Jay and I just got back from a wonderful visit to the east coast to see our families (and to visit summer). Lucky for us, the planes were flying only a few days after the hurricane and we were able to arrive when we expected! One week doesn't give you much time when you split the time into two for each family - but some time is better than no time! Our first three days were spent in unbelievable weather at my parent's house in Valatie, NY. Christina, Sara, Henry, and Jackson came for the entire time (although Sara had to leave a bit early to start teaching again). It was awesome to spend some quality time with the little nephews and to beat my parents at various card games in the evening. =)

Sara and Christina

On Kinderhook Lake!

We had some fun with kid activities during the day - including a visit to the Columbia County Fair in Chatham. The Barber-Justs went on all the rides and those of us that didn't want to pay to ride on county fair rides (i.e. me and Jay) watched and laughed at the expressions on Henry and Jackson's faces. We also spent some time at my parent's lake house, which was lovely. Jay and I took H&J out on a paddle in my parent's canoe and I taught them about the importance of hugging trees. Jay tried to explain the concept of "wilderness" to them too - Jackson asked "but are there cities nearby"? It was cute - we will get them out in the wilderness someday....perhaps when they are a bit older.

Here we are at the Columbia County Fair. It was like old high school days, except now I didn't care about how I looked.

Spinning in the dragon's belly at the fair - Christina, Henry, and Sara. Jackson is in there too even though you can't see him.

 And we finally got to play in a pool! Jay and I love the pool at my parent's house and we were stoked to swim around in the warmish water and hot sun. Here is a great video of Henry and Jackson telling us jokes from the pool side: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/September2011#5648892525706792754

After leaving NY early in the morning we drove to the Cape - but stopped in Narragansett, RI along the way to meet up with our dear old friends. I had not seen many of our RI friends since Jay and I got hitched exactly two years ago! Crazy. In that time period all of them had babies turn into kids! It was fun to meet slightly taller versions of their kids that now walked and talked!

Jeff, Jay, and Jane - RI beaches

Microfriends! Max, Zach, Ryan, and Cormac. Yup - our friends all had boys!

I wish we had gotten a picture of all the grown-ups too! But this photo cracks me up because it is fun to see all of their kids. Our time was short with our friends - but it worked out perfectly with nap times and such. We even managed to squeeze in a trip to the local ice cream joint that we frequented in graduate school. Yummy. Summer never fully arrived over in WA - and I always celebrate the arrival of summer with a hot fudge sundae. So, finally, I got my "start of the summer" hot fudge sundae.

After sitting in traffic on the Newport Bridge for a long time we were able to breeze to the Cape! We didn't spend much time chatting with Jay's family in the kitchen when we arrived - instead we headed straight to the beach together! It was windy and the tide was low, giving us excellent body surfing conditions in Buzzards Bay. Jay, Lee, Lee's significant other, Daren, and I all played for a long time in the surf. The funny part was that we all took the beach home with us after we got out of the waves. There was a ton of wrack in the water from the hurricane and it was stuck in our hair and in our bathing suits. The shower looked like the beach when we were done - it took some cleaning to get it back to normal!

Allison and Jay heading to the Inlet

Each day we wandered off to the beach. And each night we had a wonderful gathering of most of the White family. Jay's mom hosted 18 people at her house for the first big dinner (tasty fish and roasted veggies) and then Jay's uncle hosted all of us at his place the next night (yummy Spanish paella). Our last night on the Cape was a real treat - Jim and Allison took us out to dinner to celebrate our second anniversary at The Glass Onion, an amazing restaurant that didn't exist in Falmouth when we lived there. The dinner was lovely, the wine was fantastic, and the company could not have been better. We are very lucky people.

Daren, Lee, and Jay - at the Inlet on a sort-of chilly day

Here we all are trying to pretend that we were super warm after a swim at the Inlet. It was windy and not-so-sunny this day, but we went for a dip anyway!

Jay's extended family on a warm summer day....

All of Jay's cousins were here except (sadly) Kate, Brett, and Laura (+ family). We thought of them often.... As usual, our time spent with the White family was filled with laughter, stories, wine, and good times.  We miss everyone already.

Photos of all the fun are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/September2011#