Salem MA

The beginning of November, my sister Melody had a medical conference in Boston. (Can't believe I'm old enough to have a little sister who is doctor!) Since another sister, Michele, lives in Salem which is just half an hour outside of Boston, the kids and I jumped in the car and drove up. The first night we drove into Melody's hotel and went swimming, the kids could have done it all night long. On Saturday, we all went exploring Salem. It is a beautiful little town and home to the famous Salem witch trials. They even have a town witch. The photos of the leaf fight was at the park in 'Hocus Pocus'. My favorite Halloween movie. The kids did so well in the six hour car ride, we were lucky enough to hit the NYC traffic just right, but Boston was a bit tricky. November started out really rough, so it was good to just get away for a little bit.

Melody was by far the fun one, with lots of energy and chased around with the kids.

A Harry Potter store, it was closed, but it looked really cute! And the gang: Mel Travis Michele Bentli and Tate






Our awesome leaf fight. The kids saw the fire truck and were so excited when one of the firemen were Travis' friends and let them climb in the fire truck and hold an axe.

Ocean City

Last weekend jumped in the car and hit the beach! We decided we better take advantage of the nice weather while it lasted. Ocean City is only about an hour away from us, a pretty easy drive, but I don't think that I will ever get used to toll roads. It seems so foreign to have to pay to drive on the road. Anyway, I guess one of many things to get used to, but it was a small price to pay to enjoy the ocean and beach.
The weather was still kind of cool, so we didn't put the kids in their swimming suits. We waded in the ocean, chased birds, and played in the sand... ohh.. and mom got a nap! It was awesome, I could hang out there everyday all day. They were having an airshow there the next day and all the planes were out practicing for the next day, so we got a little bit of an airshow too. But, of course Jared can't sit still for too long, so we took a stroll along the boardwalk. We enjoyed so soft pretzels and water ice (it is similar to a slushy but not so watery, you can swirl it with ice cream and it is pretty dang good). We also had to get some salt water taffy that I must say was the best taffy I have ever had. Needless to say, you can eat yourself sick if you want to. The kids were exhausted by the time we left. It was a fantastic day trip and I left wanting to buy a beach house!


Jared and the kids on the boardwalk, it is off season so it wasn't very busy, best time to go.

This scenery makes me feel like I should have the kids dressed in sailor outfits, okay I wouldn't do that to them. But I really did love the fence!
After watching me squat down to take pictures with them, Tate feels like he should too.
Bentli enjoyed writing her name in the sand and collecting sea shells, she was pretty pumped when I told her she could take some home.

Our sandy little boy, it was when he sat down in the water that I decided we probably should have done the swim suits even though we weren't getting in. His shorts were drying and he ran around in a diaper. I guess that is how our parents did it, right?

Aunt Michele!!

We have been so lucky, my sister Michele decided to come and visit us after spending a month in Europe. I am so glad she made time for us in her vacation plans, otherwise I would have had to hunt her down! We were so glad that she came, we had so much fun. We began her visit by going to Sea World. Which is always fun, but it was a blast with Aunt Michele. We got to see all the shows, see all the exhibits, feed and pet the dolphins, play on toys, and Bentli was just tall enough to go on the Shamu Express (thank you for big shoes). To top off a perfect day, we ate dinner at Rudys!!

And of course we couldn't let the trip pass without taking Michele to the Alamo and Riverwalk. We enjoyed a beautiful day downtown, getting ice cream and hanging out. After Jared got off work we grabbed some burgers at Chris Madrid's, it was delicious!!

The next day we just hung out around the house. Michele dyed my hair (woo-hoo), its nice to have some change. We went to Toys R Us to pick out the kids' birthday toys from Grandpa Chris, a dump truck and My Little Pet Shop set. Michele made a birthday cake for Bentli so she could have a little early celebration with her. Bentli opened some presents from Grandma Connie, a wedding dress dress-up that was mine when I was a little girl, memories... Bentli liked it, but wouldn't wear it because it was too big, I tried to explain that it was okay, but she is as stubborn as her mom. We had a fun celebration day.

We were sad the day Michele had to leave, we got in a little bit more fun though and took the kids to Dynamoze in the morning. Tate had a blast playing basketball with his aunt. We were so glad that we got to spend some time with Michele, she is so much fun to be around. The kids followed her everywhere, they sure do adore her. I loved having my sister around and loved all the late night talks and all the great girl time!! We love you Michele and can't wait to see you again! Now if my other sisters love me as much as Michele does... they will come visit too! hahaha