Well, we survived May! And the first part of June… Holy cow I'm so thankful I came out alive. Because May. Was. Crazy! After we got back from Disney World we had a few days to recoup at home before Bruce and Mary came to visit us for 2 weeks. The first week they were here we had a belated birthday party for Lucy, we went shopping, went to the beach, swam a lot in the pool at the condo that they rented, explored Lincoln a little bit, stacked 4 cords of wood, made big elaborate meals at home and went out to eat in yummy restaurants.
Lucy had so much fun at her birthday party! Mary was so sweet to bring up all the toys from all the Gilley side of the family to let Lucy open, and Piper even got a few as well ;-) Lu also helped us bake her cake. She was VERY specific about what she wanted. She wanted round and square shapes and pink and purple frosting with flowers around it all. She helped us frost it and everything! Ha! It was fun :)
The day that we went to Hampton Beach was such a blast as well! We stayed there ALL day long and finished the day with some fresh "Lobstah". There's nothing better than a day at the beach! Bruce and Mary loved seeing New Hampshire's ocean and dipping their toes in :) Shawn and I dove into the water even though it is still frigid! It was so great that Shawn was able to take a week off of work just to play with us and spend all day with us!
On the day we went to the outlets we all got some goodies and it was nice just to spend the day together. I love shopping outlets because I always find the best deals! Haha, I'm such a bargain shopper. Also last week, we took advantage of Bruce and Mary having a condo that was only a mile or so away from our house and let the girls spend the night there for two nights while Shawn I just slept at home alone! We would put the girls to bed ourselves and then drive home and wake up to… Wait for it… Complete and utter silence. It was fantastic! We didn't really get to sleep in because our internal clocks are hardwired to wake up early (darn it) but waking up to the sound of silence is a beautiful thing. For 4 years now I haven't been able to do that; I always wake up to babies who’s demands start at sun up and end at sun down!
The next best part about the last two weeks was getting to go on a little getaway with my man! We went to New York City and The Hamptons! It was only a three-day trip, but it was the trip of a lifetime! We had planned on catching up on sleep and sleeping in really late, but when you find yourself in The City That Never Sleeps in without kids you decide to stay up extra late and indulge a bit… We stayed in the Financial District and had the biggest balcony off of our room and our OWN elevator into our room- it was SO cool! The first night we were in NYC we rented and rode city bikes all around until well past midnight. We even ate dinner at 10 o'clock at night! That is so weird…. am I right? Normally we eat dinner with Senior Citizens at 5 or 5:30 every night because we are slaves to our children’s schedules (Early Bird Special anyone??)… This weekend was full of freedom! And- oh my gosh- I needed it so badly! We rode all around the Financial District, Chelsea and Tribeca. We also walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, saw the Statue of Liberty and shopped Canal Street. It was so much fun! The last time Shawn was in The Big Apple we had the kids with us so he was carrying strollers up and down stairs all over the city and was sore for about a month afterwards… I'm not even kidding! To explore Manhattan without kids was so exciting for both of us! He's never done it so he had a blast and I've never done it with him so I had a blast too:-) We did all the things we weren’t able to do last time we visited (well, not all the things because New York would take weeks and weeks to do everything that it has to offer) and we didn't have a schedule! We just explored the city with no itinerary; it was so liberating and so much enjoyable to simply find adventures as we went!
We also drove out to The Hamptons because neither one of us had ever been and we probably will never have the chance to go again so we decided to make a day out of it. Oh. My. Gosh. There is no place in the United States more beautiful than The Hamptons. They have sprawling white sand beaches, huge beautiful houses, and the landscaping is gorgeous and impeccable. We were literally in awe of the beauty. However, most of The Hamptons is extremely exclusive and so we couldn't really do much while we were there other than sit down-town and people watch. While we were downtown, we were eating a sandwich when we saw Brooke Shields ride her bike right in front of us! She slowed down as she passed us ‘cause she was trying to look at the shop we were sitting in front of so she was facing me completely. She had no make-up on but she was absolutely gorgeous; like way prettier than she is with makeup!! We also saw Ellen Pompeo standing just a couple feet away from us (Meredith Grey from Grey’s Anatomy). When we parked our car, she was practically standing in the spot that we parked in so I snapped a couple pictures. Yesssss. But that was the only celebrity who was standing still long enough for me to whip out my camera, haha. We saw Bethany Frankel driving downtown , Howard Stern pulling out of his gated driveway, and George Segal like four different times just walking around downtown. He kept making eye contact with us! It was so crazy! Maybe he thought I was a celeb too ;-) HA! In my dreams…..Anyway, the town is dripping with money and it’s so quaint and clean! There are so many celebrities in The Hamptons because, like I mentioned earlier, it's so exclusive that it's probably the one place in the United States that they can walk around freely without being attacked by paparazzi. Even when we stopped on the side of the road to re-set our GPS to go home someone came up to our window to tell us that we were in a “membership only” parking lot! We did sneak onto a beach that said “permit only”… All the beaches are permit only! Even all of the restaurants and parking lots state that you have to be some sort of member or in some club to enter. Downtown is the only area with access for us “common folk”. Anyway, it's weird to walk onto a totally beautiful beach and only see one family for miles! They were probably mad at us because clearly we were trespassing… But I couldn't help it! I just had to dip my feet in the ocean so that I can officially say I've been to The Hamptons beaches! We’re such rebels…
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| See? It's Ellen Pompeo! |
But here’s where our fun ended….during our 5 hour drive home we hit one of the biggest, craziest, rain storms that I’ve ever seen, and one of the main highways from New York City was shut down (appartenly EVERYONE in NE is doing road construction right now) so only two lanes were open and we moved 9 miles in 90 minutes. Unfortunately, with the major highway shut down and the flooding rains, our 5 hour drive home turned into a 12 hour drive home… If you add in the five hours we stopped to sleep in a roadside motel in Connecticut, then our trip was really 17 hours. It was brutal! Yes, there was a lot of alone time for Shawn and I, but we just wanted to get home to our babies! It's funny how much you miss them so badly when you're away from them when just a few days before I couldn't even wait to leave them behind! Haha, I'm such a wimp. Thank goodness the girls weren't with us though, because Shawn and I were going crazy and I can't even imagine how bad it would've been if we had two kids in the backseat. I'm exhausted just thinking about it! It makes me even more grateful for the fact that Bruce and Mary were willing to watch our kids for us because we needed that getaway and it was so nice to know that we left our girls with people who love them and didn't mind spending an extra day with them (plus, they had fun! They went miniature golfing, baked cookies, dressed up and had a tea party and scored some new pool toys!- See pics below). I swear, every time Shawn and I travel somewhere we run into problems! I am so looking forward to staying home for a couple weeks!
Then this last week Bruce and Mary wanted to go see Maine. I never miss out on an opportunity to take a trip into Maine because I just am so in love with the state! Shawn has so much business there that we planned his work week around when they visited so that we could enjoy Maine with them while not using anymore of Shawn’s PTO. I am always amazed at Portland's beauty! And it's even more fun to show family members the things that I love. We had a lot of fun being tourists! We all went to Cape Elizabeth and saw the light houses and watched the ocean roll over huge rocks on the Coastline. So beautiful. I know I keep saying that, but once you visit Maine you'll understand what I'm talking about. After living here in seeing it all, I have decided that Maine should be on every person's bucket list! It's just too beautiful and majestic not to be. I was telling Bruce and Mary how much they would love it before they came, and after visiting they said that I was right and that it is the most beautiful place they've ever seen! It's definitely something that you should not miss out on in your lifetime if you can help it. Plus all the fresh lobster, mussels, clams, etc. is just one of the added bonuses to visiting here. In New England they don't purge their lobsters. They catch them and steam them right away to give them to you ultra-fresh. Sometimes you find some funky stuff inside the heads of the lobsters, but that's why you only eat the tails… Haha! When we first ate lobster in Maine I was so grossed out by the green goop that came out! Yes, it sounds gross, but it's so fresh and it's actually not bad for you so you just wipe it out go on eating that fresh lobster meat dipped in savory better…mmmmmmm.....
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| If you look close, you can see sailboats in the harbor behind Pi. That was definitely the prettiest park I've ever been to! |
We headed home this afternoon. Finally! I loved having company but I am so beyond tired! I haven't slept well in over two weeks and my eye has been permanently twitching for I don't even know how long! I'm just so tired! I'm ready to stay home and get the girls back on a routine. I know the first days home are going to be tough with them because they've been extra spoiled by their grandparents for 2 weeks (wink, wink). But the girls had so much fun with Grammy and Pawpaw. They keep asking when they're coming back and they've been so sad all day whenever I remind them that Grammy and Pawpaw are not in the hotel room next-door to us anymore. It was a fun few days to have adjoining rooms with them at our hotel. Shawn and I could just send the girls next-door whenever we needed a moment of quiet in the mornings! Haha! I totally took advantage of having extra help for the last two weeks… In fact, I think I became a lazy mom for two weeks! I only feel slightly guilty…;-) Now onto my long list of catch-up items I need to do… That's no fun, but the last two weeks were well worth it!
