It's been a long few weeks!

Well, we had our vacation a few weeks ago in New Hampshire, came home, then it all went downhill from there!

Mark (Daddy) ended up getting pretty sick, (more sick than I've ever seen him!) and it lasted almost 2 weeks!  Then midway through him being sick, I ended up sick with the same thing!  It's been a very long month.  I'm still not 100% yet, but I'm on my way!  Thankfully, Jack managed to come out of this with nothing...hopefully it stays this way.  But, now that I am thinking about it, he was actually sick FIRST!   He had a stomach bug and fever, where Mark and I had an incredibly horrible sore throat, coughing and a fever. 

Anyway, I've been trying to sneak in a few little day trips with Jack to keep him busy.  These are some of our highlights...

We've managed to find a couple of  'cool enough' days to play outside on the playscape!!  And on the really hot days, we've done a couple of crafts!

We've celebrate 4th of July with some sparklers and a fireworks show!

We went to the Connecticut River to watch the boats go by...although we were hoping to try out the ferry!  (It was closed!)  And of course, we spent some time with Jacks cousin Riley!!

We've played some baseball in the yard.....

.....and did some exploring!!

We went down to Hopeville Pond State Park and played in the water...

....and took some time to splash each other after Daddy tried to teach Jack to swim!

And yesterday, we went to the Westbrook Carnival!  Jack got to ride in the front of a real fire truck around town, he rode a ferris wheel and carousel for the first time, and rode on all of the other kids rides too!

Well, I hope that you enjoyed our little photo album of our fun these last few weeks!!  Check back soon for more fun adventures!!

Momma's got a new toy!!

There's good news, and there is bad news.....

The bad news is, my camera messed up another memory card and I lost about 100 pictures.  The good news (really good news) is Mark was planning on getting me a Canon Digital SLR camera for my birthday in November, and decided that an early birthday present would be a good idea!!  I am a very happy lady!!  Of course, it's a fancier camera than I am used to, and at this point, I have only figured out how to take pictures on the 'automatic' setting...I have A LOT of learning to do!!    By the way....I love you Mark!! 

The funny thing is, on Thursday, the day my camera was delivered, it was actually Marks birthday!!  So my first pictures are of Mark and Jack with his birthday cupcake!  (We are celebrating with a real cake today - Saturday!)

Jack was very excited for Daddys birthday...he even came up with the idea for presents for him.   He said, "We NEED to get Daddy a book on hunting and a jiu jitsu book!!"  So off to Borders we went and Jack picked out some really nice books. We also found him a "Rocky" t-shirt and got him a Cabellas Gift card to help out with his upcoming project:  The man cave.  (Marks tough guy room!)

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We've spent some time down at Hopeville Pond State Park too over the last few days.  We went with Auntie Scoot and Riley to play in the sand and water.....

....and we also went fishing there with Daddy last night!!

Jack and Daddy caught a few crappies!

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Jack and I also went geocaching....although didn't have too much luck.  I did, however, get this really cute shot of Jack walking behind me as we were leaving the woods....

I looked back as we were walking and saw him like this...it looked so cute, but I knew if I stopped and turned around, he would have looked up and I wouldn't have been able to capture this moment.  So I took a 'one in a million' chance.  I held the camera at my side while I was walking, without even seeing where it was aiming, and I pushed the button.  Just once.  It came out exactly how I was hoping!! 

I also took a few pictures of random flowers just for fun:

Poor Jack is going to have to get used to me always stopping to take a picture....

Well, off to get ready for hubbys birthday party....have a great weekend!!

Another beautiful day!

Today Jack woke up complaining of a stomachache and coughing.  He never mentioned the stomach part again for the rest of the day, but he was coughing on and off.  We didn't make it to our playdate this morning, I just wanted to make sure that Jack wasn't going to be sick.  After a little while of relaxing at home, we decided to head out for some fresh air. 

We met up with Kathy and Riley again at Hammonasset Beach for a walk and a little geocaching!  We found one, then for some reason, my phone was getting no network coverage, so I wasn't able to find any more there! 

Jack and I both spotted this one at the same time pretty quickly!  Jack found a couple of 'finger skateboards' that he took, and we put in a deck of game cards for the next person to find!

We walked around a little bit more, then headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream!  We then headed to a candy store over at the outlet mall across the street.  Auntie Scoot told Jack that he could choose anything in the store and she'd buy it for him....of all things, he chose a tube of mini M&M's!  Then he spotted the gummy candy bins and decided that 'Daddy' needed to have some of those!!  (Something tells me he was thinking more for himself!)  He chose some octopus gummies, army guys, frogs, worms, and eggs....hmmm, just what Daddy likes!  :)
As we were walking around the outlet mall, we kept running into those 50 cent 'rides' outside of the stores...Auntie Scoot really spoiled Jack today, she decided that he needed to ride just about every one we came across!!  (Almost like going to an amusement park she said!)
He loved every minute of it...of course, I am going to have to convince him that we can't do that EVERY time we go someplace!

Jack and I headed back home, but made a quick stop at another geocache in Old Saybrook!  This one was rated as an easy one, so I figured we could grab it and get home to see Daddy!

It was at a very beautiful park that was built on a landfill....unfortunately, it smelled pretty bad....I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer heat! 

It really was a nice spot with benches that overlook the marsh and water....maybe we just caught it on a bad day, who knows!

It was a great time of day to be there, the sun was just setting!

This was the first cache that Jack actually found 100% on his own!  We sometimes will lead Jack into the right area if we spot it first, but let him think he is finding it....but this time, I was reading a plaque at the park and all of a sudden Jack yells "Momma!!!!  I found the hidden box!!!!!!'

He was so excited!!  We popped it open and he found a Thomas the Train luggage tag!  He took that and we left a travel game for the next people to find!

It was a great day!!

(and thanks again to Auntie Scoot and Riley for the spoiling today!)

Hammonasset Beach and postcards!!

Today Jack and I met my sister Kathy and my niece at Hammonasset Beach in Madison!  I haven't been there in so long!  My husband and I used to go there when we lived down on the shoreline.  We took a whole bunch of pictures, found a geocache, then went to Friendly's for ice cream!

Jack loves the beach!!

Another great thing that happened today?  We got tons of postcards!! 

Check out our other blog for some great pictures of all of our postcards:

http://www.jacksmom726-postcrossing.blogspot.com/

A beautiful March day!

Today Jack and I headed to our Meetup.com group for a playdate!  Jack loves getting together with all of his friends and I like the opportunity to chat with the other moms! 
When we left, it felt like summer outside!  Well, it was really only about 48 degrees, but compared to the long cold winter we've had, it seemed so warm!  (besides, the sun was really shining for the first time in well over a week!)

We decided to head down to Clinton, to meet my sister and my niece at Clinton Beach!  Jack had a blast...there is a new playground with HUGE slides, a nice walking trail to a gazebo, and of course, the nice beach to walk along!  Did I mention there was a geocache there?  Woo hoo!

Here are a bunch of pictures from our time there:

This is my niece Riley and my sister Kathy!

This last picture is of Jack at the geocache...nice, easy find!!

Childrens Museum!

Jack and I decided to go to the Childrens Museum in Niantic today...couldn't think of anything better on a VERY cold, windy day like today!

The last time we were there, Jack was just learning to walk, so this time was a lot more fun! Besides, they just added a few new things to do...why not check it out!?! My sister Kathy and niece Riley met up with us there too!

Jack loved combing for clams at the 'beach'. This is probably the closest we'll be to going to a beach for at least the next 3 months! At least you could pretend it was warm with the sun shining in through the window!

He couldn't wait to get up into the top lookout on the fishing ship!! You could almost see the whole museum from up there!!

He got to try on a kimono to 'cook up' some Chinese food for me...too bad it wasn't real food, I was getting pretty hungry, and honestly, pork fried rice sounded really good!

We also had to grab a picture of Jack and Riley on the ship together and one of me and Jack together. (Kathy wanted nothing to do with getting her picture taken!)

Jack also enjoyed being the weatherman for a little while. At home, he usually wakes up, heads to the window, and (lately) either says: "Momma, it's still snowing outside" or "Momma, is it summertime yet?? I see the sun!"

A few more months buddy.....


....It won't be long before we can listen to the waves outside!!