A Family Vacation Friday - Sunday

We left at 2:30 on Friday and made it to Frystown, PA before we had to stop. There was a huddle house and there were Amish people in Frystown. The Amish people eat at the cold cold huddle house and stare at babies, or at Dolly anyway. 

The next stop was the best western in Danbury, CT. Nothing much to report there except we had to kind of sneak the 4 children in and they had the coolest pancake maker machine that dropped batter and cooked the pancake all by itself. The children loved it. 

Stop #3 was Portland, ME. Woohoo! We finally made it to the hotel cell where the six of us could bunk uncomfortably. But the Dansby family will not separate! We took a walk on the bustling sidewalks of Portland and got ice cream without one of the children getting run over. Then we played at the hotel gym on the treadmills, the 14 year old babysitters showed up at 4:45. It was not a smooth goodbye, but we made it to the 5:30 ferry on time! 

 

The party was super and we got home by 8:30 which was even more super since we could hear Dolly crying from the hallway of the hotel. Even though I was too nervous about leaving the children with strange underage babysitters to be able to dance the night away with my sewanee friends, I got to watch a 30 for 30 with David, which was just as good. I love David. 

The next day we got donuts with Prather and Wesley and Lamar and Jake and Hobbes and then we got back in the car to stop 4. 

Stop 4 was Mount Dessert Islamd and Anna's Quietside Cabin, the Americana! Once there and after dinner we promptly went to the Seawall rocky beach.

 

Dolly's 6 month stats

There it is....drum roll....what you all have been waiting for....

Weight

15 lbs 15 oz. 41.48%

Height

26.5 inches

69.26 %

Head

17.25 inches 

80.91. %

Alice and Dolly

Alice was making Dolly laugh like Archer made Mary Tighe laugh when she was about 6 months.  During the trip to Richmond, Alice would stay with Dolly and the twins, while Mary Tighe, Archer and Jack went to camp.   Archer and Mary Tighe became a little closer and naturally, Alice and Dolly hung out more.  It has kind of changed the dynamics a little bit, but Alice still just loves Mary Tighe too.  Having 3 girls is interesting.  I am curious to see how they interact with each other when Mary Tighe goes to kindergarten this year.  My whole goal with the children is for them all to be kind to each other, if not really great friends with each other.  I love Mary and Hugh as friends and always want to hang out with them.  I want my children to love each other as friends too.  I will feel successful as a parent if they are always kind to each other and respect each other and have fun together!

Hugh Maddox

I think this is just adorable!

Week at Gooselodge

We went to Richmond last week and met up with Mary and the boys.  It was a lot of fun, of course.  And a little crazy with Hugh and Will and Archer and Jack and Mary Tighe and Alice running up and down the stairs to the playroom and across the runway that is from the living room to the kitchen.  I know everyone loved the noise :)

 Mom and Dad were so generous to have us for so long and they always make it really fun!  Dad took us to the club to go golfing, this even though his whole body was rejecting the plea made by us - he did it!  Mom was fabulous as always and played with the children and made all of us feel very special.  She would get us the best ice cream when she came back from the yoga studio.  My favorite was the birthday cake ice cream.

 The older children went to Lego Camp at Cats Cap.  The only evidence that they went was their name tag.  They made lego robots, but that's about all we know.  They had fun though!

In other news, we visited Granny Blah Blah, who has been feeling poorly.  It was really good to see her.  We brought her 2 books and I tried to say inappropriate things to make her laugh.  She held Dolly and that was good too.

We also went swimming at the Country Club (that was okay) and the James River (that was soooo much fun)

On Sunday, Mom also this girl, Jessica Onderwater (what a cool last name!) to take our picture.  She also told us her stories of her family's dogs.  Two of whom, sadly, had to be put down because they moved to the country and the dogs didn't like leashes.  Interesting story.   She took great pictures though!  I loved how she would joke with Archer, but I was a little concerned he was joking too much and would break her $30,000 camera.  

Here are some good pictures from Jessica. 

The Family

Big Girl

Dolly will be 6 months tomorrow!  She can sit up and scoot her bottom in the air like she wants to crawl.  I think she wants to keep up with her brother and sisters.  She also hardly ever stops smiling and is good with other people.  She likes to look around at them and give them a big open mouth grin.  The other children dote on her and Mary Tighe calls her 'Dolla".  We all love Dolly.