had chosen while I picked out a few for her. We ran to Target before heading home. I went to set up the pool for the girls but I discovered the plugs were missing so all the air leaked out. So, we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to get a new pool. The girls were talking to each other while we were driving to the store. I overheard Abby say to Mckenzie “You know what the worst part is Mckenzie? We have to go to THE WALMART.  The Wal-Mart.”  I guess my love for the store has rubbed off on my girls! But, they had what we needed and we were back home and swimming in our new pool before too long. The water was frigid but the girls were having fun. After I got in, I realized how darn cold it really was and decided to be a nice mom and put some hot water in the pool.


004 Mckenzie

6.28.2012

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The girl's friends came over this morning. I am not sure what it was, but all four seemed to be in quite a mood! After they left, we took it easy and watched movies. It is just to warm to be outside for any length of time. Scott got home early enough from work that we decided to go out for dinner. We tried a different Italian restaurant and it was pretty good. The girls asked for pizza and neither of them would eat it when it arrived. Luckily, both girls liked my meal and it was large enough for the three of us to share!

6.27.2012

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I dropped the girls off at my friend's house this morning. I had a follow up for my stress fracture. I got the ok to start running again in two weeks! I am so excited!!!! Mckenzie had her first day of summer dance. She told me that she might be shy when it comes to going to class. I had flashbacks to the first day of dance and I was so worried that she would do that again. Luckily she didn't and enjoyed her time dancing. We went swimming at our friend's house this afternoon and then we came home to vege out the rest of the day. Happy birthday Dad! We hope you enjoyed your day!

6.26.2012

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The girls went to a birthday party for a friend today. It was a swimming party and the girls were beyond excited to go. The water was too cold for Mckenzie though and she opted to play on the swingset and in the sandbox instead. Abby didn't care how cold the water was, she was in it for the long haul. She didn't even want to get out to eat cake and once she saw the cake was vanilla, she was even more upset that I made her get out! She only likes chocolate so it is rare that she gets to eat cake at other children's parties since most of her friends like vanilla. Mckenzie was beyond upset when I said it was time to leave. She was sobbing so hard and I felt horrible for her. I remember Abby going through this stage with her friends. It seems like she just got over it and now we are doing it with Mckenzie. She did settle down once we were in the car but I could tell she was still sad. My friend took the girls to dance with her while I ran a meal to a military family that just had a new baby. Then girls' friends came over after dance while their mom ran an errand. Abby and Mckenzie were excited to have their friends over for dinner. 371 Boston church near Boston common A church in near the Bostn Common

6.25.2012

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Abby started summer dance today. She is doing hip hop dance and really enjoyed it. She wanted to show me all her new moves when she was done. We didn't do much else today other than grocery shopping. I think we probably amused the other shoppers as Mckenzie dressed like a princess and Abby dressed like a bumblebee :) But, I say as long as they are happy, I don't care what they wear when we go out! 214 Niagara Falls

6.24.2012

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370 Mckenzie Abby Boston Common Another photo from our trip.

6.23.2012

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Abby was a busy girl today! She had two birthday parties to go to. The parties couldn't have been more different though. Both were for girls, but one was all dinosaurs while the other was pink and more pink! Mckenzie was upset she didn't get to go to the parties so we took her over to her friend's house to swim. Abby came over too after her party was over and we all had dinner together and swam for awhile. We had a great time hanging out with our friends. Our air conditioner was fixed today. A quick fix, but the repairman said we were lucky it didn't start a fire. So glad I turned up the thermostat higher than normal when we left for our vacation!

370 Mckenzie Abby Boston Common

6.22.2012

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Today was a very looooong day in the car. What should have taken 5-6 hours took 10 hours! Traffic was horrible and there was a point we were stuck in traffic, inching along for two hours!!! Scott picked up a new movie at a gas station for the girls and that was a big mistake too. It was about a lost dog that looked like Dakota and Abby was so upset, she was crying for a good portion of the movie. She didn't want to turn it off though because she needed to make sure the dog ended up safe. When it was over, she told us she was never watching that show again! Poor kid! Thankfully Mckenzie got bored of the show early on and stopped watching. We did do a little sightseeing on the way home. We stopped by a lighthouse in Rhode Island (thank you GPS for giving us bad directions. A little out of the way, but worth it!) And, we stopped in Mystic, Connecticut for lunch. We drove by the Mystic Pizza Restaurant (the one the movie was filmed at) but we didn't stop. There was construction in the area so I took a photo from the car as Scott drove as slow as he could! When we finally made it home, the house was hotter than heck. I went to adjust the thermostat and the air conditioning wouldn't kick in. Then it started smelling like burnt toast and we shut if off for the night. Scott checked it out and the air filter had burn marks on it. We called a repair service and they said they would be out tomorrow. Luckily it is raining to cool the house down. What a way to celebrate Scott's birthday! Happy birthday babe! We love you :)
399 Rhode Island Lighthouse


402 Rhode Island Shoreline


406 Rhode Island shoreline


408 Rhode Island shoreline


411 Mystic Pizza Sign

6.21.2012

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We toured Boston today, starting off with the Old North Church along the Freedom Trail. The church is beautiful and still in good condition. There is still church services held there every Sunday. It doesn't have rows of pews like churches today. Instead, it has open boxes with a bench inside each one. Families each purchased a box. I was curious about the reason behind having boxes inside of rows of pews and the curator informed me it was done that way because in the winter, families brought heaters with to put inside their box to stay warm. There was no need for heaters today as it was hot outside. Luckily, we happened upon a public spray park and we let the kids play for awhile. We told them not to get too wet (haha. Jokes on us!) but they were drenched within minutes! So, Scott stayed with the girls while I went in search of a store to get them girls some dry clothes. We wandered over to the Quincy Market for lunch and Scott got roped into a street performer's act. He was a juggler and he needed volunteers to hold a rope so he could stand on the rope while juggling. Scott begrudgingly participated. You could tell he was hot and just wanted to get inside to eat lunch. The girls enjoyed watching the show though :) The next place we visited was the Boston Common. It is a beautiful park. Abby didn't enjoy it much though as she saw a squirrel and decided she wanted to leave. (In her defense, she has seen the show with Billy the Exterminator where he is called to a home with a bunch of mean squirrels.) We stopped on over at the Cheer's Pub for a quick beer (never thought I would be sitting my girls on a barstool at such a young age) before we went to a Boston Red Sox game. Mckenzie fell asleep on the way there and since we didn't bring the stroller, it was a little warm carrying her around! Since we had been outside all day long, Scott and I bought shirts and changed before going into the game. I can't imagine what the people sitting near us would have thought of us if we hadn't! This was Mckenzie's first major league baseball game and she was as interested in it as we thought she would be :) Thank God for games on the iPhone! Abby was pretty interested in the game and she liked cheering for the B's as she called them. She kept asking if the B's (Boston Red Sox) were beating the M's (Florida Marlins.) and then she would go back to her game on the phone. When the Red Sox scored, both girls would wave their number one fan gloves and get all excited. We left at the bottom of the 7th. The Red Sox were losing, but they came back to win. It would have been fun to stay, but as it was, the Subway was PACKED! We were lucky to get seats. The girls started chatting up a storm with a lady standing next to us. She was so sweet and carried on a conversation with them for the entire ride! At one point, Abby asked her if she was a movie star because she was so pretty! It was a long day, but we really enjoyed our visit of Boston.

262 Old North Church


281 Old North Church


299 Paul Revere and Old North Church


294 boston


301 Abby


288 mckenzie


256 boston


316 Abby Mckenzie water


329 Quincy Market


344 scott


357 Boston Common


374 fenway park


381 Scott Abby mckenzie at Fenway


383 Fenway park


391 Abby at Fenway


393 Scott at Fenway park


395 Fenway Park


392 Mckenzie at Fenway park

6.20.2012

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We said goodbye to Canada and headed to Boston for the final portion of our vacation. The drive was a little longer than we anticipated but the girls did well in the car again. We finally got to our hotel, and I say finally because it was a bit difficult to find. The GPS in our car had our travelling through a state park on a dirt road that was closed. Luckily, we were able to use Google Maps on my phone to get us there. I have to say the GPS is one of the things I don't like about our car. It can't find an address half the time and the other half, sends you on a round about way to get somewhere. Anyway, after checking in, we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Instead of only giving the kids a coloring sheet and crayons, they gave them Wikki Stix. I have never seem them before, but they were so entertaining for the kids and us alike! I just may have to purchase some for the girls! We took the girls for a swim when we returned to the hotel. It was a beautiful night to swim and we had the pool all to ourselves!

The girls took turns whispering secrets into one another's ears.

238 mckenzie telling abby a secret


211 Abby Niagara Falls


210 Mckenzie Niagara Falls

6.19.2012

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Surprisingly both girls slept in this morning. Usually when they stay up past their bedtime, they are up earlier than normal. I guess they were really tired from all the walking and swimming yesterday. We ate breakfast at the hotel before venturing out for the day. Our view at breakfast was amazing as we were overlooking the Horseshoe Falls. It was an incredible sight to say the least! After breakfast, we did a Journey Behind the Falls tour which allowed us to travel underground to get a view of the falls from behind. Mckenzie did not want to wear her raincoat and I can't blame her. They were hot and sticky. But, once we got into the tunnels, she was fine with it. Abby on the other hand, was happy to wear hers. We took an elevator down 150 feet to a tunnel with a couple of portholes for viewing the Falls. There was an observation deck at the foot of the Falls where you could get close and feel the mist as the water raced by . The power behind the water is astounding and the sound of it rushing past is almost deafening. I'm so glad we had our raincoats on or we would have been very wet! The girls had so much fun getting sprayed by the Falls. We thought about doing the Maid of the Mist boat ride, but the girls are still so young that we didn't think it would be the best idea. Instead we wandered around the Clifton Hill area for the rest of the day before heading back to the hotel. We took the girls swimming and called it a night.

224Niagara Falls

222 Niagara Falls

208 mckenzie

180 Niagara Falls

144 Maid of the Mist

137 Niagara Falls

136 Niagara Falls

135 Abby

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6.18.2012

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We drove to Niagara Falls, Ontario for a short vacation. The girls did well in the car with the help of a few new movies (gotta love $5 movies!) and plenty of stops. Once we got settled into our hotel room, we took a walk to the Falls. They were absolutely breathtaking, or as Mckenzie said "They are cooler than ice cream!" After seeing the Falls, we stopped for dinner on our way back to our hotel. The girls wanted to go swimming, but we talked them into heading to the Falls again so we could see them at night. The light show was fun to see but it couldn't hold the girls' attention for too long so we headed back for a swim.


018 Niagara Falls


039 Niagara Falls rainbow


070Niagara Falls


105 Niagara Falls


110 Skylon tower Niagara Falls

6.17.2012

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Happy Father's Day! My girls are so lucky to have the father they do! They couldn't ask for a more caring and loving and devoted father! The girls helped me make Scott breakfast, although we didn’t serve him in bed. Eggs and pancakes can be kind of messy! We spent the afternoon getting ready for our vacation, although we did take time out to have a water balloon fight. The kids had a blast! I don’t think we have ever had water balloons before.


001 Scott abby mckenzie


011 Abby


013 Mckenzie


017 Abby mckenzie water balloon fight

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