May weekends - swan boats, walks, and picnics, finally!

We've had several nice weekends enjoying parks, picnics and excursions close to home.

Caden's school hosted a Mother's Day picnic lunch the Friday before Mom's Day.

Ironically, Caden was going through a Daddy's-boy phase and first wanted to give this card to Matt - the boys spent the last week in April together while Mama was in California and then the 2nd weekend in May while Mama was at a grad student 'retreat' on Cape Cod.

On Mom's Day, Mama returned to a delicious salmon dinner and peanut butter-chocolate cheesecake. Yum! Mama got her turn to have Caden to herself when Dada went to Alabama to give a seminar at Dauphin Island Marine Lab that following week. Here's a picture of one of Caden's most innovative designs yet - check out the square blocks oriented on point!

Saturday, the 16th, we finally decided it was about time for a quintessential Boston activity: a ride on the swan boats! The boats have been in operation since 1877, and Caden knows all about them from 'Make Way for Ducklings'.

We sat on rows of benches for about 10 minutes while a person in the back (on the swan) pedaled us around a figure 8 in the Boston Gardens.

After the swan boat ride, we met up with Elisa, a good friend of Mama's from waaayy back, who is a grad student at Brown. We had a nice (but a bit chilly) lunch at the Parish Cafe, then Caden and Dada took the T home while Mama and Elisa spent the evening shopping and sitting at cafes on Newbury Street. It was one of those days that made us really glad we live close to a city, even if we do consider ourselves country mice!

Back at home, Caden discovered a word game on the shelf called 'Bananagrams' and wanted to play with it. We realized the letter tiles are great for kids that are learning how to spell but still can't write yet. It was so cool to see Caden spell his name by himself!!

The next weekend - Memorial Day weekend - the weather was absolutely perfect (except for a short rainshower while we were hiking), and we had all sorts of fun activities to keep us from being blue that we were missing family get-togethers out on the west coast!

Saturday, we enjoyed our usual outings to the Magic Hat (thrift shop), YMCA, and grocery store. Then, that evening, our neighbors Sarah, Chris, and little Micah invited us over for a BBQ and bocce ball. Caden decided to dress like a pirate for the occasion!

Sunday, we decided to start Caden 'in training' for hiking (this summer) and backpacking (someday). We went up to Dogtown, an old fishing town site in Gloucester on Cape Ann. We picnicked on the side of the trail/gravel road. Caden was a great hiker! He hiked in front almost the whole way and insisted on preferentially taking the small trails 'less travelled'. He really enjoyed the house ruins - old cellars. We didn't quite make it to the rocks that were carved to inspire the transients that moved into Dogtown after the fishers left - things like 'When work ceases, values decay'. Definitely a reason to go back!

Caden's hiking got a little more tentative after the brief rain storm when the mosquitos came out. Their bites did hurt; here's Caden's 'anti-mosquito position' after getting bit on the cheek. He later instructed Mama to walk next to him and be the 'brusher' that kept the skeeters away.

Monday was the nicest day of the weekend, and we spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and eating smoked fish tacos with our friends Luke and Marielle in Nahant. Caden entertained himself all afternoon by playing football ('Beaver's ball'), catching bugs with his bug container, and periodically collecting and bringing out anything of Luke's that he thought would be fun to play with, like sunglasses, Boggle, and Guitar Hero guitars. By the time we left, he couldn't keep his eyes open and fell asleep on the living room chair while the adults played all the rock band parts on Guitar Hero.

This weekend has been particularly mellow, with us all trying to get the house in order for the summer. We went walking on the Marblehead rail trail both days, and Caden did more great hiking, especially with playgrounds as destinations. This coming week, Mama and Dada are going to be finishing up drafts of a paper and a grant proposal, respectively, then we are going on a short family trip before we head to California and the crazy field season starts! We realized that even though we have all travelled quite a bit so far this year (Caden to OR; Dada to HI, VT, and AL; Mama to Mexico, HI, OR, and CA), we haven't been anywhere overnight *as a family* since New Years!