Cape Cod

Steve's grandfather passed away this spring, and the memorial service was held for him in June. We were glad that it worked out for our family to go and visit Grandma H. during this time and be able to attend Grandpa H's memorial. All in all we were in Cape Cod for 4 days, with a day of travel on each end of that. The travel portion of this adventure is somewhat of a bummer. A 2-hour drive to the Chicago airport, a long flight with toddler and baby, and then another 2-3 hour trek in a rental car out to the cape. Lots of car-seat lugging, hand sanitizing, shh-ing, and tricking the babe into thinking he's having a good time. It's a long, full day. But once we arrived there, it all seemed worth the effort. During our first full day there we went to a little Cove near the house with Steve's sister and her hubs while Owen took a nap. Ava was more brave this year, and she had fun running up and down the beach and digging up shells and the like.
At this beach there were a few bridges over some inlets of water, and everything was so picturesque.
The quiet part of the beauty was lost to Ava as she bounded across the bridge while "singing" (yelling).

She got pretty excited about the waves tickling her toes,

and letting her feet sink down into the sand.

After more beach walking we headed over to the fish market to pick up dinner. Ava was well behaved.
After dinner we went to the Flats in Brewster, which is my favorite thing to do while on the cape. When the tide goes out, there's a mile or two of extra beach, and you can walk way, way out and look at all the little snails, crabs, and fish.

Pretty amazing for this Okie girl! This year Ava was old enough to really get into the action, and it was fun to watch her discover things in the water.


Owen came along for the ride in the baby carrier. He was a happy little guy the whole time.

The next day I got a wonderful morning nap in when Owen was sleeping. It was glorious. Owen was waking up at 4:30 Wisconsin time, so the nap felt really good. I think I got one in almost every day of the trip! Once we were all finally up and dressed we went into Chatham to peruse the little touristy shopping area and eat lunch at the Wayside Inn with Aunt Robyn and Uncle Cory. (Both of which, by the way, were super duper helpful with the babes the entire trip! They really went above and beyond the call of Aunt and Uncle duty during their vacation!) That night we drove to Sundae School for some frozen treats after Owen went to bed. Ava was excited to be included in the "grown up" outing. The kid loves ice cream. Maybe because she never gets any at home...

Other activities included making homemade ice cream in memory of Steve's Grandpa, who would always supervise the process when Steve and Robyn were growing up. We also got to take a nice walk through Nickerson State park with Steve's grandma, wade at the National Sea Shore, and tour a lighthouse. Ava loved reading with her Great Grandma, and Owen became better and faster at crawling, enjoyed standing up with support,

and ate his weight in avocados.

All in all a wonderful trip.