What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Is summer over already? It just flew by. It was quite the eventful summer, too, and I didn't blog about any of it. My bad. In the interest of brevity and to avoid boring you to death, here is the Cliff's Notes version of my life over the last 3 months or so...

Birthday Celebration

Over 4th of July weekend, we traveled to Denver to celebrate the 70th birthday of Geoff's Aunt Marianne. We are very close to her and Geoff's Uncle Mike and it was a nice chance to see family members that we don't see all that often.

Marianne and Mike

Anniversary Celebration

Geoff surprised me with a weekend getaway at Castle Hill Inn in Newport for our anniversary. It was a lovely surprise and the weekend was filled with lots of little luxuries - roses, champagne, gourmet meals and time to relax on the private beach. I felt very pampered.

Castle Hill Inn

Renovation/Remodel Hell

On August 1, we had to empty out the first floor of our home to prepare for some minor renovations. It's now September 18th and it's still not done. I'm about to lose my mind. I could really use another weekend at Castle Hill Inn.

My Family Room

Driver's License

On August 2nd, Madeleine got her Driver's License!!!! It's hard to describe the feeling I have now that my chauffeuring duties are completely over. Relief, wistfulness, sadness, disbelief. But mostly relief. I'm not sure Geoff feels that same sense of relief. He really misses driving her to school every morning. He's trying to convince her to go to Brown University after she graduates so that he can drive her to class every day on his way to Providence. The empty nest is looming large. *sigh*

Brand New Driver

50 Years...and Counting

In early August, we spent a long weekend in Woodstock, VT with Geoff's extended family to celebrate his parents' 50th Anniversary! We had a wonderful weekend at the Woodstock Inn. The main event of the trip was a special celebratory dinner in honor of Gary and Audrey's 50th. The dinner was absolutely lovely - complete with special flowers, a small wedding cake, champagne and specially designed M&Ms to commemorate the occasion. Each of Geoff's parents made a speech and Geoff and his two siblings toasted their parents. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Truly a memorable and momentous occasion.

Gary and Audrey

College Drop 0ff - Second Time's a Charm

On August 27th, we dropped Katie off to start her sophomore year at college. Things went much more smoothly than the fiasco that was last year. I sensed that she was a little reluctant to let us leave, but since we were trying to outrun Tropical Storm Irene, we didn't have much choice but to get on the road.

Katie's Dorm Room

Speaking of Tropical Storms...

Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it got to RI, but that didn't stop it from knocking out our power for 6 DAYS! I have a whole new respect for people who live in the south and deal with hurricanes on a regular basis. The inconvenience was - well, inconvenient. Not to mention my house was already under renovation and I had only gotten my (electric) stove reinstalled the day before the storm hit. Ugh! But, fortunately, we didn't suffer any damage and we had hot water throughout the ordeal. Not everyone was so fortunate.

Annual Family Weekend in New Hampshire

As we have since 2007, we spent Labor Day weekend in a rented house in NH with my Dad and Sandy and my brother's family. As this trip came right on the heels of Irene (and we still didn't have power when we left), it came at a good time. I really needed to get away and get out of my head with regards to our lack of electricity, the inconvenience and how it had brought the (never ending) work on our house to screeching halt. (I was just a wee bit cranky that week.) I spent the weekend reading on the screened porch and napping. It was fabulous. I felt very refreshed when I got back home.

Dad and me reading on the screened porch

Back to School

Madeleine started her Junior year of High School on September 6th - one week late due to Tropical Storm Irene. It was very exciting for her to drive herself to school for the first time. This school year really feels like the start of a new chapter. Junior year is such an important one. A year focused so much on preparing for life after HS. That, combined with the independence that comes with having a license, has really changed the makeup and tone of our days. It's freeing and exciting, but it's also a little unsettling. I always find the start of the school year a time of adjustment. This year the adjustment seems to be less about getting used to a new routine, and more about adjusting to the next phase in life. And not just for Madeleine.

Madeleine's First Day of Junior Year in HS

Katie's First Day of Sophomore Year in College

Looking back I can see why the summer flew by. It was a busy and sometimes chaotic summer. But there was a lot of fun and love, too. All in all, a good summer. How about you? What did you do on your summer vacation?

Labor Day Tradition

For the past 4 years we have spent Labor Day weekend at rented house in NH with my Dad and Sandy and my brother, Paul's, family. It's become one of my favorite things about summer. We stay in the house of friends' of my Dad and Sandy. It's a great house with an open floor plan and a terrific screened in porch not too far from New Found Lake.








It's a very low key weekend. We play games, read, eat, watch a little TV, sit by the lake, walk the dogs around the block and we usually make one excursion to explore the area.


This year we visited a gorgeous little waterfall on a stream that ran through the woods. It was nature at its best. The kids had a great time climbing up the side of the waterfall and rockhopping back and forth across the stream. The adults enjoyed it too. And so did Rosey. Everyone was in their glory.

Of course, the trip always ends with a Labor Day visit to Shackett's Ice Cream stand for free ice cream. Shackett's begins giving away their ice cream at 11:00 am and continues until it's all gone. This year we got there early and had our pick of flavors. I got pistachio, which they had run out of last year.

But the best part of the weekend was that Katie was able to come with us. Fortunately, the college she attends is not too far out of the way. We picked her up on Friday night (after her job at the Dining Hall ended at 8:30 pm. Ugh!) and had to drop her off fairly early on Monday so that she could take a swim test for the crew team. Crew? Can you believe it? The girl never ceases to amaze me.

Anyway, it was so great to be able to see Katie only one week after dropping her off at college. She was full of excitement and enthusiasm as we drove to the house. She is enjoying all aspects of college and is very comfortable there. She really feels as though she made the right decision in choosing that school. What a relief! It was great to spend those three days with her, but saying goodbye the second time was not as easy I had thought it would be. It was actually a little bit harder than the first time around. We all held it together, but it was definitely a little wistful. The good news is that Family Weekend is at the end of the month. Apparently, we are going to be able to make this separation slowly. No complaints here.

Here are a few favorite photos from our trip:

Closing Day

For the past three years, we have spent Labor Day weekend in a lovely rented home on a lake in Bristol, NH with my Dad and Sandy and my brother's family. All together there were 6 adults, 5 kids and 4 dogs in residence this year.




It's something I look forward to every year. You would think with all these people and canines it would be utter chaos, but surprisingly it's not. There is plenty of room in the house to spread out and the lake is short walk away. Even though my brother and his family only live 1/4 mile from me, I don't spend all that much time with them. It's nice to have that weekend to catch up with Paul and Martha (my brother and his wife) and spend a little time with my niece (Julia, 11) and my nephews (Alex, almost 8 and Travis, 13).

I really enjoy our evenings spent playing games together as one big group. And, of course, we usually watch a movie or two. But, I think the reason I look forward to this weekend every year is that it truly is the one time in the year when I really do just relax. There is not too much to do in little Bristol, NH, so each day just unfolds slowly and I take it one minute at a time. Mostly, I sit on the lovely screened in porch (with a view of the lake) and read. Big surprise, right?! Or I take my favorite beach chair down to the lake and, you guessed it, read some more. Pure heaven!

But, I think the thing I look forward to the most is what I've come to call Closing Day of Ice Cream Season. At the beginning of the summer, I wrote a post about Opening Day of Ice Cream season. Since Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer it seems right that Labor Day would be the end of the season. What makes it even more exciting is that Shackett's, the little ice cream/sandwich shop around the corner from the house we stay in, closes on Labor Day and on that day, starting at 11:00 am ice cream is FREE until it's all gone. Getting a super sized cone (they only have one size on Free Ice Cream Day. Heck those college kids just want to get out of there) for free on our last day of vacation is the highlight of the trip for our family.

It's always a big surprise to see what flavors are left and usually everyone can find something they like. It's not too hard. It is ice cream after all. This year when I announced that Labor Day was the Official End of Ice Cream Season, I was corrected by the Commissioner of Ice Cream (aka Geoff). He claims that he, and only he, can declare an end to the season. And since his favorite ice cream shop back home is open through Columbus Day, the season is officially still going strong. Ice cream, anyone?

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Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer

Summer is FINALLY here! Yesterday was the girls' last day of school. It took forever to get here. June 23rd seems awfully late for school to be letting out. And actually it was. School was supposed to be over last Friday, but we had to make up two snow days. I love the more relaxed pace of summer - no schedule, no after school or evening meetings, no homework hassles and especially no getting up at 6:30 am (have I mentioned I'm not a morning a person?).

In light of the fact that it's now officially the lazy, hazy days of summer and my recent struggles with Guilt Free Blogging, I may be backing off a bit here on Pam's Perspective. I've done a lot of soul searching on this and I've figured out that I really do enjoy posting and responding to my comments, but I may post a little less frequently this summer. A summer vacation of sorts.

And to follow up a bit more on my Guilt Free Blogging post, what I figured out was that I was simply following too many blogs - 72 to be exact! That's just too many. I will admit that I went through my Reader and weeded that list down to the 51 blogs (still a lot) that I enjoy and identify with the most. It was very hard for me to do this. I had some guilty feelings about it. But, I decided I had to get back to basics - blogging for me. Since I did that I have noticed that keeping up with the blogs in my Reader is much more manageable and I've had much more time to write posts. Which is what I enjoy the most. I still plan on posting a few times a week, it just may not be every day. (I have a bunch of posts in my drafts folder, ready to be posted, so you may not notice a change right away). I hope you will stick with me as I try to figure out a workable schedule of posting, visiting other blogs, commenting and responding. And for those of you who are struggling with these same issues, I encourage you to determine for yourselves which aspects of blogging are taking the most time and that you enjoy the least and let them go. It's hard at first, but it's also very freeing. And summer is the perfect time to do that. After all it's the lazy, hazy days of summer. Everyone should relax and take it easy during the summer. Even amazing bloggers like you!