The beach!

We finally made it to the beach for an official extended visit. Adele met me at my house and we made our way to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. I had only seen this beach by driving by it but everyone raves about it. This is the beach that Chris grew up going to. It certainly didn't disappoint. It is extremely shallow and when the tide goes out it leaves pools of water behind that are great for little ones to safely splash around in. There is also a river inlet that is very shallow and fun to play in. The waves on the main beach area weren't too big so it wasn't overwhelming for Madison and Jackson. They both got comfortable with the sand fairly quickly and didn't mind being in the surf. Madison seemed a little more aggressive than Jackson this time. Having Adele there was a lifesaver since you KNOW M&J went in opposite directions from the moment we got there. It was so much more relaxing to only have to be responsible for one child. We were there for over two hours (I think) and would have stayed longer if M&J didn't start to show signs of needing a nap.

For their birthday Aunt Karen bought them an awesome beach toy container filled with toys. Ever since March I have dreamed of the day I would take them and play with the toys. Guess what got left at home. UGH! So the kids had no toys to play with but every other kid on the beach did so we spent most of the time prying toys out of their hands.

Before we left we brought them down to the main beach one more time. This time Jackson seemed overwhelmed (probably because he was tired at that point) so Adele took him and lifted him up and over the waves as they approached. He giggled like crazy so I did it with Madison too. The two of them were laughing so hard that the two of us were cracking up. They were having a ball until our arms got tired and we picked them up to go back to pack up. Madison was heartbroken and cried. I felt so bad :-(

In the river

He fell in the river and just sat there kind of stunned

He discovered he could throw the mud. He had so much fun and got VERY dirty.

Look at the mud in his hair!

Last year I started a tradition I intend to keep up of writing their names in the sand and taking their picture by it. Last year was easy. They were lumps and just stayed where you put them. I knew this year was going to be a bit more challenging and i was right.

These were the best I could do...not bad though



Madison in the river

During high tide the water comes up to just about the bottom of this photo and you can see how far away it gets at low tide.

Jackson's hair was so curly!

Why does Jackson look like he's 7?

I think we're going to a different beach on Monday with some other friends. Hopefully the weather cooperates. It's been not agreeable lately.

Girls' Weekend 2008

This year we went to Susan's parents' cottage in Acton, Maine on Balch Pond.  I picked up Susan then met Kristin at Rachael's.  We loaded the car and picked up Brenda around the corner.  The cottage was about an hour and a half away.  We dropped off our stuff and checked the place out.  Then we went into town to have lunch at a little townie place.  We asked where the nearest liquor store was.  The waitress said it was about 30 minutes away.  We followed her directions and an hour later we finally found a grocery store that sold liquor.  So we got all our supplies and headed back to the cottage.  By 5:00 on Friday we were all drunk (except Susan of course).  Much fun was had by all.

This picture pretty much sums up what we did all weekend

(Brenda, Rachael, Kristin, Susan)

The neighbor of the cottage was so nice and gave us a ride on his pontoon boat.  The weather was weird all weekend so we were in and out of showers and it was SO cold!!

The view from the cottage

At the Poor People's Pub in Wakefield, New Hampshire.  When we walked in Saturday night a very familiar girls greeted us.  It was the waitress from the townie place we had lunch at on Friday!

Can't wait for next year!!!!!

Wading pool

I've been wanting to take the kids to a wading pool for a long time now.  I heard of a great one in Topsfield in the Bradley Palmer State Park.  Melanie and Alice met us in the parking lot and we packed up the strollers and walked to the pool.

While we were waiting for Melanie I let the kids out in the parking lot.  We were the only ones in the lot so it was safe.  Of course they both wanted to play in the one mud puddle in the whole lot.  I let them do it knowing we were just going to go in the pool.

Maddie biting a rock

This building is at one of the entrances to the park

Thank god Melanie was there to help me.  She even saved Jackson's life.  M&J were having a hard time staying on their feet so they kept falling forward and going under.  I scooped them both out of the water on many occasions but one time I was occupied with Maddie when Jackson went under.  Thankfully Melanie was right there to help him.  The funny thing was that it didn't phase either of them.  They just kept going.  The pool was awesome!  It was a no entry pool so it was like the beach.  The deepest part was about 2 feet.  There was also a large turtle in the middle and a big mushroom fountain.

Alice enjoying herself

They both got cold very easily.  Maddie's lips were blue!

Melanie was also very handy with the camera which is nice since there are hardly any pictures of me with the kids!  I ended up getting their floatie things and that was a lot less stressful for me.  

Melanie took this picture of Maddie

It was very very fun but I think next time I'll make sure I have a dedicated assistant who doesn't have her own baby to worry about!

Thanks Mel, I couldn't have done it without you!!!!

More wrestling

This past Sunday Raffe spent the day at our house.  Chris spent most of the time talking about Star Wars with him.  They even went out to a game store to buy a PS2 game.  M&J were happy to sit there and watch them play.

Then it was time for more wrestling...

Ads

Adsense seemed to be going well.  I had made $20 in just a couple weeks but today I got an email saying my account was disabled.  This is what it said...

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense
account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since
keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage
our advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account.

I have no idea what this means.  Any ideas?