To the movies!

A great milestone was reached last weekend... Evie went for the very first time to the movies! The Tucson International Children's Film Festival started last Saturday at the Loft (which is within walking distance of the house) and I just couldn't resist the opportunity to let Evie try going to the movies; after all as a kid growing up in Arizona she must become accustomed to the two most important summer-coping mechanisms, pool and movie theater.

Saturday's film was The Wizard of Oz. Not only was the whole shebang free but there was even a goody bag and activities waiting for us once we got inside. Some crazy person thought it would be really funny to put little noise-making horns in those goody bags so the whole theater was a cacophony of honk-honking both before and during the movie. Evie's favorite item in the goody bag was the glow stick, which she called her magic fairy wand. Genevieve turned out to be a great movie goer, we only got up two or three times (to get more free popcorn... then a drink... then the potty) and although she spent the last 1/2 hour or so standing up she stayed in one spot the whole time and didn't ask to leave. In fact, when it came time to leave she pitched a bit of a fit.

Saturday was so much fun I decided we should go again on Sunday and this time drag Patrick along too for all the fun. Sunday's movie was even better (mostly because I'd never seen it before) Howl's Moving Castle, a Japanese cartoon (dubbed in English for the non-literate set). Evie either sat in her chair or on my lap for the whole film, it was great! I still don't think she is ready for prime-time-pay-money-in-a-real-theater movie but hey she is definitely making progress!

(The photo is another from the Rhode Island trip... I am not quite dorky enough to bring a camera to my daughter's first trip to the movies)

Bibliophile

Evie, much to our delight, really enjoys books. There are a few that we have been reading her for so long now that she even can "read" them herself. Her current favorites are Madeline (the original is one of the books she has memorized), Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct and Where the Wild Things Are. The latter can only be read by daddy. She has also has a "bookshelf" in the corner of her crib where she stashes away books to read at night after we have put her to sleep. Anyway, I went in just now to take a nap with her and found her like this:


I didn't give her that book when I put her to sleep, she must have grabbed it from the shelf. Too cute!

Rhode Island - Part 2

Ostensibly the reason for this trip to the east was for Vivian and Erich's wedding; but we figured it would be a nice relaxing vacation with family, with a wedding thrown in as the (haha) icing on the cake. Patrick and I quickly realized though that it has been waaay too long since we last planned a wedding (oh give or take seven years) and had totally forgotten (or maybe blocked out) all of the chaos, crafts and characters that come part and parcel with the week before a wedding. (You may note that there are very few pictures of Vivian included here… that is because the poor thing was running ragged the whole time!)

Our nice calm house began with four people, two two-year olds and one old(ish) dog. It climaxed with seven people, two two-year olds (thank goodness we didn’t acquire any more of those!) and three dogs (one of which had a propensity for placing loose stool on the carpet in the morning). The house was pretty well suited to four plus people, with three bedrooms, a tiny kitchen and one shower. By the time we hit max capacity we were forced to bathe in shifts or just to sponge bath in the upstairs bathroom.


Friday night was the rehearsal dinner (and the night of max capacity….) Patrick’s brother Colin, his girlfriend Marty and their dog Franklin arrived that afternoon. This was Evie’s first encounter with Uncle Colin and let me just tell you she took to him like Pooh bear to honey. It was really cute! Evie also got to meet Patrick’s godmother Johanna and her family on Friday.



The main event was, of course, on Saturday… In the morning I took the kids and Patrick and Colin ran a 5-mile road race in Little Compton. It was also the day of their annual church fair and the kids got to bounce in a jumping castle. Evie thought it was pretty fun, but to Dylan it was the best thing that happened all week (or so it seemed to us). When the allotted three minutes were up Patrick had to take off his shoes and go in and get him he was romping it up so much! The wedding itself was lovely and Evie and Dylan did a great job doing what they do best, be cute. I am afraid I don’t have too many pictures of it though because by that point in the week I was exhausted and I spent most of the evening playing with the kids ☺


On Sunday, after the wedding dust settled, Colin, Marty, Evie, Patrick and I all went to Newport together. I had really wanted to go sailing so everyone humored me and we went out for a little cruise on a ship called the Madeline. It was absolutely lovely! We then ate a fantastic lunch and walked up to the International Tennis Hall of Fame (Colin’s absolute must do request of the day). As it turned out we couldn’t go in because it was a final of a big match and tickets were like $50 a piece… but Colin and Marty, while visiting the sports shop adjacent to it, managed to score some free tickets!

On Monday we caught (barely) a late flight out and made it home safe and sound by 2 am…. All of which is why I feel like I need another vacation…

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - Part I

The adventure began on July 2nd at about 5:30 in the evening, the official beginning of my vacation (Patrick had to work on Friday). At around 6 pm a huge micro-burst occurred at my parent's new house, it was awesome... not quite as awesome though as my jeep, which decided that is was pissed as hell that we no longer take it 4-wheelin' and decided to drive itself down my parent's very steep driveway and into the mountain adjacent to their house. (I swear I had the parking brake on... the whole thing is still a bit of a mystery to me) Suffice to say my dad and I had a quite the time dislodging the car from the mountain; much 4x4 skill and a sledgehammer were required. But the best part (ha) was the awesome new accessory the Jeep temporarily picked up for herself. (The photo of Evie was taken before we realized the car was on the go...)

Anyway the day before we left for our trip turned into my running around trying (and failing) to get the car fixed among other exciting tasks like packing. Luckily for us a Mini will just barely fit three people and their stuff for a 10-day vacation to the smallest state in the union... Rhode Island and Providence Plantations!


We left in the wee hours (3 am) on the 4th of July and arrived without incident that evening. I was really impressed with how well Evie did on what we started to call "Airplane Day"... its a little like Christmas... gifts and all :) After many hours of traveling and dinner at Vivian's soon to be new in-laws place the beginnings of the whole crew, Vivian, Nicole, Dylan, Patrick and I landed at our place for the week, aka Evie and Dylan's summer cottage; a at least 200 year old salt box house adjacent to a farm and farm stand in the town of Little Compton.


The first few days were pretty uneventful, we ate lots of blueberries (Evie liked to both eat them and wear the pint boxes on her head), walked around the farm and went to a little beach. On Tuesday it was super rainy so Patrick and I just hung out with the kids while all sorts of wedding going ons went on. The kids, and Patrick, had a blast playing in the rain.



On Wednesday Patrick and I took a little trip to Newport while Evie spent some time with Dylan's grandma and Mimi. The big excitement there was the purchase of a kite, which was had its inaugural flight the next day at the beach.


More to come later....