September

We slowed down a bit in September, we still had a fun month! Chris doesn't get President's Day or MLK day off of work, but he does get a couple of 4 day weekend, such as Labor Day weekend! We took advantage of that, by planning a few activities around the great state of Massachusetts. We started the month with the family pictures that I posted a couple of posts ago. That same day we went kayaking for the first time as a family and it was the first time ever for Landon and I! We went in the evening and it was breezy, which made it cool. Poor Landon was under-dressed and since he was sitting on the bottom of the kayak, he was sitting in the water that was splashed in. He also couldn't sit up straight with the bulky life vest on. Poor kid was such a trooper though! We were gone for 2ish hours and he really only fussed at the end, but we stopped rowing and I fed him some snacks. For the longest time, he was dead silent and still so I wondered if he was even awake. He was, but he was just frozen in place! I didn't realize how close to the water you really are in a kayak. All the little splashes end up in the boat! We rowed towards downtown Boston and as we got closer, the river widened and got choppier with the wind and all the other sailboats, rowers, etc. We were definitely on the water with a lot of crew teams! It's so crazy how the high school teams even have boat houses and crew teams! We had a great time, besides getting cold and freezing our baby, and definitely want to do it again! It's a good upper body workout, which is a great plus too! This is a cute bridge by Harvard University. You can see a bit of the campus, which is so cool looking!

This spot is one of the places where you can be in a boat, under a train, under a car, and under a plane at the same time (and yes this area is in the Logan Airport's flight paths)!

(Sadly when I decided we should stop and take the camera out of the dry bag, we had missed the best city views:( Oh well, but you get the idea!)

The hospital where Landon was born. I loved the river views from the windows! Too bad I only had river views from the labor room and not the postpartum room, but there was a sun room at the end of the hall that had fabulous views!

Luckily Landon forgave us for the cold and the wet, and gave us some of the cutest giggles ever!
Peek-a-boo giggles from J M on Vimeo.
The next day we headed to Cape Cod for the day. Here's a bit of shocking news...we had lived here for 2 years and Chris had NEVER been to the Cape! WHAT?! Well we got a later start, so we got to the Visitor's Center in the early afternoon and found there were SO many things we wanted to do, but we just didn't have time during this trip so we picked a couple of things. We started out at the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. We liked the samples:)

Then we headed to the Bass Hole Boardwalk. Talk about gorgeous! The crazy long boardwalk stretches out over the marshland. We could see a few kayakers and the osprey nests. The long grass waved in the water and poked up here and there. It was so peaceful, all I needed was a hammock and an ice-cold lemonade in my hand!

Looking down into the water you could see how much marsh grass was growing! I think it's pretty cool looking.

At the end of boardwalk we had amazing views of the water and distant beaches!

Standing at the end and looking back.

After that we drove to Scargo Tower, a look-out point that is on the highest point of the cape. It's at the beginning of the Cape but you can see across the bay to Provincetown, the very tip of the Cape, on clear days!

Next, we drove to a beach...I don't remember which one...to see a lighthouse and some nature preserve.

Love the second picture in this! Chris was taking a nice walk and then all of a sudden some cold water splashed him! The face says it all.

 

 After walking along the beach, we drove down to Chatham. When I was 12 and we lived in Alabama, we spent one summer vacation at a house in Chatham. I still remember going to see the Chatham town band perform in a gazebo at the park, so  I wanted to experience that with my family.  It was different than I remembered, but it was so fun to listen to the music, and sing and dance along. A great family activity!

 

After the concert was over, we drove to my parents' house to spend the night. The next day we drove to Falmouth to take the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard. We had never been to any of the Massachusetts islands, so we wanted to visit the most famous! We spent the afternoon and evening on the island. I have to say that I probably would have enjoyed it more if we had had bikes, a car or were spending the night. We definitely saw a couple of fun things, but we also spent A LOT of time waiting for buses, so maybe if we had spent our time differently it would have been better? I don't see myself going back anytime soon, but here are a few of the fun things that we saw!

I couldn't believe how many boats were there! As we were waiting for our ferry we watched  all the other boats around.  Here are just a few, but there were hundreds docked in the water as well.

 I thought this was pretty amazing to watch the boat lifts delivering the boat to the people!

 This yacht in the back was gigantic!!!!At the back of the boat, on the top dock, there was a lift with a full size speed boat and 2 jet skis. We saw a couple of other yachts like that as well. I had never seen anything like that before!

 

Landon was ready to go!

 Pulling out of the wharf area and into the open water! Here we go!

Landon had some gigantic smiles as we started out on the top of the ferry, this picture doesn't show that, but I loved watching his hair blow in the wind!

 One of the best things we saw were these gingerbread cottages.

  

 

These cottages started out as tents and many of them still have the original poles as the four corners of the house.  This village started in the 1800s as a revival camp.  The tabernacle and churches still stand in the middle of the camp.  These cottages are near impossible to buy as they are passed down from generation to generation as a summer vacation home.  So interesting!

 

We walked around and saw the boats in water. Then we took a bus from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown.

 In Edgartown we walked around, got ice cream, and watched the little ferries that shuttle just a couple of cars at a time across the water to another part of the island.

 Landon needed a snack break and then we took a bus to a beach area right in between the two towns.

It was crazy to watch all the people bridge jumping!

After a day on the Vineyard, we took the ferry back to the mainland and headed back to my parents' house.

The next day we celebrated, belatedly, my mom's and Chris's birthday.

The day after that was Labor Day and we had a swim and barbecue day at my parents' house.

Landon and Papa

 Landon hates wearing hats! Because he has such a big head, that hat doesn't velcro around it too well, so it's pretty easy for him to take off.

Papa was helping Landon swim, and he's definitely a little fish (although his face says otherwise).

 

The following Sunday we took an evening walk with our friends the Browns in Concord. It was so peaceful, except for the bugs. I love living so close to so many historical sites. I really need to visit more of them and visit them often because I'm grateful for the sacrifice of others that allow us to live in the amazing nation!

 

Basically the monument says that on the spot across the river, on April 19th, 1775, the first casualty of the British militia occurred. And the monument was erected in 1836.

My parents were spending the following weekend in Chatham, the town in Cape Cod we visited earlier, and invited us to come. Sadly, we were so busy and could only join them for a few hours on Sunday. I didn't take very many pictures, but I got a few!

Mimi loves Landon!

At the end of September, Landon and I  joined our church playgroup on its annual apple picking fieldtrip! The best apples we've ever eaten have been fresh picked! Yum! One of my favorite parts of a New England fall!

 Landon enjoying his very first whole apple! He slobbered all over me and devoured this thing! He took it very seriously!

 He would get really mad when I took the apple way, so here he is pushing towards his mouth. He cried when I threw the apple away!

The best part of apple picking is eating! The fresh apple cider and apple cider donuts were AMAZING!
The last day of the month, my friend Lacey and I went to go see the JFK birthplace in the neighboring town of Brookline.  Deidre's sister, a park ranger, worked there and we wanted to see her tour. Deidre was so kind to watch our kids so we could go!

 This house was a couple of streets over and is the house JFK moved to when he was a few years old.

 Fall is here, even in the city!

 

Love these tree lined streets and these gigantic streets!