Summer Fun

Dear Family and Friends,
Since I have already blogged about the big stuff, I can keep this post short and sweet. June was a busy month. We went on a fun trip to Maine, we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary and Father's Day, and we enjoyed some beautiful days at the beach. Joey and I have also stayed busy teaching over the summer. Of my 19 students, about 12 of them have continued with summer lessons, and I am also teaching two students who live in NYC and summer in Stonington borough. Joey is also teaching private lessons over the summer and continues his Calvary Music School and Calvary Church duties. July promises to be an exciting month. Joey has a birthday on July 2nd.  He will present an organ concert of patriotic music at Calvary on July 4th, entitled Stars, Stripes and Pipes! Clara will experience her first plane trip when we travel to Minnesota for two weeks to see our families and friends. We hope you are having a great summer so far. Below are some pictures of fun things we did this month as a family, and a few of Clara's two-year photos, which were taken at JCPenny earlier this month.
Best Wishes!
Joey, Erin and Clara

Clara levitating. (Actually, I caught her in mid-jump while dancing to the Nutcracker.)

Having a picnic at Harkness Memorial Park in Groton.

Visiting Gillette Castle.

Clara  in her pool on the deck.

Our Teaching Studio with new wooden chairs.

Flying a kite.

Clara's first haircut.

Getting ready to go to PJ Story Time at Stonington Library.

Clara's 2-Year Photos

                                                                  

A Father's Day Video

Dear Family and Friends,

The following video is a gift I created for Joey for Father's Day. He was very moved by it and wanted me to share it with close friends and family. It was a lot of fun going through and organizing pictures from the beginning of Clara's life up until now. She is so lucky to have such a great daddy.

Enjoy!

Erin

Family Trip to Kennebunkport, Maine!

Dear Family and Friends,

I have a lot of things I would like to share this month, but I don't want to write a huge, long blog at the end of June, so I am going to go ahead and write a few shorter blog posts this month which will feature photos. I have been trying to include a lot of photos recently, since that seems to be the most common request from family members. I kind of went crazy this time. This post will cover our recent trip to Maine. 

At the beginning of the month, we drove three and a half hours to Kennebunkport, Maine. We spent two nights at a nice place called the Nonantum Resort. We had a lot of fun, and we ate a lot of lobster.

Enjoy the photos!

The Nonantum Resort, Kennebunkport, Maine

Back of the resort.

The nice thing about Maine is, if you know where to go you can find very affordable lobster dinners. We found an adorable lobster shack called "Nunan's Lobster Hut." They always had nice specials, and the lobster was fresh and delicious. 

I like that price!

Awesome lobster shack.

Daddy entertaining Clara while we wait for food.

Clara insisted on trying some lobster, but she did not like it one bit. 

Food!

The Nonantum Resort was very nice. We had a water view room which overlooked the harbor, a good buffet breakfast which was included with the room, and since we chose less popular days of the week to visit, we were able to get our second night's stay at 50% off. 

View out the window of our room.

Enjoying the room

Hanging out on the porch

This is the life!

Cartoons!

We were a little concerned that there might not be a lot for Clara to enjoy, since Kennebunkport is pretty upscale with a lot of high-end shops, antique stores and galleries, but we were able to find many things for Clara. The Kennebunkport trolly picked us up right in front of the resort and took us on a 45-minute tour of the area. Clara was so excited about the trolly and couldn't stop talking about it after we got off. 

Clara did a great job on the long drive.

Getting on the trolly!

Cuddling daddy.

Taking a nice walk.

Checking out a beach.

Finding "Special Rocks".

Fun ride at the toy store.

Ponies!

Ice Cream!

Hanging out at the park

Look daddy, a light house!

Well, I hope this satisfied the request for "more pictures of Clara." I always take way too many pictures, but it's fun to have them, especially since Clara will be able to enjoy them one day. Maine is really beautiful, and since we can easily get there in one day's drive, we will probably try to go back sooner than later. 

We hope you are having a great June so far. I will probably do at least one more post before the end of the month. 

Take care and Happy Father's Day!
With Love,
Joey, Erin and Clara

We celebrated 6 years of marriage on June 9th!

"Some People come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."

-Franz Schubert