Summer Lovin'

We've been staying busy this summer! The following pictures are from early July... hopefully the captions will capture the adventures.

Enjoying a kid-sized ice cream cone at the local Smiling Hill Farm.

Peek-a-boo! Smiling Hill Farm has a great local ice cream and an outdoor playground perfect for little ones.

No comment - except: she did this to herself.

Swimming with cousin Fiona at Nanie & Grampy Plum's. They have a "big" pool, too, but the girls like this one just as much!

A girl, her dress, and a chainsaw. It's a beautiful thing.

The fourth of July we started out the day with some strawberry picking with our friends Jami, Ryan, and Braydon. Payson's not fond of eating strawberries (strange!) but liked picking them.

Braydon enjoyed eating them - very much!

In the afternoon, we headed over to our friends, the Heslers, for what has become an annual cookout. Delaney, left, is 4 and Allie, right, is 2 and a half.

Christine & Delaney.

What holiday was this again?

The Monday after the Fourth Payson and I went to Ferry Beach in Saco with 5 other moms/toddler combos. From left to right are: Lisa & Leah, Payson & me, Kelly & Elliot, and Kate & Julie. Taking the picture is (another) Kate, and also missing is her son Jack. We had a blast!!

Payson and I heading back from the Beach. You would not believe how much stuff I was schlepping!

Hanging out at home in style!

I hope to do more updating soon! This weekend's the 10K I've been waiting/training for - Beach to Beacon. I figured out that this is my ninth time running this race! I'm very excited, and will do my best to post my results and accounts of the day.

Auntie Leesha's Visit

So, I've got a ton of updating to do! First off, my computer problem stemmed from insufficient memory. So I bought more; hopefully the computer won't crash before it arrives and I have a chance to install it!

I'll start with oldest events first, and keep the commentary to a minimum. I know all you really want to see is the pictures anyway!

My sister Alicia came to visit for a 4.5 day weekend in mid June. We had SO much fun, and did a ton of fun stuff.

We started off the visit by hiking to Portland's only waterfall, Jewell Falls. Who knew? It was a short hike, but well worth it.

We did a little finger painting too! Or was it face painting?

Saturday we visited Windham's annual Summerfest event. It was... well, interesting. We started off with the parade in the morning - highlight: monster truck-style fire truck. Oh well. No pictures from that, unfortunately.

But here's one of Payson, ready for Summerfest action!

We returned home to do some good, old fashioned puddle jumping! I think Auntie Leesha (as Payson ended up calling her - the Salsa nickname didn't stick) needs to do this more often!

Alicia and I headed to the Old Port for some sister shopping time for a few hours and returned to the Summerfest's live music! Who was on first but the Kora Shriners band! (I had no idea what the Kora Shriners was - they were actually decent, but NO ONE was there!)

At least they had free bubbles. We discovered Payson can now blow the bubbles herself!

Here we are amongst the unmanageable crowds!

Payson had a blast dancing around with me.

Sunday we went to Old Orchard Beach. It wasn't exactly beach weather, which explains our attire. We still managed to have an absolute blast - Payson just LOVED the beach experience. How could you beat it? It's big sandbox meets big bathtub, with birds!

She enjoyed playing with the different textures of sand...

... and being super silly and happy while enjoying a picnic.

Sunday afternoon my mom and Aunt Maryann made the trek up to Maine so they could spend time with all of us together, a rarity. Monday we went to Freeport and had lunch and checked out the fishies in LL Bean. What a great weekend!

We also checked out the hats! Alicia and Payson being silly & hanging loose.

I had to get in on the action, too!

I'm going to do my best to get up to date as soon as possible on here! Check back soon for more updates on the last month's adventures! We have been having a lot of fun this summer, and Payson is just an absolute riot and so much fun to be with. Although she's always been quite a little chatter box, this past week her language has really seemed to pick up concept and sentence structure wise. She also started pretending! What an amazing process to watch and be a part of.

We've been MIA

Just a quick note to let you know we've been missing in action here at the ole Plum Tree blog, and it's not going to get better any time soon. My computer's on the fritz and I'm finding it hard to find any time to call Dell tech support! Besides that, we've been so busy having fun. We're capturing all of our adventures with pictures, which, when I find time and my computer revives, I'll be sure to post!

Some of our recent adventures since I last blogged include:

My sister Alicia's visit - we went hiking, to a Festival, Old Orchard Beach, & visited with my mom and aunt.
Swimming at Nanie & Grampy Plummer's with Chloe and Fiona
Strawberry picking with Braydon, Jami, & Ryan
Ferry Beach visit with 4 other moms and little ones
And plenty of outside play!

Next week we are taking a vacation and starting off with a trip to RI. So I'm not hopeful that between now and then I'll get the computer fixed. Grrrrr...

Hope you are all well, and I'll get back on here as soon as possible!

Meeting Junebug!

Sari, my best friend from childhood, called last week to say she had planned a surprise trip to Rhode Island for Father's Day weekend. Since I had not seen Sari for about a year and a half and never even met her daughter Juniper, we decided to make the trek - about a 3 hour drive down 95 South.

Payson and I left on Friday during her naptime. I spent the morning packing. Can you believe all the stuff I needed just for one night?! I was prepared, to say the least.

The trip down went pretty well - the traveling during naptime plan went alright - although Payson woke up at the first toll, about 45 minutes away, and then cat napped the rest of the way. We spent Friday night at my mom's, which was great. Payson recognized Nana right away and warmed up very quickly, following Nana around and saying her name repetitively. We went out for Thai food that evening and drove home singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" over and over and over, at Payson's request (she says "tinkle, tinkle" and gets upset if you try to sing another song).

P. and I got up early Saturday morning and headed to Barrington, the town where I grew up. It has changed quite a bit, and it feels so strange to go back. I am flooded by so many memories driving down the streets. What a beautiful town! I can see why my parents chose to live there.

Juniper was sleeping when we arrived, but when she awoke she and Payson had fun playing together. We can't wait for the next visit when they will be even closer developmentally (they're a little over 6 months apart)! They really did seem to enjoy each other's company, and were really cute together. I was so happy to see Sari and to finally get to meet Juniper, who will be one on June 30th!

Junebug, just up from her nap! What a cutiepie.

Juniper loves to push anything in her path and will be walking very soon! Payson hitched a free ride.

Riding in the car together was a big hit!

Sari & Juniper

We went swimming after the lunch/nap combo. Payson had 2 snack traps, and Junebug snagged one - it was so funny. They were very content with each other!

Juniper's got her mom's world class strength... she "crawled" (or crabbed?) around near the pool like this so her knees wouldn't hit the ground. Pretty impressive!

Alright, guys, we're ready to go home!!!

We had a pretty low-key day, but had a ton of fun visiting with Sari, Juniper, and Sari's parents (aka T & Kiki to the kiddos). After a yummy dinner and a quick tubby, we headed back to Maine and arrived at 11:30. Payson slept the entire way and went down to bed really well when we arrived home. What a great traveling companion! We were both exhausted the next day but had a great Father's Day - and we all had some good naps!

The traveling experience made me more confident! We are planning on heading back down to RI to visit my mom and do some really fun stuff down there in July, so I'm feeling better about that now. And I'll have Matt to help me! But all in all, the trip was great!

We are looking forward to my sister's visit - she's coming this Thursday and leaving Monday. She hasn't seen Payson since she was about 9.5 months old, so it should be great! We're trying to work with Payson on saying "Aunt Alicia" or just plain "Alicia," but Payson keeps saying "salsa." So, she might be stuck with that as a nickname, which suits her pretty well!

"Daddy Tree!"

Things have been a little crazy around here! I'm attempting to update about the past 2 weeks in one night - ambitious, I know.

Matt and I celebrated our fourth anniversary on June 5th, which is hard to believe. The day passed without much fanfare at all, although we had plans to go on a "date" the following weekend, but those changed (see next blog entry). We'll go out in a couple weeks. But we did decide from here on out we'd take the day off to spend together, so I guess something good came from our lackluster anniversary this year. Neither Matt nor I can believe how quickly four years have passed, and how good they've been!

The weekend of 6/7 Matt competed in the New England Tree Climbing Championships, which were held right here in southern Maine this year! Matt headed in to the competition at Fort Williams/Portland Headlight in Cape Elizabeth early Saturday morning, and Payson and I joined others in Matt's fan club, Shirley and Ray, and arrived around 10. We enjoyed the day - although Matt didn't do as well as he hoped. He still had fun competing against New England's finest and seeing some old buddies. Better luck next year!

Matt at the start of the foot lock portion of the competition.

And at the top!

Payson carried daddy's "hat." She loved watching Matt and kept saying, "Daddy tree!"

A view of the Headlight.

The weekend was HOT! Payson helped me water the gardens, in style:

We went to the "beach" at Shaw Park on Monday, mainly so Zoe could go swimming, but we all had a great time. Check out Payson's bikini... pretty darn cute!

Inch by Inch, Row by Row

... we're gonna make this garden grow! We worked a lot on the gardens this weekend. I got home Friday and Matt had completely weeded one and tackled the other that evening and Saturday morning... what a godsend! We got seedlings & compost on Saturday and I did most of the planting - in the rain! It was still really fun. In the ground: tomatoes, cukes, a few types of lettuce, cauliflower, pumpkins, summer squash, cantaloupe, zucchini, green beans, sweet bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, basil, and oregano. Still need to add some broccoli. Also planted a couple annuals (snapdragons and sweet peas) to pots and our perennial garden (guess it's not all perennials!). I am loving the flowers in the perennial garden so far!

Sunday we continued to plant and Payson joined in the fun.

I don't think she realizes that putting a little soil on me won't help me grow any taller.

She actually enjoys the hose even more; she loves to stick her hands right in the spray.

Sunday afternoon we headed into the Old Port for the annual Old Port Festival, which was really fun and the weather was gorgeous. Payson enjoyed trapsing down the streets without regard to walking into the paths of other people (luckily they didn't seem to mind), and even initiated going into a store of her own choosing. She also really seemed to enjoy the live music, once again.

Heading back to the car in fashion. I remember riding my dad's shoulders like this!

Monday we had a GREAT day. We started off by heading to the wonderful playground in Westbrook at Riverbank Park. Payson really got the hang of the smaller toddler playground this time and amazed me by her ability to navigate it independently. We were joined by Payson's Aunt Lauren and cousins Chloe and Fiona. I don't know how Lauren does it with these two girls who are only 14 months apart! Whew! We had a ton of fun, and can't wait to return.

Chloe's "smile on command." I suppose this is a shared trait in kiddos! Where do they get the idea to smile like that?

Chloe looking cute! (She's nearly 2.5 years old)

Fiona, her happy & contented self (she's nearly 16 months; 1o weeks younger than Payson).

In other news, Matt just purchased a long-lusted-after road bike and anxiously awaits its arrival in about a week. I hope we can find some time to hit the roads together! I got out on my bike Sunday, and went running Monday morning and biking this morning, both at 5:30 a.m. This schedule seems to be working well, believe it or not! I'm surviving well these days on 7 hours of sleep.

Payson's STILL putting herself to sleep, even for naps this weekend! This is VERY exciting for us. She hasn't nursed to sleep at bedtime in a couple of weeks now, and no more bouncing at naptime either. We couldn't have asked for a better transition.

Have a great end of the week and weekend!