Papa's Hats

One afternoon while we were in Rhode Island. Grandma Weber called our kids into her bedroom where they found a bunch of Papa Weber's ball caps spread out on her bed. She told them they could each choose one hat to have in remembrance of him. I thought it was such a sweet moment. They all noticed that the RISS (Rhode Island Senior Softball) hat had already been picked by one of the other cousins. BUT other hats still remained , AW (Anderson Winfield) hats still remained. This was the team he played on. A couple of Cleveland Indian ball caps to represent his love of baseball and the fan that he was. A cap with the Audubon logo on it. What an awesome piece of Papa for each of the kids to go home with.

On Friday the cousins came over and Grandma asked if the kids could bring the hat that they had all picked a few weeks before. This was a perfect opportunity to get a picture with all the grand kids together and their little piece of Papa a top their heads.

Scarborough Beach, RI

It is so funny to be looking at these pictures and think it was just 1 week ago that we were in Rhode Island playing on the beach and swimming in the ocean and yesterday we actually had a little snow here in Utah!!

Steve, Katie and Becky constructed this awesome sand castle as soon as we go there. It was fun to watch people as they walked by and admired all their hard work.

The water was a little chilly, but all the kids enjoyed getting in and playing. Belle got out for a while and wrapped her hair in a towel and struck a diva pose on the sand.

One of the more popular things to do was body surfing. Grandma Weber even got in on the surfing. I decided that the water was not warm enough to warrant my participation. So I manned the camera and took some great action shots.

Katie and Becky spent a lot of time digging and playing in the sand. Katie likes to dig big holes and then bury her body. Katie was the only one of the kids to be made into one of dad's sand sculptures. This year she was a bat.

At 1:30 we packed up our blankets and chairs and left the beach, but not before stopping at a little seafood restaurant and buying a dozen clam cakes to eat during the trip home.

Old Sturbridge Village

For the month leading up to our vacation to Rhode Island, I have been planning a day trip to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. I thought it would be really great to let the kids see what was like in the 17th and 18th century. On Thursday, Steve and his brother Scott had plans to go on a kayaking trip. That left the door right open for the kids, me and Steve's mom to travel back to 1835...
The little village was so peaceful. We walked through many building when we first arrived: a GATHERING BUILDING, a BARN, a TIN SHOP and a MERCHANDISE STORE. The gentleman working behind the counter at the store was so neat to talk to. Her explained what kinds of goods were being sold in his store. I asked about the price of yard goods. He explained the importance of girls learning to sew when they were young. Then talked to the children about attending school and what times of the year they would be in or out of school. We walked into the storeroom and that was where we saw these large barrels. The colonial woman in there explained that things like vinegar and other liquids were not prepackaged, but rather you would bring your empty container in and fill it with what you needed.

We went through some very simply decorated home and some that were a little more fancy. The Towne home was quite interesting. The woman who met us at the door, "Mrs. Towne" stayed in character the whole time we spoke with her. She was baffled to see the girls wearing their brothers pantaloons. And noticed that we had been working and walking so much that we had worn holes in our shoes (we were wearing sandals). She asked where we were visiting from and w told her Utah. She said she had only heard of the territory and we must see lots of Indians there. It was quite fun to talk with her.
After leaving the Towne Home we ventured to the Craftsmen area. We let the kids make some tin candle holders. There were lots of tools that the man got out for the kids to work with. It took some muscles to hammer the slots through the tin, but they all managed to get it done.
When they had finished making their CANDLE HOLDERS, then they needed a candle to go inside. So off we went to the candle dipping area. Luckily the kids were given wicks that were already started. But they stood there a little while dipping...counting to 30 (sometimes just 20) and then dipping again. I just tried to imagine what a tedious job that must have been. With no electricity you would always be in need of candles. Once the candles were to a decent size they cool slightly and were wrapped and all our goodies were put into bags to be taken home.
Next we stopped off at the PRINTING SHOP. We saw how they would print books and papers. Gramma told the kids about home Papa use to work at the newspaper and was familiar how some of these things worked. It was great having Steve's mom around to help in answering the kids questions. They definitely had a few.
We saw the BLACKSMITH doing his job, went by a FARM and saw animals, walked by the GRISTMILL, but the one attraction that the children were must amazed by was the Pottery Barn. They stood there as the man made a lump of clay transform into a cup. Obviously we did not see it go into the kiln and come out, but it still was so amazing to them. He explained as he was creating the mug that most potters only did this work on the side. That they were really famers, but sometimes the crops would not do so well and when that happened they needed a way to get a little income so they would do this.
We also went to the CARDING MILL in hopes of watching it in action, but he person who was suppose to be working there at the time did not show up. We looked around and played with some of the hand carding devices and then decided to call it a day. We had walked and seen most of the village and were ready to get make to the 21st century and out modern conveniences light air conditioning and a large icy diet coke.

Quonney

Wednesday we loaded the rental van with lunch, diet coke, nets and buckets and headed to Quonochontaug "Quanney". It is a great inlet in Rhode Island. The tide was out when we arrived. So the kids walked through looking for crabs and other critters. With nets in hand they founds live crabs, the carcasses for horseshoe crabs, various shells.


I hung out with our chairs and food. I did wander off for a few minutes to see if I could find any treasures of my own. When I looked back to our picnic area, what should I see, but a seagull trying to make off with our loaf of bread for sandwiches. After I chased the little scavenger off I found all of our food had been pulled out of the bag.


Later on Steve and the kids managed to find some little flounders and even scooped them with their nets and had them in a bucket for us all to see. Belle managed to track down a few jelly fish.


After a while Gramma, Steve and the kids went over to where the rocks are to do a little more scavenging and found some starfish, which were way cool. The tide was coming in and we had discovered all there was to discover that day. We packed up our goodies, said goodbye to the critters and drove back to Greenville.

Ear Piercing Fun!!

A little back story…when Belle was approaching her 8th birthday we told her that she could get her ears pierced when she turned 8, which she did. I had not given it much thought since then even though Katie and Becky would be turning 8 soon. They had never really mentioned wanting to get their ears pierced. Well about a month ago they began to mention it. So during our first day in Rhode Island we had some down time in the afternoon and I decided to take all the girls, Katie, Becky, Belle and their cousin Alex down to the Claire’s and get those little 8-year-old ears pierced.
There were two of the nicest girls working there. Katie was the brave one to take the seat first. She was so cute and excited. They did the piercing simultaneously. She sat in the chair with a very blank expression on her face. Once they had completed the piercing she said, “Is that it?” Then went on to tell me how it didn’t hurt a bit.

Becky’s turn was next. She was a little more nervous about what would be happening. Don’t get me wrong; she WAS NOT scared, just nervous of what it would feel like. The relief look on her face, once the process was complete, told the whole story.
Once the piercings were down the nice salesgirls gave the girls a long strip of stickers and a sucker and went on about how good they were and seemed impressed that they did not cry. We went into the back of the store where they have their 10 items for $5.00 sale and I let all the girls pick some goodies out. Of course the girlies wanted to purchase some earrings now that they have holes. It was just too cute.

Everybody Was Water Gun Fighting

Zack's friend Jake come over yesterday afternoon to play. The boys went up to Zack's bedroom to hangout. After about 15 minutes Zack came down stairs and had the most mischievous look on his face. He whispered in my ear that he and Jake had prepared some water balloons and they wanted to throw them at Katie and Becky and did they have my permission. I said yes as long as they were prepared to accept any retaliation that came their way. They agreed. So I led the girls outside and had them stand on the grass. Out came the boys and surprised the girls by throwing a balloon right at their backs. THE WAR was ON!!!

Steve lent Becky his jumbo water gun. She could hard carry the gun once it had water in it and pulling the trigger took quite a bit of muscle. The good thing was just having that gun on your person was quite intimidating to the boys. The smaller waterguns quickly were added to the artillery and some old ice cream buckets for throwing water.

There were no real casualties when the two sides parted, other than some very wet clothes. Steve and I determined that the girls had managed to over take the boys. Definitely a case of girl power.

Midsummer Nights Dream

Last night Zack made his debut in the 6th grade production of A Midsummer Nights Dream. This is something that we have looked forward to all month. When we returned from our trip to Rhode Island, Zack found out he was assigned the part of Puck. I was so excited. What a fun role to play. He received his script and we would run lines with him. It was surprising to Steve and I how well Zack took to acting. He really did seem to "become" Puck.

A couple of weeks ago we went to DI (Deseret Industries, Utah's version of Goodwill) and bought some clothing that we could cut up and turn into his costume. Once we cut the sleeves off the shirt, we took the cuffs and glued fake leaves to them and had Zack wear them around his ankles. Then we found a pair of tan stretch pants and cut them up to make it look as though he has been living in the forest. For the play we spiked up his hair and he looked so AWESOME!!!

I am a little bias because Zack was on the stage, so of course I feel like he was the best, BUT all those little 6th grade children were quite impressive. Especially considering they were performing Shakespeare. Pop and Grandma came up to see the performance. Pop had his digital video recorder with him so we were able to capture most of the performance on his camera and of course I came with my camera to get my stills.

Labor Day

Instead of just hanging out around the house, we decided to pack a picnic and head off to the Jordan River Trail. We road bikes to an area where there was a playground and picnic tables.

What was for lunch? We brought some assorted cheeses and meats, hummus, crackers, fruit and juice. It was quite yummy and the children enjoyed cutting their own piece of cheese and building their "cracker sandwiches". We did have to limit how much cheese they could have and reminded them to have some of the fruit and veggies.

When the kids finished the munching they headed over to the playground. Belle enjoyed helping some really little girls go down the slides and entertained them. Katie and Becky took turns crossing the monkey bars. And I took out my book, laid out a blanket and began reading.

Steve laid out on the grass and relaxed. We listen to nothing...there was no sound of cars or lawn mowers. Just the kids playing and the birds tweeting.

Steve took Becky down to the river to investigate. They came across a beaver lodge. Becky was so excited because not only had she found it, but she was able to walk on it.

It was definitely a fun way to spend our Labor Day. Together, as a family.