Preparing myself...

I'm sure I'll get a whole lotta crap for this comment considering the summer we've had, but holy hell is was too hot today! I felt like a slug all day long dragging myself through the day. I was extra cranky and felt like I needed a shower every 10 minutes! I give you all permission to remind me of this when I'm bitching about the digger I took on the 4 inches of ice we'll most likely be dealing next winter....but for the moment I'm thinking central air may be the next project! Or at least an option in the next house...

Arbonne Q&A

Erin has a good friend who is a direct sales rep for Arbonne. I had planned on attending the party for the snacks only; having been to many of these "parties" over the years from Silpada to Mary Kay and so on and being fairly unimpressed. However, I have to say I found this meeting chalk full of information. There is always that bit of car salesmen stuff going on, but this rep was not pushy at all and she had some great information. I am forever looking for the product that clears up my oily prone to breakouts skin and have been since I was a teenager. I had found some success with Proactive over the past couple of years but in recent months I felt that I wasn't getting the results from it that I had gotten in the beginning. My pores feel extra clogged and my skin feels bumpy. She was informing me about the latest complaints of Proactiv being just that; that the product opens up the pores so wide in the begining to flush out the impurities but does not shrink them back resulting in quick positive results, but overall wide open clogged pores. Ugh! She was also talking alot about the Arbonne products being animal and animal byproduct free and talked about what that means. Just because its not tested on animals doesn't mean that most companies haven't used "parts" of animals to help create their product. All in all I was impressed by the presentation and hopefully the product once my order arrives. I know that some of us (me) are quick to bash a product or system and not always give praise when its due, so here's my good deed for the day. Go Arbonne! (until my skin doesn't respond and I'm pissed off)

That's a Big Tuna!

Fiesta, Feshta, Feast...

..call it what you will, but the truth of the matter is that the Fiesta is the greatest 3 days a year to happen to East Taunton. I'll admit that when I first starting dating Matt and he and his family talked about the coming of the Fiesta as if it were the coming of The President; I just didn't get it. I mean, it's not like Thanksgiving eve at Condon's, right? WRONG! Almost 7 years deep and now I get it. When I see the signs going up that the dates have been set for the 3 day party I can begin to taste the marinated pork sandwiches and hear the Portuguese music in my head. Now there is another generation of Feshta lovers in town, my son and his friends! Lulu talks about the worries the Feast brings to the parents when the kids are old enough to venture out for the 3 day bender, waiting patiently by the police scanner to make sure the Dutra or Grady names aren't being called. I do see this in my future, however, I love ever minute of the excitement the Fiesta brings to the town and our family. Of course my wallet would disagree, but hell its only 1 weekend out of the year.

Kyle saw the lights and rides going up in the days prior and was so excited I don't think that there is a word to describe it. Auntie Erin also lives for the Fiesta and we all played into his excitement. We kicked off Friday night with Auntie Erin and Kyle rode every ride he could time and time and time again with the same laugh and smile every time as if it was his 1st ride. He especially loved the dragon roller coaster. He's just like his mommy loving the rides! I have a future adrenalin seeker to try out the biggest roller coasters with me that we can find and I can't wait!

Saturday Matt, Ky and I took a boat ride, did some fishing and anchored up to the beach in Onset. We topped off the day with round 2 of the Feast! Another great night of games, rides, sandwiches and dancing. We were joined by Kallie and Kara to add to our fun. Matt cooked meat on a stick over the fire pit and caught up with some old friends.

Sunday we spent the day in West Island and I got to meet a lot of the Seekell family (Matt's grandmother's side) who'd come up from Florida for a reunion. Delicious stuffed Quahogs and Quahog chowda, sitting in the sun on the beach and watching Kyle ham it up for the family who've never met him. We finished off the day by hitting the Fiesta for the final night and met up with The Mitchell family so Kyle had a chance to ride all the rides and play the games with his favorite little girls. They are too adorable and of course that day I didn't have my camera with me. Auntie Erin, Uncle Eddy, Uncle Benny were all there and we ended the long, tiring, fun weekend with a bang. We were on 1st name basis with many of the carnies (who I personally love talking too) and even got a few free runs through the fun house for the kids while we chatted. Uncle Eddy made a run to Drunkin Donuts for us all and we had lots of laughs.

Needless to say, Kyle had a great weekend. The Fiesta proved to be everything and more than what he was hoping for and the 11pm bedtime for 3 nights in a row proved tiring for us all. He woke up Monday morning and literally the 1st words from his mouth were "Can we go to the Fiesta?" He took it pretty hard to find out that the 3 days were up and we'd have to wait an entire year before seeing the Feast again. So, I drove to NH and we spent the day with his Aunties and cousins at Canobie Lake! LOL

Fun house
Kallie on the swings

more prizes ( I think he ended up with 11 total)

Auntie Erin, my partner in crime

purple monkey, that funky monkey

Uncle Eddy contributed to many of the 11 prizes won

Kyle and his cousins

Sharkin' 09

We took a crew shark fishing last night for the 1st time in a long time. I pretty sure we haven't been since before Kyle was born, well I don't think I have. There is a great spot on a beach in the cape that has some small shark activity this time of year and we used to be able to set up right near the parking lot but many people have discovered the spot and last night we had to walk about 5 thousand miles....ok, maybe 200 yrds but dragging a ton of stuff and with kids...it felt like about 5 thousand miles. Destination found, camp set up and then we wait. And eat. And wait. And dance. And wait. And SHARK!!!!!

camp wind a lot
A really cute pic that I can't get to turn for some reason!

Benny and his jets

1st catch

"he's gonna crab ya!"

"weirdo and Kyle :)"

Blanket

Benny's shark!

wondering where in the sam hell she is

why Matt needs a pic of her teeth up close, I'll never know

she was tagged and set free (insert song here "Born free")

Cleaning the house is over-rated

The famed and much needed right hand pointer finger is out of commission. It was injured in a window cleaning accident. *WARNING - DO NOT CLEAN YOUR WINDOWS A window lost its spring today just in time to land directly on my finger. It &**^% hurt! I walked in circles for a few minutes wondering if this was really worthy of an ER trip...I mean its just a finger, right? Then I looked down at it and watched it swell to twice its size in about 30 seconds. I tried the Dr. 1st who was on lunch. Doesn't she know I just smashed my finger, who goes to lunch? So, I'll try an urgent care clinic, all they'll do is wrap it up and call it a day. Well, they needed a referral from the out to lunch Dr. GD it! Hi Ho, its off to the ER I go. Papa Dan was my chauffeur and there was not 1 single person in the ER, yippee! They x-rayed my finger determined its just crushed not broken and sent me home all wrapped up. Looks like I won't be cleaning for a while (snicker, snicker)!

Papparazzi?

Nana Cill and I took Kyle into Boston for the day and we had a great time. This video clip kills me of him on the train...clearly had already had enough of being filmed. I think he'll be OK when telling the paps to back off!

Poor puppy dog

My Loco is pretty accident prone and loves a good squirrel chase. She chases a squirrel around the yard and puts it up a tree like its her job....I think she believes its her job too. Well, while doing her "job" tonight she chased one straight under Matt's truck and because the door was open she caught her back on the corner of the open door, ripping a GIANT chunk off her back about 2x2 to the muscle. Pretty gross, I'll spare you the pictures. We tried some home remedy stuff, butterfly sutchers and such but it looks like good ol' Loco-rado will be headed to the vet tomorrow for some stitches and my wallet will not be pleased I'm sure. Anything for our beloved animals!

The Grady's do Storyland

The power of the secret couldn't ignore my calls when I begged for sun in the middle of this rainy summer. I know, I'm sick of hearing about it too, but we've only had 1 beach day! Anyhow, we headed up early on Friday to beat traffic and stopped for lunch at The Common Man which was a cool little place to eat and check out old time comic books and magazines they had for sale. Then we drove the Kangamangas Highway and looked for Moose the whole time. The rain and clouds we still ever present but I continued my chant "please be sunny tomorrow" When we reached the "resort" I was quickly reminded that Attitash is very much geared towards the winter months. I wasn't disgusted, but I wasn't pumped that our bed came out of the wall?! Anyhow, we headed for the pool, it was drizzly out and chilly, but the pool was a nice heated 80 degrees and we had fun. After our swim we headed into North Conway for some dinner and ice cream and hit the hay early in preparation for a long following day. Kyle was very excited about the crib they put in our room for him, it was a bit old fashioned but it was a roll away crib that he insisted on calling his "crate"! He was ask to hang out in his crate, so we let him! LOL

Saturday morning arrived and to our surprise (not really mine, because I knew the law of attraction was on my side) it was a beautiful sunny day! It didn't rain once all day and we could enjoy Storyland to its fullest and even hit up the Alpine slides in the afternoon. Kyle was very tired and in rare form by the time we headed back for dinner but he had a blast. Of course Sunday morning (father's day) we woke up to ...wait for it....wait for it... RAIN! We packed up early and head back to Ma. to enjoy the rain in the comfort of our town :)

Alpine slides (side note, he had to ride a chair lift to the top and did it twice with no fear)

He couldn't really get any great bounce, but he had fun anyway


*the crate!

cool pic

Big bad wolf doesn't scare him!

He talked about this Humpty Dumpty for days, it and the Polar Coaster were his favs

Moooooo. This thing was milkable?! Oh yeah, he milked it too.

Tracker ride after ice cream

my handsome guys


"look ma, no hands!"

4th of July Festivities

Kath and Adam hosted a rockin' good time at their beautiful home in Pembroke. Kyle of course enjoyed himself playing with Hannah and Bo especially. At one point Matt and I looked at each other and Kyle was saying "Mom, I'm going to play with Hannah" and he ran off to play. That's the 1st time he's just busted out on his own at a party while Matt and I hung back and played the bag toss gamey thing. It was cool and also another reminder of how quickly he's growing up. Soon I'll be busting him sneaking beers and shotgunning them behind the cars! Aye aye aye!

The 3rd of July we packed up 2 carloads of kids (and adults) and hit the Assonet fireworks. Matt always has a way of finding a great viewing spot FAR from the crowds of people!

Coming soon....

....MANY pictures....our trip to Storyland, Canobie Lake, the Fiesta weekend, Boston with Nana Cill and more....I figure if I put this out there then I have to get to posting soon right?! This summer started out a drag with all the rain and now I feel like we've been running ragged for a mother straight! Having a great summer, finding little time to sleep and blog, my two favorite things. Be back soon, we are off to run errands ( much need grocery shopping, blaaahh, Farmer's market and hit up the playground!

I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat....

We took Kyle out on the boat today to do some fishing. It was a little windy and rough but he did great. We put the boat in the water in Wareham and went looking for some Fluke fish.....as you can imagine Kyle's attention span is a bit short, especially when the fishing wasn't great. So we took the boat over to Onset beach and tied up to the marina there. Kyle made friends with a little girl named Josephine (who he told was his cats name) and they were so cute! At one point she said to him "can you fill my watering can?" and Kyle trotted down to the water per her request like a good little boyfriend! We all got a good laugh. After a couple hours on the beach we got back in the boat to head back to the ramp and about 10 minutes in I look down and Kyle's ASLEEP! Only a 2 (almost 3) year old could konk out on a choppy boat ride. He snoozed until we got home and he swam with his best friends KK & Kallie in the yard. And now we are getting ready for night 2 of the "Fiesta!"