The Gracies Get A Bath

Rylie has been carrying around her Gracies EVERYWHERE for about a year....and I have never washed them. I was always afraid they would be ruined. I finally gathered up enough courage, did some research about washing stuffed animals and washed them. They turned out great!! I love that they are so clean! Immediately when I pulled them out of the washing machine she was able to tell me which was "Purple Gracie" (the first Gracie she had) and "New Gracie" (the 2nd one we bought in case the 1st one was lost or ruined and she found and wanted to carry around both all the time!).

Sylvester Family Vacation (Part IX)

 

MONDAY:  We went over to Aunti Katie and Uncle Patrick's house along in the morning to play in the backyard along with Grammy and Elsie. We had a great time mostly in the blow-up pool and the play house!

 

Then after naps, we went to the park behind Patrick and Katie's house and met up with Lisa and Dave and their 3 kids. The plan was for the grandparents to come pick the kids up and then the adults have dinner and hang out. While we were at the park, we started to hear what we thought was heat thunder that quickly turned into a tornado, but not before we snapped a few picuteres and gave the grandparents heart attacks! After the first wave of the storm passed, the kids left. We soon lost power and spent most of the night talking in the dark over candlelight iPhone flashlights. We've all been friends for about 20 years!

TUESDAY: For the last hurrah, we met Elsie, Auntie Katie, Max, Jack and Grammy for lunch and then had everyone over for dinner and some last play times!

WEDNESDAY: We left VERY early from Boston (woke up at 3:30 am for 6 am flight). The kids did awesome on the flight. We were all sad to say goodbye but VERY excited to be in our own home.

Sylvester Family Vacation (Part VIII)

SUNDAY:  In the morning we went into Boston to the Public Garden to do the swan boats and see the Make Way for Ducklings statues (another favorite book!). I don't remember ever riding the Swan Boats - they were a big hit!

 

In the afternoon Grammy and Pops had the Bailey family, Lisa and Bob and Dana over so we could all hang out. Aunt Alison and Uncle David brought some instruments to play and let the kids play. They were all fascinated, but only Derek wanted to play.

 

Pictures with Great Aunt Elsie

Auntie Lee Lee and Uncle Bob

 

Sibling LOVE!!

Cousin LOVE!

Sylvester Family Vacation (Part VII)

SATURDAY: Last day of vacation :-( We woke up early and all went for a run (Derek biked the whole way!!) and took the kids back to the rocky cove! We were quite the scene running down the way too small roads with a double BOB and single BOB followed by 2 runners and a biker! So grateful that we all can exercise together!!

Fun at the rocky cove...discovering cool rocks, throwing rocks into the ocean, picking up sea weed, and watching the waves...so much fun!

 

 Some other random pictures from the trip



 
 
 
 We made the drive back to Boston. After the kids took long naps and dinner, we headed out to see fireworks with our good friends the Renoni's. The kids had a great time riding the rides, eating slush, wearing glow sticks, and seeing the fireworks. Derek LOVED the fireworks from the beginning. Rylie kept calling them "boomy", but she LOVED them too. It was so fun to watch fireworks in a small town just like I did growing up.

Derek riding his first carnival ride

Bumans with Taylors (Jacki, Keith, JT and Griffin)

Sylvester Family Vacation (Part VI)

FRIDAY: Happy Birthday America!!! 4th of July!

Although it was predicted to be bad weather all day (and Boston was getting slammed), we got some early morning digging hours in at Gooch's Beach. It was overcast, so not swimming weather (haha, there was no swimming all week), but great weather to bury Derek, build a Frozen pathway for Rylie to sing and run in for hours, watch surfers and have a great time! We even found 2 Sand Dollars (which are extremely flattened, burrowing sea urchins - I love having a curious 4-year old that keeps you on your toes when you don't actually know what something is).

After naps we took pictures of the kids in their 4th of July outfits --- it wasn't easy getting all the kids to smile at the same time --- but we got a few good ones.

 

 Pops got all the kids Starfish to remember the trip

We had an all American dinner of burgers and dogs and then made a fun dessert with the kids - ice cream sandwiches with red, white and blue sprinkles (Thank you Pinterest!)