Summer Road Trip Part II - Made it to the Cape

So the primary destination of our trip was Brewster, Massachusetts where we would get to have another great Cape Cod vacation.  Once we made it to the house we wasted little time in putting on our bathing suits and heading down to the bay beach.  The girls could not wait to see the water and we were excited to know that at least for six days we were going to be spending relatively little time in the car.

The sun was shining, the water was warm, and all four of us were in good spirits.  We spent an hour or two wading in the water, checking out the hermit crabs, and talking about what we wanted to do that week.  It seemed very hard to believe that it had been two years since we had last rented a place in Brewster.  But we all seemed to acclimate to Cape Cod life quickly.

We benefited from the poor weather of the previous days because the fireworks show had been postponed to Sunday night and we got to check out the show at Rock Harbor.  The girls dressed for the occasion and were excited to check out their first real fireworks display.  It was crowded, loud, and a bit windy, but we think they enjoyed it.  What frightened them was the quick spreading fire that occurred on the dunes in the middle of the harbor caused by flying embers from the fireworks.  It certainly made for an exciting end to the show.

We got to Brewster on Sunday and the very next day were joined by Aunt Suzy, Uncle Brian, and Zoey, who also decided to extend a visit out east by joining us for the week.  Callie and Reese could not have been more excited to see Zoey and to spend the entire week with all three of their Colorado relatives.  Low tide fit perfectly into our daily schedule and enabled us all to create some pretty impressive castles, pools, and other vague structures.

The Colorado crew certainly brought their A game when it came to activities, as they always do, and Callie was ready to throw a ball to Aunt Suzy or have a water squirting battle with Uncle Brian at a moment's notice.  Suzy and Brian make us feel like we are a bit lazy when it comes to engaging with our children, but we then just realized that the two of them simply seldom stop moving themselves.  We want to blame it on the fact that they train in high altitude in Colorado, but it might be that they are just simply fit and friendly.

On the first night we were all together we took a walk to have dinner at the The Starvin' Marlin, which, surprisingly enough, had very little seafood on the menu.  In any case, there were a few great spots for photos along the way, and we could not resist putting the girls in the fields of flowers for a picturesque cousin montage.  It is harder than you may think to get all three girls to smile and look at the camera at once.  It's still a cute picture, though.

It was not hard, however, to get the girls to play together.  They absolutely loved being able to run around and be crazy.  Because we were under the same roof, from the moment they woke up to the moment they went to bed they were excited to be with each other.  Reese in particular was happy to not be the youngest and both Callie and Reese enjoyed teaching Zoey everything that they knew.

We were happy to see that the girls easily integrated Zoey into their normal play routines and there never was any bickering over who got to play with Zoey because they were all playing together.  It was quite neat how the girls would go easily from one scenario to another where two would be playing together than the third would jump in and then another would drift out.  Just a great time overall.

Because Zoey takes naps in the afternoons we got the loud people out of the house and tried out some things we hadn't had the chance to do yet.  One day that meant we rented bikes and hopped on the fantastic Cape Cod Rail Trail, which was less than a mile from our rental house.  All the Bowes girls loved their first adventure on the trail.  John used to spend hours with his Dad and by himself when he was growing up, so it was fun to share that experience as a family.

One of the most amazing things happened when we stopped for lunch just after we crossed into Harwich.  There was a cute pond, a nice picnic table, and all was set for a nice rest.  Then Callie said, "Hey, I just saw Sophie!"  She explained that Sophie went to her school back in Lexington.  We smiled sweetly, knowing this was impossible.  Then, however, we were proven wrong a couple minutes later when Sophie and her mom pulled up on their bike.  They had come back because Sophie had spotted Callie and her mother had had the same reaction we did.  So there we were, nearly 1000 miles from Lexington, having a great chat with some folks who live right around the corner.  It is a small world.

So Sarah and Callie rode a tandem bike, and while it took a little while to get used to the feel of it, Sarah was soon comfortable enough to bike and take pictures.  Of course when you bike and take pictures, you don't always get them right side up.  Such is life.  Callie had a blast riding the bike and smiling for the camera.

Of course no trip to the Cape is complete without a whale watch.  However, this particular trip may have spoiled us for whale watching forever.  No joke, the naturalist estimated that we saw three dozen humpback whales by the time we were done.  And most of those sightings came while the whales were bubble net feeding, which is so unbelievably awesome to see.  At one point it did not matter where you were on the boat because you had humpbacks feeding in front of you.  We were literally (and yes, we do know what literally means) surrounded by whales.  Did we mention it was awesome?

Because our house was less than a half mile from the bay we got in some good beach time in every day.  It certainly helped that the weather was amazing the entire time we were there.  It rained one night when we were sleeping, and that was it.  So we spent many hours playing in the sand and the calm, warm, water of Cape Cod bay.  Tough to beat.

On Callie's last day of kindergarten, her teacher Mrs. Bradley gave each kid a baggie of goodies which contained several things, including a beach ball.  Mrs. Bradley said it was given to ensure each kid would have a ball over the summer.  Callie wanted to make sure we took it to Cape Cod and we took this picture to show Mrs. Bradley that we were indeed having a ball.  Thanks Mrs. Bradley!

This picture is one of the best ones we have that captures the spirit of Reese and how much she enjoys playing in water.  She would crouch down and jump up like she was going to be able to get completely out of the bay.  We had to constantly keep an eye on her because she had more confidence than she should have in her ability to survive in such conditions.  We really need to get this one some swimming lessons sooner rather than later.

Another outing undertaken while Zoey was napping brought us to downtown Chatham where we visited the fishing pier and the candy shop.  Guess which one the girls liked more?  Here Reese holds a gummy shark, something that has a lot more meaning in Chatham over the past couple of years because great white sharks have been spotted off the coast, drawn in most likely by the growing number of seals hanging around the fishing pier.

Although we did not see any sharks, we did see the seals at the pier that a great white might find appealing.  Callie, on the other hand, went for the more traditional gummy worm.  The girls loved getting their bags of candy and we enjoyed walking around and checking out the different stores in the cute downtown area.  No doubt we will be back there the next time we are on the Cape.

On our first family vacation to Cape Cod two years ago we met up with the Skonieczny's to watch the sun set one night.  Sarah capture a great picture of John and Reese with the sun setting in the background.  We loved that picture so much that we decided to try and recreate it.  Reese has definitely grown a bit in those two years, but she is as cute as ever.

The girls had a great time running around on the beach as we waited for the sun to set, and they posed for a variety of pictures, which their parents greatly appreciated.  Truth be told we all ran around a little bit to stay one step ahead of the thousands of little insects that were apparently having a big old party down by the water.  It was a bit brutal, but somehow we managed to survive.

Fortunately we were not the only ones at the beach that night, and we were able to have one of the other families take a group picture for us.

Everyone got into the fun except for Zoey, who thought we were all a little crazy.  And she is right.

One of the other great things about having the Hannens there was that Suzy and John were able to relive some of their childhood memories when they went to Cape Cod.  Here we see the two of them racing to see who will dive into the water first at Seymour Pond right along the Bike Trail.  Reese and Zoey could only look in awe at the majesty of the moment.

Our last night together on the Cape we made our way to the ocean side and checked out the sights at Nauset Light Beach.  It was a beautiful night and the water was unbelievably warm.  Even Sarah was able to stick her feet in it without flinching.  It was hard not to take advantage of the empty life guard stands for yet another cousin picture.  At this point they were used to the drill and knew exactly what to do to get us off their backs.

Reese in particular loved this excursion and could not get enough of the ocean.  You probably can't tell from this picture but her skirt and shirt were soaking wet because she kept getting closer and closer to the waves as they came crashing in.  The giggling that greeted every wave was so much fun to see.  Callie also had a great time doing cartwheels in the water and just soaking in the moment.

Although Zoey preferred to take on the waves in the comfort of her mother's arms, she also had a lot of fun at the beach.  We really felt lucky to spend a whole week with them because we got a chance to get to know Zoey much better and she was able to get a lot more comfortable with us.  A good time was definitely had by all.

It was hard to believe that we had just about reached the end of the week.  None of us wanted to leave the beach that night, especially Callie.  But one good thing is that this visit continued our streak of eight straight days seeing the Atlantic Ocean, which is a very big deal from those of us who reside in a landlocked state.


Whether we wanted to admit or not, when Saturday morning arrived it was time for us to say goodbye to our cute house on Point of Rocks Road.  It certainly treated us well and Brewster once again proved to be a fantastic destination.

But our adventure was still far from over.  The next stop was Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Summer Road Trip Part I - Tour of Friends

After years of only traveling by plane we decided to tackle this summer's vacation via the open road.  Or at least it was open in West Virginia - I-95 in Connecticut is a whole different story.  Thank goodness we got some sound advice from friends to ignore the guilt and plug the kids in for the duration of the trip.  This explains the set ups you see in this picture - a DVD player for every child, that's our motto.

This was a vacation with many destinations.  On our way through New York we stopped and had a brief visit and a tasty ice cream with Neil, Karen, Alon, and Sonia.  Unfortunately our visits with the Pederson-Ross family always seem too short, but it was good to catch up with them and meet Sonia.  But we had to be on our way for our first pool party at the Skonieczny's in Madison.  Mike, Kristen, Ella, Eli, and Ethan were generous enough to host a big gathering that included many of our favorite people, including Aunt Katie and Brendan who joined us in the pool.

The girls didn't take long too warm up to the Skonieczny kids, which just warms Mike and John's hearts.  We weren't going to be able to spend our week on the Cape with them, but we were lucky to get the chance to play with them while we were in town.  Hopefully the next time we venture to Cape Cod we can arrange to have them out there as well.

The pool party also brought out the Loeber and Zanardi clans which meant we got see Bo, who is getting so big and very talented off the diving board, and Jack, pictured here, who might possibly be the sweetest child we have ever met.  As you can see, we did our best to have Reese spend a lot of time with Jack.  If nothing else, we hope that Reese gets a little sweeter and Jack isn't scared off.

With two nights and one day in Madison under our belt, it was time to hit the road before the grass grew under our feet.  The next stop was Fairfield and a sleepover at the McBean residence.  We did manage to work in a quick breakfast with the Woods-Hajizadeh clan and the McBeans before we left the Shoreline.  It's always great to get the families together.  Somehow while we were in Fairfield we did not get a picture of Jackson, but managed to capture Hayden and Reese playing in the sand.  We did manage to make it to the water in between watching numerous World Cup games.  I mean you have to have priorities.

Michelle even brought out their latest toy, a paddle board that enabled both her and Sarah to take turns paddling the girls out on the Long Island Sound.  Reese and Callie had fun and they went out pretty far.  It was a gorgeous day and it would have been great to stay and see the fireworks that had been rescheduled from the night before, but already we were getting restless.  It was time to hit the road once more.

What better place to travel on the heels of the 4th of July but Lexington, Massachusetts.  Of course, our real reason for being there was to spend time with the amazing Basak family.  Unfortunately, Maya was away at sleepover camp, so we did not get to see her.  But we did get some good time in with the boys.  Anjin and Sachin are now 11 years old and now are almost taller than Una.  The boys loved having Callie and Reese around and they all spent a lot of time on the swings and on the trampoline.  And of course we can't forget the slip and slide.  It was great to see them all play together.

We were constantly on the move during our brief time with the Basaks, and even worked in a great walk along the Minuteman trail.  Amit insisted that we make note of the spot where Paul Revere was captured, among other things.  He wanted to show off the great historical landmarks to John, hoping to make it into one of his class lectures about the Revolution.

This photo definitely has a chance of getting into a Powerpoint in the not too distant future.  It's always good to show the kids in class where they can go to see these slices of American history.  What made this trip into downtown Lexington even better was the Dunkin Donuts that is conveniently located just blocks from the Minuteman statue.

We cannot say enough good things about Amit and Una.  We admire them as people and as parents and we feel extremely lucky to call them friends.  They have always opened their home to us and are just incredible with each other and with their children.  They are thoughtful in everything they do.  Amit even makes sure that every time we visit that they have smoked gouda cheese.

It has been over twenty years since John first met Amit and that friendship is one of the reasons John has such great memories of college and the years that have followed.  It is not every day that you meet someone so generous, full of life, intelligent, and sincere. He's also just as cheesy as John, which helps.  The only thing to regret is not having more time together.  Hopefully we will increase our visits to our sister-city of Lexington in the years to come.

Red, White, and Blueberry Picking

June was a big month for a number of reasons, including the conclusion of Callie's first year of kindergarten.  But just as important was the World Cup.  John spent a fair amount of time watching the games and he was excited to get the girls involved in the fun.  For the first game the U.S. played against Ghana we were invited to watch the drama with some friends down the street.

Four years ago Ghana knocked the U.S. out of the World Cup.  It just so happens that terrible loss occurred on a wonderful day, the day that Suzy and Brian were married.  Still, we were looking forward to some redemption.  John led the girls in a quick USA! chant before we headed out the door.  And in case you missed it, the U.S. beat Ghana 2-1 in an absolutely thrilling match.  Too bad the rest of the Cup didn't work out that way for our boys.

June is also when the blueberries get ripe at Reed Valley Orchard, so we packed up a picnic lunch, hopped in the car, and made our annual trip to pick some berries and consume some wonderful slushies.  It was a great day, not too sunny and not too hot.  We made sure to build up our energy for the picking ahead and then we were ready to go.

It is fun to see the girls every year as they get into the picking routine.  They certainly know the lay of the land, and each one has had the experience of picking blueberries while they were in a baby bjorn.  Although they are fully capable of walking now, they still wouldn't mind being carried around like that.  Or at least that is how we interpret Reese's whining.

Callie and Reese have become skilled blueberry pickers, but they have expanded their taste horizons and picking skills in the raspberry bushes at the orchard.  These certainly are a little bit more difficult because thorns are involved.  But this year the bushes were full of great raspberries, and both girls did a great job of getting the berry without mashing it in the process.  Wish we could say the same for us.

If you ask them what the highlight of the excursion was, though, it might be the discovery of the farm cat.  She was pretty friendly and followed us around the raspberry bushes once she realized she could get some love from the little ones.  This is when all the motivation to pick great berries came to a halt and we had to turn our minds to the reward we had earned for our efforts.

Reese really enjoyed her slushy.  The smile says it all, doesn't it.  She smiles a lot for pictures, but you may have noticed that she has developed a kind of canned smile.  This one here is the real deal, and it captures the joy and energy she brings to our lives.

This picture is both good and bad.  It is good because it similarly captures Callie in a joyful moment, sitting on the porch at the orchard and indulging in the slushy.  Yet it is bad, because it makes it clear that Callie is growing up and getting older.  As much as we would like to keep her as our little girl, we cannot ignore the fact that she is maturing in leaps and bounds.

The Zoo with Grammy

By the time this picture was taken Grammy had already been here for a week, and she had spent a lot of that time playing with the girls, feeding them, and getting them to and from Music and Arts Camp.  

However, with the success of the girls' recital and music performance the time had come to celebrate with a trip to the Louisville Zoo before we took Grammy to the airport so she could fly back to California and get some rest.

This was not our first time at the Louisville Zoo, but it is never difficult to find new things there, and the girls enjoy hanging around with both real and inanimate animals.  They also have gotten used to the fact that when we go on a trip they will be asked to pose for pictures in a variety of places and with a variety of things.  The turtle was an obvious choice for a group shot.

Callie has had six and a half years of this paparazzi treatment, so she has not only become comfortable with it, but now actively seeks out shots that will be either aesthetically pleasing or somewhat funny.  This one is certainly in the latter category.

If you have spent more than a day with Reese, you know that energy is not in short supply.  Like her sister, she also enjoys a good laugh and is willing to work with the camera if you catch her in the right mood.  This energy is also a big reason why Grammy Gayle went home exhausted.  We know the feeling.

The Louisville Zoo has a really neat carousel that they tout as one of the 40 oldest in the country, or something along those lines.  In any case, it is fun to ride and Reese and Callie were excited to get the chance to go for a spin.  It was a fun way to end a great week with Grammy.  And once we got back to Lexington, John was home and we could prepare as a family for our next adventure.

Dance, Music, and Arts

The arrival of June can mean a variety of things, but for us it now means that the time has come for the annual dance recital.  This year was a special one because Reese was going to make her debut on the Lexington Opera House stage.  And although she was a little timid during rehearsals, all signs indicated that she was ready to embrace her big moment.

Somehow Callie worked her way into Reese's class's dance number over the past five months by assisting Miss Lauren.  In the days leading up to the recital there was talk that Callie would lead the crew on stage as well.  Callie didn't get called up until the very last moment, but she was excited to be a part of the Bunny Rabbit Blues dance.  Reese loved having her big sister on hand, but she also clearly loved the spotlight.  It is going to be hard keeping her off the stage in the years to come.

This was Callie's third recital, so she has become accustomed to all that goes along with it.  And we certainly had no concerns about her willingness to do everything she needed to do.  This was a big deal because John was out of town for the recital which meant Sarah had to get both girls ready and had to manage all of the make-up and costume changes.  Thankfully, Grammy was there to assist or it could have been a disaster.

Here is Callie's class getting ready to go on for their "I See the Moon" dance.  It is amazing how much these girls have grown in the three years they have been in dance classes together.  Clearly they get along quite well.



This year's special someone dance was (to the surprise of no parent of a girl between the ages of 3 and 12) based around a song from the movie Frozen.  Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

The girls loved getting to wear their colorful winter gear for this dance in the middle of summer.  Callie got to have Grammy as her special someone and Reese got to do it with Sarah.  It is also important to note that Sarah was selected to be the parent line leader, which is an honor she took quite seriously.

And here are the girls with the woman who has made their dance class experience so wonderful.  Miss Lauren is the greatest teacher we could have asked for, especially when Callie was first starting out.  And as we have mentioned before, Reese would settle for nothing less than a class with Miss Lauren.  The girls know excellence when they see it - they also know a warm and gentle soul.

Dance recital week always seems to fall on the same week as Music and Arts Camp at church, which means there is a whole lot of singing, dancing, and commuting during that time.  Once again, Grammy saved the day and Reese made her big debut.  And like Callie's debut at Music and Arts Camp, we have very few pictures to document it.  But she claims she enjoyed the week.  The theme this year was Moses and the Freedom Fanatics.  Callie is pictured here with the bugs so artfully drawn by Caitlin.

Out of the performances we have seen over the past four years, this by far was the best.  Everyone seemed to know the songs and sang them passionately.  In this picture Callie is there along with her fellow slaves demanding freedom from Pharaoh.  Reese was a frog in the production that focused on the animal plagues as opposed to the rivers of blood.

This week was a tough one for Reese's ability to pull out the beaming smile she is more well known for.  Such is life.  We have all had weeks like that.  And truly, by the time Friday afternoon arrived the girls were exhausted and were ready to take a break from the rigors of the performing arts.