This way beach, that way ice cream.

This year's Mason family Jersey Shore trip was extra special...because we got to see Snooki. Just kidding. Though we did see Snooki, but that wasn't the special part. Dylan had so much fun hanging with his cousins all week. There were times he would look at them all and say, "my cousins!" We spent our mornings at the beach where the water was just beautiful most of the week. Dylan took his naps after lunch and by the time he woke up, his cousins would be back at the house, ready to play. They taught him how to play football (sort of)...he does love the hiking part but kind of lingers in a crouched position looking down for a while before throwing the ball forward. Emily gave him some soccer advice. They all played baseball and nerf bowling with him. He watched cartoons with Logan. He had a blast with each one of his cousins and they were so good to him, always letting him play with them and taking care of him, too. There were times they would be playing their own games, and Dylan would come in and demand attention and they just adjusted their game to include him...it was so sweet.

Though Dylan was very fearful of the water all week, and didn't really like the feel of sand at the beginning, or the look of the birds on the beach...he apparently turned into a fearless child at the boardwalk. Keith took him to the games at Seaside and Dylan went on lots of rides with his older cousins that mommy would not have approved of if she had been there. Luckily for Dylan, I was away for one night (seeing a Phish show) and the daredevil side of our child was allowed to shine, under the supervision of his older cousins who took good care of him on the rides, I hear. I wish I had been there.

Finally, the most consistent part of the trip was our nightly ice-cream walks. Every night, a while after eating dinner, we all took a walk to get ice cream together. Every night, Dylan ordered for himself. Some nights, "Nilla" (vanilla), other nights "Nilla and cookies." From our beach house, there were only two directions, according to Dylan: this way beach, that way ice cream. you'd think that's just a toddler's simple perspective, but for most of that week I think we all felt that way which was really nice.

Lilith Fair

We took Dylan to his first concert last weekend, the Lilith Fair. It was a beautiful day thanks to that month-long heat wave finally breaking. Though it was a little hot in the sun, once it started to go down a bit, it was a perfect evening for live music. We went with my friend Gina who is on an extended stay in NJ, having left her home in London to have her baby here in September before she moves to Lebanon. So it was nice to catch up with her and be around a nice big baby belly for the day. We also got to see "Grandma" who had been there early for a special lunch with her friend Kathy. The music was very mellow most of the show. Not too much dancing, unfortunately, but lots of relaxing. The Indigo Girls were the highlight and we left after their set because our little man was falling asleep at around 10pm. I'm glad we got to take Dylan to his first concert and saw that he had fun. I'm also glad it was at the PNC (Garden State) Arts Center where we've seen so many concerts, and I even remember seeing a play there on a grammar school field trip (about Jackie Robinson). That place is kind of special to us and it's so close to home. Now that we've been camping and to a concert and saw that Dylan liked both, a camping music festival seems like the next logical step...

Camping

Last weekend we took the kids camping and enjoyed some down time doing nothing but communing with nature, swatting mosquitos and playing with Kari and Avram's ipads. It was very nice. The kids seemed to have fun and the grown-ups really enjoyed some time away from everyday life.

We got pretty lucky in that despite the severe weather that seemed to have hit other parts of NJ, we only got some rain with minor thunder on each night and it started just about the time when we were getting ready for bed, so we never had to figure out what to do to entertain the kids during the day.

On Saturday we went to the Delaware river and spent a nice day there. We did well with the food, too. Brian and Keith grilled up some sausage and chicken on Friday and Keith made some burgers and hot-dogs on Saturday. Sunday, Avram made awesome breakfast treats that consisted of butter, bread, eggs, and more butter. YUM!

Sunday, we took a walk to the Wolf reserve that was on site. And finally after we were all packed up on Sunday and heading for Hot Dog Johnny's, the rain started coming down hard, which did not deter us from getting hot dogs, but did make us grateful that we weren't packing up in that storm.

All in all, it was great to spend a weekend not having any real plans, and just sitting around talking, always outdoors in fresh (although hot and humid) air. Dylan renewed and strengthened his bond with his new BFF, Brendan, who he now calls "that guy." And he came home saying he had fun with Sam (Kari's son). I think all in all, everyone had a good time and we hope to make this a yearly trip.

Here are some more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185314&id=650388930&l=aaac7c2f3a

Family, Fun and Futbol!

Since summer has started, we've all been having lots of fun. As always, my parents have BBQ's about every other weekend for any "special occassion" they can think of to celebrate. We go swimming in the pool with "Tio Ney and 'Leria", which is Dylan for Tio Negro/Nestor and Valeria. We have gone to visit grandma, and Layla and Chloe, and Dylan and Daddy went to visit Alicia and Tommy and the baby in Alicia's belly.

Teresa and Abu have a pool set up for Dylan at Abu's house (my parent's house) and Dylan has been spending most of the heat wave comfortably playing in water, though the rest of us are melting!

Mommy and Daddy got to see some Phish shows, and go to some parties thanks to all the wonderful babysitters we have, including the grandmothers, tia, tio, and Vanessa and Jim. We had so much fun watching the World Cup games and rooting on the U.S. and Uruguay teams which did surpsingly well. Dylan sang along with all the chants: Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole!!!! and Soy Celeste!!! and was awakened from more than one nap with the crazy screaming of GOALLLLLLLL!!!!! Anthony and Monica got married in the middle of all the Futbol Fever and the wedding was a fun celebration of love, two cultures, and soccer.

Through it all, Dylan has been talking more and more every day. He surprises us with how well he communicates and has gotten so used to communicating that when we don't understand him, he sometimes gets frustrated and upsest. Luckily, he gets over things pretty quickly so that he may cry for about 30 seconds and then see a toy he wants to play with and it's all over. His "terrible two's" aren't really terrible at all thanks to his sweet disposition and his ability to get over things really fast...and we're really grateful. He's speaking two languages and picking up so many new words every day, and also he's generally a nice kid. When we were food shopping this last week, he told me he wanted out of the shopping cart. I explained that if I took him out, he had to behave and walk next to me, which he did. And then he helped me pick stuff out, load it on the conveyor belt at the check out line and then he helped me bag the little things I handed to him. He was this little toddler acting like a big kid...and it made everyone smile at how sweet he was.

We've got lots of fun stuff planned for the rest of the summer: camping, beach, concerts, and pool time. We plan on enjoying every minute of it!

Memorial Day BBQ

Just a few pictures and a link of some more of our memorial day BBQ at Merrill Park. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather for a picnic. Dylan, of course, loves being outside. A lot of people couldn't make it but some new folks were welcomed. Always nice to spend a nice day outside relaxing and playing games.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=172366&id=650388930&l=d4a587b376

Go Yankees!

Last Friday, May 28th we kicked off our Memorial Day Weekend by going to Dylan's first Yankee game (against the Indians). It was my first time at the new stadium and Dylan's first professional baseball game ever. (He has seen his big cousin Colin play before). We had a great time at the game, Dylan made friends with everyone around us by repeating what people yelled out (luckily, we were in a family-friendly section and had kids in front of us and a behind us which was nice). Dylan also joked around with the two college guys behind us by calling them "this guy!" and laughing and the other one was "that guy!" They fist-bumped with him like they were old friends. Then we were walking around the promenade and eating delicious garlic fries when Robinson Cano hit a grand slam in the 6th inning, everyone started dancing and celebrating and the three of us danced with our garlicky french fries and drinks in our hands. Dylan didn't know what was going on but he always joins in on dancing and celebrating when he sees it, it's a pretty cute trait.

After all the excitement, we headed home and Dylan fell asleep in the car, which was as good a reason as any to stop and get ice-cream at Dairy Queen. The rest of the weekend was nice, with Franco's communion party on Saturday and then Keith's Birthday BBQ on Sunday. I'll post some pictures and stories from that day next.

All in all memorial day weekend 2010 was a good one!

Disney World

For Keith's birthday, we took a mini-vacation to Disney World. In exchange for sitting through a time-share presentation, we were given a 4 day and 3 night stay at Orange Lake Resort in Orlando. Our friends Brad and Kathleen and their baby Dominic joined us and we had wonderful long weekend in Florida.

The resort was beautiful and it was nice that the kids played together from the moment they woke up to the moment they fell asleep at night. Friday, we arrived and settled in. Dylan and Dom (or "Moose" his nickname) knew each other from before and they hit it off right away, running from room to room together. They shared the toys and held hands when we left the suite to walk anywhere, it was all adorable. Saturday we went to Magic Kingdom and Dylan enjoyed the Dumbo ride with daddy, the It's a Small World, the Peter Pan and the Winnie the Pooh rides with mommy AND daddy. That's what he was really excited about, that we were all on the ride together...it was so cute! He also really liked riding a little tram that rode around one of the sections of the park. It was pretty hot and sunny and there was a lot of walking around so that day was exhausting. Here is a picture of Dylan and Dominic taking a nap in one of the shady areas we were able to find. Kathleen had bought the boys both Micky shirts with their names on them and little Mickey dolls. they looked so cute wearing them together!

Sunday, we spent the morning doing the time-share presentation, which was an example of relentless salesmanship. For the record, the initial offer to buy a week a year at the resort was around $50,000 plus yearly maintence fees. By the 5th salesman, the price had gone down to around $5,000 plus maintenance fees. pretty insane! After that, we spent time at the resort pool, which was fun and then we headed to "Downtown Disney" for dinner and walking around. This place was great and we are so grateful to Keith's friend Krista for giving us this tip. We never would have known to go there, but it was perfect. Dylan and Dom spent almost an hour just playing on the little playground and Dylan loved Lego-land. We had a nice dinner, and Dylan rode a little choo-choo and a merry-go-round. All for a fraction of what we had paid in the park the day before.

The best part of the night was when we stopped along the path to hear a performer playing guitar and taking requests. There was a grassy area behind the singer and the boys started running around and playing while we listened to music and watched them. Then two older girls (maybe 7 and 8?) started playing with the boys and running around with them. They boys loved them and they played for a long time together as this singer provided a really sweet soundtrack for it all (Paul Simon and the Beatles). It was a perfect moment on a pefect night!
The boys exhausted themselves and slept beautifully that night.

On Monday, we went to Sea World where Keith and Seth's friend Krista works. She hooked us up with some free tickets and some half-priced tickets and gave us great advice about where to go. We saw the Shamu show, that Dylan is still talking about. Then we took a secret entrance and avoided the lines at the polar bear exhibit that was wonderfully air-conditioned! We saw all sorts of cool stuff in there while escaping the very hot sun outside.

Eventually it was time to go home. Our flight was delayed several times and we were given three separate seats in three separate rows (We had to work it out with people on the plane because Continental didn't help us in getting 2 seats next to each other for me and Dylan!). But through it all, Dylan was so good. He stayed in his car seat through all the delays on the plane and didn't cry the whole flight. The man next to him who had his two fighting sons behind us was impressed.

All in all it was a wonderful and perfect vacation and we can't wait to take more time off with our sweet little boy. Here's also a link of my pictures from our trip...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=169787&id=650388930&l=774d5644ce