My 10 Days

After Ron and I reunited in Boston, I left the east coast to return to Seattle and Ron took over with the kids. Their adventures began as they spent a lot of time visiting Ron's extended family in the Boston area. In the mean time, I returned to Seattle alone.

At first, when we booked the tickets and made the decision that Ron and the girls would stay in Boston for 10 days after I left, I was horrified. I couldn't imagine how I could stand being away from the girls for that long. In particular, I was worried about how Ayelet would do without me for that long, or perhaps how I would do without her for that long.

Well, it turns out, the girls did fine without me. They had an amazing time with Ron and with his family. They played with their cousins and friends. And, in particular, Ayelet had a chance to really connect with her Daddy. He was her security blanket during those 10 days.

As for me, I did fine as well, in fact, I did really well and really value the time that I had to myself. I have been parenting small children for 12 years and as much as I love almost every minute of it, I had forgotten what it is like to do what I want, when I want, without regard for how it will affect anyone else. For 10 days, that is exactly what I did. I took the time to have lunch with girl friends and really spend time with them; I went to the movies to see Julie and Julia; I worked on a (major) house project involving many, many years of photos; I worked without having to rush home to pick up the kids - in other words, I worked until I got the job done; I slept; I ate whenever I wanted, whatever I wanted; I cooked recipes that sounded good to me, with onions and garlic, green things and the like; I exercised ALOT; I slept; I skipped chores if I didn't feel like doing them; and oh, did I mention, I slept - through the night, without an alarm clock?

When I picked Ron and the girls up at the airport, I was SO glad to see them and to hold them all in my arms. And, I don't want them to be away from me for an extended period of time, any time soon. But perhaps next summer, I will really like to do this again...

Computer Challenges... The Rest of Vacation and Beyond

About a week before the end of my vacation, my computer decided that it too needed a vacation. So, during the last week of our trip, I unplugged. A good thing? Yeah, probably - of course, I still had the iPhone...

During our last week, the girls and I had some really special times together. Here are the highlights:

• A day trip to Martha's Vineyard to visit Liz, Kevin and their extended family.
• The ferry ride to the island, anticipating the adventure.
• Wandering the shops on the vineyard, buying a few treasures to take home with us.
• Reconnecting with the Lucia clan, including Ander and Addison who we hadn't seen in almost 10 years.
• Time at the beach playing with the kids.
• Dinner with the adults while the kids went to play at the arcade.
• Ice cream at the vineyard's famous Mad Martha's ice cream shop.
• Barely catching the last ferry off the vineyard.
• Carrying Talya and Ayelet in the house fast asleep as we arrived back at the Cape house after 11:30 pm.
• A visit to the Cape Cod Hospital ER the next day when I wasn't feeling so good.
• Michaela and Talya's amazing help, especially with Ayelet when I wasn't up to the task.
• More beach time.
• Watching Ayelet make the beach her own, in particular, check out the shots of Ayelet pulling the boogy board behind her, note the board is bigger than she is.
• Barbecue with the Wednesday morning beach club girls, Carly and Kelsey and their families.
• Birthday dinner and cake with Nona.
• A morning of paper shopping with Aunty Nicky in anticipation of Michaela's Bat Mitzvah invitations.
• An afternoon visit with Danny, Elizabeth and Asher where all the kids entertained us with a musical concert.
• The annual trip to Oleana Restaurant in Cambridge, where Ana made sure that Nicky and I were spoiled with lots of different culinary creations.
• Reuniting with Ron on Sunday morning.

Enjoy this slide show, snaps of our last week.

A Day With the Navisky Clan

Saturday turned out to be the perfect beach day which worked well as we were joined by the Navisky family for the day. We spent most of the day playing at the beach. Three generations of Nacamuli's and Navisky's were there (with few exceptions). Talya and Adam had a blast playing together.
Ayelet found lots of arms ready to hold her.

After dinner the entire group of us (15) went on a bunny hunt through the neighborhood, we must have been quite a sight to see.

The two Nona's -

Eventually, Ayelet had to walk like all the big kids.

Visits with Friends

On Friday morning, my two dearest friends from my school years came with their families to see us. Liz, Kevin and their two boys Zachary and Jacob (pictured below) and Craig, Heidi and one of their two boys came over. Because of how spread out we are (Craig and Heidi are in Boston, Liz and Kevin live in Memphis and Ron and I are in Seattle), we rarely see each other together. It was such a gift to spend the morning together, adults catching up, the children playing. We were having so much fun, I forgot to take photos... These are the only ones that were taken.

After our morning of visiting, we left Boston to return to Cape Cod. We had plans later that day to get reacquainted with the Wednesday Morning Beach Club. We managed to get a quick ice cream cone with Carly and her mom, Lisa.