To celebrate my dad’s 75th birthday, my family stayed together on The Cape for a week at the end of August. It was a wonderful way to celebrate several birthdays in August while getting to all hang out together. I loved getting to spend time with my brother and sister and their families. Everyone had a blast!!
I prepped for the vacation by making big, huge batches of macaroni salad, potato salad, and a cake for the vacation on Friday night.
On the Saturday morning that our rental started, I finished stuffing the car silly with all of our stuff for the week. It was packed!!!! And then we started our trip down to Falmouth. We picked up our keys and headed into town to kill some time shopping and playing around at the playground and carousel until we could have access at the house.
The day of arrival was my dad and nephew’s birthday so after dinner we celebrated with a cake that I had made. I made this epic Oreo Cookie Buttercream Frosting that I need to make again asap!
Sunday was the first full day on vacation so we had to gear up for the week. My sister and I went grocery shopping for a dozen people. NBD.
The day was filled with playing around in the pool with cousins.
Price arrived on Sunday night as he was in a wedding on Saturday for one of his best childhood friends. He drove straight there to spend a few days with us.
Our busy, fun days were followed by relaxed playful nights. (With some work in the mix!)
Unfortunately, Autumn doesn’t sleep well when we are not at home. So her normally early mornings became extra early mornings. In fear of waking up the house before dawn we hung out in our car watching cartoons on youtube on our phones.
Thankfully, the rough start to the day was over rather quickly so we could enjoy the rest of the day with shopping in downtown Falmouth and carousel rides for all the kids. Everyone had a great time.
I made the ‘mistake’ of introducing Autumn to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while on vacation. She has been HOOKED even since.
The thing I loved most about our vacation was just that we were all together playing around, cooking, eating, and just hanging out.
Plus, Price and I went on a little date night on Monday night!
After dinner, and after Autumn went to bed, we went to Smitty’s for ice cream. We split a big sundae. It was awesome. But it was just really nice to get out for a bit since it’s so rare for us at home.
Price and I planned for another early morning with Autumn so we were prepared this time. We drove over to Woods Hole so we could check out Pie in the Sky Bakery. We saw the sunrise while we ate baked goods. Then we drove along the coast a bit before heading home to a waking house.
We heard great things about Old Silver Beach so we spent the majority of the day there.
The beach was great as there was a nice alcove so the waves were mice and mellow. Plus the water was warm, fairly clear, and was shallow for a long time. Perfect for kids to play around tossing a football.
Daddy Cuddles before he had to head home for the rest of the week. xo
Price took Kemper back with him so that I could relax a bit with just Autumn.
Couldn’t resist the change for a real like Waffle Wednesday so I brought along my big waffle maker and some Krusteaz to so I made A TON of waffles that we had for breakfast and snacked on during the rest of the day.
Babywearing for the win!
Also, chips.
We all went to the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory for their free tour. It’s a quick, fun thing to do that ends with a free little bag of chips.
We split up then with my brother and his family, my dad, and I going to Hyannis and my sister and her family going out on their own for some shopping.
We all walked around Main Street checking out the shops. The girls got to enjoy the carousel too. My dad picked up Bubble Guns
No Mommy, you can’t have any of my chocolate ice cream! Don’t even think about it!!
The rest of the day, as usual, was filled with swimming in the pool at the house.
My dad looked at rental houses online that were along the beach but figured that a house with a pool would be a better option as it would be right there for everyone and we wouldn’t have to gear up to cross the street to the beach. Such a great decision.
On Thursday morning, we headed down to Woods Hole to spend some time there checking out the Woods Hole Science Aquarium. It’s the country’s oldest marine aquarium. It is free but donations are suggested.
After our trip to the aquarium we had lunch at The Captain Kidd. While the food was good, I don’t suggest it for a large group as they were extremely slow.
A neighbor’s cat came by for a visit.
Poor Autumn had never seen a cat before so she was really scared when she walked out on the porch and it was right there. Oh the shreaks! Then she hung on to Laura for dear life watching it. She was so curious and so scared. The cat, on the other hand, wanted to make itself right at home and even came in and went upstairs into the house!
Thursday night was the big Family Dinner night so we had lobsters, grilled chicken, and veggies.
And then we had Hot S’mores Dip for dessert!
The week was winding down and before I knew it it was Friday. And my early morning riser was at it again! At least pretzels helped keep her quiet, for a bit.
When we went down for her morning nap I went to spin class at B/Spoke‘s summer studio. Loved it!
We took in as much sandy goodness as possible and did another day at the beach. This time, we went to Menauhant Beach, on the south side of The Cape, which afforded the kids more waves to jump around in.
For dinner, we all split up to do what worked best for all of us. Since Autumn goes to bed at 6.30, I stayed home with her to have a nice last relaxing night.
What would you like to dinner Autumn? Olives! What else? Just olives!! Oh okay…
I made myself a lobster roll with the leftover lobsters. I enjoyed some wine and finished watching Chef. Pure perfection!
My lovely, lovely jerk of a kid decided that getting up at 3.30 was acceptable so after refusing to go back to sleep for 45 minutes we head out and we saw the sunrise from our perch at the beach. Actually, I did since as soon as we pulled out of the driveway she was asleep again. Le sigh…
Before we parted ways to all head home, we took a big family picture (minus Mama and Price!).
Thank goodness for trash cans and self timers!
Most of all I am thankful for the great time that we were able to spend together.
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