Adventures on the Cape

We had another whirlwind weekend this past weekend as we traveled to the North Shore, Cape Cod and Rhode Island in just three days.

On Friday we drove down to Beverly, MA to have a photoshoot with a friend of ours from Gordon who has started her own photography business.  I had entered a little contest she was having on her website and ended up being the random winner of a free photoshoot!  I'm NEVER that lucky!  She is super talented and works extremely hard as a teacher at a private school as well as running Faith Ostan Hall Photography.  We felt so lucky to be able to get some family (and maternity!) photos and it was an absolute perfect day on the coast!  Once she sends me some of the pictures I'll be sure to post them on the blog!  Thanks again, Faith!

After our photoshoot we spent a few hours with the Charman's - the family that I used to babysit during and just after college.  The kids are SOO grown up now and it is always so wonderful to see them!  Jinx and Henry, who were 5 and 6 when I first started babysitting are entering 7th and 8th grade next year and little Willy, who I first held when he was just six months old is turning 7 in August!!!  It is so hard to believe how quickly time flies, but I feel so blessed to still be in such great contact with such a wonderful family.  Tisha and Bill have been so generous over the years, passing on baby clothes and toys and books and just this last trip they gave us their old wooden train set which Camden has been obsessed with since we got home!  Thank you, Charman's!  We Love You!

After a fun afternoon on the North Shore we headed off to the Cape!  We left around 2:00 thinking Camden would take his afternoon nap in the car and we would beat the traffic to the Cape.  Unfortunately, we were stuck in SLOW traffic from the tunnel in Boston all the way to Plymouth, MA!  Ugh!  Camden only slept for about 40 minutes, so it turned out to be a pretty long drive.  Once we arrived though, we were treated to a wonderful, relaxing, fun mini-vacation with Grandma Sylvia and Grandpa Gordon.  We feel so blessed to have family in such a BEAUTIFUL place!  We had a great time visiting with my grandparents, spending a great chunk of time on Saturday at Skaket Beach on the bayside.  We bought sandwiches at a great little deli and brought them with us and Camden and Scott had so much fun digging holes, building castles and splashing in the water.  Camden warmed up to Grandma Sylvia and had fun jumping in the waves with her.  Here are some pictures from our fun time on the Cape.
Reading on the deck...

Spending time with his beautiful great grandmother...

Their amazing backyard on a deadend street on a little pond.  A quick and easy drive to the bayside beachs and the ocean beaches!  Pretty perfect!

Playing with Daddy at Skaket...

Mr. Independent...

Love my boy...

My handsome boys...

Sitting on his little throne...

Exploring with Grandma Sylvia...

Ice cream outing with all of us together...

At Nauset Beach...

After a fun visit on the Cape, we left on Sunday morning to drive to Rhode Island for Brian and Sarah's engagement party!  Scott's older brother Brian and his wonderful fiance, Sarah, are getting married in November and we had a blast celebrating with them and meeting her family for the first time.  Unlike the drive to Beverly and the Cape, Camden slept from door to door on this trip!  Phew!  Here are some pictures from the party...

Congratulations Sarah and Brian!  We can't wait for your wedding!  We had a great weekend and Camden slept all the way home from Rhode Island!  

I need to be better about updating the blog because we have had lots of adventures recently!  I'll post again soon!

Big Boy Bed

Camden is growing up SO fast!  I feel like we just brought him home from the hospital and here we are preparing to do that with Baby #2 in just a few short months!  Eeek!  Camden is totally embracing his "big brother" role so far.  He loves to kiss and hug my belly.  He talks about "Baby" all the time.  Today he brought his little doll over to me and said we needed to change his diaper.  We spent the next ten minutes pretending to change his doll, nurse him and burp him and Camden completely involved himself in the pretend play.  It's pretty cute to see him starting to ready himself for this big change.  I'm sure when it actually happens it isn't going to be such a smooth transition, but the fact that he's preparing himself now is great!

Just last week we decided to start the process of transferring Camden to a toddler bed.  We are moving him into a different room, in a different bed, and want the transition to be complete long before our second child comes along and "kicks" Camden out of his current room and crib.  We are home for a couple weeks with no overnights away and thought it would be a good time to start seeing how he did in a big boy bed.  We found a beautiful wooden bed at a yard sale in New London (at a big, gorgeous house where you know they only buy the best and take good care of their belongings) and had it set up in this second bedroom for a few weeks now.  Camden enjoyed reading books on it, and got used to climbing on and off, but we weren't going to push the sleep thing just yet.  Well, last week we felt like we were ready.  We rocked with him in the rocking chair like we always do and when he was sleepy we plopped him down in the bed (with a pillow and blanket and everything!) and he slept for a solid 90 minute nap!  He did that twice that day, so we figured we would try it overnight as well!  We stuck with our normal bedtime routine and Camden slept soundly in his toddler bed until morning!!  We were (and continue to be) a bit shocked!  When he wakes up in the morning or after a nap, he sits on the bed and waits for us to come in and get him.  He's never climbed out or tried to walk into our room or anything!  AND, I have to say, I think he's sleeping better now!  Morning wake-ups have been pushed closer to 5:30/6:00 instead of the typical 4:30 pattern he had been in and he's very rarely waking up at night.  Now, he points to the crib in his old room and say's "Baby"...he knows it's not his bed anymore!

We are so proud of our little guy and so thankful that he's transitioning well during this time!  Let's all just keep our fingers crossed that the positive trend continues!

'Tis the Season...

Early summer is a season of celebration for us in the Allenby household.  Mother's Day in May, Clara's Birthday in early June, and my Birthday, our Anniversary and Father's Day all in the same week in mid-June!  Phew!  I just said to Scott yesterday that we need to spread out these celebrations.  We aren't even wanting to go out to eat to celebrate because we feel like we've been out so often and have spent so much money on food recently!  Oh well, I really can't complain!  I love having excuses to enjoy life and be pampered!  We had a great time having both of our families together for my birthday last week.  We invited everyone over to "our condo" in Eastman and had a great time playing outside and barbecuing together!  Here are some pictures from the evening...
Camden and Pop...

Camden and Nan...

Bepa and Clara...

Cousins...

 Scott and his Dad after a nice long kayak...

Bepa helping out his grandchildren...

My delicious cake that Mom A made for me!

Ami showing Camden and Clara Nan's masterpiece.  Camden was practicing saying his letters...

Camden wanted to help Mama open her presents...

This past Saturday we drove down to CT to spend some time with friends a celebrate our college friends Kara and Hayes and their soon-to-be-born baby.  It is always great to spend time with old friends, and it was really fun to reconnect with people that I'm not very close to as well.  Kara and I played basketball together, but she had a very close group of girlfriends that I knew casually, but wasn't very tight with.  It's been fun in recent years to get to know them better as many of us have become mothers and enjoy swapping stories and advice with one another.  Here are some pictures from our day in CT.  (Yes, we drove 3 hours down, hung out for 3.5 hours and drove 3 hours back...and it was totally worth it!  Camden was a trooper)!
This is Camden meeting Brooke for the first time.  Brooke is the little 6 month old daughter of our college friends, Scott and Barb.  Scott and my Scott played basketball together and Barb and I did as well.  Actually Scott and Barb, Hayes and Kara and Scott and I are the Gordon basketball couples!  Now we are all married with kids!  Crazy!

Barb and Brooke...

Camden and Daddy playing baseball in the yard...

Camden had a blast running through the huge puddles in the driveway.

And he even made a new friend, Sophia...

Me and B...

Lots of girls from college - some of whom I'm close with and others I had fun reconnecting with...

Kara and Hayes had A LOT of little helpers when they opened their presents!  It was pure chaos and they were very patient!

Soon-to-be Mama!

Little James was tired!

Camden hadn't had an afternoon nap so we thought he would definitely sleep for a long time on the way home...instead he fell asleep for about 30 minutes and was up the entire rest of the way!  Here he is as we near Andover.  He was a trooper!

Thanks to everyone for all the Birthday love!  It's hard to believe I'm officially in my LATE 20's now!  Ugh!  28!  And, I have to listen to Scott rub it in until October that I'm older than him!  He loves to bring that up!  Anniversary tomorrow and Father's Day on Sunday and then we get a little down time...phew!  All this excitement and celebrating is exhausting!  I'm off to bed!

A Post of Epic Proportions...

Camden has had a rough stretch since the wedding last weekend.  Between the chaos of travel and sleeping in a hotel room he came down with a respiratory infection upon our return.  He had a fever for about 3 days and had swollen glands and red ears (meaning he was in a great deal of pain) but it wasn't a bacterial infection so we just had to kind of wait it out.  Luckily, the day after going to the pediatrician his fever broke and started feeling much better.  Unfortunately, we haven't had a good night's sleep since our trip.  After traveling and being sick, Camden has been thrown off and is having a great deal of trouble settling in at night time.  He is waking up multiple times before we even go to bed and it has made for some long nights for all of us.  He's been overtired and a little feisty during the days too (and he's been sneezing and coughing - wondering if he might have allergies with all the pollen outside) but we've still had many fun adventures as a family during our first official week of summer vacation!
Here's our poor little sick boy last Wednesday...

On Saturday we drove to Vermont to see Mom and Dad A and Brian and Sarah and to celebrate good family friends, Russ and Lenore Gates.  Russ and Lenore have been pastoring the Allenby's church in Proctor, VT for 20 years and have been incredible friends of Steve and Nancy.  Russ married both Scott and me and Jeff and Ashley and had a huge impact on that small Vermont town.  They are moving to PA to be closer to family and we were so glad to be able to celebrate their time in Proctor with them (and the other hundreds of people who showed up to support them!  Here are some pictures from our afternoon...

Checking out the train tracks with Pop...

It was VERY exciting when a real train came through...

As I mentioned in my last blog post, we have been given an amazing gift of a condo in Eastman for the week this week.  A wonderful family who have two students that we know very well at Proctor offered us their place and we are loving spending time over there.  It's only about 25 minutes from home, so we are kind of going back and forth depending on what else we have going on each day.  We slept over there on Sunday night, but it turned out to be pretty tough with Camden not sleeping well (and he's already practically outgrown his pack-n-play...what's up with that?!?!?!).  Here are a few pictures from Sunday and Monday out at Eastman...

Monday's weather was pretty cool (this whole week hasn't been the best for being on a lake) and we decided to go up to the Montshire Museum for a quick visit and go out to lunch at Molly's (one of my all-time favorite restaurants).

Checking out the bubble exhibit...

Camden had SO much fun playing outside with the water exhibits.  We've had a family pass since winter, but have never been to the museum when all the outdoor exhibits were open!  So fun!

At Molly's - practicing his letters.  Camden knows all of his letters A-U...it's pretty cute!

Monday night we celebrated my niece, Clara's, 5th birthday party!  It's hard to believe it has been five years since I received the phone call that my sister was undergoing an emergency c-section two months before her expected due date.  It was a scary time and little Clara had to spend a month in the NICU, but she is a thriving, vibrant, smart little girl (5 going on 20) and she had a FUN birthday yesterday!
5 years ago...

And yesterday...

Kite making in the barn...

Camden wanted nothing to do with organized activity and instead had fun playing with Clara's toy kitchen on his own...

Dinner with Daddy...

Practicing being a good big brother...

This morning Scott surprised me with an INCREDIBLE early birthday present.  I've never seen him so excited to give me anything in his life (except maybe an engagement ring) and it was definitely worth the excitement!!!  I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel T1i - a really, really, really nice digital camera just like I've always wanted!!!

I'm still figuring it all out, but we had fun experimenting with it throughout the day today!

We had a blast hosting our good friends at "our condo" this afternoon and the windy, cool weather didn't scare the kids away from enjoying some time in the water.

Camden and his friend, Paige, on the slides...

Camden and Paige watching Cope head out in a kayak...

Nelson working hard against the wind...

Camden giving the boat a try...

 

Lots of food, lots of kids and lots of fun!  Thanks Gregor and Amy for coming over and hanging out with us!

(Wow...blogging took up most of the night tonight!  Good thing I broke this week up into a couple blog posts because there will be lots more pictures coming in the next couple of days!  Gotta love summer vacation and new cameras!!!!  Thank you SOOOO much Scott!  You're amazing and I love you!