Vacation Time

Swimming and hunting for sea creatures at Oak Island

 Lots of family time, and water, water, everywhere is how we can best describe our annual summer vacation on Long Island.  We hit the ocean, the bay, the pool, Oak Island, and even dabbled in some lawn sprinklers.  Which was all a good thing, because it was really HOT most of the week.  We stayed at Oak Island the first few days, fishing and swimming and relaxing on the porch while also making time to attend the Rising Family reunion and a little birthday brunch for Phoebe.  Phoebe and Haley got a bit of squealy giggle time together at Oak Island, and Aiden ate a stack of raw onions and went around trying to get HaPa, Grandma Sally, and Grandpa Dada to pass out from a whiff of his onion breath.  Crazy kid.  Uncle Dan and Aunt Paulette came out and spent the day on Sunday too.

At the Rising Family reunion

Hapa with the little ladies

cool face painting

Handsome Fisher 

Trouble x 2

Charles, Emma, Elizabeth and Carrie

Phoebe's birthday 

Enjoying Great Grandma Rising's pool

Kimball enjoying Oak Island

Goofball

 On Andy's birthday/ our anniversary, we drove into the city to visit the Museum of Natural History with Grandma Chris.  In retrospect, I don't think driving in Manhattan was how Andy would have chosen to spend his birthday if he'd had his choice.  Schedules are always packed during our L.I. vacation week, though, so we made the best of it and Aiden thoroughly enjoyed all of the animal dioramas, dinosaur bones, and the giant blue whale at the Museum.  We had a long stroll through Central Park with Jeannie after the museum and ate dinner at a Mexican cafe nearby.  The next day was a bit more relaxing with a trip to Watch Hill on Fire Island.  We were going to try heading to one of the little communities on Fire Island this time (there are different ferries that go to each of them) but with free parking, dirt cheap ferry rides, and basically a deserted and pristine beach at the Fire Island National Seashore's Watch Hill, we decided...why go anywhere else?  It's absolutely perfect for us, especially with the mile long boardwalk birding trail that winds through sunken ocean forest and salt marsh for excellent birding opportunities.

Aiden checking out the prehistoric mammals

Trail through beach forest, Fire Island

Watch Hill

Sand Tag with Grandpa DaDa

Another highlight of the week was Aiden's first trip to a major league baseball game--- at YANKEE stadium!  The horror!  Actually Aiden was entirely fine with it, and thanks to Grandpa Dada's friend Daryl, they were treated like total royalty with a gigantic buffet dinner, third row seats, and a wall (yes, a whole wall) of FREE candy.  Who knew there were even seats like this available!  Aiden came home with a new batting helmet and a bagful of candybars and lolllipops, and lots of tales to tell.  I think a game like that might turn me into a Yankee fan too!  No worries even that the Yankees didn't win...can someone pass the skittles?!

Yankee Fan?

Hugs from Crazy Uncle Dan

We also made it out on Grandpa Dada's boat on Great South Bay for some swimming on a sweltering day and a tour of the Amityville canals (including a pass by the real-life Amity Horror house....shiver....).  And we had a great Kulis family BBQ at Dan and Paulette's houose to cap off our week on the island.  An unbelievably full week, gone in what seemed like a flash.  We can't imagine summer without it.

On Grandpa DaDa's boat

Too cool for the party

Allison and Aunt Mary with random dog passing through Dan & Paulette's yard

HMS Bounty Replica in Port Jefferson

On the ferry home