A Day in Nantucket

On June 22nd, Abram and I flew from Barnstable, MA to Nantucket. This is the plane we flew in.

Seven years ago, Abram and I had celebrated our 10th year anniversary by spending a few days on Martha's Vineyard. I have always wanted to go back. We hadn't done anything for our 17th anniversary. When Abram suggested we fly to Nantucket and spend a short day there I was estactic!

The flight was only 20 minutes long. The plane was a 10 passenger plane. For those of you old enough to remember the show, the airport in Barnstable looked just like the set in Wings. Once we landed we walked a good mile and a half to a bike shop to rent bikes so we could bike around the island. During our stay in Martha's Vineyard we had brought our bikes on the ferry. Even though we had our bikes at the beach house, we could not take them on a plane!

Right outside the airport in Nantucket there is a small park. This statue and a few others were central in the park.

I called this one Dreams. I noticed that there is a smaller statue of a boy at the base. I believe he is imagining flying on a paper airplane. I also think this is a statue that represents Abram. Riding on the plane rekindling his desire to fly again. We've been home two weeks and he has already taken one 2 hour flying lesson and done remarkably well.

The second statue that caught my attention was this one with all the kids climbing on it.

We rented bikes at Island Bike Co. and went into the center. I had to take this picture of Aunt Leah's Fudge.



Nantucket has a great bike trail loop. We headed into Siasconset and took a small detour to check out this light house. The houses along the way were amazing! A discussion of owning a plane and flying places began along the road from this lighthouse.


In Siasconset we stumbled upon a beautiful restaurant for dinner. We sat outside for lunch. Notice Abram in the far right corner table. That was our table, private, quaint and romantic.




I had to take the picture of the rooster weather vane on the roof and the carousel horse in the yard. It was a Portuguese restaurant. Absolutely, amazing food.

Check out the rooster shaped rock!

After lunch we continued around the island and visited Pocomo Head. The beach just ends at the point you see. There are several points like this inside the Head of the Harbor.

Our day ended biking back to the airport and catching a afternoon plane. The bike company we rented from was great. They do free pick up from where ever you leave the bikes. This allowed us to bike right to the airport. It is great to walk into an airport 6 minutes before the flight leaves and make it on the plane. Actually the woman who sold us the tickets in Barnstable in the morning also checked us in at Nantucket in the afternoon.

We came back to the cape and the kids and told them this, "We've decided that if none of you go to college we can buy a plane and a vacation home!" We are only half kidding.

Cape Cod Visit 1

On June 20th we went to West Yarmouth for a few days. Over the following two weeks we commuted back and forth from Shrewsbury to the cape, saw many relatives, flew to Nantucket for a day and spent time with the Leibigs at our house. I took many photos, no surprise there, and will split the events up into several separate blogs.

So, Cap Cod 1:

We drove down Sunday and spent until Wed evening at the cape. At this point in the week it was just Marie, Chip and Marita at the house. Abram has a co-worker who owns the house we stayed in. The house is at the end of a dead end street; a short walk to the beach.

This is view from the back of the house. There was a shallow inlet behind the house.

Willie gets a hair cut so often he will lie still in this chair for Marie. I cannot believe he could be this still!

Rachel and Abram enjoying some food on the back deck. The weather was wonderfully hot.

A sea gull has caught a water snake. I took this picture because I thought it was unbelievable. I soon learned that this picture would prove to the adults that the kids were telling the truth.

One of Willie's favorite spots was to hang out with Tobin while he read. Tobin is reading the driver's manual.

Monday afternoon, Chip, Marie and Marita went on a whale watch. Our kids didn't want to spend 4-5 hours on a boat so we walked around Provincetown and went to one of the national seashore beaches.

One of the blocks was this board painted with head cut outs. It was perfect for the three girls.

While we were in Provincetown, Tobin was running on the bike trail. It was tricky to find him safe places to run 6+ miles daily at the cape. We usually drove him to a bike trail.

Here he is trying to cool off in the sand after his run. He has a summer goal of 500+ miles before he travels to CO the last week of Aug to run with his cross country team. He's well on his way.

Here are Sarai and Carmen playing in the water at the National Seashore.

Rachel and Abram went in too. I think I feel asleep on sand for a bit.

my beach beauties

As we were leaving we noticed black seals swimming off the shore. I learned later that seals and whales are often spotted after 5pm from the National Seashore beaches. We were lucky. I think we saw three swimming together at one point. I didn't have my EOS camera which has a better lens, but this picture is for the memory.

Tues, Abram, chip and I went for a bike ride along the bike trail. We began in Dennis. This is us at the end. We took our single bikes to the cape.

The beach near the cape house is very shelly. There was a family that had made this heart from the shells they had collected. I thought it was a beautiful picture to capture.

Stayed tuned for more pictures.

End of the Year Celebrations

School ends tomorrow for us in Shrewsbury. My kindergarten class was over on Wed! I am looking forward to a relaxing summer. I'm sure it will still be very busy, but our sport schedule is much less which means I can garden and sew and exercise!

The end of year is filled with field days and celebrations for middle and elementary school.

The week began with Sarai having her field day on Monday. She slept over a friend's house so I don't have pictures of her. She was on 8 Blue. I found a few pictures of her on facebook. Technology is amazing.

She's here with her good friend, Michelle.

Here's Carmen dressed for field day. She was on 6 Green this year.

Wed was Rachel's author celebration. Her teacher, Miss Tougher, had them do multiple research papers at the end of the year. Rachel is holding up a desktop she created on Phylis Wheatley.

This is the cover for her other research paper. She researched wild cats and created her own non-fiction book.

After the celebration, the kids went outside to have popsicles and received t-shirts to sign.

The signing begins!

and more

and more

Here is the class.


This is Miss Tougher and Rachel. We have enjoyed the year with her. Rachel came into her class loving to write and has left a writer.

The 8th graders went on a Boston Harbor cruise Wed afternoon as part of their graduation celebration. She's here with Bill and other friends.

Today, Thurs. June 17th, Sarai graduated from 8th grade.

Sarai is in the chorus. The chorus sang during graduation.

This is Bill McKenna, Sarai's boyfriend.

Ms. G and Sarai. Ms. G was Sarai's LA teacher. They had a great connection this year. We will miss you Ms. G!

Sarai plays basketball with all of these girls. It is great to get a picture of them looking beautiful.

Kristen, Sarai, Taylor, Elizabeth, Michelle and Cally.

Congratulations to all my kids for finishing off another year and doing well! I don't have any pictures of Tobin from this week. It was finals at the high school.

Happy Anniversary and Welcome Sierra

June 12th was my anniversary. It has been 17 years!

It is also now my niece, Sierra Paige Dancy's, birthday!

Isaac brought Aidan to my house around 11am on the 12th. Jenna wasn't in labor, but her water had broken and we were all waiting for the "baby" to arrive. It was a rainy day so we played a bunch inside. Here are some pictures of Aidan having fun at my house.

Aidan loves books.


we took Aidan to the attic and we found this great drill! He played with it the rest of the weekend.


Aidan knew to use the drill on the screws in my play tool box. I had to unscrew the screws many, many times.


Isaac brought Aidan's bike to the house. Due to the rain all riding occured in the basement. This didn't deter either him nor Rachel from having fun.


He did discover a new trike that he insisted on riding much of the time.




We found out that Sierra was born at 11:34pm via text from Isaac. I love that our god daughter was born on our anniversary!

Here she is:

We brought Aidan and Rachel to meet Sierra early on Sunday morning. I was able to see her open her eyes. They are dark. I don't think they are going to stay blue like Aidan.

Sleeping beauty.

Here's Aidan holding his sister for the first time.


We left the hospital at 10am and came back around 1:30 with the rest of our children. Everyone wanted to hold her. I took pictures of everyone. At some point there should be a picture of me with her too.

Tobin and Sierra

Sarai with her

Carmen's turn

Rachel holding her


Marita's turn


She is just beautiful! Nice job Jenna and Isaac! She looks a lot like Sarai did as a newborn.



Aidan came back to my house later on Sunday so Isaac and Jenna could eat dinner together. While he was at my house he and Rachel had bike races down in the basement.

The trike became a tandem.

Rachel also used my old roller skates to race Aidan on the trike.

This picture of Rachel makes me laugh. the only way she can ride the trike is by sitting in the bucket. I think this is how the tandem came to be!

Then they came upstairs. Rachel loves to sit on my balance ball and bounce on it. We gave Aidan a soft soccer ball to do the same. He is vigorously bouncing on the soccer ball.

Welcome to our family Sierra. You are so loved. We enjoyed having Aidan with us. I am so happy that everyone is doing well.