Another summer week, another seven days I can hardly believe were only seven days.

Sunday:

Yeah, basically this, for the whole weekend.

They ate all the peas & berries before we even got back in the car.

Oh no! Stormy seas! The boat is rocking! (It was not stormy.)

Monday:

Friendship IS magic!

Dr. Evan to x-ray, STAT!

It’s adorable, but they still stole my umbrella.

Tuesday:

Burning off some energy. SO MUCH ENERGY.

Every morning Caroline wakes up and cries until she can say hello to her kitty.

Reading selections

Wednesday:

She’s skeptical about putting a bird on it.

High fives, Blue Iguana!

Pineapple cream cheese cupcake = heaven

Thursday:

Dancing at the Plymouth 4th of July Parade

Cousins in the ocean

Chug chug chug chug

Friday:

Explaining why we should go home and watch some shows (he was very convincing)

Town fireworks

He liked them for the first 2 minutes…and then fell asleep.

Saturday:

Monkey see, monkey do

NO WE DO NOT DRINK OUT OF THE FOUNTAIN.

Performing a tail-ectory on Ariel

It is still hot hot hot in New England, so our choices are 1) sit really, really still in the house with all the fans blowing on us or 2) go find a body of water. There are lots of those around, but since Evan and I both got sunburns on the 4th we’ve been hiding inside mostly. They start the preschool summer program this week (I…think? I need to call…) so we’ll eventually have to go back to the real world, but for now I am enjoying doing nothing. Mostly nothing. I don’t think potty training counts as REALLY doing nothing.

I know posting more pictures is kind of ridiculous, but I have twofold reasons. One, I like putting them here online so even if my house burned down I’d have SOME of my photos on the interwebs. Plus technically this blog is my kids’ scrapbook, and I don’t want to leave out their first summer and Mormor and Bumpa’s new lake house. Two, I have done too much stuff in the past month and it finally caught up with me. I have a list of pains longer than my arm and absolutely no energy to deal with anything. I barely have the energy to convert my photos into JPGs anymore, let alone edit them the way I should.

It’s ridiculous that I am complaining about doing TOO MUCH FUN STUFF and that photo editing it cutting into my busy Candy Crush playing schedule, but that’s me. I’m Suzanne. I’m ridiculous. But these are the last of my epic road trip vacation photos, so from now on you just get mini-vacation posts. So much better!

p.s. Also, it is 2013. I know the title said “2012” all morning, but that was probably just your imagination. Clearly I know it’s 2013 by now, considering it’s June. July. I meant July.

My dad’s childhood tackle box – he still uses it.

If you put her in a bathing suit, she wouldn’t go near the water. But in her clothes? Totally soaked.

He did not catch any fish.

My mother is going to hate this picture, but I love it SO MUCH I don’t even care. Could they look any happier?!

Old House Vineyards (not actually PART of the Lake House. Just nearby.)

Two of the days this week were SO LAZY I barely took 3 pictures all day. Coming back to real life is hard.

Sunday:

It rained on our last day at the lake house, but luckily Mormor and Bumpa have cable.

Evan and his man bag are ready to go.

Quick! Put the GIANT serving of Pad Thai on a huge plate so it looks more reasonably sized.

Monday:

This is my sister’s from France and it is AMAZING

Singing a song that goes “I am so cute! I am so cute!”. She made it up.

Emergency 9 pm Target run for baseball supplies.

Tuesday:

The red seat is the spot where the longest ever home run landed.

Empty park.

He is accurately expressing how hot it was.

Hell yeah panorama feature

Wednesday:

TV watching cuddles

Spitting face, even though spitting is a time-outable offense.

8 pm McD’s trip for happy meals is part of my campaign for Mother of the Year.

Thursday:

Quick! Run in different directions! It’ll confuse her!

Best sibling photo ever? Possibly.

Taking a magical carriage ride for the very first time.

Friday:

I think the cat missed us while we were gone.

Wrinkly piggies!

I’m going to shave off her hair and turn it into a wig for me. So jealous.

Saturday:

Lord Caroline sneers at her subjects.

Super Caroline is annoyed you disturbed her secret lair.

Who knew a weekend at a kid’s birthday party could be a vacation?

I know I said LAST week that we were just going to relax at home and take it easy for a while…but then I realized Summer is REALLY SHORT and we are already running out of time to do all the things. We’ll be all over New England for the next week and the kids start summer school/camp the week after, so the frantic pace continues. It’s literally giving me stomach pains thinking about how little time we have left before it gets dark and cold again, so I’m fitting as much fun into these warm days as possible.

1. If you are a parent and you take your kids with you on vacation, it’s not really vacation. It’s being a parent in a new and different (and hopefully more scenic) location. You still have extra bodies to dress and feed and clean and beg to go to sleep so you can drink your wine in peace. The only way to TRULY get a vacation is to leave the children somewhere else. Or bring a nanny.

2. Letting your children play in elevators is a poor choice. Even the small private elevator in your beach mansion. Hashtag RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS. (Luckily Caroline bears no ill effects or claustrophobia from those terrifying 10 minutes.)

3. If you take 1000 vacation photos in a weekend, just switch to JPG instead of RAW so you don’t waste your entire vacation editing photos of drinks and food along with the beautiful shots of your children.

4. Even if your children previously loved sand/water/swimming/the beach/the dark/cheeseburgers/naps/sleeping/eating/dogs/walking/singing/breathing/etc etc etc, they will insist they DO NOT love those things as soon as you get 200 miles from home. Especially if they are 2 and a half.

5. I need a vacation after my vacation. Luckily I can be totally lazy and sloth-like for the next couple of days while I finish editing photos and forcing you to look at them.

p.s. Still an amazing vacation, even if I sound a little ungrateful slash spoiled. Driving home is the worst.

Vacation, then more vacation. My life is really not hard right now.

Sunday:

Someone fits right in on Kiawah Island

MORE HATS. ALWAYS.

Hello, someone please come look at my castle!

Monday:

A brewery, you say? Can I have some beer? I’m totally 21.

Chocolate cake + carrots = balanced meal.

I was the wheelbarrow. I lost, big time.

Tuesday:

*Sob* Goodbye, beach house!

SO HAPPY to meet our friend Sophia.

Obviously they’re getting married some day.

Wednesday:

This is the only time all week we got Caroline into a boat.

Me? I like the boats.

Weirdos.

Thursday:

Operation Wear Out The Children Phase 2: Playground

Success! (Well, sort of. Caroline is force feeding him milk.)

Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’

Friday:

Sort of totally in love with these steps

Checking out the grapes

Never ending balls of energy

Saturday:

I have swum back and forth to that platform with a toddler on my back a thousand times…and I’m not even sick of it yet.

Princess Sadface demands more fruit.

Opie? Is that you?

We have a liiiiitle bit more vacation followed by the horrible drive back to Connecticut, so if you hate me and my vacation photos don’t worry, I’m almost done. Then it’s back to real life for…well, forever. Basically. Or at least until next year’s summer vacation. Although I can’t say I’ll be sorry to be home in front of my own TV where I can lie on the couch eating an entire pint of ice cream while my children scream at each other without bothering any other people.