May Day! Part 1

Am I really doing this? Really? Going back to over a month ago to post? Yes. I am. I certainly keep this Blog to let you (the anonymous friend or family member) "up to date" on fun news with our family, BUT I also keep this Blog as an archiving tool, and thus I refuse to let the following series of photos just melt away into a small folder on a large hard drive never to be showcased!

The long (this post will be very long) and the short (I will not be writing much other than captions to my numerous photos) of it is, in the beginning of May, we had a girls adventure. My mom, me, my daughters, my sister and sister-in-law. Destination: Truro-a small town down the end of Cape Cod, MA. My mom has serious family history on Cape Cod. My great-grandparents lived there, my grandparents met, courted, and got married there and then my mom and her siblings grew up spending their summers there...not just a couple weeks either, but the whole summer. Lots of stories, lots of sentiment, LOTS of memories, but by the time I was born the family properties had been sold and "the Cape" was a mostly unfamiliar place to me. Mostly unfamiliar in the five senses, but very familiar in my imagination as my mom used to tell us the most fantastic tales and family lore about this magical land of scrubby pines and endless dunes. ALL that to say, the Cape is very special to my marmie and when she had the idea to celebrate her birthday and Mother's Day this Spring by renting a house and crashing for a week with her girls in Truro, I was all for it!! We trekked up with little ladies in tow, Hannah trekked down for the long weekend, then Keri joined us for our final two days. It was truly truly a wonderful time. Here are some highlights!

Nani's Birthday was the day after we arrived. It was sunny, beautiful, and we made french toast with sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice in lue of the maple syrup that I forgot...delish. I personally think everyone should be served breakfast in bed on their birthday.

The rest of the Birthday was spent tooling around to a few of those magical places like this one: the Pamet River.

We also visited the gravesite of my grandfather and great-grandparents and my mom's younger sister. It was M's first experience at a graveyard and she thoughtfully picked and displayed the below items. My grandfather would have loved to know my girls.

We shared some tears and cleaned up some leaves then headed on back to the house to await Hannah's arrival. That evening we celebrated with champagne and chicken basted in champagne, mushroom risotto, and fresh roasted asparagus and this sunset. Happy Birthday! Love, God.

The next morning broke cloudy and chilly. Really chilly.

But...we managed to keep cozy one way or another. We lounged and read and drew faces on a few balloons in lue of dolls for M...when in a rental house you do a lot of in lue. And then at some point after naps and a rainy trip to the grocery store we decided to keep celebrating Nani and make her a real cake...a real family cake...chocolate with peppermint icing. M even helped!

We certainly don't mind a birthday spread over TWO days!!

 

The rain brought in cool and blustery weather, but then just left us with cool and blustery. Our next day we went to the very tip of the Cape, Race Point. It was wildly windy and magnificent. The ocean was dancing with whipping white caps and we danced around to keep warm. The view off the dune path:

M decided to take off on a little journey through the dune grasses...

And then Jackie Kennedy retrieved her.

During naps that day, Hannah and I took a walk to the closest beach access to our rental house. It was about a 4 minute stroll through a sleepy neighborhood, to a little path and then you came out...looking at THIS!

Then you had to hold your breath to descend THESE!

All 67 of them! Well, worth it I'll say. Glorious beach and mostly empty.

Another spectacular sunset from our balcony that evening. I reveled in being able to see a big sky for a week. Not only was our house a typical beach house with a switched floor plan (kitchen and living space on top), but at the beach trees just don't grow very tall so the views of sky were huge. A gift.

The next day my grandmother (Mom's mom) came down for the day. We were able to explore some great off-the-beaten-path places and even dabble toes!

Sophie thought her G-GMa was peechy keen!

They bonded quickly.

We walked through the woods to reach this cut-through connecting two huge freshwater ponds. I felt like I was somewhere close to Rivendell in Middle Earth.

Love shadow plays!

86 year-old toes that splashed at this same pond at the age of 14.

And to share it with daughter, grand-daughter, and GREAT-grandaughter!!! A special day.

At this point, I'll be totally honest, my days are running a bit muddled...we did spend a lovely morning in Provincetown. Choosing a dozen salt-water taffies was a definite highlight...

As was seeing this view of low tide on our way home after a scrumptious lobster roll for lunch.

Another sunset from "our beach" (the one close to our house) and you can see the Provincetown monument peering up on the left.

We bade farewell to Hannah and Grandma and after naps on Monday, we went over to one of Mom's favorite beaches, Corn Hill. The wind had died down to a whisper and for some reason (use your imagination here) Michaela was fresh out of clean pants. So I wrapped her in my Pashmina shawl tarzan-style and we wandered the beach. It was a beautiful evening.

Mom took Sophie so I could do some sand art and take pictures. A simple joy. Sophie, obviously, didn't mind and actually found the shallow lapping wavelets to be quite riveting.

She stared at the sea with this expression for a good 15 minutes. Oh! what a contemplative little bundle!

That evening Keri found her way to us and we enjoyed another two days of frolicking with her. She has quite the gift of giggle and Michaela LOVED playing with her!

And cooking with her:

Whee!!!

So FUN!

Finally...this trip was our first experience with M in a "big-girl-bed" and she did SO well. I was more than pleasantly surprised! Here she is right before I woke her up to drive home, because I had forgotten to take any other pictures of her in it.

All in all...such a fantastic week. I feel very blessed by the beauty of family and creation on display here. Joy...and so worth going back to remember!