Headed east, home, on my first official father's day of two. As the sun slowly lowers itself into the hills at our backs and we glide smoothly over swift-moving bodies of water, on the sleeping faces of my two little girls there is wonder, and light.

sister secrets

they wouldn't tell me what they were talking about...

me and the beebs

the whirling dervish:

she got tired for about 17 seconds... then we were back at it!

flower girl

the cape!

note: for mommy's coverage of the weekend, be sure to check out her huge blogpost (well, huge for her)! between the two of us we about covered everything...


way back at christmas, mems and teek gifted us kids a memorial day weekend house rental on Cape Cod:

bebe alternated between calling it Cape Cod, Cape Cough, and my favorite- Cape Cotched, as in 'that glass was falling, but at the last second i cotched it and it didn't break.'


mommy, elo, bebe, and i were the first to arrive friday afternoon. i took a quick survey of the premises, and this is what we had:

kitchen.

the room mems and teek slept in.

more kitchen.

upstairs hall. each bedroom had a town sign above the door- i don't remember exactly what there was, but they were cape towns like harwich, nantucket, hyannis, etc.

the only one i remember for sure is the one above the beautiful upstairs bathroom. it said "P-Town." get it? get it?

the free standing tub was an envy of many of us.

aunt marge and uncle ben's room.

mommy, lo-lo, and i slept in here.

and bebe chose the bayou room (that's blue pronounced BAH-yoooo).

the purple room was an extra, though bebe said she'd sleep here next time. this time around it was a fun place to take pretend naps.

heading back downstairs.

the family room.

what do you think eloise?

"I THINK IT'S REALLY GREAT. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE REST OF THE FAMILY TO GET HERE."
she kind of talks in this low-pitched booming voice. it takes some getting used to as it's not what you'd expect from a five month-old.

settling in.

one cool feature was these little guys- they were all over the place. after spending a few years living in an environment where it is not uncommon to find small toys constantly underfoot, there was more than one occasion i caught sight of one of these things from the corner of my eye and goose-stepped to avoid stepping on it, fearing it was something sharp, or with wheels. a few more days in that place and someone would have seen me "inexplicably" throw myself onto the floor, crumpled into a highly awkward position as i attempted to dodge an obstacle that wasn't actually there.

the back yard. if this place had any fault, it was the complete lack of a yard. there was close to nothing by way of grassy space.

there was a big front porch that ran the length of the front of the house. at one end there was a picnic table with some crayons and coloring books. bebe almost immediately got her color on.

Happy Memorial Day.

at the other end of the porch was this nice sunny area. bebe climbed into each chair, going clockwise, and jumped onto the deck. all the chairs passed the toddler climb and jump test.

while mommy and eloise went out to do some shopping, bebe and i explored, took pictures, and blew bubbles while we waited for everyone else to arrive.

in what will surely become our defacto way of traveling, we made sure to bring bebe's train tracks, which she could set up in a common area and emplore anyone within earshot to "pyay with meeeeee?"

this was the cool shower in mems' and teek's bathroom. notice more turtles.

this light reminded me of my favorite video game, Bioshock. it has a very "aboard-ship" feel to it.

The Cape. *cough*

waiting:

"HEY DADDY. WHAT'S UP. DID YOU KNOW THAT I CAN PUT MY FOOT IN MY MOUTH?"

"THAT'S AWESOME."



mems and teek arrived in the early evening, and aunt marge and uncle ben, who were driving all the way from NYC, arrived later that night.

each night had a cool, coastal zombie horror movie feel. the sun would go down, the mist and fog would creep up, and somewhere in the distance people screamed. well, everything but that last part. it was still cool though.

this was the big part of the yard, around the side of the house.

we spent most mornings passing around the chicken. she's really quite delightful in the morning.

MUST. GET. FINGER. INTO. MOUTH. MUST.

SCORE.



bebe got both AM and UB to play with her in the "nap" room.

while downstairs ernie held court in the kitchen.



our breakfasts were filled with bacon. pretty sure there was some other stuff. but after the bacon, who cares? damn bacon is tasty.

after fully greasing our insides with all that bacon, it was time to glide smoothly to the beach. not one of us creaked.

i generally prefer the beaches towards the end of the cape- they're the white-sand, high, grassy cliffs-type ones. but this one is pretty nice too.

bebe and teek were the "digging in the sand kids." they didn't even make it down by the water at first. they were so excited to hit the sand they dropped everything and started digging as soon as we got there.

the rest of us headed down to the water.

eloise enjoyed her first ever trip to the beach the exact same way her sister did- by mostly sleeping through it.

eventually bebe and teek came looking for us.



mems became an expert pail filler.

little kid.

big kids.

UB is enlisted into the water brigade.

grands.

the chicken awakens!

hey you guys, our baby just woke up from a comfy snooze. she's still a little groggy and disoriented- would now be a good time to dip her toes into this icy atlantic water for the first time?

we thought so.

...and she wailed. get over it kid. most of life is painful and uncomfortable.




careful castle construction. crazy wind-hair included with no additional cost.

a bebe and her mems.

a bebe and her moms.

*wacky photo caption contest*

create your own, for a chance to win nothing!

strollering through town.

mems and i stopped to admire this sweet 'vette. we were guessing late fifties, or very early sixties- turns out it was a '58. good one us.

bebe and her teek.

wheelies.

teek finds that a blackberry set to 'vibrate' is the softest pillow.

bebe loved to sit in these rocking chairs with teek. they would sit and rock as bebe declared "we're in a rock band!" she has the best developed sense of humor of anyone i know. we joke that she has the sense of humor of a ten year-old (it's true), which puts her right at teek's comedic sweet-spot (also true). it's why they get along so well. weesie has no sense of humor, and despite teek's long and involved explanation of the mechanics of the joke that she, too, could be in a rock band, failed to 'get it.'



some rare daddy-face time on the blog, courtesy of mommy:

...and that's a wrap.

ooh doo doo.




this is what bebe would look like if her legs were on backwards and she had no torso:

still pretty cute!

...and it wouldn't be a family blog post without some sour grapes for the camera from the sisters:

"hey everybody! i found my hand!"

our second beach day wasn't looking as nice as our first.

don't get me wrong, i love the fog. it just doesn't make for a good time at the beach. unless it's the beach where the last remnants of a zombie-infested human race gather in the hopes that they can, together, overcome overwhelming odds and survive the flesh-eating hordes of undead as they converge on this last stronghold of hope. i'm just sayin'.



dig all you want- no zombies here.

my little water-gatherer.

uncle ben and eloise get some quality play time in:

all packed up and ready to head to our respective homes:

before we go, we say hello.

"it's a rock band, see, because we're rocking. in rocking chairs. the rocking is the motion. still nothing?"
"I UNDERSTAND YOU, TEEK. IT'S JUST NOT FUNNY."



some last-minute aunt marge play time:

a super extra special thank-you to mems and teek for putting us all up in such a fantastic spot for the weekend. but as nice as the backdrop was, nothing beats chilling with your family! LOVE LOVE!