New Pics in Flickr

Laurin has been with the girls in south haven this week, so I have no fun to report. It looks like they had fun without me though. See the new pics in flickr.

Pumpkin Paradise

On the way home we had to put the girls in the trunk with the pumpkins so that Melissa and Ryan could ride back with us. One of their car's wheels fell off in the farm parking lot. I understand that these are all out of chronological order, but I am too lazy to think of the way blogger uploads them ahead of time and definitely to lazy to copy and paste them back in the right order. Think of it as a fun puzzle. Like Sudoko, but way easier.

Sanna really enjoyed herself at the pumpkin patch. She ran around kissing all the pumpkins and tripping on all the vines. I wonder how far she would have gone if we let her. She might still be out there. There were a lot of pumpkins that needed kissing.

Riley wanted to reenact the scene from field of dreams, walking out into the corn. I dont think anyone would have been disappointed if she would have disappeared after her performance that day.


I forgot to throw this one in last post. This is the girls in their hot new pajamas. They say 'Paul Frank' on them like that should mean something to us. Apparently he is a big deal. Riley likes her pants jacked up high to show off her 'abs'.

Riley thought about making a break for it and heading back for the shuttle. She found the uneven terrain and large orange orbs extremely off-putting. Instead of embracing the adventure like her sister she thought acting like a wet blanket would be far more fun. She almost succeeded in ruining everyone's time if it wasnt for the willingess of her Godfather to entertain her/carry her.

This video speaks for itself and sums up our day. Riley needing to be carried. Ryan willing to enable her diva attitude. Riley gladfully being Ryan's excuse to run around like a child in the pumpkin patch.

What a Day

Shaking the money maker after riding down a slide she didnt realize include a trip through a puddle at the end. I promise that is a leaf on her butt.


Where has our children's youth gone. I almost cried looking at these pictures. She looks 14 in this one. For realz.


Sanna assured me she was more than capable of scaling the play center to ride the slide. I followed her anyway. No falls to date.


The last time we were at the park (sans camera) she hung for like 10 second. She must have forgotten her spinach on this day.

Riley looking as mature as ever. Laurin thinks it is the pants.

I thing laurin might actually approve of a picture of herself for once. I agree that this is a true winner.

Riley and her pet horse Frederico.

Shortly after arriving at our shopping destination Sanna decided she had enough. The one trick she has up her sleeve besides screaming at the top of her lungs is drenching herself in her own vomit. Well done.

You would probably guess that Riley was the one having the much better time in this video but it was Sanna who freaked out whenever we took her out of the swing.

Watch for us on 'Toddlers and Tiaras'

We had multiple dance parties today to celebrate how friggin hot it was on the third floor. We are in that stage where it is too cold for the AC to kick on but all the heat rises and gets trapped up in the play room. The result was a sweaty father and some good video. I also learned that Laurin has a future as a stage mother. She was getting those girls movin and shakin to the music. Also included here are some good pics from our brief stop at baby Sam's baptism. The girls found the freedom of the empty church all too tempting for their little legs and big vocal chords.

Did You Miss Us?

more to come soon.....

Cliff Diving

We took the girls to the park and the cliffs yesterday. Suprisingly, I think they enjoyed the latter more. There is a sweet video of the two of them passing rocks to each other to be stacked in a pile, but it is 158MB (1 minute long). So, I will have to wait until I get home to compress it for blogger, which limits videos to 100MB.

It was an action-packed day as we ventured to a new park with all kinds of crazy slides. We also went for a long run (5 miles) into Narragansett. Finally, our walk to the cliffs was quite an adventure. The tide was low so we were able to walk out pretty far into the water for pictures. I feel like I need to put up another poll asking if anyone disapproves of this adventure. We only risked death once in an attempt to get a shot of the girls peeking over this large rock. I was supporting Riley and holding her shirt when the rock I was standing on either moved of split in half. I guess I need to keep up the running. Either way there were plenty of other surfaces to support us and noone was harmed.

We are off to Newport today to hopefully pick up some Rhode Island gear for the girls to show off to their Midwest friends when they get home.

I will find some way to make the whole Rhode Island collection (over 700 pictures so far) available for viewing. I may have to pay flickr for one month to hold all my pics. They only allow a certain amount of uploads/month and with this new camera that means only 20 pics. I am not sure if everyone is aware of this, but you can click the pictures within the posts to make them full size.

Check out the new poll.....

Road Trip and a Cold Beach

Yesterday was another action-packed cornucopia of fun. We played all morning, napped, drove to Taunton, hung out with the Massachusetts family, drove home, went to the beach, went for a walk, went to sleep. We try to have as little time as possible where the girls are just hanging around the house attempting to test the fracture toughness of various materials.

We made it up to the Campinirio estate in record time, leaving us plenty of time for Riley to channel her inner Cesar Milan and for Sanna to cry. They had different takes on the fun that Mimi brought to the day. Riley had no problem being licked and sniffed while Sanna did not appreciate someone trying to steal her bear. Riley is clearly a pack leader. She would hold out her hand to keep the savage beast at bay.

Once inside, they only broke one item in the museum of fun. Lucikly it wasnt the most valuable or sentimental item. We are pretty sure it can be repaired. Uncle Frank and Aunt Carol stopped by for lunch which brought another dog to the party. He was mostly interested in Leo's cooking so the girls didnt get to enjoy his company as much. The girls had a good time making phone calls to eachother and watching their Elmo DVD on the floor.

Once returning to Narragansett, we quickly packed up to go to the beach. It was a little colder than we had expected, which caused Riley to cry most of the time. Sanna, on the other hand, has never had a better time. She played in the wet sand and water, chased seagulls, and tried to skimboard. It was a short trip due to the temperature, but Sanna had a good time and we took plenty of pictures. She was trying to fight off hypothermia....smiling while her teeth were chattering.

Two more days of fun before we have to pack up and head home. I believe I have reached my blogging quota for the next two months, so you may not hear from us for a while after this trip.

The Unthinkable Happened

It may have been due to my rampant multitasking, but I finished last ina game of scrabble yesterday. I was participating in a fantasy football draft at the time, but that is no excuse. I wil try to organize a rematch at some point. I also had a disappointing performance in the draft. Moral of the story is I am not a 6 out of 10 at multitasking, so reduce the number of simultaneous activities if I care to do well at them.

We also went to Wickford, RI briefly. We saw lots of sweet dogs, a dead bluejay, and kids playing with a rocket in the park. Our girls know no fear as they went right up to these kids and tried to make the rocket their own. Sanna then took off, walking about 100 yds away without even looking back. She is quite the explorer. I wonder when she would have stopped.

We are off to see Great Aunt Kathy, so this post is a short one. We also didnt take that many pics yesterday.

Im a Beaten Man

Day three was by far the best so far as far as our kids are concerned. We went to mass without them, which was a much better way to attend mass. I was able to see things from the other side of life as we sat directly behind the craziest bunch of crazies ever. A woman dressed like she was shooting an episode of the real housewives of New Jersey after mass showed up with 4 kids all under 10. They were bouncing all over the place and making all kids of noise. For some reason, she thought it was a good idea to give one of the youngest a half-melted twix to rub in her hair/clothes. The oldest child was trying to manage the others, but she was just as crazy. One of the boys had a piece of gum he kept rolling into a ball, dropping, picking up, and putting back in his mouth. He also had twix in his hair. They ended up going to the back of the church during the homily. They were just as loud back there, but not as annoying to us. I think we are a little more self-aware and logical about how we entertain our kids during mass.

After mass, we went on a walk and ended up at a neighborhood park. It was wicked sweet. They had swings that I decided to use to test my cameras burst mode. The moms enjoyed playing on this new-style seesaw. Ryan I enjoyed the little spring-loaded dolphin. While we were there, we were approached by an oddly-dressed boy named Bryce who was certain he was awesome at everything. He had seen me trying to jump off the swing and assured me he could do better. I took his picture while he was jumping to help people understand his outfit so I didnt see where he landed. He assured me he had won. As you can see in the picture, he is wearing some kind of women's moccasins with fur tops. I asked him if he was warm in those to which he replied 'no', and that he had been wearing them all day. He completed the outfit with board shorts that came to the top of the boots and a polo shirt. He was also sweet at riding his BMX bike. I took a turn and showed off my tricks, jumping like an X Games champion off a slight incline from the grass into the parking lot. He then took his bike back and showed me he could do better, which he did. I packed up my daughters and walked home defeated.

Later that night we got a visit from Andy Kenealy, who enjoyed all of our wild vacation stories. We are clearly operating an a level few can keep up with.

See the pics above of waterfire and yesterday's fun

Second Verse, Same as the First

Day two of our Rhode Island adventure was somewhat less stressful, but way more eventful. Some of the most ridiculous events transpired. As a fun little game, I will list some events and you can guess which one didnt happen. Dont read past the options as I will have to describe how each event came to be.

1. Ryan Iannucci hit another car on the mean streets of Providence

2. Riley soaked me with urine as we admired the majestic views of the cliffs of Narragansett

3. Ryan Iannucci got pulled over by the Rhode Island state police after we left the bar.

4. We saw a river on fire

5. We all went running together and I wasnt the slowest of first to request we stop.

6. Laurin made us dinner and it didnt give any of us food poisoning.

7. I was unable to finish an order of chicken wings.

Items 1,3, and 4 all have to do with our trip to see the waterfire event in Providence. Apparently this happens every week. Either there are way more people in providence than I thought, or they all go to this thing every week. The streets were packed to see the river ablaze. It was quite the spectacle. I will post pictures tomorrow to not ruin the quiz. There were bands playing and lots of photo ops. Laurin does not believe in taking pictures of anything without specific sentimental value, so I was criticized for photographing the architecture of Providence at night. On our way to the event we wandered the streets looking for parking. At one point, we passed through the bar district near Brown University. There were tons of people and cars on narrow streets. Despite his extemely cautious nature, Ryan Iannucci failed to judge the massive width of our rental minivan and nearly broadsided a parked car. My strong asserstion that we were too close only resulted in him correcting enough to brush mirrors with the other vehicle. After we left the waterfire event we went to a bar on the way home that is famous for a wide selection of beer. I ordered wings as always and the ladies ordered spinach and artichoke dip to accompany our beers. The menu did not mention that the wings were breaded and only came with extremely chunky blue cheese dressing. For the first time in my life I left wings uneaten. On the way home from the bar, Ryan failed to turn on his lights and a state trooper pulled us over. We were very suprised as Ryan never breaks the speed limit. The guy ran his license and realized he has never even jaywalked and let us go on our way. This was depsite Ryan telling him we had just come from the bar. Ryan had only consumed one beer for all you worried about our safety.

Now, back to earlier in the day. Thanks to our girls napping for 90 minutes at a time and Ryan's parents watching Erin, we all went for a nice run. I am not normally a fan of fitness that isnt a competition, but I went for it. My recent rugby training must have left me in better shape as I did not complain or ask to stop at any point. We will be trying again today. I also have a mental issue where if I know how long we have left to run I get anxious and impatient, conjuring up reasons to stop. Wandering the unknown streets of Narragansett in a loop was good for me.

Towards the end of the day, Ryan Iannucci led us on a long walk with the kids that tok us to an amazing spot in the neighborhood overlooking Narragansett bay. There were huge rocks you could walk out on and the waves gently brokes into this little area. I walked out there with Riley in my arms to enjoy the view. I felt a sprinkle on my foot and assumed it was the water from the bay. I soon realized that wasnt the case and saw my shorts and leg being soaked by my daughter's overactive bladder. I guess we hadnt changed her recently enough and there was more that her Pampers could handle. That was a first for me. I had to walk 20 minutes home with her make on me.

Number 6 is clearly the fals item as everyone knows Laurin doesnt cook. If she did, I would most certainly not be well enough to be writing this post now.

Anyway, we will see how day 3 goes. So far, so good.