Beads, Beads, Beads

As I have mentioned before, Anna is obsessed with beads and "cecklaces". So, imagine her surprise when a package arrived in the mail a few days ago from Great Grandma Dody. She eagerly opened the box and her eyes literally shone with incredulity and excitement when she spotted the treasures within. She whispered "beads" and gingerly pulled them out and put them on. And has worn them pretty much ever since.

So, a HUGE thank you to Great Grandma Dody for sending Anna the prized giant bead necklaces. She absolutely adores them!

Dancing Queen

One silly reason I love summer is the TV show So You Think You Can Dance. I love watching the super-talented and in-shape young folks perform amazing choreography.

I have pushed this love of dance onto Anna and now if I ask if she wants to watch the dancers she gleefully heads to the TV. For most of the summer she has sat next to me bopping up and down and clapping her hands to the music. But, that all changed last week when an especially lively disco routine came on. She immediately jumped off the couch and started shaking her thing.

And she now asks for the dancers again and again and again, sometimes out of the blue. This disco routine has replaced Super Why as her show of choice.

Maybe Anna was a disco queen in a former life...

And We're Back...So Obviously We Made It...

We are now back at home after a very fun, albeit eventful trip to Cape Cod. To close the loose ends on the post below, we were reunited with our bags (they actually made it out on the only Cape Air flight that left on Friday and ended up arriving at Jason's parents before we did, thank goodness...)

We were greeted at the Bergstrom's by Grammy, clad in several beaded necklaces, which quickly became Anna's coveted items for the weekend. Rarely was she seen without her "cecklaces". One night, she woke up and was fit-to-be-tied until we gave her the necklaces (I removed them once she was fast asleep again...).


Much to our benefit, the weather decided to do a complete 180 and we had a string of gorgeous, sunshiny days. Perfect beach weather - and we spent our fair share of time on the sand. I love New England beaches because there always seems to be a breeze to help stave off the heat. It's the kind of weather where you can be comfortable in your bathing suit, or in a light sweatshirt, depending on if you are feeling hot- or cold-blooded that day.

The Bergstrom cousins also were up for the weekend and Anna really loves to hang around Olivia, Lars and Ty. She can't always keep up with them, but she tries. Although she could give them a run for their money in a popsicle eating contest...

Gangster Anna with Lars & Ty

For the 4th we had a lobster cookout and Anna donned her lobster eating outfit for the occasion. We went with FaFa to pick up the creatures - being a "local", he gets them straight from the lobsterman himself and they were fresh off the boat, literally, as they had been caught that morning around 4 a.m. or so. Anna didn't show too much interest in actually eating the lobsters. But she did enjoy the S'mores after dinner.





We also got to spend time with Jason's cousin Jimmy, his wife Lynn and thier kids Patrick, Ethan and Lily who were visiting from Michigan. We hadn't seen them in over five years and it was a shock to see how much their kids had grown. Lily, who was three last time we saw her, is now eight and was a real sweetheart with Anna. She helped me put Anna to bed and volunteered to read the bedtime stories. I think Anna enjoyed a new narrator.

We were scheduled to come back to Atlanta on Monday morning, but as the saying goes, the best laid plans...on Sunday night I was struck with an awful stomach bug and was not fit to travel on Monday. So, we got to spend an extra day on the Cape. Unfortunately I spent it mainly sleeping and hoping that I would feel normal again at some point. Jason and Anna had fun, though, and visited the Truro lighthouse and watched boats go in and out of the harbor. I forgot to put the camera in the bag for that outing...boo!

We made it back safe and sound this morning. So, even though the travel gurus were out to get us on this trip, we didn't let them spoil our fun. It was a great 4th of July!

We'll Get There Eventually...We Think

We had a crazy travel day yesterday and I wanted to document it for the books. We travel a fair amount and have been blessed by the travel powers that be. Until yesterday...

We were headed to Truro on Cape Cod to visit Jason's parents. This requires a flight to Boston and then a 2.5 hour drive 3 or a 15 minute flight (think the TV show Wings - planes where they ask you how much you weigh when you get on and then direct you to a seat to even out the weight).

We have opted for the puddle jumper for the last 6 years and have had nearly no issues. The one thing that kills the litle flights, however, is rain and fog and Boston has been having a tough go of weather recently. So, we found ourselves stranded in Boston last night, staying at the airport Hilton.

To add further joy to the unplanned layover, neither Delta nor Cape Air could locate our bags. And, of course I broke the cardinal "when traveling with a baby be sure to stock your diaper bag with a change of clothes and enough supplies to make it through one night in the event of an unexpected delay" rule...which meant we had to buy Anna a t-shirt from the hotel gift shop for PJs (and being from the gift shop we got it for the bargain price of $18.50). Luckily I did pack plenty of diapers.

I washed her dress in the bathroom sink to remove the numerous ketchup spots from dinner and hoped it would be dry by morning. Which of course it wasn't (but it was spotless!)...so, she got to enjoy breakfast in her new Red Sox shirt. Oh, and she didn't have any shoes on either because somehow we managed to lose them in our hotel room. Needless to say we got several funny looks from the other diners in the restaurant.

Upon waking, the fog looked no better this morning so we called Cape Air to see if they were flying today. The response - "We're flying but all of our flights are delayed indefinitely." Translation - "If you want to get to Cape Cod you best find yourself a car and put the pedal to the metal."

So, that's how we've found ourselves on Route 3 in a lovely rental car with fingers crossed that the bridge traffic won't be too terrible (actually, our fingers and toes are crossed).

We're keeping our chins up and looking at this as a funny adventure - it's the only way to maintain sanity at this point.

Oh, and we found Anna's shoes - she had put them in the hotel bathroom's trash can. I guess that's as good a pace as any for safekeeping. They, along with the bloomers for her dress, were buried under dirty diapers, wipes and other trash.

At least we found them...here's hoping our bags surface somewhere!