Whittle's Willow Spring Farm

Try saying that 3X's without getting your tongue tied :)




Isaiah apple picking the right way; notice Alex in the background climbing the tree to pick apples the old fashioned way.



We couldn't tell which apples were ready so we started sampling them. Isaiah really liked eating them instead of picking them.



Alex finally got the hang of the stick and had to have his proud moment captured.



Alex likes to show how strong and big he is by carrying the bag of apples for mommy. (Well, at least for a few feet) We ended up with 11lbs. Now we have to make some apple pie, mmmmmm....

The sound of music......well,kind of

In North Stonington 4th and 5th graders have to take band unless they plan to take choir in 6th grade. I don't know why but I think it's a good thing because I honestly don't think Isaiah would have gotten this experience until junior or high school.



Isaiah is so excitted to learn and practice.
(I'm not to sure about everyone else's ears including poor jango :)

Go Italia!!

Alex is playing on the Italy soccer team this year and he is having a blast.



When Alex started he told me that he wanted to hear me scream "Go Alex Go!" and have pom poms to show everybody how proud we are of him.
Of course that made me laugh, I promised him that I would be his biggest fan but I told him that the pom poms were staying home.



Alex makes me smile so much, he's such a good kid. (Well, most of the time)

A little bit of CA sunshine in CT

While we lived in CA we made some really great friends.
Ande and I missed each other so much she decided to come for a visit.



For her birthday her husband bought us tickets to go see Avenue Q in NY so we made a mini vacation while she was here for her vacation.



In less than 48 hours in NY we went on a boat ride to get a closer look of the Statue of Liberty and see the amazing view on observation deck of the Empire State building.



(This is a great shot of the Chrysler Building)



We also managed to make it to the Metropolitan Musuem for a couple of hours and rest in the beautiful Central Park before heading home.



NY was an incridible adventure for the both us, I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do this.




Back in CT we decided to go to the USS Nautalis Museum in Groton.
We all got a better idea of CJ's life on a submarine. Here is a picture of the Officer dining room and sleeping quaters.




Everyone had a really good time. Now that the boys are older it was also nice for the them to visit another submarine and give them a better understanding of their daddy's suroundings while he's deployed.





Maybe we have future Naval Officers in the family?

Cape Cod

We hit the road to visit Cape Cod, MA.
It took us three hours to get there but it was worth it!



The first beach we went to was Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown. The water was unbelievably clear and calm. There was motion but there was not any waves!



Unfortunatly our day got cut short due to a hurricane heading toward Cape Cod but we still made quick stops at Marconi Beach and Nauset Beach and Light House.



I wish we could have stayed longer but we made the best of our trip and had fun.
I doubt this will be our last trip here since sea glass is a popular hobby here.

On the hunt for sea glass!

It was a gorgeous summer day so we went to watch hill beach with Nana.
Isaiah and Nana found some sea glass,it was over they were hooked!



Watch Hill became a strategic lookout point during the French and Revolutionary Wars.
And in 1806, the historic Watch Hill lighthouse was built.



I wish we weren't so busy looking for sea glass because we forgot to take pictures of us at the beach!

Gillette Castle

Nana came for a visit from WA State so we thought it would be fun to go explore Gillette Castle. William Gillette is most famous for his portrayal of "Sherlock Holmes".



The boys really had fun finding secret doors; all the doors (47)were different and had intricate locks. Unfortunately we couldn't have flash photography so we didn't get great pictures of the inside.




CT bought the castle in 1943 and turned it into a state park for everyone to enjoy. It is amazing, the whole castle is made out of southern white oak and field stone and the park grounds are absolutely beautiful.



I don't know if you know this but people say that CT is were you go to grow rocks and there is plenty of proof of that if you were to ever come for a visit.

Mommy are you so proud of me?

One of our goals for this summer was to get Alex off his training wheels. We practiced last week but it was so hot and muggy we didn't practice for very long. Well, today was a nice cool overcast day so we decided to give it another go.





At first we started on pavement but CJ was to nervouse to let go and ruin the excitment of learning how to ride his bike, so we moved over to a big open field.






It was a good thing because it helped with the falls.







After a few minutes he had it!
Well, as long as he kept peddling he had it.
He kept peddeling farther and farther each time.


He finally felt confident to ride on pavement.






Isaiah and I were cheering him on and screaming for joy! He loved the attention and saw how proud we were of all his efforts.


When he got close to me he shouted "Mommy are you so proud of me!?!?"
I had to choke back tears and let him know how proud I was of him.

I know with another day or two of practice he won't need help anymore and we'll be able to go on some trails and have some outdoor fun!

Dino-mite!

Cj and I took the boys to go see



It was a great way to learn about how the dinosaurs evolved to survive.



The dinosaurs looked so real, we could feel them walk and the roars were loud. Animatronics has really come a long way.



The plant life was so vibrant in color, it made us feel like we were looking into a pop up book.


Of course everybody's favorite scene was watching the T-Rex defend her baby. Once the baby T- Rex was out of danger the mom showed her affection. The emotion felt real, it was awesome seeing her be gentle.



We learned knew things about dinosaurs and it was fun.

Maple Lane Farm

We went to a nearby u pick farm for raspberries and blueberries
(yummy yummy to my tummy!)



We picked raspberries first because we planned on picking 20lbs! You must be wondering why do we need 20lbs.? Well, CJ and I are attempting to make our own wine! So 15 lbs. for the wine and 5lbs. just for us to eat.



The boys had so much fun picking and eating the berries. Alex kept calling himself a "berry hunter" and that "this is the bestest day ever!"



After picking for about an hour we were done with the raspberries and moved over to the blueberry bushes.



We have never picked blueberries before so we didn't know how to tell if they were ripe or not so we just started sampling them and never stoppped!



Isaiah didn't help pick blueberries because he was to busy eating them and Alex says he doesn't like blueberries but that he would help find the big ones.



When I asked him why he didn't like the bluberies he said " Ummmm... because they are round?"



Eventually we picked 3 lbs of bluberries and called it a day. I was so pleased at how long we were able to stay w/o hearing "are we done yet?" I agree with Alex, it was the bestest day ever!

N. Stonington Fair

The first ag fair for the state of CT starts in N. Stonington; which happens to be right were we live so we had to check it out. We had a really good time, we eat junk,feed the animals,and then eat more junk and watched the tractor pulls.