Family Vacation!

We usually spend our vacation time/money visiting family or friends, but we decided that it's time for us to start creating some memories of vacations with just the 4 of us. We have some great friends that live in Rhode Island that invited us to spend the 4th of July holiday weekend with them, and so we decided to extend our time up there and rent a beach house for the rest of the week.

Our time with our hosts - Seth, Donna, Graham, Sadie, Gracie and Lucia - was great!

I loved being around a newborn again and held Lucia as often as possible - although, I had to fight Sophia for her and she won a lot! She loves babies!!!.

Sophia & Sadie "babysitting"

The day after we arrived, Donna's sister Dionne and her husband Mike and their baby boy Quinn joined us! We all have so much fun together - our bond started on the Italy trip last year and just keeps getting stronger.

So, on to our family time! We rented a little house 1/2 mile from the beach in Charlestown, RI. Our days went something like this - wake up and get to the beach by 8:00, come home for lunch and a break from the heat, head back to the beach until dinner, come home and get ready for dinner and go out, go back to the beach until it closed at 9:00 and then repeat daily! It was so much fun to just be with the kids and really play with them. It was SO hot that week - it got up to 101 two different days and was in the high 90s the rest of the time, so we were in the water A LOT! I would highly recommend a RI beach vacation - a very different pace/feel than the Jersey shore!

We took a day-trip to Block Island - about a 30 minute ferry ride just a few minutes from where we were staying. It was a beautiful island, but the day we went it got up to 101 and for some reason we didn't think to bring our bathing suits. So, it kind of turned out to be our least favorite day but I would definitely go back someday if the weather was not so hot and we brought bathing suits.

Block Island ("main" street)

We spent a lot of our evenings on the beach as well. Since it was such a hot week, evening swimming was great. We'd also spend time playing games and taking pics.

I think Anthony has Jon's same body - just a smaller version :-)

I love these pics of them because they truly love each other so much. They get along so well and we are so thankful that they are such good friends. This has been an exceptionally good summer - they never fight!

Summer Update - Mega Post!

This has been such a fun summer, I haven't had much time to keep up with our blog! I have been off work this past week, enjoying time with our friends Edd & Paulette from Alabama. I will do a separate post about our visit with them, but thought I'd put some of the other summer highlights on here first.

Memorial Day

We got together with our friends the Z's and the Skog's - all of us are college friends and it's always fun to reconnect. We had a great time playing ladder ball, bocci ball and slip-n-slide!
(We really missed you Martys!!)

Matching bathing suits - not planned!

Visit with Brian & Cristina

The weekend after Memorial Day, we went down to visit Brian & Cristina. Cristina was my college roommate for a year and Jon and Brian were also really good friends - Brian & Cristina were both in our wedding and we are so glad we've stayed in touch over the years - there were a few years in there that we got too busy and didn't see each other, but we reconnected a couple of years ago and have really enjoyed getting together again. They are amazing hosts and always make us feel so welcome - Cristina always does amazing things for my kids and they never want to leave!

Anthony on their giant couch on the porch

Sophia on same couch :-)

"Backyard Extravaganza" - Cristina created a fun competition for Sophia, Anthony and her niece and nephew.

breakfast on the porch

Beach - Fenwick Island, DE

We went to Fenwick Island with our friends Tom, Shelby and Thomas. This was the 2nd year they invited us down to their beach house for a weekend. We always have a great time hanging out together and this was a really fun, relaxing weekend! Unfortunately, I didn't take many pics and I don't even have one with Jon in it!











4th of July - Visit to Rhode Island!

We headed up to Rhode Island for the long 4th of July weekend. Our friends Seth & Donna invited us up to visit them at their summer home. Seth & Jon work together and although we've been friends for a couple of years, we really got to know each other on the trip to Italy this past spring. Donna's sister Dionne and her husband Mike also came on the Italy trip and the 6 of us really had a great time together. Dionne & Mike came to RI the same weekend and we had a reunion - it was so much fun! Our kids get along so great with Seth & Donna's kids - Graham, Sadie & Gracie. It was a great weekend of going to the beach, grilling out and just catching up!

Our hosts - Seth, Donna, Graham, Sadie & Gracie

Mike & Dionne

Anthony & Graham - good buddies

Sophia & Gracie

Sophia & Sadie

All the kids

All the adults (& Gracie) - we were at a bluegrass concert on the town square

VVCC Party

We had a get-together with a bunch of our friends that we've met at our church over the years. Many of them no longer go to church with us and we hadn't been able to reconnect with some of them in years. It was so much fun to get everyone together for a fun evening (without kids!) and catch up on life.



Family Time

We've also had several chances this summer to get together with Jon's family - the cousins are becoming better friends all the time and it's so much fun to watch these friendships develop. These pics are from when we got together for Lizzie's birthday.

Lily & Anthony with their matching hats

Sophia & Georgia

sweet Gordy

The birthday girl and Shan

Jer & Erin (ready for baby Wil!)

Daddy & PopPop

Gordy with Uncle Jonny

Uncle Joel making smores