Cruising: off the boat

In Saint John, New Brunswick:
We were encouraged to wear red and white to show our Canada love. We won a $40 gift certificate to this quaint candy shop, and the women working there were so excited that we were on the cruise with Rosie.






Kayaking in Halifax, Nova Scotia:
It was beautiful, and kayaking was harder work physically than we expected, but we did a pretty good job keeping up with the muscle-y gay boys and sporty gay girls in our group. We were in a 2-person kayak, with Carolyn steering and rowing (in other words, doing most of the work) in the back, while I did my best to lead the way (well, not really leading, since we were always behind the other folks in our group):



In Bar Harbor, Maine, we went to a lobster bake and took a tour of Acadia National Park:






In Provincetown with Sarah and Reem:

Cruising: on the boat

The cruise was amazing. We're so glad we went. We met tons of amazing families and kids and just had a blast. It truly felt like a vacation, where the most stressful decisions we had to make were things like "should I get a waffle or an omelet for breakfast?" and "should we take Avery to the pool or to the toy room this afternoon?" The correct answer to these questions, by the way, is "both."
My favorite experiences include attending the annual teen panel, where teenage kids talked about their experiences having gay parents, having Gogo babysit while Carolyn and I got to go have dinner and see comedians do stand-up, walking off the ship in St. John, New Brunswick to a crowd of folks welcoming us to their town with roses and rainbow flags, relaxing in one of the jacuzzis with my eyes closed when suddenly two young boys literally jumped in my lap and asked me to play "I Spy" with them, meeting up with Sarah and Reem in P-town, seeing famous Broadway stars do a performance of "Chicago" (with a man playing the part of Roxie and a woman playing Billy Flynn), and eating approximately 7 meals a day (consisting primarily of ice cream).







Avery rockin' out to Danna Banana with all the other toddlers:


In the pool:









(Avery LOVED going in the jacuzzi):

Enjoying one of many many many many meals with an oceanside view:

gratuitous naked pictures taken in our tiny cabin:


In the toy room. We met lots of other parents here and wonderful kids, like Romy, another 1 year old (she is in the last picture where Avery is wearing a batman outfit because it was "I need a hero" day):



Two of the performances: Rosie on the first night, and "Chicago" on the last night:

Before we say Bon Voyage

Here are a couple of cutey pictures of Avery to tide y'all over since we probably won't be posting more for a while since we're going to be out of town for the next couple of weeks. The R Family Cruise is next week (13-20) and we'll be here for a couple of days before leaving for Saint Louis for a family reunion celebrating a bunch of graduations and new babies. Carolyn is working very hard, trying to get lots done before our vacation. She has also been packing already, since there is so much to bring on a trip with a baby (diapers, wipes, a stroller, a billion outfits, bibs, toys, books, bottles, medicine, etc.). I finished teaching my class and have been focusing this week on "dissertating." We've also been going to the gym a lot and taking care of Avery who had a fever on Sunday, and has been having some diarrhea. We it is pretty sure it is teething related. We had a couple of awful nights where Avery barely slept because he was so miserable (and so we barely slept and were also miserable), but besides giving him motrin and things to chew on, there's not a lot we can do for him. Things are definitely better now: Avery has slept through the past two nights, and his appetite has returned (Belen was very concerned when he didn't want to eat his lentils and black beans at daycare; instead of her usual "He eat good he sleep good" report, she said "usually he eat two plates of lentils and beans. Today, not even one!"). So hopefully, he'll continue to feel better and be healthy for our trip. We're very excited about the cruise! Gogo is coming up on Saturday and we leave on Sunday from the port at 42nd street. The ports include Saint John in New Brunswick, Halifax in Nova Scotia, Bar Harbor in Maine, Provincetown and Newport. We'll have lots of pictures to share, I'm sure!


playing with the alligator from Rachel and Max, and also some CDs:

4th of July at Rye Playland

Avery made the hat at daycare as an arts and craft project. The kids all got these leis and flags too, and they obviously had a lesson in flag waving, because Avery is great at it!

We decided to check out Rye Playland, an amusement park nearby, and we're so glad we went! We were a little bit unsure whether or not to go today; we thought it might be horribly crowded because of the holiday, also we weren't sure if there would be anything appropriate for Avery. But it was so fun, we might have to make it a 4th of July tradition! It took less than half an hour to drive there, and we got there early enough in the day that there were no crowds and no lines. It's also really reasonably priced (ie. there is no admission fee, you just pay for the amount of rides you go on). Avery loved the couple of rides we brought him on in Kiddyland, but Carolyn and I also took turns going on some grown up rides (we each went into a "Screamatorium" type ride, I went on the roller coaster, and we each rode the log flume. So fun!).