We just spent an awesome week at Nannie & Grandpa’s house to finish off our summer fun! They went on their annual cruise again, so we spent 5 days at their house without them, and then enjoyed another 2 together when they got home. Our Aunt Bridget, Uncle Kevin & cousin Liam came for a while too, and we did so many fun things together! Get ready for a HUGE photo bomb from our week together!
Mommy made us all shower, get our hair done, dress up & go to the beach for our annual “cousins” picture for Nannie & Grandpa. It’s a lot of work, but this years picture actually came out pretty good!
This was the first one she took, and Mommy was thinking it wasn’t going to go so well…
Emily can’t wait to start Kindergarten in a few days, and figured she’d keep practicing her name! Soon she’ll learn her lower case letters!
This one was before we bribed Liam with some applesauce and some time to play in Aunt “Tarin’s” car:
Anything to play in a car… He sat and smiled right away just at the thought of it! Not bad for trying to get 4 kids to look and smile!
We spent A LOT of our week riding bikes around the cul-de-sac, and we all got so much better!
Abigail is learning to ride one-handed!
She can go pretty far on her own now!
Emily made the most progress this week, learning how to get herself started on her own, and she ALMOST learned how to stop!
She even rode around Daddy’s slalom he set up!
She even rode on Abby’s big bike! Maybe Santa will bring new bikes this year…
Liam even took a break from his rock collecting and playing in the cars to take a quick ride!
Daddy had fun too!
The boys LOVED riding in Grandpa’s tire swing, and they were actually happy in there together this year!
And of course Emily is the master of the rope swing!
We took another day trip to Greenport with Aunt Bridget, Uncle Kevin & Liam, and we enjoyed walking around town, eating our seafood lunch by the water, and going on the carousel next to the ocean. Emily wasn’t happy with the horse that Daddy chose for her, but she ended up coming around in the end, and everyone had a great time!
We even rode home on the Shelter Island Ferries because Daddy thought we would love it, but it was a bit lost on us, as everyone fell asleep!
We spent a fun afternoon in the kiddie pool together too!
It got a bit crazy in that little pool with all 4 of us, but we had a blast!
The boys gave the girls quite a beating in the pool with their “warm bucket” challenges!
But the girls got them back, and they took it well…
Liam enjoyed practicing his own bucket challenge since his first attempt was foiled by Uncle Kevin…
We topped off a full day of fun with some smores by the fire (although it would have been nice to have been able to use the hot tub too…)! Abigail had a great idea to make herself a mega smore!
Our family enjoyed a quiet evening of swimming, crabbing, shell collecting, boogie board riding & hanging out at the beach one night. It was beautiful out there!
Grandpa’s truck ROCKS… especially for little boys!
Beach Buddies 
Heading home after an awesome night!
Riding all of Grandpa’s quads, motorcycles and lawn mowers filled up all our afternoons!
It was also fun just “hanging” around the house too!
“Abby’s Bar” was open in Grandpa’s basement all week, and she was busy serving up shot glasses full of water & gingerale! She liked to pretend with all of Grandpa’s fancy bottles though!
When Nannie & Grandpa returned from the cruise, the girls were so excited to get their Elsa purses (and they were pretty excited to see them too)!
Grandpa had to make good on his Ice Bucket challenge from Abby, and he did a pretty good job:
There was a lot of ice in this bucket!
The cheering squad…
Grandpa gives the thumbs up to go ahead…
Daddy and Kevin were ready and waiting…
He may have ruined his lawn and gotten pretty cold and wet, but he did a great job!
Liam thought it was pretty impressive too!
Here’s a video of Abby’s ice bucket challenge, followed by Grandpa’s:
With the lawn already ruined, why not get out the slip & slide!?!?! Having Grandpa home was so much fun!
We finished out our week together with a family party for Ben’s birthday! It was a dinosaur-themed party on the beach, and Dancey-Dancey & Pop-Pop even came to celebrate!
Mommy made dinosaur cupcakes and dinosaur print sugar cookies for the occasion!
A few presents before heading to the beach…
Ben loved his firetruck/racetrack toy from Nannie & Grandpa, and his T-ball set from Dancey-Dancey & Pop-Pop! And of course Mommy LOVED the clothes Aunt Bridget picked out! Thank you everyone!
Even birthday boys have to share their new toys… even if they aren’t happy about it…
Mommy even brought decorations to get the beach party going!
Ben LOVED pretending to be a dinosaur!
… Although he found out it wasn’t easy eating pizza as one….
Not EVERYONE wanted to be a dinosaur…
But Ben made up for it by being ALL of them!
We enjoyed a pizza dinner right on the beach!
After eating, we went digging for dinosaur bones in the sand… Abby did a great job hiding them!
Everyone grabbed a brush and magnifying glass and went hunting!
We even had a prehistoric volcano eruption in the sand!
Mommy just had to put in this handsome picture of Daddy
The kids loved trying to catch fish, and Pop-Pop even joined in on the fun!
Our “Dinosaur Tracker” birthday boy!
Hanging out with his great-grandparents…
It’s birthday time!
It was a beautiful night, and FULL of memories that I don’t think anyone who was there will EVER forget! Thank you to everyone for making it such a “special” night!
What an awesome way to wrap up a VERY busy summer! Thank you again Nannie & Grandpa for letting us use your house! Stay tuned for back to school pictures in a few days!