Summer Fun (and not so fun)

We're only one week into summer vacation and already we've had lots of fun. (And a lot more coming too!)

But first let's get the not-so-fun out of the way. The last week of school Aubree had a really bad fever all week long. There were no other symptoms until the third day, when we noticed this rash around her ear. It was really hot to the touch and extremely sensitive. So, I took her to the doctor thinking we may have a case of Lyme Disease. (If I were to choose the number one thing - and possibly the only thing aside from being far away from family - I hate about New England, it would be ticks that carry Lyme Disease.) So, the doctor checks her out and gives her antibiotics for cellulitis (a bacterial skin infection) and the paperwork to get tested for Lyme.

 Here she is after the blood draw for the Lyme test - poor sweetie.

We still don't have the results for the Lyme test, but the antibiotics for cellulitis made all the difference and she is back to normal. (The first dose of antibiotics cost us a lot of sweat and tears and about 30 minutes, but she's gotten very brave at taking her medicine.)

Next not-so-fun item to get out of the way. Three days ago I slipped and fell down a few stairs at our house and I've injured my tailbone. You never realize how connected every part of our body is until a part of it is damaged - it hurts to push or pull with my arms, bend, cough, sneeze, and it especially hurts at night when I'm trying to sleep. I'm a little bit nervous about our trip out west that's coming up - a lot of sitting in planes and cars...
(Unfortunately I don't have a picture of my backside to illustrate this portion of the post.) ;)

Okay, now for the fun stuff.
Miss Mary is the cross-walk lady at the intersection closest to our house. She became my friend and I always looked forward to seeing her each day. On Friday she invited all her cross-walkers to come to her house and enjoy her pool. We had such a great time!

 Isabelle, Aubree, Miss Mary, Carly, Ellie, Samantha, and Simron

After Aubree learned to ride her two-wheeler, Miss Mary gave her these streamers for her bike handles.

We went to the Chorus of Westerly Summer Pops concert in the park last Saturday. There are about 25,000 people at the park for a wonderful concert. They did a sing-along with the audience to a medley of the Sound of Music songs. At the very end the whole audience sings the national anthem with fireworks going off and the Newport artillery firing. It brings out my American pride and gives me the chills!

Now that our mornings are a bit more relaxed, we actually have the time to really get our zones done each day and so the house has actually been cleaner since the girls have been out of school.

An evening at Misquamicut beach with the Garrett's and Jensen's.

Right now we are at our "vacation home" (the West's home) in Mystic. The girls absolutely LOVE being here. (Pictures coming up in a future blog post.)

Festival Farm

There is a cute little farm not too far away called Festival Farm. They have several farm animals, including two new baby pygmy goats that are to-die-for-adorable!!! We went there a couple weeks ago and the girls each got to take a pony ride:

And just to see how far these two girls have come, check out this post - Carly and Ellie horseback riding.

Here's a funny story that happened while at the farm (told in Aaron's voice):
While at the farm, Carly asked me (Aaron) to hold her hand and run as fast as I could. I said, that's probably not a good idea because I'll pull you over. Carly said that I wouldn't pull her over and that she would run right alongside me. I gave in and grabbed her hand to start running. We took off and I wasn't running very fast and she said to run faster so I sped up. Next thing I know, Carly tripped over my feet and tumbled to the ground. I quickly stopped and turned around to see if she was all right. I asked her if she was okay and she didn't answer me. I walked closer to her and she picked her head up and with a look of terror in her eyes just stared at me, not making a sound. I then asked her if she got the wind knocked out of her. Again, no verbal response - just a look of extreme horror. Then, out of nowhere, a low bugle/moan squeezed its way out of Carly's throat. I picked her up and she still couldn't speak - just moan. I cradled her on my lap telling her it would be okay and that soon she would be able to breath again. (I couldn't help but laugh a little as she made her groaning sounds.) Finally, she took in a big gulp of air but could only manage to continue groaning for a few more seconds. Eventually her breathing returned to normal and she started laughing. Poor little critter was terrified.
Here we are laughing like crazy as we retell the story to Mom, Ellie and Aubree: