Vacation in Rhode Island

 We hadn't been camping in several years.  This year the boys were able to help put up the tent.

 It was raining a little as we set up our tent.  Daniel had been sick the week before and wasn't completely over whatever he had so that's why he's the only one wearing a rain poncho.  Actually, I was, too. I was so glad that he was feeling better by the time we left for vacation. He had had a fever for several days (up to 104) and was laying around miserable.  I was afraid it would mess up our vacation plans.  But he was over his fever and feeling much better by time to leave that Sunday.

 We got to go to the beach twice on our vacation.  There were pretty good waves at this beach.

 One night, while I was making dinner I cut my finger pretty bad....so Paul got the job of washing dishes.

 Jae made friends with a lot of the kids at the camp ground.

 Our day in Newport, RI.

 Explaining the fine art of rock skipping....

 We took a walk around Fort Adams.

 It was a long walk!

 Then we took a boat around the harbor.

 To an arcade, where the boys spent lots and lots of time while I wandered the streets of Newport.

 Newport is home to many mansions from the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Some of the Vanderbilts and other rich people have homes here and they are open for tours.  The tours are pretty expensive so we just drove around and walked around and looked at them from the street.

 Like my mansion in the background?

 Daniel got to practice his bike riding on this trip.  One thing that he didn't have quite down was stopping with his breaks instead of putting his feet down.  Right before this picture was taken he had tried to stop but ended up crashing on the side of the road in a bunch of weeds.  I guess there was some weed that he was allergic to that he hit face-first!  He was ok after a little while.

 He finally got so that he could start and stop all by himself!

 Our day at the county museum.

 Daniel's comment: "Dresses, really?"

 Daniel got to be good friends with this sheep!

 On the way to Boston we had to stop by the Patriot's stadium for Jae (who's a huge New England Patriots fan.)

Daniel and I stayed the car while Paul and Jae walked up to the stadium to take a picture.  They didn't notice until it was too late that they'd walked through fresh paint!  A worker in the parking lot noticed, though, and he was not very happy!

 We had been to Boston and walked the Freedom trail several years ago but Daniel didn't remember (he would have been 5 at the time.)  So we did it again this year since the boys had studied the Revolutionary War earlier in the year.  One of our favorite books from our home school curriculum is Johnny Tremain, which is set in Boston.  We got to visit many of the places mentioned in the book.

 Samuel Adam's Grave

 Mother Goose!

 Paul Revere

 Samuel Adams in front of Faneuil Hall.

 The Freedom Trail is quite a long trail!  Resting in the courtyard beside Paul Revere's House.

 We couldn't stop everywhere or afford to go in all the buildings on the Trail so we let the boys each pick one place they wanted to see.  Daniel chose Paul Revere's House.

 Jae chose the Old North Church.

 We got to listen to a tour guide talking about the church and it's role in the Revolution.  He told how the angels in front of the organ were stolen by "privateers" from a French Ship.

 There are graves under the church!

 We visited Copp's Hill.

 Our neighbor at the camp ground told us we had to go to this restaurant.  He was right, it was really good and a great view.

 Galilee, Rhode Island.

 Our favorite ice cream place.  We went here twice during the week and I wanted to go back again!  The coconut ice cream was sooooo good.

 One one of the rainy days we drove to Providence and visited a museum there.  The building was beautiful and was built to be the museum in a huge, beautiful park built in the 1800s.

 On our last full day of vacation we went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival.

 The sky was so blue and the clouds so perfect it almost doesn't look real!  I kept taking pictures of the clouds all day!

 The animal guy was pretty funny.

 The cannon lady.

It was a very nice vacation, with a good mix of fun stuff and relaxing.

After vacation the boys had a father/son backpacking/camping trips to look forward to, two weeks of day camp, a trip to KY and the church retreat.  A very full summer.  We hope to get a beach day in somewhere!