Family

We had a great night having dinner with my cousin Drew, his parents (my Uncle Don and Aunt Kathy), wife Beth, and kids Alex and Caroline. Henry loved their swingset, and he and Alex were running around like best friends (despite a 7 year age difference). It is rare that we are able to get together with the extended Grandi family, so we really enjoyed our time with them.

3 generations of Grandis (and Grandi/Powells!):

Cape Cod

We had a wonderful week on Cape Cod. We lucked out in picking the week of the major heat wave in Boston....104 back at our house, but nice and breezy on the Cape :)

We rented a house in Orleans with 3 other familes (the same group we went skiing with last winter). 8 adults, 4 four year old, and 2 two year olds made for a lot of fun (and a lot of towels constantly drying on the porch!)





We cycled between 3 local beaches, and went to a different one every day - sometimes twice a day. Henry was loving the beach:











Henry's favorite beach activity was pulling Jake on the boogie board:





We all rented bikes one day to cruise the Cape Cod "Rail Trail". Henry was a huge fan of the "tag-along" bike:






Another day we went for a hike:






And then (of course) stopped for ice cream:




One night we took the big kids to the clam bake at the Chatham Bars Inn:





They got to sit at their own table, which they we very pleased by:





There was a giant lobster wandering about:




And after dinner the kids got to play on the beach:




It was a great vacation - thank you to our friends for sharing it with us!

Quick Update

We are back in Boston! We spent the last seven days on Cape Cod with three other familes. 8 adults, 6 kids, 1 house, and lots of beaches - it was a great time. We seem to have transported half the sand from the Cape back into our house...while we settle back at home nd get things together, here are some brief pictures from our trip to tide everyone over until the full recap goes up:

Plum Island

Mike had his last day at his old position on June 30th, and doesn't start his new position until July 25th (hooray for three week vacations!), so we decided to spend some family time at the beach! We rented a house on Plum Island, which is a little island off the coast of Newburyport (about 45 minutes north of Boston). G Pa flew into town to spend some time with us, and we lucked out with great weather while we were there.

The house was wonderful - great space, perfect sunset views over the salt marsh, and only 2 blocks from the beach (of course, the entire island is basically two blocks from the beach, but that is OK!)






A lot of time was spent on the deck. Relaxing:


Eating:


And watching the sunsets:




We were at the beach every day. Henry LOVED it:












We spent a morning in Gloucester:






And another morning at the wildlife refuge on one side of the island:




The horseflies were VICIOUS there. Mike attempted to keep them off Henry by doing a crazy dance around him:


But nothing would stop them. They were evil.

For the 4th, we hung out at the beach and then had a BBQ for dinner. Right before we ate, however, am insanely severe thunderstorm moved in and we had to evacuate indoors:







The house had an incredible view of fireworks - we could see the displays from 3 different neighboring towns (plus, most of the neighbors put on their own displays).

We spent time in downtown Newburyport:











And our friends Aly and Mike, and their son Jack, came to spend an afternoon with us:






Jack and Henry had a ball together. It was so much fun to watch!

There was also a whole lot of food - our favorites were the Clam Box (famous, of course), and Bob Lobster's, right down the road from us (nothing like loads of fried sea food!):











Thanks to G Pa for travelling here and spending some time with us. It was a great time!