Here it is, the night before school starts. I got an early start to the kindergarten mom weepiness. Or maybe it's just my allergies. Or that onion I was cutting up. Thankfully, I managed to get myself together, so I can write this blog without my eyes being all blurry.
Other than the first two photos, these are all from vacation.
8/8: Preschool reunion
My son and his classmates had a frozen yogurt play date at a store near the school. A bunch of the kids showed up, and they had a lot of fun jumping off the benches and running around the store. I'm glad it was just the kids and us parents that were in there, or I would have been terribly embarrassed. In a brief moment of downtime, I caught them playing with the ipads that were attached to the wall.
8/9: A visit from the dentist
One of the necessary things a veterinarian must do is continue to learn more stuff. Technicians do it, too. I love continuing education. It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy bringing those new tips and tidbits back to my practice, so we can take better care of the patients. In this case, continuing education came to us. The guy on the right is a veterinary dentist, and he was showing the technicians how to take better dental X-rays.
We go up to Rhode Island every year for vacation. My grandparents had a
house up there, which has turned into our house. "Ours," as in my
aunts, my brother, and me. This year, we all took turns visiting the
house. This series of photos is from our visit.
8/10: As my GPS likes to say, "Traffic ahead."
To which I almost always reply, "No shit, Sherlock!"
On a similar note, traffic nearing the GW bridge sucks.
I don't have any good vacation photos of this day. They are all of crappy traffic.
8/11: Thumb War
We went to this place called Gentleman Farmer for breakfast. It was this tiny blue shack, more or less, with really good food. I swear, it was the best omelet ever! As we were waiting for our meals, Hubby and the Small Human played thumb war.
Earlier in the morning, I took this photo of the river by the house:
Before the motor to the rowboat was stolen, and before the flood of 2010 destroyed the dock where the boat lived when people were at the house, we used to go for rides on the river. It was so relaxing! I hope one day we'll get some canoes to replace that old rowboat. There's a little slide made of rock that leads to the river. I wonder if we could launch a canoe from there.
8/12: Beach Boy
So we have a river just outside the house. We've also got the beach 20 minutes away. It was a cloudy morning but still warm. Ish. Hey, the weather that whole week was on the cool side. That didn't deter us from hitting the sand for a few hours! The Small Human loves the water. All water. But for any water that's not the bath tub, he's wearing his goggles. He insisted on wearing his water shoes, too. Considering how rocky the beach was (it is New England, after all!), water shoes were a good idea.
The boy ran in and out of the water. He got a small kickboard to "surf" the waves, and then tried again with a boogie board. By the time he was done, that child's drawers were full of sand!
I got to spend some time in the water, too. It was nice to get out there and jump up and down in the waves.
When the sun hid behind the clouds, it got chilly on the beach. The water was even colder. The Small Human was freezing his butt off, but refused to get out of the water and warm up under a towel. "B-b-but I'm not c-c-cold!" he'd insist, through blue lips. On the other hand, I wasn't in denial. It was freakin' cold! I stood there on the water's edge, with goosebumps all over, arms crossed as I was shivering. Eventually, I managed to drag him away from the ocean so we could all warm up.
Later, we went to an ice cream shop in Watch Hill, and saw a ton of jelly fish in the bay.
8/13: Mystic Aquarium
The aquarium is one of our annual treks when we go on vacation. My grandparents used to teach dolphins how to read Chinese, as part of my grandfather's research. There's a photo of them in the main hall of the aquarium, in an exhibit about the history of the place. Years later, the dolphins are long gone (the space they were kept in was deemed too small), but there's plenty of other creatures to look at. I thought the jelly fish were beautiful. Well that, and most of my other photos in a dark aquarium didn't come out well.
Turns out I've got a budding photographer on my hands.
He took a ton of photos, including one or two of the jellyfish:
8/14: Cliff Walk
Cliff Walk is this mostly paved trail behind the giant mansions in Newport, RI. On one side are these charming relics from a long time ago, and on the other is beautiful ocean scenery, complete with the potential for a swift drop to your death if you go around the fence. The entire trail is 3.5 miles along, for a 7 mile round trip. The 2nd half of the trail is not only unpaved, but also has a bunch of rocks you need to crawl around on to get through. I've done the whole thing once, but that was before the Small Human came along. Now, we just stick to the paved parts.
Along the trail, behind a university, is a tree with a long sideways branch. For a good number of years now, when we do Cliff Walk, we get our photo taken by this tree. Unfortunately, it was roped off. Thanks a lot, Sandy. Instead of missing our annual photo op, we just stood in front of the tape and said, "Cheese!" there:
Speaking of Sandy damage, the trail was closed off about a mile into it. So our walk was cut short this year. The Small Human, who had so much energy and endurance in the freezing water two days ago, was happy to not have to walk any further than absolutely necessary. I realized later that there was a playground on the beach where we had parked. Had I told them that when his energy was flagging, I'm pretty sure he'd all of a sudden be able to do the walk just fine.
8/15: Roger Williams Park Zoo
I took a ton of photos today. So many animals to photograph and observe! Some of the animals liked to observe us, too:
This bird was happily staring at the boy, and pecking at his finger. A few minutes later, the Small Human picked up his camera and took a shot:
Much better than mine, right? He also got a good one of the sun:
Considering that most of his photos are either black screens, or blurry things, I was proud to find these pictures in his camera.
8/16: "The Management."
The house was where my grandparents, both college professors, would spend their summers off. They entertained a fair amount of guests while they were up there. In the bathroom were 3 separate reminders from "The Management" regarding towel usage, and to put nothing but toilet paper into the toilet. Those signs are still in the bathroom, and they make me think of my grandparents every time I see them.
8/17: Posing with Sassy
Sassy was my grandmother's favorite dolphin. She took it hard when Sassy died. The aquarium loved Sassy almost as much as my grandmother did, and they made a statue of her in memory. It used to be in front of the aquarium, but we found it along the Mystic River today.
8/18 Last day of vacation
We ended our vacation right back where we started at Gentleman Farmer. It was nice outside, so we sat at one of the nearby picnic tables. That allowed the Small Humans access to a tree to climb:
After breakfast, we made our way home. Connecticut traffic sucks like no other.
Again, a long blog post. Thanks for reading if you made it this far! I'll post again soon. Who knows? Maybe I'll even catch up to the present tense before the year is out!
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