Parents and Families Weekend

This past weekend was Parents and Families weekend at NC State.That had lots of different activities planned but we were going for two things: 1. To see Peter. 2. Watch the football game.

Peter is rushing a fraternity this year.  His fraternity was hosting a cookout for the parents on Saturday afternoon. So as soon as we got to campus we headed straight to the fraternity house. One of the brother's parents were manning the grill and cooking chicken quarters. It smelled delicious but we didn't eat anything as we were going to dinner right before the game.  Since Peter's a pledge, he had to leave an hour after we got there to go set up the tailgate at the stadium. We talked to him, met some of the brothers and the other boys in his pledge class and as soon as he left, so did we.

We headed to our hotel room to check in and freshen up and then we went to an early dinner.  We tried to go to the Cheesecake Factory at 4:00 in the afternoon not expecting there to be a wait but there were so many people waiting to get in that we didn't even bother to see how long the wait was.  We headed to a Mexican restaurant instead. We wanted to make sure we go to the stadium in plenty of time because we got an email saying that they were short staffed and to expect long waits/lines to get in.  However, we got right in with no problem. 

The Wolfpack won the game and we had a great time hanging out with Peter. 

The marching band was awesome and there was a five plane flyover at the end of the National Anthem and then they circled over head and flew back over.  There were fireworks at the beginning of the game and every time they scored.  We had a really great time!

After the game we said our goodbyes and dropped Peter off at his dorm. The next morning we attended Mass at the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous inside this church - so breathtaking.  If you are ever in Raleigh, I highly recommend attending Mass there.  And the pipe organ sounded glorious.  I swear, for a minute, I felt like I was in heaven.

After Mass we had lunch with Peter and then we helped him do a few "errands" for his fraternity.  The pledges had to take flowers to the sororities they associate with so we took Peter to pick up the flowers and cards and then we dropped him off at the fraternity house.  

It was a quick trip but it was so nice to be able to spend some time with Peter.  Fall break is in two weeks and hopefully he will be home for four nights! 

We partied like we're old.

This past weekend we celebrated our Birthiversary!  

On September 9th, we celebrated 21 years of wedded bliss. And by celebrated, I mean that Dan worked all day, I did laundry and made dinner,etc. and to end the night with a bang, we watched TV before bed.  YAWN.

We're old, what can I say? 

On Friday we went to the football game.  Sarah left at half time because she and some friends wanted to go watch the cross country meet at a nearby park. At the beginning of the third quarter, Dan looked over at me and said, "This is weird. We're here but neither one of our kids is here." But we didn't care.  We enjoy a good high school football game even though our team is once again not very good.  They are improving though so there's still hope!

On Saturday I was up bright and early to make sure Sarah got out the door in time for the ACT.  The one that was near here that she was signed up for got cancelled so she had to drive to Salisbury to take it. That made her even less excited about the whole thing.

But Dan and I invited her to join us for our anniversary dinner  so that put a little pep in her step, especially when we told her we were going to Hakka Chow!

Sarah and I split the spicy salmon rolls as an appetizer.  It was really yummy!

Dan turned 55 on September 12th.  FIFTY FIVE! I continue to be shocked that I am married to such and old man! And I turned FIFTY TWO on the 13th.  I continue to be shocked that I am such an old lady!

We went out to lunch with my mom, my brother, and my uncle and went back to mom's house afterwards for cake and presents.

And that was our wild and crazy Birthiversay Weekend!

The boy came home!

We had a lovely Labor Day weekend!  On Thursday night, we watched the NC State football game on TV. Peter was extremely happy because this was his first State game as a student.  I think it was everything he hoped it would be.  The weather was gorgeous (it's finally started to cool off a little bit in NC), he attended some tailgate parties with friends before the game, and State won! 

And the best part of the whole weekend?  Peter came home!  He was worried at first that he wasn't going to be able to come home because formal rush was this weekend.  Peter wants to join a fraternity and knew that formal rush was happening all weekend and he knew he was going to have to stay for that in order to get a bid.  But, he got two bids from his first two choices earlier in the week (he had been attending informal events with them since the beginning of school). He accepted the bid to his first choice on Thursday so that meant he didn't have to stay for formal rush.  

On Fridays, Peter is done with class before lunch, so I headed to Raleigh around 9:30 and picked him up around 11:30.  Sarah had field day on Friday and got home early so the three of us went for a late lunch together.  Dan was working so he wasn't able to join us.

Sarah worked every day this weekend but thankfully is done for the summer but she wasn't around as much as I would have liked her to be.  On Friday evening we watched more college football and even more on Saturday.  Hey - it's what Peter wanted to do, so that's what we did!

We attended Mass on Saturday evening and then went out to dinner and came home and you guessed it, watched more college football. :)

On Sunday, we had lunch at mom's and then ran errands.  Dan and I went to our favorite spot, Goose and the Monkey, for a couple of drinks and then we came home and had a fire in the fire pit.  The weather was perfect for it.

Yesterday, Sarah had to finish up some homework and then headed to work. We spent some time with Peter at mom's house on the front porch and then around 4:00, we headed back to Raleigh.  Dan and I stopped for dinner in Burlington and were home a little after 9:00. 

It was a great weekend and I loved having Peter home but I already miss him. In two weeks though, we will be heading to Raleigh for Parent's Weekend so I'm looking forward to that.

We have Senior night at Bishop this week where we will go over everything Sarah needs to do for her college applications and there's a home football game. And Sarah is taking the ACT one final time on Saturday morning.  We just found out though that they cancelled at the location she was supposed to take it at and now it's further away.  Two thumbs down for that because that means she's got to get up even earlier to take a test she's not excited about in the first place.  

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Did you guys do anything exciting?

Weekend update.

It's been a minute since I've done a weekend update so let's do it!

Sarah went straight to work after school so we didn't see her until 9:30 on Friday night.  We were all up bright and early on Saturday morning because we had things to do!

Sarah was meeting her friend Gabi at school so they could finish painting their senior parking spaces.  All the seniors that were participating in this met at the school last Monday to pick their spot and start painting their designs.  Sarah was almost finished with hers when a big down pour washed away her last layer of paint.  She was so disappointed.  Due to more rain, her work schedule, and the fact that we needed to get more supplies, she wasn't able to finish it until Saturday.  Here's the finished product:

The spaces could be any design they wanted but the design had to be approved by the school. And they had to have their class year, the school name, the school mascot, etc. somewhere on the space.

If you weren't aware, Sarah is a HUGE Harry Styles fan and these cherries are in homage to him,  One of his songs is titled "Cherry".   I think it turned out great! And she loves that this spot is hers all year long and it's right beside of Gabi.

While she was painting her spot, Dan and I headed to Raleigh for a quick visit with Peter. He wanted his PlayStation and we wanted to see him so away we went.  We helped him hook it up and then we took him out to lunch.  We briefly met his roommate and then we headed back home.  

Peter is doing well.  He is still getting to know his roommate so that's still a bit awkward. He is learning his way around campus and figuring out his new routine and in general just figuring things out. He has done a great job keeping in touch with us for the past week. I really appreciate that as it makes me feel better hearing from him each day.

We got home in time to head to Mass on Saturday evening and then Sarah went to a birthday party and then spent the night at a friend's house. Dan and I are really getting a lot of good practice for next year when our nest really will be empty.

On Sunday we had lunch at mom's and celebrated my brother's birthday.  Here are a few pictures:

Br

 

Brad doesn't like sweets but he requested that I make him a coconut pie.  It was delicious if I do say so myself!  I also topped each slice with toasted coconut and homemade whipped cream. YUM!

 

It was a nice weekend but we are all still adjusting to life without Peter in the house.  I guess it will never quite be the same without him at home.  I'm just happy he's doing well and I'm extremely thankful for a phone plan with unlimited texting and calling. :)

Sarah's last first day.

 Sarah started her senior year yesterday so you know I had to pull out the kindergarten first day picture and do a comparison:

 

Praying you have a wonderful year beautiful girl!

College move in day!

We were up early on Friday. Peter said his last goodbyes to Sarah and my mom and we were on the road to N.C. State by 8:00 AM. (Sarah did not go because they were asking that only 2 people come with each student. I did see other siblings there so we could have brought her along and no one would have said anything but I'm glad we didn't because she would have been bored to tears!)

Our check-in time was 10:00 AM. We got to campus around 10:15 and were directed to a parking deck. The parking deck had three lanes each marked with the name of one of the Tri Tower dorms. We got in the lane for Peter's dorm and an Easy-Go with a trailer attached pulled up along with 8 volunteers and they immediately unloaded all of our stuff into the trailer.

(I would like to add here that during my extensive research on packing a kid for college, I came across multiple people stating that the best way to get everything easily and efficiently packed was to utilize Ikea Frakta bags.

I ordered a four pack from Amazon and after they arrived order another four pack.  The second four pack was a different brand and honestly they were a little nicer than the Ikea bags.  But regardless - these things were absolutely perfect for packing!

We only used 6 for all of Peter's things.  The best part was we were able to take his clothes straight from the closet and into these bags with the hangers on them.  When we were unpacking them, we literally lifted the clothes which were on the hangers out of the bag and then hung them.  That's my kind of packing!  

His clothes fit into two bags.  I loaded the other 4 bags with everything else - bathroom stuff, sheets, towels, comforter, school supplies, kitchen supplies, etc.  The only thing we had that wasn't in these 6 bags was the laundry basket holding two pillows and a large box that held his mattress topper!

We packed these 6 bags neatly into the back of the Pilot along with the laundry basket and that was it! We overheard one of the people helping us move say, "Wow! We need to take a picture of this one!" because everything was so neat and easy to move thanks to these bags.

The trailer with Peter's stuff headed to his dorm and he started walking that way as well while Dan and I parked the car in the parking deck.  We arrived at the dorm and Peter was standing beside his stuff.  When we got there, he headed into the dorm to get his key, someone brought two large rolling carts to us.  We easily loaded all of Peter's stuff into one cart, and headed to his room to begin getting things set up.

Look how compact it all is!  That's it!  That's ALL of his stuff.

We got his bed lofted with minimal arguments (there were a few tense moments but they didn't last too long) and then got it made up.  With all of the bedding, mattress pads, pillows, etc in their proper place we started unpacking and setting everything else up.  It all went pretty quickly. We ran into a snag hanging his flag but decided the best thing for that would be push pins (there was a piece of wood near the ceiling) but we would need to go to Target for those. I brought a large assortment of hooks and clips with command strips but none of them were working with the flag unfortunately. With everything but the flag in place, we headed to the student union to pick up his student ID.

There was a very long line hanging out the door to the ID office and I was dismayed at the thoughts of having to stand in that but thankfully, Peter had sent them a photo several weeks ago so his ID was ready. There was a different line to pick up your ID if you had done this and it had no one standing in it! Whew! So glad we did this ahead of time.

After we got his ID (which will get him into his dorm and into the cafeteria) we headed off campus to grab some lunch and to pick up a few items from Target. After that we went back to his dorm to hang the flag. We took the obligatory in the dorm room shots and I started to tear up. Peter said, "Mom, you aren't even leaving yet!" I pulled myself together and then we headed to the bookstore so Dan and I could get some N.C.State tee shirts.

Then Peter walked us to our car where we said our goodbyes and we all teared up.  Dan and I were definitely sad as we drove away.  But we are excited for Peter and he is excited about this next chapter so that made it easier.

He has been in touch with us all weekend through texts and calls. His roommate (who he has never met) moved in on Saturday. Peter was originally nervous about this guy because they didn't really communicate much over the summer.  Peter said he is very smart and works out a lot.  Peter gave him the ultimate compliment and I was relieved when I got this text: My roommate is pretty chill.  Y'all! Not sure if you know this or not but that is HIGH PRAISE from Peter! So, that's a big relief! 

Peter's first class is at 8:30 AM today and it is killing me not to text him right now as I'm writing this (7:20 AM) to make sure he is up. 

Thanks for all your prayers.  Move-in was everything I wanted it to be: smooth and not too sad.  It's going to be a great year!

  

That's his dorm in the distance (but that isn't him in the picture.)

Another busy week...

Tomorrow we take Peter to school so prayers are appreciated.  We are all feeling a healthy mixture of nervous, sad, excited, worried, hopeful, etc. I know this is normal and I have been praying for a smooth transition for Peter for months so now I just have to "let go and let God" as they say.  

I complained in my last post that the school did not email us about the bill which I thought was odd and annoying.  My cousin text me to let me know that she recalls getting emails about tuition payments (her son recently graduated from NC State) but that the student has to go into their Pack Portal and update their settings so that parents get alerts about tuition payments, grades, etc.  I thought we had done that several months ago but when I logged into his portal none of those settings were selected.  So, I immediately remedied that and hopefully we are good to go now.  Thanks, Tammy! 

The kids have been pretty busy this last week.  Sarah's completing her summer work and working at the pool and spending time with friends.  Peter's been spending a lot of time with friends hanging out "one last time". Last night they were both gone and as Dan and I sat together eating dinner Dan said, "Well I guess this is how it's going to be - just us."  And I said, "Well, we are back to the beginning. It's like the good old days when we were dating and first married."  Dan's response, "It all seemed more exciting then."

And I get exactly what he means.  We had our whole lives ahead of us: marriage, a house, kids, etc. And now we are sitting on the other side and looking at each other like "what now?" But don't worry about us - we will get it figured out.  Life is just a series of transitions and we are slowly moving into the next phase!

Saturday, we all went to Mass and afterwards went to dinner at Cibo Trattoria downtown.  Peter selected the restaurant and it  was delicious. All four plates were clean and we managed to put away two delicious desserts!

 

Sunday was our last lunch together at mom's house for a while as Peter won't have his car at school and we aren't exactly sure when he will be home again.  My mom decorated the table in school colors - red and white and she wore her new N.C. State gear.  Isn't she just the cutest???

And I made, at Peter's request, Ding Dong Bundt Cake.  I know I've shared the link before but I'm sharing it again because this cake is so yummy!

Sarah had her senior photos taken for the yearbook on Tuesday.  She asked me to help her curl her hair so I did what any non-hair-curling mother would do.  I frantically texted our stylist and asked if she could do it and thankfully, she could.  I'm excited to see how her picture turns out!  

On Monday morning, I had a sleep deprived EEG.  I have recently had to switch to the generic version of my MS medication and have been having a mild flare of some of my old symptoms. I've had to switch because the copay assistance programs that were paying for my $6,000 a month medication were halted when the generic became available.  The price did go down on the name brand once the generic was released but it was still going to cost me $1600 out of pocket a month.  The generic is $800 a month but thankfully there is a copay assistance program for that one as well so I am only paying $20 a month BUT - it isn't working as well as the name brand.  

In addition to trying to get approved for the name brand (which so far isn't working) my neurologist wanted to do the EEG.  She said that I have a "venous angioma" in my brain.  She said it's been there my whole life and posses no problem or threat but it's location near the edge of my brain my be causing mild seizure-like activity in my brain which may be causing the symptoms of my flare. So she wanted to sleep deprived EEG to see if we could replicate a flare and see if that's what's going on.  

I was assuming that "sleep deprived" meant I would  go in at midnight for the EEG so I was shocked and dismayed when the nurse who called to set it up informed me that I would need to be up ALL NIGHT prior to my 7:45 AM appointment.  I said, "UP ALL NIGHT?? I CAN'T DO THAT!!!"  

She laughed and scheduled the appointment anyway and I, a person who is in bed nightly at 10:00 PM and asleep nightly by 10:04 PM, had to find a way to stay up all night.  

Dan stayed up with me until 12:30.  I had to force him to bed by reminding him that he was my ride to the hospital and that he also had to work all day on Monday.  Peter stayed up until his normal 2:30 until he finally went to bed.  Sarah was having a reaction to our cat and had to take a Benadryl and went to bed earlier than normal for her.

Staying up all night was a little easier than I thought it was going to be. Between 10 and 4, I drank 4 cups of coffee and  I processed a bunch (6 pounds without the juice and seeds) of ripe tomatoes and made spaghetti sauce. I cut up and canned a bunch of jalapenos and I even made several jars of relish.  After that, I settled into my chair around 3:30 AM and watched TV, and TikTok and next thing I knew, it was time to get in the shower.

I was very glad Dan drove me to the hospital because I was  groggy and out of it.  He dropped me off and headed back home to work and I headed inside to do the Covid check in the lobby.  I was having a hard time listening to and answering their questions.  I got through the lobby and headed to the bathroom where I proceeded to miss the hook on the door and my purse crashed to the floor.  I picked it up to make sure my phone wasn't broken and realized in my sleepiness I left my phone in the car.  

I needed my phone to call Dan when it was over so he could pick me up.  I left the bathroom and headed down the hall towards Diagnostic Neurology and saw a bank of phones of the wall. I picked one up to call Dan on his cell so he could turn around and bring my phone back.

I struggled to remember his phone number but finally did.  But then, I struggled with the phone.  It was a hospital phone after all and I couldn't figure out how to get it to make a call out.  In my dazed and confused state I was never going to be able to figure the phones out so I decided to head to my appointment and I would just have someone call Dan after it was over. 

I checked in and struggled to answer questions like "what's your address" and "what's your birthday". I was laughing at myself because I really had to stop and think. And then as I was answering, I felt like I was slurring my words.  I do not recommend staying up all night at this age!  

I sat down to wait for my appointment and chose a seat in front of the door. There was a window by the door and I just knew that Dan was going to realize that I left my phone and come into the hospital and try to find me and I wanted to be able to see him if walked by.

And sure enough! About 5 minutes later I could see him walk past the door.  I hopped up and opened the door and called his name.  He was trying to find me and he had my phone! Apparently he had texted me at a stop light to see if I made it in okay and heard my phone. So he came back, parked, and made his way into the bowels of the hospital to find me.  

The EEG itself wasn't a big deal except that it took the nurse over 30 minutes to place the 21 leads on my head.  She had to measure then mark through my hair the placements and then had to place them all with some substance that seemed to be part paste and part lard. The test itself seemed to be shorter than the placement of the leads. 

After it was over, the nurse removed all the leads and took a wet wash cloth and tried to scrub some of the paste/lard out of my hair and then dismissed me.  I was walking through the halls to the parking lot looking like this:

I came home, took a little nap, did some laundry and a few other things around the house, took another nap and we then we all went out to eat because I was too tired to cook. I then came home, fell asleep in front of the TV at 8:00, forced myself awake and upstairs and to bed at 10 and slept like a rock until the next morning. Remember the good old days of being able to be up all night and still function the next day?  Those days are long gone for me.

And that's what we've been up to this week! If you've made it to the end of this post, thanks for reading!  And, if you can spare some prayers for us for tomorrow, I would appreciate it!

 

College shopping and a parenting fail that thankfully I was able to rectify quickly.

One week from today, on Friday the 13th no less, we will be taking Peter to N.C. State and getting him moved into his dorm room.  

He is very ready to go to college.  I am less ready than he is. But time waits for no man (or mama) so we had to get his dorm shopping completed whether I'm ready for him to leave or not.

Before we went on vacation, I drug him (not kicking and screaming but there was a lot of protesting) to Bed Bath and Beyond to at least get his bedding procured.  He said that I could just do all of his shopping for him but I knew he would not like the things I picked out so I insisted he go.  

We found a comforter he really liked but of course they didn't have it in twin XL so he picked a white one. I immediately turned up my nose and he got frustrated. "You want me to pick out my own stuff but when I do, you don't like it!" 

I then explained that he would probably be spending a lot of time ON TOP of that comforter sitting and laying when he was in his dorm room.  It's a very small room and other than a desk chair there is no other seating.  I told him that white would be dirty in no time.

He agreed that my argument made sense and found a nice brownish one.  It will definitely hide the grunge!

Then we picked out sheets and he was done.  "Are we ready to go yet?" 

I had hoped to get more done but decided we could do it after vacation.  I then went home and signed up for Bed Bath and Beyond's college program where you can get 20% off all of your purchases through the end of September if you are a college student.  This is a much better deal than their normal 20% off of ONE item coupon!

We got back from vacation and he kept putting off going shopping for all of the rest of his stuff.  I had printed out lists and cross referenced them against other lists and knew we had a lot of shopping to do.  Peter took one look at my lists and said, "Nope!  There is no way I need all of that stuff!"

And he was right.  The list that I started with had every single possible item A GIRL might need to start college. It covered everything from tampons and fingernail polish remover to costumes for sorority mixers and dresses for formal events. (I will definitely keep this list for Sarah but it was too comprehensive for Peter or any boy for that matter.)  I was able to cross a lot of those items off immediately but a lot of the items made sense even for a very low maintenance boy. 

I finally pinned him down and we went back to Bed Bath and Beyond on Tuesday to make use of that 20% off coupon.  We pulled up to the store and there was a big sign across the front stating "We are remodeling but come on in!  We are still open for business!"

We walked in and I was immediately annoyed.  Yes, technically they were "open for business" but in reality there were large sections roped off and you couldn't access them (namely the storage solution section - a must for college dorm room shopping) and other sections were very empty (health and beauty - another section we needed as I was trying to make the most of my 20% off entire purchase coupon).

The only thing we ended up getting there were some nice white towels.  They were thick but not too thick and they had little loops sewn in for hanging on a hook which seemed practical to me.  

We headed to Target where we got more things checked off but still had a lot left.  I decided that in order to keep the peace and our sanity, I would shop for the rest of the list at Walmart and Amazon and Peter would not have to help.  By this point most of the items that I wanted his input on were purchased.  He was extremely happy with that arrangement.

So the next day, he went with a group of friends to Carowinds and I spent the morning in Walmart and the afternoon on Amazon and I think we are done with dorm shopping!

There is a Target within walking distance of his dorm so if we have forgotten anything or he realizes he did need something from that giant list created for girls, he can go there himself and get it. (I just wanted to avoid that Target on move-in weekend figuring it is going to be a zoo.)

Now all that's left to do is pack which we will probably not start until Thursday because I always like to wait until the last minute to pack.  

Oh, and speaking of waiting until the last minute!

In my head, I thought that tuition bills would be sent out on July 28th. I had this date in my head from the online orientation I slept went through. We were on vacation then and I remember saying, we should have a bill waiting on us when we got home and then I proceeded to forget about it until Wednesday when I realized it was August 4th and I had not seen a bill or received an email.   I had Peter check his email and he didn't have anything either.

We logged into the MyPack Portal (the website they use for housing info, schedules, tuition, alerts, etc) and low and behold there was an alert that said Peter's bill was past due and if it wasn't paid soon his schedule was going to be cancelled.

WHAT???????????

Apparently, while I correctly remembered the July 28th date,  I didn't correctly remember that this was the date tuition WAS DUE! 

Thankfully I was able to quickly get things taken care of and all is well. For now anyway.  

I guess I should have paid better attention in the parent orientation.  But I also feel like an email alerting us that bills were posted and due is not too much to ask.

And because I hate a post with no pictures:

Cape Cod 2021

 Another Cape Cod Vacation is in the books!

We left last Thursday evening when Dan was finished with work and made it to Chambersberg, PA. We were up bright and early on Friday morning and on the road by 7:00 am.  We made it to the Cape by around 4:00. We got unpacked, got groceries, ordered our normal first night dinner of pizza, and were finally able to relax.

We spent Saturday morning doing some chores around the house and spent some time on Saturday afternoon on the beach. We grilled out hotdogs and then went for ice cream. We get ice cream every single night when we are on vacation at the Cape.  Every night. Without fail.  And we have zero regrets about it! After ice cream we took a drive through Hyannis to check out the big city on Saturday night. :) They have blocked part of Main St. and made it one lane instead of two so restaurants can have more outdoor seating and it makes for a very festive vibe.  There were lots of people walking, eating, cruising, etc.  We stopped at a little beach to take some pictures before heading home.

You can't really make it out, but this is Sarah swinging on the beach swing.

On Sunday we headed to mass at beautiful St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis. We should have remembered that Main St. was now only one lane instead of two but we weren't thinking about that and were a few minutes late to mass due to the traffic.  Ooops! After mass, we came home for lunch and then headed to Chatham.  It is such a cute town with a lot of shops and Sarah had some money to burn so Dan and Peter stood outside a lot while she and I went into all the shops.  On the way home in the evening, we stopped for dinner at Captain Parker's because when you are on the Cape, you have to have chowder and in my humble opinion, Captain Parker's is the best!

We had a long wait for dinner so we walked over to Parker's River to kill some time.

On Monday, we headed to Boston. We picked up Dan's uncle and then drove to Gloucester to pick up Dan's other (adopted) uncle, Ron.  Ron and Uncle Bob are best friends dating back to the seminary where they were roommates. Uncle Ron was an only child and Dan's family adopted him so to speak after his parents passed away. He spent all major holidays at Dan's home and we all call him Uncle Ron.

After we picked up Uncle Ron, we headed to lunch at the Seaport Grill.

After lunch, we dropped Uncle Ron off at his house and took Uncle Bob back to Boston and then we hung out in the city for a while.  Peter and Sarah wanted to do some shopping on Newbury St.  We parked in the garage at the Public Garden and went from there.

Sarah's new obsession is pictures with disposable cameras.  I think she's going to be disappointed with the results but maybe we will all be surprised. :)

After our time in Boston, we headed to Needham to have dinner with Dan's brother Dick and his family. It ended up just being us and Dick because Jennifer's mom had recently broken her shoulder and she had to help her and Jillian was sick with a cold and didn't want to get the rest of us sick so she stayed home.  Hopefully next year we can enjoy some time with the whole family but it was still nice to hang out with Dick for a while.

On Tuesday we slept in and then had lunch at home. Sarah and I spent the afternoon on the beach while Dan and Peter went off to do a little fishing in Parker's River.  

The only thing they caught!

On Wednesday, we were up early again and headed up to Provincetown.  We toured around the city, shopped, and had lunch.  Then we boarded a ship and went on a whale watch!  We saw three whales.  There was a mom and baby and they hung out around the ship the whole time we were out.  The third whale swam around for a while then went away from us, swam back for a while, went away again. But the mom and baby stayed near us the whole time.

We could see the baby nurse and then he would nap.  Then they would swim a bit and he would nurse again and then nap.  The baby napped at the surface while the mom was swimming beneath him.  

At one point, the mom was not visible and the tour guide said she was way below the surface eating.  She was gone for a bit and then the baby woke up and breached!  This was my third whale watch and the first time seeing a whale breach.  He breached at least 7 times. It was so cool to see.  And the sound he made each time he hit the water was awesome - sounded like a giant belly flop.  I felt like he was doing that to get his mom's attention so that she would come back to the surface. (I can only imagine how awesome it would have been to see the mother whale breach! Maybe next time.)

The whale pictures aren't impressive.  It's very hard to get a good shot of the whales so don't let them fool you.  We all had a great experience seeing them and it was definitely a highlight of this trip. We got some video but I have the worst time getting video loaded to this blog.

On our way home from Provincetown, we had dinner in Harwich port at Embers and of course, stopped for ice cream too. Sadly, I have no pictures of our ice cream trips but just know that it was all delicious!

On Thursday, Sarah and I spent time at the beach while Dan and Peter tried their hand at fishing again.  They had fun but didn't catch anything. 

On Friday, we headed to Falmouth and got on the Shining Sea Bike Path and rode the 3 and half miles to Woods Hole where we stopped in for lunch at Captain Kidd (this has now become a tradition) before riding back to Falmouth. This part of the bike path is so lovely.  There's lots of water views, lots of shade, and it's all very flat.  So it's the perfect bike path for me!

When we got back, we all went to the beach to spend a little time in the water and got this cute family picture:

After our nightly ice cream run, we took one last drive through Hyannis and walked around.  The moon was gorgeous so we stopped to take some pictures.

And then we headed back home to finish packing up and cleaning up and got on the road early on Saturday morning.  We drove from 7:00 until 3:50 when we stopped for mass in Havre de Grace, Maryland. After mass, we got back on the road and finally made it to Dan's sister's house in Alexandria, Va.  She made us a delicious dinner and then we walked around Alexandria and, you guessed it - got ice cream!  Alexandria was hopping! They also had streets closed down for outdoor eating and it was like a huge party in the town.  We got in a nice long walk, came back to her house watched some Olympics and then headed to bed as we were all exhausted.  There's nothing like a long day of doing nothing in the car to really tire you out! :)

Cathy fixed us a delicious breakfast on Sunday morning and then we headed home.  It was a wonderful vacation at the Cape. Dan and I spent a lot of time talking about the fact that as the kids go to college, family vacations will start to look a little different. I imagine at some point in the not too distant future, it will just be the two of us on these vacations with the kids joining us if and when they can.  That made me a little sad. Hopefully when the kids have their own families, another generation will be able to enjoy the little Cape house and fill it with lots of laughter and new memories will be made and cherished.