Mommy/Daughter/Niece Date at the AG Doll Store

When Teya got her new Kanani Doll for Christmas I promised I would take her and Brinley to the American Girl Doll store in downtown Chicago to get their doll's hair done and have a girls day out. I knew that being super duper pregnant would make the outing somewhat challenging, but I also knew that it would be even harder with a baby, so 5 days before Nori was born, I dropped Cam off with Auntie Naomi, picked up Brooklyn, and took the girls downtown. 

 They were so happy and excited to be there!

We started off with some snacks at the cafe

 And enjoyed chatting and having girl time 

(Photo cred goes to Brooklyn for this pic, not bad for a 5 year old!)

We spent the afternoon checking out all the adorable (and ridiculously expensive) American Girl doll accessories with a museum like approach, (look, don't touch, cuz money doesn't grow on trees people!) Luckily the girls didn't care that we weren't buying anything, they were just happy to be together. 

And to discover neat things like the doll holders in the bathrooms. (Brinley seriously thought those were the coolest things ever.)

The highlight though was taking their dolls to the doll hair salon.

They watched with rapt attention as their dolls got fancy new dos.

 I, of course, could have done the dolls hair for free... but somehow it's just not as cool when Mommy does stuff. :) 

They also exchanged the shirts Grandma Karen got them for Christmas for sizes that fit a little better, so with new shirts and fancy doll hair they were all feeling pretty awesome. 

And I guess I was feeling a little awesome too, for braving frigid weather, Chicago traffic, and hours of waddling around a doll store 9 months pregnant. It was all worth it to see these smiles. Love these cute girls with all my heart!

Cape Ann Whale Watch

Thanks to Groupon and the fact that we didn't have to do major long runs last weekend,

 we were able to cross another big one off our New England bucket list;

Whale watching.

In my 30 years of life before this trip I had never seen a whale in the wild before. 

It was awesome, like, literally filled me with awe. : )

We brought the kiddos because they're cute and funny and we figured if people got bored of looking at whales they could stare at our kids and be entertained. ; ) 

As we headed out to sea I had a smile on my face and was feeling good. 

I probably should've brought some Dramamine though because after a few minutes on the boat I started to feel some sea sickness coming on. During the hour ride to where the whale's feed I definitely struggled.

Luckily the kids didn't get sick and enjoyed the sea breeze and the gorgeous weather on an unusually warm and sunny October day.

They brought one of their favorite books, The Snail and the Whale to keep them entertained on the boat and to pump them up for whale sightings.

Mostly they just liked hanging out on the deck and watching the ocean whiz by.

About an hour out to sea the captain spotted some whales. The boat slowed down and everyone clambered out to the deck to see.

Sure enough, out in the distance we saw whales! 3 humpbacks swimming towards our boat.

They got closer until they were only a few yards away.

The girls were FA-REAKING out! Every time a tail popped up they squealed and screamed. Taber actually caught a little video of it and it's the cutest thing! I posted it below so you can hear their excitement and also if you listen closely, some of Cam's non-excitment. He was a little tired and cranky at that point. The first 30 seconds is the girls freaking out and the last 25 seconds shows a few shots of the whales.

We watched the humpbacks for close to an hour and also saw a minke whale, a molo molo (which is a huge fish that looks like a shark) and some big crazy tuna's that were doing wild flips and jumps out of the water.

All that whale watching really wiped the girls out and they crashed hard on the ride back to shore.

When we got back on land and my stomach had a chance to settle again, we stopped at a really yummy restaurant called Passport for a late lunch/early dinner.

Taber ordered a lobster roll (which normally I'm not a fan of) but he let me try it and it was AMAZING. Finally a lobster roll that lives up to the hype!

And then we ended our excursion with ice cream because that always just feels like the right thing to do. : ) Definitely glad we bought the Groupon and got to see such amazing animals in the wild. I would highly recommend it to anyone but if you're a motion sickness light weight like me, don't forget the Dramamine ; )

Foodie Fanatics

So our friends the Draschils may possibly be the most fanatical foodies I have ever met. They've been in Boston for  2 months and they've already discovered more amazing places to eat than we have in 2 years. They actually check out foodie movies from the library and research places to eat! (true story.) They also know all the little joints that have been featured on the food network and make it a point to eat there.  If you ever need advice on cool places to eat, ask the Draschils, you can't go wrong.

Case in point, last weekend we were hanging out at the Boston children's museaum and they were like, "Oh there's this super famous bakery just around the corner with the most amazing sticky buns ever!" (apparently the sticky buns won some food war thing on some foodie channel) Anyway, we go to the children's museum all the time and I never knew that little gem of a bakery was just around the corner! Sadly they were out of their signature sticky buns, but we did load up on tons of other yummy desserts and devoured them before I could even take a picture. They were that good.

After dessert we decided we should probably have dinner, so they led us to this amazing food truck called Roxy's with gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches that are out of this world!

Everyone was taking pictures by the truck (apparently it's going to be featured on a food network series soon) So we jumped in and got some pictures too. 

The sandwiches came out piping hot and they did not disappoint. 

Best grilled cheese I've eaten In. My. Life.

It was a very cool "Boston Moment" to be on some random street on the west side of BU, eating gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches from a famous hipster foodie truck, and we owe it all to our fanatic foodie friends. Thanks guys! 

The Riggs and the Draschils hit Maine

Taber has been itching to get up to Maine all summer and we finally got the chance to go a couple weeks ago with our Boston buddies the Draschils.

First on the agenda was a lobster boat tour. This was the 4th time we've done one but it never gets old. : )

 The kids were excited that our captain reeled in several keepers or "keepas" as they pronounce it. 

(Also I think it's kind of weird that the dude in sunglasses stared down our camera during this picture. If he wanted to be in the pic he could've at least smiled! ; )

Awesome picture of Teya, Brielle and Brinley sitting in front of the pier. I just love their messy hair, Bree's serious face and Brin staring off in the distance.  Makes me smile : )

 After our lobster tour we hit up a local ice cream stand. 

(This girl takes her ice cream very seriously)

 Cam was too tired for ice cream but I had to take a pic of those juicy lips  : )

 The girls also enjoyed hanging out on the dock watching some locals fish. 

All of this was at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine. It is so beautiful and picturesque there, I'm glad we made it up this year before the summer ended.

After our ice cream we loaded up the troops and headed over to the beach.

 The kids wasted no time immersing themselves in the sand.

 This was the first time we let Camden get in the sand and he thought he was in sandy buffet heaven! He seriously kept shoveling that stuff in his face like it was gourmet dining. I tried to stop him but it was a losing battle.

 The girls wanted their legs buried but Taber and Joseph went one step further and buried their whole bodies.

 Three little heads in the sand. Adorable.

 The Draschil's baby Joslyn is a month older than Cam and has been sitting like a champ for months. Cam has always been a noodle boy and never had much interest in sitting up, but there's nothing like peer pressure from a cute girl to motivate a guy to action.

 Look at me Mom!! I'm a big boy!!

 (Thank you Joslyn for teaching Cam to sit ; )

 Glad we got to enjoy such a beautiful day in Maine and extra glad we got to share it with the Draschils. Friends always make good things even better. : )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Update*
So after I posted this I realized I forgot to include two of my favorite pics that Melinda took of our beach day with her super fancy DSLR. Definitely want these in the blog book so here they are :

This just makes me laugh. The drool, the sand under his nose, the scrunchy smile. Love that baby.
(Also can you believe those teeth?! )

Me and my little man.  I might have to blow this one up and frame it.  So sweet.

Camp Joseph with our FWLLFs!

You know what's awesome? Going to Camp Joseph up in Sharon Vermont with our friends from church.

We went last year and LOVED it so much we've been looking forward to going again all year.

You know what's extra awesome? Going to camp Joseph with our FWLLFs (friends we love like family) The Draschils, who were once our exceptionally awesome house guests but are now officially Boston residents and will be here for 2 years while Joseph's in grad school! We're so pumped that they're on the East coast and are already planning many future rendezvous between our families. : )

We went up there last weekend and the girls were super excited about their camping braids, their tinkerbell headlamps (modeled by Teya) and the GIANT marshmallows (clutched tightly under Brinley's arm) that we brought for roasting.

 When we got there we realized that after 6 hours of packing half our household for this trip, we had somehow forgotten to pack matches! Taber bravely snagged a burning stick from someone else's fire pit to try and get ours going but transferring it proved a little dangerous. Luckily our neighbors had an extra lighter and loaned it to us for the weekend.

With the fire burning the S'more fest could begin. Pretty sure I ate enough of those babies to hit the double digits. Definitely a highlight of the weekend for me.

We opted for a cabin instead of a tent this year since I'm not brave enough to sleep in a tent with a 7 month old.

Even in the cabin with his pack and play Cam struggled the first night.  He was cutting yet another tooth and it kept him up all night. Luckily the 2nd night was TONS better. He only woke up once and slept in till 8.  

He was a very popular attraction amongst all the kids. Who can resist a camping baby?

 The kids ran themselves ragged,  playing, exploring, swimming, catching frogs, lizards, caterpillars and all sorts of fun creatures.

 The grown ups had fun too playing hard at the waterfront (see post below), frisbee, volleyball, and laughing and talking around the fire late into the night. We also had a talent show but I totally FAILED and didn't take any pictures! (So unlike me).  I blame it on the fact that both Taber and I were dancing and I couldn't find my music and got a little flustered before it all started. 

Anyway, forget to take pics but here's one of Taber practicing the day before. He did the hoop, which he hasn't done in years but still totally rocked it, I danced a hula to Palehua, the girls sang original compositions, and we even convinced Joseph to do one of his hilarious pantomime scenes with Melinda. It was tons of fun and they decided to make it a Camp Joseph tradition because everyone liked it so much.

Here's a little 15 second clip Taber took of my hula so you can kind of get an idea of the atmosphere.

After two days I think Taber was seriously ready to move our family out into the wilderness and live off the land. I really think it's his dream to either live in a cabin or an igloo.  While that probably won't happen any time soon (or ever, sorry babe) We'll always be big fans of camping, especially at the beautiful, fun and very awesome, Camp Joseph.