the latest wells family antics

Unfortunately one of my oldest friends lost his father last week and I traveled back to Clifton Park to say goodbye.  James Mittler was my friend Steve's father, and I have memories of him back as long as I can remember sitting right behind us at Corpus Christi 10:30am mass.  It was a very nice couple of days with some of my best freinds from my childhood, with a few drinks, and a lot of stories told.  Even found time for Cari and I to drive by the old "hood" on Village View Bluff.

Today was the swimming test for all of the kids going for lessons at our pool.  They split them up into 4 groups with the little ones going at 9 am and the better swimmers going at 10 am.  Not very convenient for someone with a kid in each group!  Angela refused to even look at the instructor, but Richie jumped right in and was SO PROUD when he was told he would be in the "upper" class.  Angela was very happy to sit with the big kids and Richie was so glad to see his school friends Danna and Francesco.  I am determined to have both of my kids know how to swim by this time next year.  Hahahaha...I think that joke is on me!  We shall see.  Wish me luck.  First step, get both kids in the water with the instructor.

Our next stop on our Fourth of July trip is to Aunt Donna Jo and Uncle Hutch's house. After pulling out our red, white and blue it was time for fishing on the dock and playing with more cousins, aunts and uncles.  I didn't seem to get any good pics of my kids in their special outfits.  Aunt Erin???? The next morning we headed to their Beach Club for the races and the parade.  The kids did great (in past years they have not left the starting line) and were very proud of their medals.  We then sang all of the traditional songs and paraded around with Uncle Sam and our flags.  All of this was fun, but the kids just wanted to get back into the pool!    

Well it was finally here.....one of my favorite holidays of the year.  Next to maybe Christmas...I LOVE the Fourth.  It is always nice weather with lots of pool/beach time in Long Island.  My kids feel the same way because they are truly FISH!  They just love the water.  The first stop on our LI trip  (after a 5 hour drive down from Maine) was Uncle Leddie and Uncle Kevie's house.  These are their new names given by Rich.  He made them up while writing them a father's day card and giggles every time we mention it.  I think the names are going to stick. As you can see aside from swimming we were able to celebrate cousin Riley's 1st birthday with her.  We also met our new cousin Baby William.  This is my cousin Steven's first baby.  Who wouldn't love a holiday where you get to see so many cousins.  Check out these pictures......we have a lot of them!  And because it was the Fourth......sparklers!!!

We have decided to do a few projects around the condo and the first one started with getting our entry way floors refinished right before the Fourth.  Because we had to get out of the house we made a special trip to our friends the Shumway's house in Wells, Maine.  This is one of our favorite places in the world!  The best part of the trip this time was getting to spend time with our new friend Carly Nicoletta Shumway.  I maximized the baby snuggle time for sure!  The kids dug in the sand, splashed in the water, played sports and just ran and ran and ran!  They are so happy here their smiles are contagious.  There isn't a better way to relax.  Even Regina seems to smile!

Dawn took the kids out for a day adventure and they obviously had fun.  I take a lot of pictures to get the few good ones I keep.  For some reason the kids were all smiles this day and there were many more good pictures that I didn't pick to put up here.  First the kids went to the waterfront to catch the boat to Charlestown.  While in Charlestown they found a huge new playground that also has a water park.  They plan to go back there another day to get wet.  After taking the boat back to Boston they hit the Aquarium.  Not bad for one days worth of activities. 

So Chris and I were lucky enough to get away for 2 whole nights thanks to the generosity of Dawn and Erin and Matt!  They are amazing and boy did we enjoy ourselves.  We stayed at the Woodstock Inn in Vermont and relaxed and enjoyed the quiet.  We of course missed our little rug rats, but the spa and golf course helped easy our pain.  We enjoyed fancy dinners, slept in (until 7:30!), adult conversations and even hit the raquet and fitness club a few times. As you can see the kids had a blast while we were gone.  They watched 2 movies, had hamburgers for dinner (Richie's current favorite), hit the park and snuggled with Maggie.  Sounds like a win, win so we should plan again for next year.....