Wrapping up the week

I've been having trouble getting this blog available to everyone so you may have to catch up on a couple of days' posts.

We were on vacation this past week...I thought I'd fill you in what we were up to. We were supposed to go to a Yankees game on Sunday the 22nd but the tickets fell through so we met at Troy's (Our favorite local pizza place) to celebrate Tucker's graduation with Gra (Grandma) Tucker, Gra Doyle, Aunt Doreen and Cassandra. He got a lot of great summer-type stuff, water balloons (450 of them! Thanks Gra Tucker!), a water rocket, etc.

Monday we headed off to Mystic Seaport, where Michael and I hadn't been since we kids (my mom chaperoned in 3rd grade); we figured Tucker was finally old enough to appreciate it and he was! It was a pretty cloudy day but still nice and he led us through the Seaport reading the map. He was very strict about making sure we went in exact numerical order. He liked climbing in the ships and especially liked the Charles W. Morgan and even surprised us by answering a tour guide's question correct...the question was "why did they use bricks in the boat" and Tucker piped up, "to stabilize it"! I guess all those hours watching the Discovery channel has paid off! He had a good time playing in the "children's museum" there, pretending to fish and cook. From the Seaport we headed to the Aquarium. Tucker was really into the stingrays for some reason and even got to touch one. We also checked out the new Titanic exhibit (it still seems strange to me that Dr. Ballard works out of Mystic Aquarium) but the new exhibit is really neat with movies running about the sinking of the ship and the artifacts found, as well as interviews with the survivors. Michael and I could have stayed there all afternoon, it was that interesting but a six-year-old boy just doesn't have the same attention span so off we went! We of course had to check out the penguins which are always a favorite, even in the rain.

Tuesday was kind of low-key with a trip to Dinosaur Crossing (which is about 3 miles from our house). It has nature trails with life-size dinosaurs, a playground, and a splashpad. It was a gorgeous day and it wasn't even crowded so we had a great time there! I even climbed across the top of the monkey bars a few times!! On the way out we of course had to get ice cream and check out the gift shop.

Wednesday we headed to Rocky Neck and didn't get there as early as we had hoped to (I think everyone can relate to that!) The tide was WAY out so Tucker, Michael and I walked out, further than I've ever been. Michael and Tucker ended up building TWO separate castles, something about Michael didn't want a moat with water running through his castle and Tucker didn't like the walls Michael was making with the Tupperware containers. Tucker definitely knows what he wants and doesn't want when it comes to building anything! I helped Tucker build his castle and add the water and for a little while we had a little boy named Aidan (I'm not sure how to spell it) who was three, getting the water. Eventually the tide came in and we couldn't go in the water anymore so Tucker and I headed off in search of the concession stand (I didn't bring a lunch because like I said we planned on getting there earlier than we did but had to do a couple of errands along the way). Anyway, at least a mile there and back and Tucker and I got lunch! After lunch we packed up and brought all the gear back to truck. We had brought our bikes and planned on going for a ride through the campground there. We made it maybe a mile or two when Tucker announced he was tired so Michael had to get the truck to come back and get us. I was worried that he wouldn't find us because the campground seemed to go in circles but he did find us and we did get lost on the way out!

Thursday was a our big "road trip" day and Tucker was excited because we were in 3 states in one day. We started off at Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA (which you have to go through Rhode Island to get to). There were two decommissioned destroyers and a submarine to go through. It was a good thing it wasn't a really hot day because we really got a work-out and once again made aware of how fortunate Michael is to have not chosen a career aboard submarines (He also didn't fit well on the boats at the Seaport!). It was actually a pretty cool place and Tucker loved the ships. I couldn't get over how big they were; I thought we were going to get lost in the biggest one! From there we had to head back through Providence so we decided to go to the Providence Children's Museum (with a little help from Mapquest). It's sort of a scaled-down version of the Boston Children's Museum if you've ever been there. I think we would definitely go back. Tucker especially liked the Water Ways area where he and this other boy worked on creating a levee, setting up the sandbags and barriers so the water would not get through. He also loved the pirate ship which isn't surprising! We also found out that they have Fetch! labs there (he's on PBS and Tucker watches him EVERY day. It's cartoon dog who runs challenges for kids that have to do with science) so we're going to try to go back for one!

Friday was a relaxing day. We ended up going to the Children's Museum in Niantic for their School's Out! bash. They had a steel drum band which was pretty good and Tucker painted a picture, acted out a one-man show, climbed a wall horizontally, and made a sand castle.

Saturday was a party day!!! We had two parties to go to, with both kids turning 4! First up was Tucker's friend Andrew from daycare. It was a Transformers themed party complete with slip and slide and Transformers pinata. The pinata was pretty tough! Tucker was the oldest and got a couple of good swings at it but it took Andrew's dad cutting it and each of the six dads taking a swing at it to break it open!! Coincidentally the same thing happened at the next party (for my cousin Kristen's daughter Libby); I don;t know what they make pinata out of these days but both were pretty tough! Again there was a slip and slide and Tucker met up again with Eddie and Montana, who are his age and my cousin's nephews. It's interesting to see they are all about the same size and lost the same number of teeth! It was fun to catch up with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Larry who are up from SC for the summer and my cousins. We had a good time reminiscing about growing up and spending time at my grandmother's. Most of the time when I think of my childhood, I think of them; we were really more like sibling than cousins. We ended up leaving there around 8 and by the time we got my mom home and then ourselves on the road, Tucker was asleep! He did wake up when we got home and was wound up for a little while. When I was trying to get him to sleep tonight he told me "I didn't sleep good last night, we did a lot of partying yesterday. I think I'm all partied out!" He couldn't decide what day he liked best but thought all of them were fun!

I promise my posts won't always be this long but since this is supposed to be about our adventures, I thought it would be good to keep up-to-date! It's time for me to shuffle off to bed myself if I expect to re-join the working world tomorrow!