Glacial Park Scavenger Hunt with Grandparents & Cousins

We had a lot of fun visiting my parents' lake house over Labor Day.  We made an impossible blog cake, suckered my dad into another trip to El Niagra, hit up their AWESOME farmer's market on the Square, went on a fun scavenger hunt at Glacial Ridge State Park with most of the cousins (grrrrr, Andrew), and even caught a ski show.

Our Kind of Town - Chicago is! (This one is for Kassi)

Three little girls you may recognize - getting cozy over a see-saw.

And three little girls' mommies, getting cozy over some Cafe Selmarie.

City girls do some silly dance and clear the sidewalks for all.

Sam, Elliot, Charlie & Alice all posing in Lincoln Square under the Lincoln Street sign.

Sam, Auntie Jessie, Lincoln the namesake doggy, Emily & Elliot.  

Halibut Point State Park

A few weekends ago we discovered Halibut Point State Park up in Rockport MA.  Found it quite by accident since I was really looking up a place called The Lobster Pool which is a sea side restaurant where you order at the counter and then sit down on some rocks by the ocean.  Seemed a little far to drive for this particular lunch (though I must be becoming a wuss about this stuff b/c an hour drive would have never before deterred me from a "must try" place). So what to do after we drive all the way up to Cape Anne for lunch?  Well, good thing the Lobster Pool website had a "things to do nearby" type page.  Otherwise, not sure I would have known this quarry was there for the hiking. It was beautiful.  It was easy to do with kids.  I will not go again until Samantha is much older.  The parts down by the ocean/rocks were cool, but the trail that wraps the steep rock-face quarry was death-defying for me since Samantha kept charging for the no-barriers at all edge.  All the more fun that as we were packing up the car, we checked in with Wendy, Jeff & Alex who, lo and behold, were up for a last minute adventure.  It was an hour to drive there.  We hiked around for about an hour and then went to the Lobster Pot, where we wound up waiting about 45 minutes for it to open.  Silly us, we should have spent more time at the park.

Samantha gets pretty before our hike.  Hey, it was the only way she would let me put in her "explorer braids".   Elliot also did her own make-up.  Look closely and Ben says she looks like a "klingon" (SP? from Star Trek). 

Sam, Ben, Alex, Elliot, & Jeff explore the tide pools at Halibut Point.

Ellie, Sam & Ben pose with Jeff in the background.

We all have explorer braids!

Ahhhh, the real reason for our trip:  The Lobster Pools.  

Samantha's BIG Haircut

After a winter of unsticking her hair from her face, where it was perma glued with snot and food on a thrice daily basis, we finally decided to cut bangs. But then really, that just moved the mess further back. She has gorgeous hair when she lets us put it up, which is only about once every 10 days. Ben had the vision of shorter hair for her. I admit, I resisted. Fearing she had my fine hair and it would just turn into a big cotton candy boufont every morning when she woke up, I kept saying no. Plus, after our experience at Snip-its, it was a pain to think about figuring out where to take a toddler for a fashionable haircut.

Alas, when visiting Illinois, we decided her mullet needed to go. She was very excited to go to "the hair cut store". We did all of this due diligence: "Hey, Shannon, where is there a walk-in hair cut place like a Cost Cutters or something?" She told us and we picked the closest one. How's that for research?

Sammy was all excited at first.

 She was a little timid when we got started and then looked a little worried - but was a champ. As was the woman who cut her mullet into the cutest little bob ever. And then blew it out. This haircut is totally Samantha, smart, fiesty, and fun. We should have done it long ago.