Cape Cod Holiday: 2009 Edition

Every year we are very fortunate to spend our big family holiday in Cape Cod.

This year was a bit different from those in the past with all of us spending our time closer to home. Like a 'stay-cation' - only one that took a 10 hour drive to enjoy!

Perhaps it was Caden's need to swallow half of the bay (at least!) and then spend a number of days, I think four or five, throwing it all back up again and being, in general, miserable. Perhaps it was just the current age of all the kids and that they now want to spend their time at the beach while Louis golfs and I read and take photos. Perhaps it was the (wrong) notion that we had already been-there-done-that when it came to ideas about going to the National Sea Shore, parasailing, surfing, bumper cars, mini putt, which we have done, but there is always more!

Whatever it was, it was the most relaxing of all holidays we have spent on Cape and we've been visiting every summer since 1995!

We were very fortunate to have friends visit. By coincidence, Shirley and her family were in from Illinois visiting her parents in Plymouth during the first few days of our arrival and we were able to arrange some time to get to know each other IRL (In Real Life) and have our families do the same. I believe everyone had a lot of fun at the beach discovering sea creatures, fending off younger siblings and eating great food. A couple of days later, one of my most favourite people, Nel, and her boys, were able to join us again this summer. It is always great to get her boys together with our kids, they get along so well. For months Caden had been looking forward to seeing his pen pal and was in the throes of his being sick when they arrived and was still out of sorts when they left. During their visit, we were all able to enjoy a wicked storm, lots of stories, plenty of laughter (ours and the kids), great food - yes, there's a theme here, kite flying, and great light for photo taking.

Of course, the purpose of the holiday is to spend time with Nanna and Grampy, which we always appreciate and enjoy. Plenty of shared meals, phone calls, beach visits, a trip to Boston and Fenway for a game (versus Baltimore - Caden was overjoyed!), marionettes at the Playhouse and conversations - political, parental and everything in between.

I managed to wade through 1,000+ photos and select a few, well, more than a few, 103 to be exact, to include in the slide show - just to give you a sense of what we were able to enjoy:



After our time in the Cape we headed home, via Gatineau, Quebec, where we participated in a huge Family Reunion celebration with Louis' family. That adventure I'll save for another post!