Non Beach Beach Vacation

We're not really beach people. And by we, I mean me. And probably Rob, too. The girls are TOTAL beach people, but since they rely on us to get them to the beach they don't get to be beach people.
So, when we go to the beach to visit Grandma, we don't really spend that much time at the beach.
Which is all just a long-winded way to introduce these photos, which occurred during our vacation, but have little to do with the beach...

Okay, this probably LOOKS like a beach and it is called Sunset Beach, but we're not hereto swim, we're looking for Cape May Diamonds. We found a couple too (in the gift shop). Here Uncle Dude shows the girls what to look for (a Cape May Diamond is naturally polished quartz):

Grandma helped look for the Cape May Diamonds, too. Does anyone else see a jolly old elf in this picture (I swear that's not a mother-in-law joke!) Now we know where Santa vacations!:

 Again, we're at the beach but NOT swimming. This is Reed's Beach where we go every year to watch the sun set over the bay:

Zoo camp is still the girls' favorite part of this vacation. The Cape May County Zoo offers camp that runs in the morning, giving the girls something to do while their aunt and uncle (but unfortunately not their parents...) sleep in. This year the girls got a very up close look at the baby snow leopard cubs at the zoo.

We celebrated Uncle Dude's birthday with cheesecake and singing:

Aunt Linda brought the girls back these awesome and authentic flamenco dresses from Seville, Spain when she was there in June. To say the girls loved twirling in them is an understatement:

Aunt Linda and the girls in their outfits. Aunt Linda also did their makeup for them so she is a total rock star:

 Lizzie dancing like a crazy flamenco dancer:

Hannah in a (rare) quiet moment:

Lizzie getting chased by seagulls at Reeds Beach:

Sunset at Reed's Beach:

Moonrise on Reed's Beach:

 Lizzie playing checkers and eating an ice cream cone -- always the multi-tasker!

 Ice cream  parlor fun:

It wasn't all fun and games though, as Uncle Dude taught the girls to drum. (Big sigh.)

 Cash (who always gets to go on this vacation) was on duty guarding our dinner:

 Hannah with Catzilla, a neighborhood cat who loves people but NOT other cats:

 Trevor and Cash hoping that Grandma or Rob drops something while cooking dinner:

Unfortunately, the sun did eventually have to set on our vacation. A great time was had by all:

This is my "official" Reed's Beach sunset photo!

Beach Vacation

This is one of two posts about our glorious vacation at the shore. The weather was gorgeous (went from too cold for the beach to heatwave!), the company was grand and the behavior was ... well, let's just stick with the good stuff, okay?!

This is my new favorite picture of Hannah and Liz. This was on our first day at the shore. We always go to the beach after dinner and the girls always seem to go in with their clothes on. So I took some photos of them jumping for joy that vacation had  begun:

We actually remembered our beach umbrella this year. YAY! We always go to 101st Street in Stone Harbor , which is the same beach that Rob went to when he was a kid. This year Grandma, Uncle Dude and Aunt Linda didn't join us at the beach. :( But we had fun anyway because the water was warm and the waves were awesome AND there were no beach inspectors to force us to buy beach tags!

You'd think the digging in the sand thing would get old after nearly 10 years, but it's still a favorite. Unfortunately while we were patting ourselves on the back for remembering the umbrella we were hanging out heads in embarrassment that we didn't remember all our beach digging stuff. So we went to WalMart and Rob spent $2 for these lovely buckets.

This is Hannah's Sand Art:

The waves were great for boogie boarding -- probably because Debby was lurking somewhere in the ocean.  Trust me, you rarely get three waves in a row like this in Stone Harbor unless it is actually storming. So both girls took advantage:

Here they are riding a small wave into shore. One of Lizzie's friends from zoo camp taught her to body surf later in the week, but I didn't get any picture of that. She had so much fun doing it that she didn't get out of the water for the whole 2-plus hours we were at the beach:

There's a boogie board in there somewhere ... but I just liked Lizzie's crazy face:

As you can see, the waves were pretty big this year. Here's Rob saying Hello to Hannah and Goodbye to his sunglasses. :( I believe the sunglasses were the only casualty of the trip, so that was a very good (albeit expensive) thing:

Next up are our non-beach shore photos!

Way Back Wednesday

In honor of Way Back Wednesday falling on the 4th of July I am offering this picture of my very patriotic mom.
I don't know anything about this picture except that my dad wrote on the back that it's mom during a parade in Somers, NY.
My guess is that it was probably taken during the late 1990s  but that's just a guess - I do think it's a great picture though, whenever it was taken. (EDITED TO ADD -- Dad thinks this picture was taken in the early 1980s when Mom was on the Somers School Board because of some of the people she's marching with!)
When I think of mom, this is almost always how she looks in my memory -- smiling, waving a flag, enjoying herself!

Way Back Wednesday

Since I'm vacationing at the shore I thought I'd post a Way Back Wednesday taken at the shore.
This picture was taken at my bridal shower in 1994 at The Doctor's Inn. We were the first people to have any sort of event there (the house had been a private residence that had fallen into serious deterioration and it had been bought by a doctor the year before and extensively renovated to be a bed and breakfast/restaurant and it was well  known that I loved the place and had written a couple of stories about the renovation).
The story goes that I refused to go to my shower, but that's not entirely true.
I did refuse to go to The Doctor's Inn because I was told that a salesperson at the Cape May County Herald (where both Rob and I worked) was going to be selling them an ad and we were going to tag along and beg for a tour of the new bed and breakfast.
Well, I didn't think that it was appropriate that I just TAG ALONG when a co-worker was trying to sell an ad. So I said No Thank You when my then fiance brought it up.
Of course there were a dozen or so of my closest friends awaiting my arrival and since it was a SURPRISE shower,but I didn't know about it.
(And in case you're wondering how I was able to be surprised -- since I am so nosy -- it's that my sister Tally was traveling out of the country that weekend, so I assumed that my surprise shower would be when she returned, so even when my very unsocial husband started insisting that I go on this impromptu tour with him I didn't catch on.)
The good news is that eventually Rob was able to change the story to say that we WERE invited to take a tour of the place, so I agreed to go.
And when I got there, a dozen or so of my friends and family yelled surprise and we commenced with shower fun.
Plan B was to have my mom come over to my house (which was only about a quarter mile from the Doctor's Inn) and surprise me there and then take me to the shower.
It was a lot of fun and the place was wonderful. It's a great memory and I think of it every time we're at the shore (and the girls know that's where I had my shower, too, although they are still unclear why something is called a shower when there is no water involved...)
Oh, I could have also posted a picture of the cake which had the sentiment: Best Wishes Tracy and Tom. Yes, my husband's name is Rob (or Bob or Robert or even Sparky) not Tom. Some creative frosting re-arranging fixed that problem. Oh and the air conditioning wasn't working yet and it was summertime ... but we managed with fans and lots of iced tea.
All's well that ends well though. I was surprised and had a great time.

Here are Aunt Tina, Shelby and Aunt Anonymous (and me, with the lovely corsage!) during the luncheon. As you can see I got all dolled up for the impromptu tour. :(

Way Back Wednesday BONUS

I know that I skipped a week with the WBW but it's all good because today you get TWO photos. Yay You!!

Here's the first:

This is a picture of Aunt Anonymous, 7, me, 6, Martha Thomas (our sort of cousin), 4 and Terry, 5. It was taken on July 21, 1965.
I know all of this because this photo is one of only a handful that is actually labelled. And the reason it is labelled is because Cousin Martha's mother (Aunt Ann) took the time for posterity to know who is in the photo (seriously I have GOT to label photos!). I have got to give props to Aunt Ann because just looking at the photo I would have said that I was a couple years younger (but then I have always looked younger than I am ... ahem...) or that this was the next summer when we were sent to Weymouth because the twins were born.
We used to see the Thomases (childhood friends of my mom) a lot when we were younger, but once we stopped spending a lot of time in South Weymouth (we spent several weeks there each summer when we were in elementary school) I don't recall seeing them. I do know that Aunt Ann and Uncle Wayne are Terry's godparents and I believe that Uncle Wayne has passed on. I have no clue where Martha is ... maybe Aunt Brenda knows! I think this photo was taken at the Thomas' house, too, as Ging Ging would have lived on Great Republic in 1965 and this isn't what the door looked like, to my memory.

And since "the twins" have a birthday on Friday I thought I'd enclose this photo of them trying to kill my cat, Bob. I use the term "my cat" rather loosely because I had the cat in my custody for about six months before the super in my apartment discovered my illegal pet ownership and Bob (her name was actually amaretto bobcat in case you were wondering) went to live in the country with my parents. Then when I moved to New York a few months after that my mother told me that Bob had become a country cat (even though she had never been outside) and that she could not live in the city. She lived about another 17 years in the country, despite the jealousy of her siblings T.A.  and Tina who, as I mentioned already, were trying to kill her in this photo.
Judging from the size of T.A.'s fro and Beanie's Farrah Fawcet "wings" I'm going to say this photo was probably taken in 1983 or 1984, in the front yard of our house in Somers. I have no idea what the cat was doing outside because when I got her from the ASPCA shelter I had to swear that I'd never let her go outside because she was born without a tail, thus making her defenseless in the wilds because she could not climb trees. It never deterred her from walking on the railing of the stairs though.

 PS: Happy birthday T.A. and Bean!!!

Spring Photos

I cannot believe that school is over for the year (has been since last Thursday!) and that we are already in the summer groove (fight, go to pool, fight, eat dinner, go to pool, fight, go to bed...)
Here are some photos from random spring events (not in chronological order)...

I took this picture the first time we had a picnic at Pool Forge. It's a horse. :)

The girls' dance demo was in June. It was the weekend after the pageant weekend, so I had a mental block about inviting anyone to it. They were great, as usual, and are more into the technique of ballet this year. 

I took these photos at the actual performance. If you come to my house I can show you the video but since they made the TRACY ANNOUNCEMENT in which they tell everyone that video is not allowed to be shown on the internet under any circumstances whatsoever, including relatives who live far away and can't get to the show. So, I am abiding by the rule, even though I think it's overkill.

After the show with their flowers:

This is the picture I submitted for the photogenic category at the modeling contest. Lizzie won first place -- which I think makes ME a winner, too, since I took this photo...

I volunteered at the 3rd grade picnic this year. There were all sorts of games and snacks and a good time was had by all for the hour they were allowed to picnic. Here is Lizzie eating something:

And here she is hula-ing a bunch of hoops:

Hannah having a snack with her BFF Phoebe:

And getting her face painted:

I also took my Brownie troop roller skating for a year-end party. My troop swelled to about 20 girls for much of the year, but by the end I think I had only 17 active members. It was a really fun year and the roller skating really capped it off, although it was hot in the rink, which is pretty much as it was in the 1970s, including the disco ball and solid rock walls. Here's Lizzie taking a break:

Hannah and Lizzie with their pals Keira and Maura:

Hannah gliding along. Lizzie went waaaaay too fast for me to get a picture of her moving:

Here's a picture I found from the pageant weekend. It wasn't all hair-dos and nail-painting. There was a great pool and I took the girls there to relax. It was right next to the arcade, so we had to go relax in the arcade, too:

We also met the 7 Springs Mountain Resort mascot one morning. He's the one in the middle:

We also had fun with our hamsters. Here's Cinnamon (I don't think she's been on the blog before because she spends most of her time hiding in one of her tubes.) Hannah is able to hold her now so we think she is getting tamer. She is most certainly getting fatter so she can't run as fast, away from Hannah.

Sunshine continues to be very tame and very adventurous. In this picture she's earning her keep by checking Lizzie for ticks.

 

And here's something you don't see very often, a picture of Hannah and Lizzie and ME! This was at the Leader-Daughter (a girl scout thing) event with our service unit. We learned to country line dance:

So this is something you REALLY never see on the blog ... ME DANCING!! It was a lot of fun and I managed to get through most of the dances!

 Finally, Rob discovered a nest of baby rabbits in the backyard when he was cutting the grass (these rabbits fared MUCH better than the other rabbits he discovered while cutting the grass at our old house....) We looked at the rabbits (there were five of them) for about two days before they hopped away. A few days later we saw them in the woods in our backyard with their mom so we new they were okay!)

Way Back Wednesday

I think many of you have seen parts of this picture, but this is the full shot of the day that has come to be known as "the night Tracy did not go to the prom when her two sisters did..."
Okay, maybe it's only ME who calls it that, but this is Aunt Anonymous' senior prom, which would have been my junior prom. But no on asked me to the prom. So instead I acted as family photographer and made sarcastic comments to myself.
This prom was attended by AA and her date Paul, who happened to be the captain of the football team.
And then my sister Terry was accompanied by a kid named Kevin who was in my grade and had starring role in the spring musical. Terry was a freshmen. When I look at this picture I can really see how much my nephew Casey looks like her.
The middle couple were friends of AAs and mine. The girl is Lori who was friends with Aunt Anonymous and the boy is Dave who was friends with me at this time but the next year became my sworn enemy when he was named editor of the school newspaper instead of me because, according to the English Teacher, girls were not newspaper people.
But I digress ... I don't have much to say about prom because I didn't go (see paragraph one) but I assume a good time was had by all. For some reason I have a vague memory of going to school the next morning and seeing some of the prom-goers come to school still in their prom finery, but I don't see how that was possible unless prom was on a Sunday, which may have been the fashion in the 1970s. It was during regents, so I suppose it was possible, but I probably dreamed it, as I often dream of prom...
Oh, and here's some good news. The next year I wore Aunt Anonymous' prom dress for the chorus concert which means 1) It fit because I had lost 75 lbs and 2) I looked spectacular. :)
Oh, and don't worry about me never going to prom. I went to a local carnival instead and won a giant teddy bear or snake and saw the woman who played Rachel on "Another World" which was my favorite soap opera at the time, so it was a win for me, too.