I Forgot How Much
I LOVE New England!

This summer, we needed to take a little break from life and have some family time. So, after making some threats to my husband, he finally agreed to take a few days off so we could get away. We decided to go to Connecticut and Rhode Island since it wasn't too far to drive but still a nice change of scenery.

We started our trip by visiting the Groton Submarine Museum. The kids really loved it. We were able to go on a real submarine which was very cool. They also had a bunch of displays where the kids could pretend they were in the control room or shooting off torpedos.
Here we are in front of the USS Nautilus - the first nuclear submarine.
Ethan and Addie are working hard pushing buttons and flipping switches in the sample control room.

Then we had dinner at Mystic Pizza in Mystic, CT (made famous by the movie Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts). They had an appetizer that I just HAD to try...fried battered dill pickles. Yumm!
I had to include this picture of Addie because it was so hysterical. I'm not sure why but she felt the need to give me an angry face while we were eating.

We walked around Mystic and enjoyed the breeze off the water. We stumbled around a playground which was perfect! Ethan got a little daring while we were at the park!

Mystic is also famous for its Basucle drawbridge. We got some ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream and waited for the bridge to open. Just as we were giving up and walking away, the bridge opened. It was really neat to watch!

The next day we took a ferry from Rhode Island to Block Island (part of RI). It was about an hour on the ferry and I wanted to pull my hair out by the end of it. Three rowdy children running wild with no where to go, hauling a double stroller up a flight of stairs on the boat, sea sickness, smells of vomit in the women's restroom...put it together and I was at my wits ends. I couldn't get off that boat fast enough. Thank goodness we had a bag of tootsie rolls to keep the kids attention!

Luckily, once we got off, things improved. We took a cab to a lighthouse and enjoyed the views. It was SO incredibly beautiful.
View of the Southeast Lighthouse on Block Island.
As Blake and I were enjoying the amazing views, the kids were more excited to find a dirt path full of rocks. They were totally entertained by this!


We decided to walk back into town and it was a wonderful walk (besides the fact that Addie refused to sit in her stroller so I had to carry her while Ethan rode in her seat). We chatted with people walking by, ate blackberries from bushes on the side of the road (Blake encountered a berry that was, unfortunately for him, anything but a blueberry!), and breathed in the cool sea breeze.

On our way down, we stopped at a little farm and got to see some pretty amazing animals. Here Grant and Addie are feeding a grape to a Zee-Donk. That's right...a Zebra/Donkey. Pretty cool!
We walked through town and then spent a few hours playing at the beach. The kids had a blast. The water was a little too chilly for me (I know, I'm a wimp) but Ethan didn't care. Grant and Addie were happy to play in the sand and I was thrilled to take in the amazing views. Here is a picture of a hotel on the water.
Ethan is having a blast playing with daddy in the waves.

On Day 3 we explored a little town in southeast CT called Stonington. It was so charming and beautiful! I can't believe we lived in Connecticut and never explored this area.
This is a view from the beach area at Stonington. Blake and Ethan went exploring and climbed out on a bunch of rocks. They quickly learned that it was a great area to catch sand crabs so Ethan had a blast with some other little boys catching crabs and learning how to hold them without getting pinched.
Ethan and I also went up to the top of the lighthouse. It doesn't look very tall so I was thinking that we wouldn't have much of a view. Until I looked out the windows and saw this...
How gorgeous is that? That was just one side...the other sides looked out to NY and RI. So incredible. I think I want to live in a lighthouse when I grow up.
Ethan had fun just going up and down the circular staircase!
I took the twins and walked through town, taking in the sea smells and views. I thought this house was so darling with it's rose bushes growing through the fence and the water in their backyard. Amazing!

So, it was only a three day trip but we had a wonderful time. The only bumps we had were trying to get the twins to sleep in pack-n-plays in a hotel, and feeling a little sick after eating those fried pickles! We had a blast just swimming in the hotel pool, eating ice cream and just being together. Great times!