10 Aug
My summer visit to Massachusetts
Helping Grammy water the flowers
So we just got back from an awesome vacation with Grammy and Grampy in Massachusetts. 10 whole days. Mom and Dad were going up to help Mom’s friend Diane renovate her kitchen so they decided to make a vacation out of it and stay a little while. Plus, we had to bring my brother Patrick back home to see his Mom so the timing worked out great.
We arrived on Thursday night and went straight to Grammy and Grampy’s. And much to my surprise there was a big ol’ pile of Hot Wheels awaiting me. And on top of that, there was a motorized Tonka bulldozer/excavator too! Grampy you rock! Some Hot Wheels and some snacks and I’m set for a week (or two!).
Then, first thing on Friday we packed up the car and went to Plum Island in Newburyport. We met up with Mom’s friends Nanci and Charlie and their little girl Jordan. She’s 2.5. We had a blast running around in the sand, building sand castles, and jumping in the water. The water was a little bit cold, but not too bad for dunking. And I liked that Jordan likes playing with trucks too, just like me. If it hadn’t started to rain at noon we probably would’ve stayed much longer. So instead we headed home for naps and snacks. Fun day!
On Saturday me, Mom, Dad, Grammy and Grampy took a drive up to Kittery, ME to do some shopping at the outlets. Mom and Dad broke off from the group for a while, to do their own thing, so I decided to let Grammy and Grampy chase after me at the playground for a little while until they got too hot. After that I let them chase me around in the Kittery Trading Post. That’s where we met up with Mom and Dad again. They both got some cool tshirts there too….they said “Wicked Big Sox Fan” across the chest. And coincidentally, I picked out a Life Is Good tshirt (which Grammy promptly bought for me) that had a baseball on the front. And strangely enough, Dad bought himself (unbeknownst to me) the EXACT same tshirt. Copycat. – Saturday night we all piled into the car and drove to Merrimac, MA for dinner. Cool place called Skip’s Hamburgers. Really yummy. They make awesome curly fries. And you can sit and eat outside on the picnic table too, which is pretty neat. Not that Grammy and Grampy were digging that…but hey, I was. ;o)
On Sunday Dad and Mom finally left me alone for awhile with Grammy and Grampy. They took off to go start the demo at Diane’s house. And of course they wouldn’t let me help with that because I might get hurt. Blah blah blah…what-ever! I have skills! I had fun without them anyway. We had lunch, played with my cars, and got to swing outside for awhile too.
Monday and Tuesday were pretty similar since Mom and Dad were back at Diane’s house working on the kitchen.
Wednesday Dad actually had to go back to work. He was working from home for a few days while we were in MA. So while he was squirreled away in one of the bedrooms, Grammy and Mom went off shopping somewhere. That left me and Grampy to do some guy stuff. I’ll just let you figure that one out….
Wednesday night we all went over to Auntie Linda and Uncle Tommy’s house for a 2nd, 2nd birthday party for me. Yeah me! We got chocolate cake and ice cream. Eeee…… And lots of cool presents – some clothes, some Mega Bloks, and a kick-ass book called First 100 Machines. I can identify just about every vehicle in there already. Yes, I’m that smart! And Mom’s good friend Trish was there too. She was nice enough to give me a Target gift card, which I promptly used on a Mack Hauler semi truck, from the Cars movie. Wicked awesome!
So let’s see….that brings us to Thursday. On Thursday me, Mom and Grammy & Grampy took a drive up to Freeport, ME to visit the LLBean store. We left Dad behind again to get some work done, in peace and quiet. That was fun…NOT. Bo-Ring! Mom was acting like someone shot her out of a cannon….trying to get through the store as fast as possible, before I started to melt down, I suppose. And after all that driving, all she ended up with was a big LLBean tote bag. She was acting like she’d won the lottery though, so I guess it’s all good. When we finally left there we stopped at the Day’s Crabmeat & Lobster Shack just south of town, in Yarmouth, ME. Soooo good. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s up that way. Mom even got a whoopie pie from Cranberry Island Kitchen. I was going to say that it wasn’t nearly as good as my Mom’s homemade whoopie pies, but I wouldn’t be able to verify that since I was asleep when she ate it. Nice huh? And it’s shaped like a mussel shell, which is pretty neat too.
On Friday, me, Mom, Grammy and Grampy drove to Lawrence, MA to go to the New Balance outlet to get me some new sneakers. Yes folks, my feet have grown AGAIN. I’m now in a size 10.5-11, for those of you who were wondering. This time I got 3 new pair. An 11, an 11.5 and a 12. All wide! You know what they say about boys with big feet. ;o) – On the way home from Lawrence we drove to Kingston, NH to see Marci Marciano, my Mom and Grammy and Grampy’s old neighbor. Well…she’s not old…I guess I should say ‘former’ neighbor. She used to live in the house across the street. I got to play with her kitty cats for a while, until Grammy’s eyes turned red and started to close up. That was the sign that it was time to go home. And since we were driving right by Skip’s Hamburgers we got to stop for some more curly fries. Yahoo!
When I woke up from my afternoon nap on Friday I got to see Donovan and Sophie, Auntie Sarah’s twins. They came all the way from CT just to see me. We walked down to the end of the street and played at the playground for a little while….had a few nice photo ops too while we were there. After playing for a while Mom and Dad had to run off to Diane’s house again for some touch-ups so I hung out with Grammy and Grampy for the rest of the night.
Saturday morning was fun. We followed Sarah, Donovan and Sophie to Maudsley State Park in Newburyport, MA. Took a little hike through the woods and played in the field for a while. But even better than that we went to downtown Newburyport after that and had ice cream at Gram’s. And then later that night I hung out with Grammy and Grampy again so that Mom and Dad could have a date night….their last, I’m sure, for a long long time. :o) They ended up going to The Upper Crust in Newburyport, which they said was awesome, by the way.
So that’s it in a nutshell. Had a blast…wish we were there for longer. So much to see, so little time. Next year, Santa’s Village!
