West Roxbury

On my way through Boston on Monday, I got to spend a couple of hours with my sister and her kids in their new neighborhood of West Roxbury. From what I saw, the neighborhood looks like a New England postcard. Most of the houses are these giant, brightly painted Victorians with shingles and have manicured lawns. The town center has everything a family would need and is in walking distance. I got a tour of their new 'hood and saw the fixer-upper that they will soon be fixing up. While I forgot to take pics of the new house, I did snap a few photos of this kiddos...

Here is Braxton, holding my hand. I love his smile.

 Ava took her job of pushing the cart VERY seriously. Love it:)

Maybe next time I come up, some of the renovations will be done! Can't wait.

Annual Adventure

Every year, I go on a trip with my college girlfriends (+Stokie!). There are always two planners who arrange the trip for everyone else and it's a surprise to the rest of the group until a few days before we leave. The group agrees upon a date and a budget, and the rest is left up to the planners. Our budgets have been very small each year, yet we always manage to have a lot of fun and have money left over.

This year, we spent 4 days at Mt. Snow, Vermont.

From left to right: Me, Andrea, Melinda, Kara, Kelley, Sarah, Jen, Sara, Nicole. We missed Caitlin this year!

 

 There are a few rules with the trip as well: No husbands/boyfriends, no babies, no new members. Every person pays the same amount, no matter where they're travelling from. Our intention was to do this trip every year for pretty much the rest of our lives. By keeping it simple, we thought we'd have the best shot at keeping it a tradition.

 

 Kelley and Sara are our planners for next year. Maybe we'll venture out of the Northeast this time? Or maybe not. We'll have to wait and see!

Glamour Girl

These pics really don't need any commentary. I love this girl!

Margot's First Fourth

Our little firecracker.

Happy Independence Day!

Summer Storm

Last weekend, our area (and many others in the mid-Atlantic region) got badly hit by a summer storm that included high winds, lightening, and a quick and intense amount rain. Power lines have been down all over Montgomery County now for almost 6 days, leaving 250,000 people still without power. Considering the heat we've had, this weather has taken its toll on thousands of families. We consider ourselves extremely lucky because we only lost power for 4 hours last Friday night.

Here are some pics from our neighborhood, 6 days after the storm hit. There have been so many trees down that many (like the one below) have still not been cleaned up.

Notice that the tree narrowly missed a neighboring house and pulled down an entire network of lines.

Since we moved to Maryland 3 years ago, we've had more than our fair share of extreme weather in Montgomery County. I've lost track of how many times we've had issues with down trees, extreme temperatures, high winds, flooding, and excessive snow. If this isn't evidence of "climate change",

I have no idea what is.

Deltaville

 We are lucky enough to have some pretty generous friends who happen to have an idyllic cottage on the Chesapeake Bay. Last weekend, we drove down to Deltaville, VA to stay at Eric and Amy at their house there. Our friends Blake, Erika, Jenny, and Trevor, also joined us for the weekend of fun.

This was our second visit to Deltaville with this group and Margot was the only newbie to be joining us.  As you can see, she's quite the card shark and fit right in:)

 Weekends in Deltaville have so far included lots of swimming, paddling, and relaxing on the screened in porch and on the beach. The house is simple and small, yet big enough to sleep 8 (or 10) of us very comfortably. Cooking meals together has also made these weekends a lot of fun. This year, most of us ran in the Deltaville 5k on Saturday morning which made the weekend extra productive!

 Tucker revealed the real reason why I married him....because of his ability to do a handstand on a surf board. So impressive:)

This year, the infamous lightening storms hit the east coast the weekend we were in Deltaville. While I was too much of a chicken to sit out and watch the lightening, most everyone else wittnessed lightening like they'd never seen before, crossing the night sky across the ocean as far as the eye could see. On Saturday night, the neighbors provided a prelude of fireworks to the second round of the storm. Through it all, Margot slept like a log, thank goodness:)

Queensbury Visit

Margot and I flew up to my parents house for a visit in the country last week. Since this is a slow time of year at school for me, I was able to take 4 days off and relax with my family in upstate New York. My aunt Priscilla came up from Hoboken and my sister and her kids came up from Boston as well.

Hanging out with Granddaddy 

A walk to the pond with Priscilla, Granny, and Milo.

 More tummy time with Auntie Sarah, cousins Ava and Braxton, and Tessa supervised the fun.

 We went to a farmer's open house which was interesting and as always, very mind-opening. My parents have been getting their produce from the farmer's market in Glens Falls since I was a kid. I volunteered for Paul and Sandy Arnold's farm (see pics below) when I graduated from college, so it was fun to go back and see how much things had grown.

 Granny and Margot at the farm.

 One of 3 "Green Tunnels" on the farm

Through out most of the visit, we had chilly weather which was actually quite refreshing! Spending time in Queensbury is always relaxing. It's a good feeling to know we have a "home away from home" of sorts in such a beautiful and peaceful part of the world.