Martha's Vineyard!

My sister Kori got a place in Martha's Vineyard with her family for the week and invited us up for the weekend. So we borrowed their second car and drove up. They had a cozy beachfront place and we just relaxed for three days. It was such a treat.

The boys on the ferry ride over to the island

First day on the beach

Elliot was a little nervous about the water temperature at first

Aaron designed and crafted (with a little help) this bow and arrow before our trip. It was supposed to be for catching fish but after his first attempt he realized it wasn't going to work. He was a little disappointed but got over it pretty fast.

Local live lobster!

Cracking up the lobster for dinner. Aaron developed a love of seafood this trip. Well, he loved lobster before but now he loves raw oysters, scallops, clams, and mussels as well.

A typical moment in the backyard-- Aaron sitting contemplatively, with Ben and Elliot throwing stones.

Sunset

Baby Tony's Birthday Party

Part of the reason for going out to Martha's Vineyard was to celebrate my nephew Tony's first birthday. Here are some pictures from the party.


The Birthday Boy (with his mama)

Elliot, ready to party

Some of the party-goers. Elliot and "Nana" (Kori's mother-in-law) had a ball toss going on-- you can se Nana holding the ball in her hand.

Aaron and Tony-- one of those rare moments where Aaron yells, "Mom, take a picture!"

Sleeping boys

One of Aaron's favorite activities of the weekend was fishing. He didn't actually have bait or a hook and so obviously didn't catch anything, but he still liked sitting there with the line in the water, just in case. Occasionally he put a piece of bread or other food on the line to increase the chances of biting.

On our way off the island, about to board the ferry. We had such a great time!

Ben's Birthday Party

Ben's chosen birthday dinner: spaghetti with huge meatballs and chunky sauce, garlic bread, salad, and fruit juice

Aaron made this bed for himself on our floor. I like the tray next to him with books ("in case I wake up at night and want to read") and he later added food, in case of hunger.

Chinatown!

Despite the fact that I wanted to have a low-key day at the playground today, Aaron had a deep desire to go to Chinatown and check out the meat. So, we did.

First, they tried out their new engineer hats from Great Grandma Person-- the hats were once Ben's dad's and Ben's Uncle Phil's.

A coconut appetizer

And, of course, meat. We ate lunch at this restaurant. Aaron ordered duck. I don't think I've ever been so close to vegetanianism as I was after this trip. Apparently, this restaurant wasn't quite enough for our little carnivore, so we found a meat market complete with raw pig and cow tongues (complete with taste buds), frog legs, goat kidneys, pig heads, chicken feet, and pretty much any other imaginable meat substance. The highlight of the trip, though, was that Aaron got to catch some fish with a net-- they had some little tanks with a ton of fish where you could pick out a fresh fish and the lady let Aaron (after a bit of gesturing and smiling on our part) catch a few fish. It was pretty exciting, actually. He got the fish just barely out of the water in the net and it started flapping like crazy, splashing water on us. Aaron was thrilled.

We stopped at Chinatown's Original Ice Cream Factory. Elliot and I shared a ginger ice cream cone, and Aaron went with the exotic vanilla ice cream cone. It was some of the best ice cream I've ever had.

Local Tourism

We've been doing a lot of little field trips lately. I feel like a tourist, which is actually cool because I know I am not a tourist. Just enjoying our city.


This is one of the few pictures I took during our visit to the Natural History Museum last week. Interestingly though, this trip to the museum was very different from the many other times we have gone. Usually we hit all the big animals-- the whale, elephants, gorilla, dinosaurs, etc. However, this time Aaron requested to see anything related to hunting, so we explored the exhibits of all the people-- from Central/South America, Mexico, Africa, and the American Indian exhibits. I kept saying, "You ready to go home now Aaron?" and he'd say, "No! Let's see more!" So I took him to another exhibit of peoples. Of course, on the way to the next peoples exhibit, we walked slowly through the animal exhibits while Elliot wowed and whoaed. Here they are in front of some giraffes and wildebeest.

On Friday, we wandered through Central Park and went to the Carousel and the Zoo. Here are the kids on the carousel.

Elliot enjoyed most of the ride, but was very suspicious when the horse started moving up and down.

Elliot sitting on a turtle's head at the zoo.


He decided he didn't like it all that much.

Rabbit Aaron

Some old pictures I never got around to posting...

As many of you know, Aaron is very into hunting and trapping animals. Not a day goes by lately that Aaron doesn't mention the desire to hunt, fish, or trap something. So this, in case you can't tell, is part of a trap he made to catch something in our bathroom. The details of how it exactly works are unclear, but this tied-up toilet paper roll is only part of it. The other part, pictured below, involves the footstool stuffed with the trash can, which is stuffed with magazines. Also notice the toothpaste spread on the floor, which was a sticking agent of some sort.

And, since our hunting potential and desire is very limited around here, Aaron will take what he can get. He caught these worms in the park and brought them home to fry them up, along with a piece of grass. He put the worm to his mouth and was so disgusted he threw them both away, without even requesting that we try them out.

Chefs Aaron and Elliot helping mom in the kitchen.

Our dear friends (and host family) in Ukraine made these aprons for the kids. Aren't they adorable?


Ben and Aaron napping. After I took this picture, I tried to move Aaron to a bed but he yelled, "NO!" so I left him there. I guess it could be more comfortable than it looks, sleeping on a wooden board.

This picture is really old but I think it's adorable. It was taken by Aaron's music teacher-- the prompt was to make a pose that you could hold for a picture. Besides the cute pose, part of the cuteness of the picture is that he got himself dressed that morning, and decided to "dress up." Pretty fancy looking, eh?