30 July

Man, I can't believe that it has been 7 days since I added to the blog. We have had steady improvement in Liv's health and for the past three days she has been almost back to her normal cheerful self. The days have been filled with what we think of as just normal stuff. The girls wake us up at about 7, we read the paper, fix breakfast, check on the garden, and then tackle the event of the day. That has been anything from sailing on the Spirit of Independence, shopping or going to the playground, to reading and going to swim lessons. Since is has been so hot here our walks in the neighborhood are much shorter. We still have time to visit with many of the local dogs and their owners. Here are some pictures from the last few days:




The girls like to make their beds each morning....with no help.





See, they don't fight ALL the time!

23 July

Chris decided to spend an extra night in Portsmouth but this morning he had to finally get on the train and head back to work in CT. Within about 5 minutes the girls had dry eyes and were back to the normal sibling interaction...arguing about who got more bacon or the larger slice of french toast. We took a long walk and saw lots of ducks, minnows, and some crabs. J.C. Waters was on the Spirit of Independence so we stopped in to visit. On the way home Liv got really tired and cranky so we had a quick lunch and then quiet time. Ruby helped Sara weed the garden. Liv asked for pasta for dinner so we made our secret red sauce and cooked up some 'bow tie' pasta with meat balls. Oddly enough that led right to bath time and then to bed time. Time just flies by when you are having fun! Ruby is pushing to go fishing. I think Sara will get her hair cut tomorrow and if there is time we will try to scare some fish.

July 21-22

After a nice pancake breakfast we head down to the playground.



We had a nice outdoor lunch at Baron's.

After dinner of ribs and green beans, we played cards on the carpet.

Then a night-time bath.


Wednesday: We revisit the doctor and Liv shows how much she enjoys getting her finger pricked.


Liv cuts some rosemary out of the garden for tonight's roast chicken.


Then we head to the pool while it cooks.


After dinner we enjoy a sunset cruise.

July 16-20

Chris writes: Arrived Sunday afternoon and Ruby ran upstairs to wake Liv from her nap. Quick hugs and then off to the waterfront to join Peter on the sailboat for a nice cruise around the harbor...



...then off to dinner at Roger Browns ...


...and home to bed.

Monday starts with grits, eggs and bacon. Then off to the garden to pick some ripe tomatoes a big carrot and some eggplant.


Then we graffitied up the walkway with a sky theme (including kites, clouds, jets and flying saucers)...



We walked to the nearby garden-center to get a cart-full of peppers, tomatoes and eggplants for planting.


I think the girls had more fun returning the wagon.



After a quick quiche we had a short rest time then took Liv for a follow up at the doctor's. She's doing great. Now back to the house to wake up Ruby for swim lessons. The pool was a bit chilly since the clouds came across the sun and the wind picked up.

The girls were separated into different levels of ability and did a great job. Back home to shower and change then off to pizza dinner. Back home to do a little drawing and reading and off to sleep.

13-14-15 July

Yes, three days in one post! On Sunday Liv started feeling pretty puny. She had a bit of fever so we did not do much other than in the house stuff. On Monday she was the same and only wanted to sleep. I took the opportunity to go to Norfolk to tour the WWII Liberty Ship John W. Brown which was in port for only 4 days.

She is one of only two operating Liberty Ships in the world. The Brown was built in 1942 and was one of 2700 Liberty Ships that broke the German blockade on Europe. She is full of old technology.

For example, she has a steam engine with three pistons. The largest piston is 72" across.

The engine runs at 76 rpm, that's so slow that the engineers could squirt oil as needed while the engine was running...and actually put their hands on the moving parts to make sure they were getting enough oil. The engine did not even have a transmission. To go in reverse you have to stop the engine and restart it in the opposite direction! Anyway the tour was pretty neat.

Liv did not get better, running a fever of 101-102 until we took her to see the doctor on Tuesday. He referred us to the local children's hospital for some tests and they gave her medicine for pneumonia. She is now home and feeling much better, without a fever. We expect her to feel puny for a few more days so we will not be doing many fun things for a while. Actually, reading Junie B. books is a fun thing and that's exactly what we are doing.

12 July

Well, this is a quiet day for us. Liv was a bit cranky in the morning and did not want to eat. We took a short walk and she was feeling pretty tired. She was running a slight fever (101F) so we gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. The rest will do her good and we can continue Camp Peter tomorrow. I just talked to Wendy. She is having a great time in Turkey. We will try to Skype tomorrow when Liv is feeling better.

11 July

Peter starts:
On Saturday (today) I usually help J.C. Waters sail the Spirit of Independence. That was the plan for today. Liv helped us move the boat from Tidewater Marina to High Street Landing, where we saw Joan and talked to a bunch of our friends. Sara came by and took Liv home to get ready for some 'girl time'. The rest of the day will have to come from Liv.

Liv writes: G.M. Sara and I went to the grocery store before lunch. I wrote the grocery list and checked the things we bought. then we went to a place where there was ice cream. I had mint with green food color. then we went to the place next to it and it was the movie UP. I thought it was a little bit scary and there was a pelican. and a rain cloud. It was funny. I need to eat dinner now.



Back to Peter:
At dinner (really just snacks since the ladies stuffed themselves at the movies) Liv recounted all the scenes in the movie. The enthusiasm echoed the fact that both ladies really enjoyed themselves.

10 July

Today. Up at 7:00, coffee and paper, breakfast, call Chris, walk to kiosk, check garden, then go to Yorktown.

Actually we went to Gloucster which is across a long bridge from Yorktown. Our friends Jim and Molly live aboard a boat there so we went to visit and have lunch.



Liv got to tour the inside of the boat. She found lots of neat cubbyholes where Jim and Molly have all the stuff needed to fix the boat if something breaks.


Jim showed Liv where little baby crabs hide in the stuff that grows on the dock. Then we went to lunch at a Mexican place. The tacos were not very good but it was still nice to talk to Jim and Molly. After lunch we headed home and someone decided to fall asleep. After all, it was the middle of quiet time. After quiet time we went to dinner and had wonderful onion rings but Liv did not like them because they had onion in them. The server asked Liv what she thought went into Onion Rings??? We all laughed. After we walked the long way home it was already bed time so that ended today.

9 July

We checked out the garden and got lots and lots of stuff.

Then Liv and I went fishing. We rode in the Sara C. and went a long way to a place where we thought there would be lots of fish. Darn, we only caught one fish and it was not very large so we threw it back. We did not get home until after noon so it was time for lunch and quiet time. Liv read a book and I....well I fell asleep. After quiet time we went to swimming lessons.


Liv Writes: I was very good at swimming lessons. my favorite thing was pushing off the wall and gliding under water.

Back to Peter:
We forgot to say that tonight we had eggplant for dinner. Liv thinks that it would be neat to grow eggplant in Brookfield...but she does not want to put that on the blog because everyone will see it.

Another thing, we saw the John W. Brown come into port today. That's a Liberty Ship from WWII. I hope we can tour the Brown tomorrow. It's a really neat bit of history and I think it is the only operating Liberty Ship in the world.

Back to Liv: We saw a jumping fish. And we saw a lot lot lot of jellyfish there were so many we could not count them. the end.

8 July

Betcha didn't realize that today is 07/08/09...pretty cool! Well, Liv and I thought it was cool. This was after reading the paper and noticing the date. Next came blueberry pancakes with real blueberries. Someone ate almost half the berries before they got into the batter.


The ladies went off to get their hair cut while I went to see the dentist. Just a regular checkup so no drama. They also went to the library to get more books for Liv. Liv has read so many books already that she has filled her reading activity log and got a prize from the library lady. Liv plans to fill up more reading logs this summer because she loves reading all about Junie B. Jones.

We met up again at quiet time so I did not see the new hairdo until almost swim lesson time. The new bathing suit and the new haircut really go together!


Today the teacher worked on new drills for swimming.


Liv still wants to let her legs drop down when she is swimming. She really likes getting her head into and under the water.


Swimming lessons make us so hungry we just had to go to get a pizza at Amore. Frank called and asked us to stop by to pick up his bottles for recycling so we did and met up with Kay Carl (Liv's adopted Grandmother).


Tomorrow we plan to pick the eggplants in the garden and then go fishing. We have swimming lessons again tomorrow but not on Friday. Sara might take Liv too North Carolina this weekend to see Bill and Lottie (Sara's parents) if the weather is decent.

7 July

OK, so if you ask Liv what she did today you would probably get an answer something like "Oh nothing". That's because it was just a normal vanilla day with no Disney or fireworks. Darn, just normal. Well, we started out with a chat with Grandma Carlton, then a chat with Kelli, then a check of the garden (harvested our first beets),

then a visit to Betsy at the kiosk, then shopping with Sara. The ladies bought a new swimsuit for Liv as well as swimming goggles. After quiet time we headed for the pool and another swimming lesson. This time Liv did a wonderful float, kicked and paddled, ducked her head under the water, and blew lots of bubbles. She also practiced swimming under water after the lessons finished. After we got home we IChatted with Dad (Chris)


I made mac and cheese with a side dish of apples and some fresh corn on the cob.


That should have made way for bed time but it was only 6:30 so Liv insisted on taking a walk. In Olde Towne it's hard to take a walk without seeing lots of your friends. We saw Pam Wentz and talked about her cats. We saw Joe and Alison and talked about their new house. Then we went over to see Frank but along the way stopped by to see Tim and Catherine.

We finally got to Frank's house and he gave Liv a Snickers Bar.

We can always count on Frank for the Snickers! He is working on a huge puzzle. Frank's cat is black and always wants to know what is going on so we had to pet him. On the way home we walked on the seawall where some boys were fishing. They had caught a bunch of crabs and one tiny fish. We finally got home and it was time for BED. Now, that's what Liv calls "Oh, nothing".