Vacation!

We left Friday morning on the Gott boat for what The Big Guy called "The tour of the Colonies".

Let's just say we did a lot of driving in a short amount of time.

We packed a lot of activities into that drive, as well, but I'll wait to show you the pictures.

Right now, I am sitting poolside, with Pina Colada in each hand.

Why? Because there are other adults here to watch the kids, and I can, that's why!

And I'm celebrating the completion.....that was COMPLETION, in case you missed it, of the Big Birthday Gift!

We have a few more glorious days here in Boston, and then we head back to The Rock, with sister #2 and another niece and nephew. In one car. With no wine. (Wait, I must correct that...I'm sure there will be whine, but not the kind I want.)

I have a 2gig SD card full of pics to go thru and upload, and I just don't want to play with it right now.

In an effort to save my sanity, I have decided to stay off the computer until Thursday afternoon, and relax with pina coladas, and frozen margaritas, and babysitters. I'll do things like get a haircut, and wax various parts of my body, and have other people paint my toenails. (Except for the one Meathead killed. It's still there, held on with super glue. I'm pretty sure the super glue is inhibiting the growth, but it's flip flop season, and, well...a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.)

And with any luck, I will look and feel human again by the time I have to leave.

I'm pretty optimistic that it can be done.

So come visit on Friday. I have so much to tell you!

Love, Marissa

pool party!

It only took three years and one Brother-in-law to get the pool up.

The Big Guy was dead set against this, for reasons I do not understand. I know they won't get a whole lot of use out of it (We live on an island off the coast of Maine. Our average daily temps are in the 60's. Seriously. Which is great for sleeping, not so much for pool-ing...), but if it's just going to sit in the attic anyway...we might as well set it up for the few days they can get in it.

It's good exercise, right?

I mean the setting up, not the swimming.

And having a pool gives one the perfect excuse for margaritas.

Frozen Strawberry Mango Margaritas.

Now, she'd like you to think she was drinking one, and carrying one to somebody else....

...but I refer you to this picture of an aimless stroll around the yard...with one in each hand....

Still Celebrating!

Because, well, why not??

Sister #1 was on the Sunday ferry with hubby and the kids...and an extra.

We've named him Chunks. I wanted to go with Spew, but Chunks was the majority favorite.

He won the name by projectile vomiting in the car on the ride to Maine. All over everybody in the backseat.

The girls were not impressed.

We grabbed them off the ferry, puked-on clothes and all, and jumped on our boat for a ride to Swans' Island- the island next to ours.

Note: this is the first time in YEARS I have just ''jumped on a boat" like that.

The gods were smiling on me that day, because there was nary a breath of wind, just a bit of chop, and...wait for it....the sun shone all day!!!

Swans' island PIK (People Interested in Kids, like PTO, but open to everyone) hosted a lobster dinner fundraiser. There was the dinner, lobsters and steamers and everything you'd expect to go with it, a chili cook-off, a pie bake-off, a 'bouncy house' for the kids, and the big hit- a dunk tank! There were lots of other games as well. The Things and my nieces were laden with prizes when we left.

We had a blast at the dinner. The ball field was small enough that the kids could run off on their own, and big enough that they thought they were on their own.

The food was fantastic (we had hot dogs, sausages, and lobsters), and Chris and I were asked to be judges of the pie bake-off.

Sweet!

Swans' Island is huge compared to Frenchboro! They have roads you can actually travel 40mph on!

Everybody we met was so nice; we made some new friends, and enjoyed some old ones.

People allowed us to tie up at their docks, picked us up (um, all 10 of us!), and drove us back to the dock at the end of the day. So nice! We were even offered a vehicle to use for the afternoon by somebody we hardly know. Who does that?! We politely declined, since we had Chunks with us...

I hope they do this fundraiser again next year! I know (believe me, I know!) how much work it is to put this kind of thing on, but they did a great job; it was very well organized.