Family Vacation!

Dear Family and Friends,
It's August! Joey, Clara and I have a few more weeks of summer to enjoy before our lives get really busy again. It's been a great summer, and I would like to write a couple of posts about the two big trips we took this summer. This post will cover our family trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 

At the beginning of June we took a three night trip to Maine. Originally we were going to spend the whole time in Maine, but after doing some research and wanting to break up the trip for Clara, we decided to spend one night in Portsmouth, NH. We had never been to Portsmouth, but there was a lot to do there for Clara, and we were impressed with the wealth of shops and resteraunts in the downtown. 

We enjoyed touring downtown Portsmouth and learning about the history of the city. Portsmouth was settled in 1623, and it claims to be the third oldest city in our country. 

Clara found some fun things to do in Portsmouth, including active play at an indoor gym called "Rumble Tumble", and swimming in the hotel swimming pool with daddy. There was also an amazing toy store downtown, and we had trouble getting her to leave since they had so many toys for kids to play with.

There were many different restaurants to chose from in Portsmouth, and we ended up having a really great dinner at a tapas restraunt called "Moxy". We definitely hope to return to Portsmouth again in the future. It's only 2 and 1/2 hours from us, and it's really an interesting place. 

After leaving portsmouth, we headed to our next destination, Boothbay Harbor Maine. We took our time, and made several stops. One of our first stops was the "York's Wild Kingdom" zoo in York Beach, Maine. It was a really nice zoo, and Clara was thrilled to be able to feed the deer. The goats were a bit aggressive, though, so she let daddy do the feeding.

Once we arrived in Boothbay Harbor, we stayed at the "Fisherman's Wharf Inn". It was nothing fancy, but the room was clean, and we had a nice view of the harbor from our deck. The town of Boothbay Harbor is very charming. It is a beautiful coastal town and is popular with tourists, so we were glad to be there in June before the busy season hit. There are a lot of places to eat, and various shops to enjoy. We had our first meal at "The Lobster Dock", a shack overlooking the water, and the lobster was delicious!

We took a scenic drive around Boothbay Harbor and, as always, we were blown away by the beauty of the Maine coast. It is very different from the Connecticut coast where we live. There are pine trees, rocky cliffs, many small water inlets and, of course, lobster buoys everywhere. We even discovered a church that looked a little like Calvary Church. 

One of the best things we did on the trip was visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves nature and beautiful gardens. There are so many different gardens to see that we didn't even get to all of them. They have an incredible children's garden with a design is based on famous children's books like "Peter Rabbit". Clara loved the children's gardens, especially the little fairy hut, where she served us tea and cookies.

On our way home from Maine, we stopped at the L.L. Bean outlets in Freeport. There were a lot of shops, and Clara wanted ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. As a senior in high school, I had attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine as a student, and had visited Freeport with friends while I was there. I even had ice cream from the Ben and Jerry's store. It was fun to be back with Joey and Clara. 

Joey and I fell in love with Maine when we honeymooned near Acadia National Park back in 2007. By the time June rolls around, we find we really need some quality time together, just the three of us, and now that we live on the East Coast, Maine is an easy place to visit. Clara is old enough now that she really enjoys the traveling, does well in the car and is fine in the hotel room. During this trip, she had some kind of strange sleep schedule going, and she woke up every morning at 6:00AM. We had an early start to our days, and it was fine, but we were all pretty exhausted when we returned home. It's important for us to spend time together and make memories together, and I am grateful that we were able to have such a fun trip. Clara must have enjoyed it too, because she was not happy when she found out we were heading home. "I want more 'vercation' Mamma and Daddy!" 

Stay tuned for my next post, which will cover the big, two week trip we took to Minnesota during July. We drove from CT to MN with a three year old! Were we crazy? You will just have to wait and see...

Happy August!
Joey, Erin and Clara

A New Routine

Stonington is so beautiful this time of year!

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last post. This time I actually have a good excuse. At the beginning of May, Clara decided to stop napping. She didn't do it gradually. She literally went from sleeping 3 hours every afternoon to not sleeping at all. We tried many things to keep the nap in place, but they all failed, and after a while it wasn't worth a fight. Nap time used to be blog time for me. Clara goes to bed earlier now than she did when she was napping, but honestly, by the time she is asleep my body and brain are fried, and all I want to do is go to bed. I will attempt to cover the month of May and beginning of June in this post. Things have been really good. We took a fun family vacation in the middle of June, which I will write about in my next post. It's taken a little while to adjust to our new "no nap" routine, so forgive me for the delay! 

This was the bun I did for Clara's dress rehearsals.

This is Clara's professional bun the day of the performance!

Clara is doing great. The month of May was spent taking Clara to her usual ballet class as well as several long and intense dress rehearsals leading up to the end-of-the-year showcase performance. I volunteered to be a chaperone for the final two dress rehearsals, and I had no idea what I was getting into. At one rehearsal, a few mothers didn't bother to show, up even though they had agreed to be chaperones, so I was told that I would be taking care of 10 three and four-year-old girls all on my own. I was responsible for making sure they all used the potty, ate their snacks, got their costumes and make-up on, and lined up in order for the run through. My stress level was intense, and I was so thankful when another mother stepped in to help me. She must have sensed how nervous I was. I love kids, but don't ever ask anyone to take care of 10 little girls all at once, especially when they are dealing with costumes and make-up application. The showcase ended up going really well. Clara looked so sweet in her bluebell costume, and she did a good job up on stage. We were not allowed to video tape or take pictures of the performance, so we are waiting to get the DVD in the mail, that we purchased from the ballet school. A few times I questioned whether putting Clara through the long, intense dress rehearsals was really worth it, but she continues to talk about her performance to this day, and wears her bluebell costume around the house all of the time. I think it was a really good experience. 

Clara dancing on the big stage!

Congrats sweet bluebell!

Celebrating a great debut!

Clara has had some "firsts" recently. Her first ballet recital, first trip to the dentist, first nightmare (she now has dream catchers in her bedroom windows), first viewings of Disney movies like "Pinnochio" and "Beauty and the Beast", first time on a tricycle. It's fun to see her try new things. She went through a time when she was fearful of loud trucks and other noises, but she has moved past that now. Clara talks all of the time, and we love hearing the things she has to say. When she gets in trouble or has to go to "time out" she always wants to sit and talk about what happened after the upset is over. She tells us multiple times a day that she loves us, and she gives a lot of hugs and kisses. Clara has taken the elements up to the alter for communion during church services twice now. She walks all the way from the back pew to the front holding the cup and then hands the cup of wafers to an acolyte and walks back down the aisle. She focuses so well and holds the cup very carefully. Sometimes she seems a lot older than three, although she definitely has her three year old moments too!

Mother's Day 2014

Father's Day 2014

The Calvary Music School year ended for Joey and me at the beginning of May with the Spring solo recitals. Fortunately Clara waited to drop her nap until after the semester ended, so we could adjust our schedules in order to continue with make-up lessons. I had so many snow days, sick days, and away days this year that I continued to teach make-up lessons up until the beginning of June. It is a relief to finally be finished with them. Joey's adult choir rehearsal, chorister rehearsals and hand bell rehearsals have all come to an end at this point, and we are enjoying having a bit more free time.

Our beautiful church!

This month I have continued quite a bit of summer teaching. I'm really glad that many of my students are continuing with weekly lessons during the summer. They lose so much when they decided to take the summer off. Joey continues to play Sunday services and is doing a lot of planning for the fall.

When we are not busy teaching and practicing, Joey, Clara and I enjoy being outside on the deck, going to the library and playground, going to the beach and state parks, visiting children's museums and exploring new towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"Devil's Hopyard State Park"

"Misquamicut, RI Beach"

Children's Museum in New Haven, CT. Recognize this room?

Audubon's Education Center in Bristol, RI. 

Joey and I celebrated seven years of marriage on June 9th. It's hard to believe it has been that long. Actually, I met Joey when I was 16, and we started "officially" dating when I was 19, so we have been close throughout our adult lives. Joey is a wonderful husband and father, and I am so lucky to have him in my life. It is so special to be able to share your life with your best friend. Joey took me to the Weekapaug Inn in Rhode Island for our anniversary. We had a delicious meal and really enjoyed spending the evening together. Clara was at home having fun with the babysitter. 

Roses from Joey

Seven years and no itch!!!

July is going to be a really interesting month. My parents and aunt and uncle are spending the first week of July with us, celebrating Joey's birthday and the 4th of July. Joey will present the third annual "Stars, Stripes and Pipes" concert of patriotic organ music after the Stonington 4th-of-July parade. On July 5th we, along with my parents, will start a four-day-long drive to Minnesota. Joey is performing an organ recital at Bethel College in Saint Paul, MN on July 14th, so we are excited about that, as well as the chance to visit with Joey's family and other Minnesota friends. If you are a friend or family member in Minnesota, we would love to see you at Joey's concert. It is at 7:30 pm in "Benson Great Hall" on the Bethel campus.

My next post will cover our recent vacation. I have a lot of fun pictures to share. We hope your summer is off to a great start! Stay Tuned...
All the best,
Joey, Erin and Clara

Family "Selfie".