Memorial Weekend

This picture cracks me up...reminds me of something you'd see in a "star-spotting" kind of magazine... "Famous Diva Lisa spotted on NH beach looking less than her lovely self with her toddler and looking rather pregnant...Who's child is she carrying now???"

So on Memorial Weekend, Trav had is annual "man trip" which began as his bachelor party type weekend and has continued every year since up at a friend's "camp" in NH. It's usually Father's Day weekend (my dad and his dad both go, too) but given our impending Father's Day gift-to-be? he planned the trip for a little earlier. I took the opportunity to head up to New Hampshire as well, with Keller and my mom to go visit my sister Abby who has been living in Portsmouth now for a year and a half and I have yet to visit. So glad to have made the trip, and so glad to have had Abby and my mom tag-teaming Keller so I could squeeze in a little rest here and there. Keller tends to be an early riser when he is not at home and while one 5am waking is acceptable now and again, 3 in a row just doesn't cut it...but anyway, we had a nice time.

We spent a lot of time sitting out on Abby's back patio. Keller played in Abby's flowerless window-boxes calling them sandboxes and was dumping soil everywhere. He also played with the hose that was dripping just a little, until Sunday when someone actually turned the water on for him. He learned quickly how the sprayer worked!

And found it to be particularly amusing to spray Grandpa, who joined us on Sunday along with Trav and Shan (Abby's husband, who also went to the camp).

Also on Sunday, before the men returned, Mom, Abby, Keller, and I went into town to poke around a little. We headed straight for the river to go see the Tall Ships that were in town and that Keller kept repeating for the whole 6 minute drive into town. Unfortunately, as we were walking down to the ships, little Mr. UpAt5am zonked out to sleep (which he never does in the stroller) and so we continued to make our way to the ships, found a shady bench to wait out the nap and people watched. It was nice. And you have to love a sleeping baby in a stroller anyway.

Squinty eyes all around...(I believe my mom told Abby and I to remove our sunglasses for the picture.)

But apparently she is not required to remove hers...

Looks like Keller's got the best seat in the house here...hopefully he's not too uncomfortable when that big bump goes away!!

And as we were heading back to the car, Keller discovered a new interest..."noisy drums and pipes"...We heard what sounded like a parade and discovered this pipe and drum corp playing on the sidewalk. It was Loud and Keller Loved It! He sat mesmerized and while I caught him jump/startle a few times when the big base drums would start up again, he just continued to stare and then continued to talk about "noisy drums, man-man, pipes..." for the rest of that day, and the next, and the next...I found a few good you-tube videos for him to watch and in doing that have also been playing other drums for him too...especially African drums since I relate most to them:) And Trav has apparently exposed him to Peter Tosh after which he would request, "More Peter Tosh pweese"...I like a musically inclined little boy. I showed him how to make his own "noisy drums" out of the pots so he'll pull them out and use wooden chopsticks (Trav's idea and a good one at that after I regretfully gave him wooden spoons).

On Sunday night we hit the beach so Abby could fly her kite and Keller could play in the sand(box). Check out this cool dude!

And look more cool people--I told them they looked like a band's album cover or insert or something...too cool for school;) But really, they were impatiently waiting for Keller to be done digging in the sand since there was no wind down on the beach...they wanted to go over yonder to the green grasses and blowing trees but I had to request more time for sand playing for the littlest cool dude...

And yet once we went to the grass, little cool dude jumped right in on the kite flying (dragging) which he learned how to do while babysitting a few days before...So stinkin' cute..."Run, run, run, run...fly kite!"

And there she is, my cool kite flyin' sister, maneuvering her blue butterfly kite in the sky. It really was a nice weekend, nice getting away, nice having a real visit with my sister rather than the chaotic visits of holidays and lots of people around. And hanging with my mom, checking out a new city (I could live there (if it were here), and being lazy! It was a much needed getaway and change of scenery for a little while!