Happy Summer Vacation!!! Do I need to say more?? I’m so looking forward to not having to get up at 5am and rush around like a crazy person all day, only to get about half of what I wanted to get done, done!!  Yeah!! Kids last day of school was last Friday… Mine was Monday… We’re all happy to have some down time!!! The garden is going gangbusters… We’ve already had spinach  and lettuce, and the strawberries are completely out of control this year!!  I sense that we’ll be spending a good portion of our summer as farmers, we have a TON more stuff coming up :)  Happy Summer!!

Here’s a pic of Farmer Kathryn with the big bin of strawberries that she picked in our own back yard!

And… Here they are all cleaned and ready to eat!! Sweet and delicious!!

Well… Would you look at that… A Thankful Thursday on THURSDAY :) go figure…

This week, I would love to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all the teachers and staff at the kids’ school… Honestly, I can’t say enough about what a caring wonderful community they are!! I always try to let them know how much I appreciate them, but words are really not enough… Both kids just thrive there, and according to the standardized test results that just came home, they’re learning a lot academically too :)

I am also thankful to have been chosen (out of a hat :) to be a part of the Parish Council at church… I’m very excited to have the opportunity to be more involved…

And… My niece is graduating from high school on Saturday… How is that possible?? Seems like just yesterday she was born… and now she’s off to college… I remember taking her to Disney when she was 7, just before we got married… Hmmm… I think I need to pull those pictures out… I actually think I know right where they are… I may be back to add a few :) I’ll have to scan them ’cause it was pre-digital camera :) Yup… I’m THAT old :)

Just one more thing for today… 2 more days of school this year :) YEAH!!! One full day tomorrow, then a half day (kids have a half day, not teachers) on Monday!!!  Almost there!!! We’re usually out by now, but all those blasted snow days… It’s made it a long spring, BUT the weather really cooperated, and hasn’t been too hot on the 3rd floor… Another thing to be thankful for :)

First and foremost… I am very thankful that the storms from last night are over… It was crazy, the sky got all oddly orange… It was beautiful, but scary at the same time… Then there was the crazy lightning… Like I remember when I was little, we called it “heat lightning” when it just lights up the sky, but there’s no thunder… (we got plenty of thunder earlier in the evening)… but once it got dark, the light show was amazing!

I’m also VERY thankful that my hubby got me my new camera :) I LOVE the thing… So far, I’ve been nothing but thrilled with it… We had such a wonderful weekend… It was busy, but we took Sunday afternoon and went out for a ride in the “race car”  Up route 133 (one of our favorite drives) into Gloucester… This is picture heavy… But, here’s a picture view of what we did Sunday…

Ok, this is another Iris picture… I’m justifying adding it here ’cause we did yard work before the little road trip :) so it still ties in… Well, I should rephrase that… Mike did yard work, and I walked around taking pictures of the Iris’…

Here we are… On the road… Sean’s trying to duck out of the breeze :)

Kathryn never tries to duck anywhere! If you hear a random WHEEEEE coming from outside, we’re probably driving by in the “race car”… She thinks it’s her own personal roller coaster…

Oh, hey, look! It’s me :) and Kathryn giving me bunny ears…

I didn’t get a picture of Mike driving ’cause I was “distracting him” while he was “trying” to drive :)

About 30 minutes down the road, we stopped in Ipswich to see the falls… but 2 someones had fallen asleep, and couldn’t be woken… So, we continued on our way (in peace and quiet for a few minutes!!)

Then we got to Gloucester! LOVE IT!  And, you know I’m not a “water” person, but it was a beautiful day! We stopped at a random beach where we found a parking spot (not near the “big beach” areas) Pretty!

Look at that seagull… I used my “super zoom” we were NOT close to that little guy!

Happy boy on the beach!

Seaweed!! Yucky, but cool!

Oh, look! More rocks for the rock collection… We definitely don’t already have enough rocks at home…

the shore…

Kinda looks like he’s fishing, but I have no idea what he’s doing exactly… prpbably inspecting more rocks to take home :)

Think the water’s a little chilly??

Then we came home… It was a beautiful day!! And, I’m loving my new camera!!!