the end of it

Geesh. It’s Thursday. Really. The day before October. I feel like I’ve been sucked into a time warp and all of my days roll into one. I totally spaced a meeting I needed to go to last night and feel really dumb about it. But! We had a really good dinner. Indian food with naan. And a pretty good school day before that. I didn’t end the day thinking I would lose my mind. I thought I was doing so well– then I realized this morning I missed that meeting. Will I ever be a good, responsible grown up? Does someone have some magic responsible-grown-up-making dust? Sprinkle it on over here, please!

So, I need to wrap up these posts about our trip. I narrowed the remainder down to 19 photos. That makes for a long post, so I’m going to steer you over to my flickr for all of them and I’ll post a few here.

Here we are on the train into Boston. Hunter is on my lap now as I write this saying “nrain ride. nrain. nrain. choo choo…” and pointing. He really loved the train rides!

We saw all sorts of things in Boston that I don’t have pictures of. We walked a lot and it was wonderfully memorable. This is the Granary Burying ground where John Hancock, Samuel Adams, the victims of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin’s parents and someone named Mother Goose were buried. That’s a short list, of course. My favorite part of our walk around Boston was Paul Revere’s house, but we don’t have a single picture of it. I guess we were too interested in actually being there to take pictures. Sometimes that’s okay I guess.

After our day in the city we met Barry’s sister and her family at Salisbury Beach State Park for a camp out. It was too chilly for swimming, but perfect for playing and exploring.

Here is the dictator with his captive audience, Grandma. Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for an afternoon and Ian jumped at the opportunity to boss someone around rather than be bossed by bigger kids. He made up his own card games and water bottle bowling.

The tide went out along with the sun set, leaving us crabs to catch and colors to see.

We had fun campfire skits and sing-alongs and a laid back relaxing time thanks to my awesome sister in-law who borrowed sleeping bags and pillows and all that stuff we couldn’t fit in our luggage.

Then we headed to an orchard to pick apples and eat donuts.

We had a great trip. The kids were able to make memories with Barry’s family that they hadn’t seen in a long time and we all came home full of love for them and this beautiful world we live in.

The end.

a new SweetPod for the journey

Before our trip I received a little box of labels I had ordered with the SweetPod logo on them. (More about that very soon!) I was also in the process of perfecting my Saddlebag pattern. I just HAD to have a carrier and bag with the new labels, and it seemed trekking through the airport with all the kids in tow, along with all of the other things we had planned for our trip, would be the perfect opportunity to really test out the bag and carrier together and see if there was more tweaking to do. That, and I had some beautiful Anna Maria Horner Sketchbook fabric begging to be made into a SweetPod set.

I have to tell you that my SweetPod really made the whole trip that much better. With Hunter in the carrier and Ian in a stroller, getting through the airport wasn’t too bad. (I don’t think going through security with 5 kids will ever be enjoyable, though.) It was so nice to have my hands free, and my bag was just the right size for the necessary diapers, wipes, and board books. We didn’t take pictures in the airport, though, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say it made things easier.

We did take it just about everywhere else, though. Hunter had a safe, comfy place to see the view from the fire tower at Pawtuckaway.

We navigated the “T” (the trains and subways in Boston) with the Saddlebag attached.

And hiked 2 1/2 miles of the Freedom Trail to places like Faneuil Hall and Paul Revere’s house. (Did you know Paul Revere had 16 kids? I thought 5 was a lot of kids!)

We also made a trip to a farm near Barry’s sister’s home in Massachusetts with the toddler on my back some more.

I have to say that the Saddlebag passed the test with flying colors. Now to get those changes I made onto the pattern pieces in my computer and those pesky illustrations done. I need super human powers, I tell ya.

Oh, and did you notice the labels? I’ll show them up close soon.

The Huck Finn Cap

We interrupt the vacation chronicles with a very important post about a hat. Yes, I made a hat…

It’s a cute hat, is it not? When my friend Meg (Montessorian, pregnant with her second child, blogger and pattern designer extraordinaire) asked if I’d test a pattern for her I jumped at the chance. With a cover like this, who wouldn’t want to make one?

I originally wanted to make 4 hats, one for each of my boys. Could you imagine how irresistibly cute those pictures would have been– the four cutest boys that ever lived in cute caps? But the testing period ended up being the week before we left for New Hampshire, so I had to settle for one. Logan was the recipient. He’s my dresser upper accessorizer, and the middle child, so I thought he would most appreciate it.

I put it all together in an evening while the kids watched Old Yeller (they just finished reading the book). When I gave it to Logan in the morning he immediately donned it, pulled a Shel Silverstien book off the shelf, and performed an impromptu poetry reading for our listening pleasure.

The pattern is designed to fit sizes 6 months- 10 yrs. and was pretty simple to sew up. It’s got a comfy elasticized back and is fully lined.

So, if you’ve got a little head or two that needs covering this fall head on over to the Sew Liberated pattern shop and get your hands on the Huck Finn Cap pattern!

the New England trip part 2

Okay, are you ready for some pictures? I’m going to wrap up 3 days of our trip into one post. I uploaded something like 24 photos to flickr, but I can’t put 24 photos in one post. Click here to see all of them.

On Labor Day we had a family picnic at Lake Pawtuckaway. We had a lot of fun. My niece and nephew performed the cutest magic show ever,

(I love that a pencil was her magic wand!)

and the kids played in the sand and water.

It was fun to be with cousins and so fun to see how much they love and enjoy each other even though we haven’t been together in years.

Afterward our little clan hiked up the “mountain.” I guess mountain is a relative term. We live in Colorado. We know mountains.

I think what New Hampshire has are primarily hills. Very pretty tree covered rolling hills, but not quite mountains.

On Tuesday we visited Joseph Smith’s birthplace in Sharon VT. It was a beautiful day.

We got our own private tour of the grounds by a sweet missionary couple who seemed so happy to have a bunch of little kids around.

They took us too see all the old stone foundations through the woods in a golf cart. We JUST barely fit.

The next day was beach day. My favorite kind of photos are beach photos. I just love the shore. I love the rhythm of the waves as they pulse against the sand. I love the fresh, salty air. I love the magic of watching my children discover what the tide left behind. We got really, really lucky that day.

Can you see the eel in there?

I mostly just held Hunter and played with Ian and Grandma while Barry led the big kids through the tide pools. They found lots of sea urchins, some starfish, an eel, hermit crabs, green crabs… If you’re going to go tide pool searching once every few years you want to have a day like this!

Ian built a “snail catcher” with his shovel. Grandma helped him catch a snail or two by putting them in there for him.

That wraps it up for days 2, 3, and 4 of our vacation. Are you tired yet? The next day we took five kids through Boston. Now, THAT will make you tired!