Hotel, Motel, Wequassett Innnnnn!

Summer!
Look at this little watermelon.  So proud to try on her sister's goggles.  And show off her underbite silly face.

Ahhhhhh ... last weekend we went on YPO's Family weekend to Cape Cod.  It was kinda like our first trip to the Cape, which is kinda embarrassing since we live just over an hour away from it.  But instead of Camp YPO, this year it was posh resort living in Chatham (that's the elbow of the Cape).  The weekend was a-mahz-ing (anyone watching Happy Endings getting that reference?).  Do I have to remind you that this is NOT how we typically roll?  High end-posh resorting?  I mean, we adapted quite readily and grew accustomed very quickly.  The Wequassett Inn would not normally pop up in my travel searches, just by virtue of it being so far above our typical price point.  But because somebody's somebody knows the owner/company/something and worked like crazy to put on a fantastic weekend and a steep discount, subsidy, something, I don't know what happened behind the scenes actually, but it was a bargain by comparison.  I mean we still had to pay and all, but you know how I love me a bargain!

It was only 2.5 days away for us, but was jam packed and relaxing too.  We were off to a rocky start arriving early to use the pool, but we could not yet check into our room and I had a conference call about Brazil that I had to be on AT 4PM on a Friday.  Grrrrr.....  But then, here was my view for the call - and thank goodness I was not the primary speaker.  And yes, that may or may not be a pina colada on the table.

This is our room seconds before the bomb went off in it, which was basically seconds after I arrived from my call.  Not a remarkable picture, but wanted to capture the essence of it.  Room 25 is a "Waterview, Double Queen".  

Samantha is the bunny whisperer.  Little conejos appeared magically on every path we walked with her.  This little guy appeared when she fell and scraped her knee and sat down on that tiny grass patch to cry.  I turned back to help her and noticed this bunny RIGHT next to her.  And he didn't hop away at the fray.  The rest of trip, bunnies really did appear every time Samantha walked the grounds.

Julia did not get to stay in the big girl bed.  That is not why she is crying.  She is crying probably because she was off her schedule, traded her nap for pool time and then was kept up late at trivia night on the tennis courts with YPO way past her bedtime.  But that bed does look posh, no?

This is our private deck off our room looking out into a little cove.  Now tell me, I have the fanciest little daughters around.  I mean, go to a soccer game, and they are all dolled up.  Go to a family dinner at a nice place and tell them it is going to be fancy and we want to look nice, and they appear wearing SNEAKERS with dresses.  Without socks - my favorite.  All those sandals we fight about you wearing when they are not appropriate and you tantrum over sneakers?  Fine, call it the pina colada, call it lazy parenting, call it letting go of the small stuff, but wear the sneakers to the party if it makes you happy.  

This is as close as we got to a nice picture of all the girls.   It was hot.  We needed dinner.  And bedtime.

Julia has not traveled as much as her sisters, but she is adjusting and figuring out that her Pack n Play is about the only resemblance to "normal" when we are on the road.

We went seal watching.  This pic is at the dock and we were waiting for Julia's life jacket to arrive.  Below, on the sand bar to the right of Samantha is a whole island of seals just chilling on the sand bar. 

Our afternoon activity took us to a private island.  We did not really have a heads up on what to expect with that, so were not sure what to expect.  It was a huge sand bar island with NOTHING on it - except our large party of YPO families (30 families maybe?) and they brought every imaginable party comfort to the island:  umbrellas, chairs, towels, bartenders, steel drummer to make it sound Carribean.  Some event host DJ to make us play "Minute to Win It" type games against the other families.  But they did not bring a bathroom (no plumbing on the island...really nothing but beautiful sand).  But, they planned for this bathroom scenario too: they brought a yacht.  It is owned by one of the families at the weekend.  And was in effect, the bathroom boat.  Which required a shuttle boat to get to.  Which made it a long lead time from when you leave to go to the bathroom to when you actually get there.  Which is funny when one of your daughters runs up and says "i have to go right now!"  Maybe they just wanted to ride a boat to the bathroom boat and see if Beyonce or Jay-Z were on board.

Speaking of on board:  Elliot really loved paddle boarding and was quite good at it!

We did manage one afternoon nap:  after seal watching and before the island.  All of us in one room.   Julia was not having it.  Cried herself to sleep for 90 seonds.  or so I thought.  When I popped up to see her, I found her here.  She had reached the counter, found some peanut butter cheese crackers and was having herself a snack in bed.  And then she put herself to sleep.  She's a good kiddo.

On our balcony again.  Self portrait.

So after the island excursion, there was a clam bake on the pool deck.  Well first there was a kids buffet.  After the kids ate, a creature teacher guy in safari uniform came and set up about 20 exotic grody creepy crawly reptiley things to entertain the kids so the parents could eat.  While Ben & I were digging into our lobster and champagne ... and not really relaxing if I am to be honest, since we are on a pool deck and Julia had already eaten and was fiesty and on the run playing hide and seek with us.  But all good, I mean, really good.  Until we notice the tornado storm clouds rolling in.  Apparently Reptile guy saw it too and released the kids to their parents in case he had to rapid fire save some tarantulas, snakes and alligators.  A wave of kids came rushing into the tables screaming "storm! storm!"  Samantha found us and was terrified.  I mean crying like we left her alone and monsters were chasing her.  Hysterical.  Mind you this is just a cloud in the sky, but you would think the Apocolypse was coming as the kids stampeded us.  Then the wind picked up.  Strong gust added with the 40 kid panic around us and we all started scooping kids and plates and running for cover.  In the midst of this, Samantha stops crying from her freak out and plain as day says, "Oh! Is that Lobster, Daddy?" and pops a handful into her mouth.  She finished the bite. Swallowed.  And then went back to wailing about the storm.  We went into the restaurant's interior for about 5 minutes.  Then the cloud passed.  And that was it.  We came back out and Ben tried to find more barbecued pork to eat when they reset up the buffet.  But by now the kids were our charges, so Ben sat and fed all our little birdies, who apparently have good taste and would have preferred the clam bake to the kiddie buffet.

Yep, don't mind the weather in the background, this crew is going to finish their party.  And their pork.

Jumpin' Around

Beth, this one's for you.

Jumping back in.  When I came home from work this week, I went to find the girls in the play room.  This is what I found.  I love today.  Very typical.  Elliot engaging the girls and looking stylish, Samantha wearing a costume and hopping all over the place.  Julia, at 16 months just cruising on the balance beam...I mean, yes, we do have a balance beam, but that was quite by accident, we didn't figure Julia would even be walking yet, let alone scaling the beam.  After her last bouts of Hanging at Home Depot, our family has admitted we are destined to lose her to the circus arts.

And in case you are wondering, Ben took many pictures of this.  Couldn't keep her from doing it.  Eventually got comfortable with it, and then she fell and whacked her head on the cement.  Apparently bad enough one of the workers thought she should have an ice pack.  And then the net weekend, I went with them.  And she did it again.  Didn't fall this time, but it is very annoying to try and push the cart and keep her on board!