Weekend Recap

It was another very busy summer weekend in Rhode Island and the Russells are exhausted! We crammed a lot of events into three days and the warm weather and lack of sleep have really taken their toll. Bob is currently asleep on the sofa "working from home," Madelyn is upstairs napping, and Jameson is passed out on the floor on his Winnie the Pooh couch. Aaaaah, the sound of silence!

Friday was a lot of fun. I spent the day with Brandee, who is all done with school for the summer and the kids were thrilled. We all went down to Gooseberry Island Beach to meet some friends. They really enjoyed showing Aunt Brandee how far they could go into the water. It's a remarkable change from last year, when Jameson would start screaming and squirming out of my arms as soon as my feet hit the sand. It was great and the kids had a blast until it started raining and we packed up and headed home for naps.

Later, we joined a bunch of other families from the mom's club at Narragansett Beach for the air show preview and it was awesome. I've lived in Rhode Island all of my life and somehow never knew about this, but the entire air show practice is on display over the water, kicked off by paratroopers landing on the sand! Jameson was in absolute awe and was adorable pointing out the planes to his little sister, who was glued to Brandee the whole time. (It's really cute; she's been waking up from her naps screaming "Brandee! E!!! Odin!!!!" over and over.) Anyway, both kids got soaked and sandy but were very very happy.

Next, we capped the night off at Amy and Chad's house where the kids ran around and played while Bob and I enjoyed some adult beverages and conversation. We left way too late, but it was a lot of fun. I love having so many friends with kids to hang out with; it's an awesome support system and they've all really begun to feel like family.









On Saturday night, we took the kids to see Water Fire in Providence, and as always, it was a remarkable experience. This one was especially fun because APC was sponsoring and had a corporate tent where we were served food and drinks and there were games for the kids to play. It was wonderful to get a chance to hang out with my friend Renee, a fellow APC wife, especially since Bob was bopping around talking to "work people," leaving me with two kids! Jameson missed Renee's son Ian, who was home with his Grandma, and spent the rest of the night asking me where Ian and Ian's mommy were. Madelyn, as always, acted like a starving child and devoured everything in sight--including a huge cone of cotton candy that my mom gave her (thanks, mom!) She kept taking off for the cotton candy machine and begging the guy for more. She stayed up in her bed talking for about an hour after we got home (after midnight again). It would have been really cute if I wasn't absolutely exhausted. (As a side note, I just wanted to add that Madelyn learned to RUN today and I am very very scared...)

We tried to have a mellow day of R&R on Sunday, but that, of course, did not happen. I did get to sleep in, but we were off to the beach again before lunch time, and as always, I'm glad that we went. Jameson became quite the dare devil in the water and will now wade in all the way to his neck! (He and Bodhi helped each other out on this one, playing a game of who can go out further with each other.) Madelyn spent most of her time eating and raiding Amy's food bag. I feel like half my day is spent shoveling food into this girl's mouth. Can you say growth spurt? Bob, who refused to wear sun screen so that he could get a "base tan," (and I'm not saying that in an I-told-you-so kind of fashion, just stating the facts) got absolutely roasted and could barely move by night time.

Next, we were off to Ryan and Rachel's welcome home party in Warwick and got to meet their adorable son Zachary for the first time. It was really nice to catch up with that group a bit; we haven't seen much of our Coventry crew in a while! Everyone is starting to catch up with us and there were babies (and thoughts of babies-to-be) all over the place!