Summer Vacation in Sebasco, Maine

This summer we took a little family vacation to this cool old-fashioned family resort place straight out of Dirty Dancing but without all the drama. It's called Sebasco Harbor Resort, and it was the perfect place to go with kids- very child-friendly and tons of activities for all ages, a self-contained little resort right on the ocean at the southern tip of a peninsula near Bath. We had a suite with a porch and kitchen, there's a playground and ice cream stand, three restaurants and ginormous salt-water pool. Anyway, we highly recommend it- there was even a full service spa on site pour moi.

Enjoying her post- clam bake watermelon.

A biologist brought some animals over for the kids to have a "touch tank" experience. Some of the poor deprived kids from the midwest and New York had never seen a starfish before! Hazel found the hosts secret stash of un-banded baby lobsters in a bucket under the table, and bravely reached in, picked one up, and tossed it into the tank all the other kids were playing in. She screamed, "Everyone get your hands out of the tank!" when she saw it in there. We are just lucky no one lost a finger. She is so fearless!

They did the clambake up right.

Eating watermelon and watching the Acadian music.

So much fun.

Stunning deserted beach.

Her first real clam-bake.

Self explanatory. Nothing better than lobster on a beach in summer.

A disastrous nap-time three-hour cruise around Casco Bay.

The view from our room.

Perfecting the Walk at Mount Vernon

Stay tuned for the good stuff at 1:45

Hazel Takes Washington....Twice

So, like I said earlier, the stars aligned and the Donovan's took three separate trips to Washington DC in the month of April, two of which Hazel was on.  The first was a quick family vacation, and the second was for the MS walk with friends.  We were lucky (?) that our first trip coincided with the cherry blossoms, which were quite beautiful, but the District was also pretty overwhelmed with tourists, too.  Hazel enjoyed herself, but travelling with a toddler is certainly a different experience than traveling with a baby.  She did great on the flight, no screaming or yelling, but was so interested in every single thing that it was hard to contain her.  She wanted to take everything out of the seat pockets, say HI to every passenger, and march up and down the aisle.  I didn't get any pictures from her flights, since my hands and brain were full trying to keep her under control, but the mental picture I have of her looking out the window and yelling, "VROOM VROOM!" is priceless.

Hazel and mama in The District

First carousel ride.  It didn't go over as well as I had hoped.

 

Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Longer lines than Space Mountain

Waving at the rays at the National Zoo

I have very mixed feelings about pachyderm exhibits in zoos.  Hazel was mostly confused, too.

Mount Vernon was also terribly crowded, so we didn't get to see inside the main house, but it was a beautiful day, so we just chilaxed on the lawn.

The outside of the house was cool...

Visiting friends in Adams Morgan

Quincy was so good at smiling for the camera!

Hazel falling apart around three hours past her bedtime.  She was a trooper.

Cherry blossoms on the Potomac.

Looking down the Mall

My uncle, Gary Ray Townsend

Hazel with her Uncle Gary

Washington trip number two!  Hazel and I flew down and stayed with our friend Heather (in the middle) and her son Zach who was born the same month as Hazel.  On the right is Leanne and her daughter Lexi, who is another February 2008 baby!

Our Walk MS Team!  From the left, Kim and her daughters (Shaleah is Hazel's age), Wendy and her daughter Regan, Leanne and her daughter Lexi, Me and Hazel, Heather and her son Zach.  Despite the 90+ degree Virginia heat, we had a blast walking together.  Hopefully we can do it every year.  All together, between both MS walks, Hazel raised just over $4100!  I'm so proud of that kid...

Break

We are going to take a break from blogging while we do the Christmas and New Years thing.  I know we will have a ton of pictures to post when we get back, and of course news about Hazel's health.

To everyone in bloggieland, have a SAFE and HEALTHY holiday and we wish you all the happiness and peace in the New Year.  Don't drive drunk!

Introducing Hazel to Her Rich Uncle, Manhattan

I know we are so far behind with the pictures, but we have been experiencing some technical difficulties. Our old Cannon broke while we were in New York, of course. Then when we got home I had a helluva time getting the old pictures off of the broken camera, ordered a new Kodak camera which took a while to get to us, took a bunch of pictures with it and then couldn't figure out how to get the pictures off of the Kodak onto my hard drive. Arugh! I somehow managed to, but I have no idea what I did. Now I can't get the videos that I recorded to be recognized as video files, and they won't play. It is sure to be a very long process. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures from the first half of our trip to New York two weeks ago, for our five year anniversary.

Hazel loved the train and did so well! She slept for half the trip and was pleasant for the rest. All of the people that glared at us when we walked into the "Quiet Car" walked out saying what a great baby she is. Well, duh.

Oh the glare!

We arrived in New York the day after the market crashed, and our hotel was right by Wall Street, so of course we had to walk over there and check everything out. I have to say, despite all of the people in these pictures, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop... It creeped Hazel out. I was also surprised at how beautiful the NYSE is. The pictures don't do it justice. They are temples to money.

Directly across from the NYSE is where George Washington gave his inaugural speech.

The Waterfalls are an art installation by Olafur Eliasson. We took a boat out to see them up close, but two of them were off, and the two that were operating were dirty and while they were cool, they otherwise didn't do much for me. It was nice to be out on the water though.

Waiting for the boat to take us to the waterfalls at the South Street Seaport.

My impy little daughter. She was so delighted by everything.

Brooklyn Bridge waterfall.

Hazel spent a good ten minutes licking her dads nose.

This is obviously the Statue of Liberty.

We went out for a really great Chinese dinner, but Hazel had a fit and you would be horrified by the high-chair that was brought to us. HORRIFIED.

Apropos to the times.

MoMA! I had been waiting to take Hazel to MoMA since before she was born! I was so excited, because she love museums, and loves looking at art, and I thought she would have so much fun here. But she fell asleep the moment we walked into the museum and stayed asleep until the moment mama stepped foot in the best museum store on the planet on the way out. Of course.

I could have stayed there all day...

Before MoMA, we walked from Battery Park to 2nd and 12th in the East Village to meet our super-cool friend Emily for lunch at this great vegan restaurant. Everyone should eat there. Emily gave Hazel two little books that she adores. One was Good Night New York and one was a beautiful story about a little boy enjoying a snow day in the city. This is Hazel reading her new books that night before she retired for the evening.

And here is the only picture we have of Hazel at the Natural History Museum. Right after this picture, she had a meltdown and went to sleep in her stroller. She also slept through the whole museum until mama stepped foot into the second coolest museum store in the country.

And right after this picture was taken, our crappy old camera broke for good. We don't have any pictures of the rest of our trip, which really sucks because we did some cool things and saw some neat stuff. We walked all over Manhattan, listened to some great music from sitar to acapella, and spent some time with the most amazing friends in the world. Luckily those moments were captured, and I was emailed some pics of them, my family.

Joymala (Hazels Fairy Godmama), Adam who flew in from San Francisco for the visit, Me, Dana who flew in from Long Island. Justin is missing, and I have no idea why he isn't in this picture.

Justin and Adam.

Joymala and Justin. This is how we love each other.

Mama and a sleepy Hazel on our last night in Manhattan, having dinner with friends.

Special thanks to Jesse, Adam's girlfriend and the newest member of our family, for taking the pictures and sending them out. Also for sitting there, sipping her Stella Artois and listening to our outrageous stories of the good old days without judgement and with love and amusement. You are a fabulous woman.

Hazel had such a good time in New York. She just loved all of the exciting things going on all over. Our little country bumpkin was pretty stunned by the whole experience the first day (her first time on the subway!) but settled in quite nicely. She especially loved riding around in cabs without a car seat! She just shrieked and shrieked and wanted to stick her head out of the window like a dog. Our hotel was awesome, even if it was quite far downtown. We had a pretty damn good time, and I cannot wait to go back. Maybe we can make this a yearly trip. Travelling to Manhattan was so much easier than I thought it would be, and I never once felt like a sherpa. Hazel was dazzled by the lights in Times Square (our cab drivers idea to go there, not ours) and has decided that she wants to dance Fosse on Broadway. I can't wait to bring her back.

Happy Anniversary, Jamie! This has been the best five years of my life, and I never could wish for a better partner and father to our daughter. You have been so much more than I though a husband could be, especially in these last couple of months, which would have been unbearable without you holding my hand. I love you and I can't wait to see whats to come. Go Sox!