The Cape: Day 1 & 2

Over the Fourth of July, our little family went to Cape Cod to visit my sisters!  My oldest sister, Natalie, married into a family that has a beach house right on the water in Cataumet, Massachusetts.   I drove the kids the whole way by myself!  I don't think I had ever done more than 3 hours consecutively (possibly less) with the kids and PC not there to help me.  Well, we did it.  All 9 hours.  I will admit, we stopped at the Providence, Rhode Island airport to pick up my mom but the remainder of the drive was only an hour (though I was grateful for the adult conversation :)).  As a funny side note, I planned to stop 2-3 times for the kids before I got to the airport, but I only ended up stopping once for gas, because the kids were totally fine in the car.  I couldn't believe it.  So, we got to the airport TWO HOURS EARLY.  Now this wouldn't have been that big of a deal except this particular airport is    tiny   .  We explored and discovered the 1/4 mile skywalk.  The kids loved running with and against the moving sidewalks.  A very long two hours later, Grandma (or Tramma as K1 says) arrived. 

We were all relieved when we got there!  The house is so inviting and I love the little details that give it such charm.

Anyhoo, we settled in, put the kids to bed and chatted the evening away.

All the kiddos "helping"Jamie with the boat.  He was so good with them the whole  time.  K1 really took to Jamie. 

 The next morning, my other sister, Libby and her husband, Jay and their two kids "the frog" and "peach" arrived. After the hubbub of lunch and naps, uncle James prepped the motor boat so we could all head over to Bassets Island for an hour or so.  

 Sister and Peach suited, life jacketed and sunblocked.  Sister is under the impression that Coconut, her doggie, is coming too.

Sister was not a happy camper on the boat ride over.  She HATED her life jacket.  No surprise there by how crammed she looks.  As soon as we touched land, the life vest came off and all was well again.  K1 decided to stay in the boat with Jamie to go back and grab everyone else.

Sister happily chose a bucket and set to work picking up shells.

The arrivals.  

K1 is sitting on the floor of the boat with the orange hat.  Turns out that he was having a snack of applesauce and using the plank seat as a table.  Too cute.

My sister Libby said, "Like mother, like daughter''.  Sister and I seem to have a few pictures surrounding this concept.

Finishing the applesauce :)

My mom and sister Natalie being their cute selves.

Mom and I in our sunhats

Uncle Jamie and cousin L disappeared down the beach and came back looking like this!  This particular plant is called witches fingers.  I was too creeped out to touch the slimy stuff.

We crammed everyone in the motor boat for the ride back and hoped the water police wouldn't pull us over because all the adults didn't have life jackets (oops) but everyone just wanted to get home, so we risked it...and lived!

This particular evening we did a lobster bake!  Now, I'm aware that I'm a seafood Philistine (I blame it on my Utah, inland upbringing) and I was very excited to eat the insect looking crustacean but by the time I got to eat my food (I was putting a fussy sister to bed [we ate late]), the lobster was cold and so was my butter (and sadly this house does not possess a microwave).  I was getting sick cracking open the sucker.  Once I saw the green poo...I was done.  Sigh... maybe someday I will come to love every kind of seafood.  

We did however have mussels as an appetizer and I did like those!

I love this picture of my mom spooning food into my sister's mouth for a taste test.  This is so my family.  Cooking together and (in this particular case) my mom making up a yummy salad dressing.

We fed the kids first and then let them watch something so we could cook and eat in peace. :)

Apparently this is proper presentation for a lobster.  Just looks like he's doing gymnastics to me.  Like I said, seafood philistine. 

We all (the men included) ended the evening with steaming face baths.  I had never done one of these before, but they feel so nice.  Natalie added several yummy smelling essential oils to the water.  My family cracks me up.  What a day!