Ellerman Family Vacation 2013: Last day

And so with this post I will bring our Boston trip to a close. It was a great vacation and one that already feels   like it was an eternity ago. My summer goal is to get the photo album organized before school starts. I have about 6 weeks. Surely I can do that, right?

Ok. So. An eternity ago (10 years) I interned in Gloucester/Rockport aboard a whale watch boat. My fellow interns and I would scrape together money for a few weeks and then treat ourselves to breakfast at Lee's. Naturally I made K take me there. Yum.

Boys agreed. Maybe because they had neat kids to-go cups, and the boys got two each! Water and juice.

This dude wanted to play with his waxy things from the lobster place. Thankfully I kept them in the backpack.

Bellies full, we moved on. Since I had been there G'sta added three wind turbines. Two owned by the city, and one owned by a private company. Or so I think.

We needed to walk off a little breakfast, and Halibut Point State Park was the place to do so. Let the record show that it was hot, steamy steamy hot. A shaded path took us right into the inferno.

K telling the boys all about the granite quarry.

Further down the path we went.Mostly to enjoy the shade.

With an occasional look back to reflect.

And other occasional pauses to use a picture as an excuse to rest. Lee's was sitting heavy on the belly here.

And at the end of the trail was the ocean! Oh how I love a rocky ocean front.

And so many tidal pools in which we could search for critters!

Not everyone wanted to partake in photo opportunities.

We thought we saw a crab, but the crab was both faster and smarter than we were.

The ocean breeze was cool and relaxing, but we had places to be and unfortunately the hot steamy trail stood between us and the car. Back to trudged.

The place we had to be was a dear friend's house for a cookout and reunion with whale interns. And those interns' kids.

And no whale watch intern reunion is complete without blowing up Nile, the inflatable Humpback.

There she goes. She's got the markings of Nile, a female whale, but she's the size of a male Humpback, if you're taking notes.

She's really quite photogenic.

And she's enter-able. I opted to stay outside and document. Its cooler out here.

K went in, and took a beer to keep him cool.

We had a great afternoon, in the whale, out of the whale, and all around the house. The boys were worn out, and got a special book reading from Ms T. I hope this is the last time I walk in and found both boys in a bed with a girl. Fingers crossed.

That's it, folks, our whole trip, all done.

Now what?

I am working this week at my old job, the boys are at their grandparents, which leaves us with a very light after- work routine. Glass of wine and some HGTV? Don't mind if I do.

Learning

We really dont want our brains to turn to mush, so for a few mornings we've done a bit of learning from our "books". We really like this, and we only have to do a few pages so no one feels forced to do schoolwork during the summer. We pick our own pages.

 I found these small pencils at a local store, and I am infatuated. Look how pretty! And they're shorter, so little hands can hold them with ease. And, as if that was not enough, they are those pencils where you pull the tip out and you can stick it in the back to rotate the pencil tipcs.

 Here is our other scholar.

 He likes writing his name.

 And, dont tell the other one, but he's the only one who is trusted with the glue by himself.

Here's a little footage to make you feel like you were here.


And a little more. The focusing on these are not great, I think I was too close to the boys and the camera doesnt autofocus once the recording begins.



Until tomorrow, people.

The Madam of the house

I sat down this morning with the intention of documenting our last day in Boston, but when I downloaded the newest pictures from the camera I found these little gems. They were taken Friday, after we learned the news that Madam's health had declined. The boys and I took her to the vet in the morning. Between the boys acting like a wild bunch of billy goats and the vet using words like "possible end stage kidney failure" and the stress of paying for vet testing, I left the vet exhausted and nervous, but still not sure of Madam's health. We drove home and got the bad news call a few minutes later. Gotta give that vet's office credit, they are fast. 

So the news was not good and we decided that it would be best for Madam Fannie not to suffer, and we had one more afternoon with her. We did all her favorite things. We let her waller in the grass. 

 And we went for a walk and I let her pull the leash way out in front of us.

 It was a fairly short little walk, since she was not well and it was muggy. We went a little towards the lake and turned around.

 The boys thought I should get a picture of her with the pretty flowers. This is as close to the flowers as she wanted to go.

 My first baby and my two last babies. And the tail of the middle child. I loved when she open mouth smiled. Or was hot. Whatever.

  The last few hours of the afternoon were tough. I am glad I was there with her till the end and I am glad K was with me, but that is about all the positive I can say about that. Again, the vet's office was great. Kind, understanding and very considerate of our emotional state.

We went to Mexican to have a margarita toast to Madam's long life, and went home. G wanted to watch tennis with his dad, and I needed to have a little baking therapy. C was happy to help. We decided to make  cookie brittle, and he was in charge of getting the mix-ins ready.

 We rounded up lots of goodies to be mixed in. Choc chips, butterscotch chips, coconut and corn flakes. Yum.

 He is a pretty meticulous kid, and was using the 1/3 cup measure, but at some point he must have thought to hell with it, and he started double fisting the goodies into the bowl.

 Once the batter was done, he was also in charge of stirring in it. "you have to be strong to stir it in", he said.

 And he helped taste the batter. Delicious. There are no eggs in the batter, don't worry, Grandmothers.

 We smooshed it down, using ziplock bag for gloves. That was his idea, he does not like getting his hands dirty.

Those cookies were delicious. DEEEELICIOUS. We ate way too many.

We have also been giving this guy some extra love. It appears he is coping with the loss of Madam by eating army men. We're hoping those come out the way nature likes to dispose of edibles. Fingers crossed.

The rest of this past weekend we layed low. Saturday mornings we have a ritual: cinnamon rolls on the couch.  Shirts optional, you've probably noticed.

 And we always watch some type of nature show. See the one eyed bobcat stalking prey? Ooooh, nature!

Now we are heading to a craft store for me to do a little craft shopping therapy. YAY.

My girl.

It's too fresh to discuss, but on Friday my best girl went to roam free on am endless walkabout in the sky. I miss her so.