The rest of Sabbath was spent visiting with family and friends. We were excited to be able to see Brad and Stephanie Connelly and their 3 kids and visit with them for awhile.
This is how most of the naps were because it was so hot
On Sunday, the whole Conrad clan headed down to Leominster, Massachusetts for Steve's cousin Bethany's wedding. She had planned it for during camp meeting since a lot of Steve's aunts and uncles and cousins come to camp meeting from all over the country and they would probably not be able to come to the wedding otherwise. We left around 9:30 in the morning and Tyler and Ryan rode with us. It only took us a little over 2 hours to get there, so we were there close to noon and the wedding was at 1:00. We were pretty much the first people there and we ate some sandwiches in the church while we waited. Turns out the wedding didn't start until after 2:00 which was a little annoying, but we made do. Caleb was really getting tired and I didn't know what to do to get him to go to sleep, but finally we decided to bring the stroller in from the car and I sat in the mother's room with him during the wedding and he napped in the stroller for about 40 minutes.
Aunt Amy sure does love Caleb!
So, one of the highlights of camp meeting is going to the meetings and for us, the only ones we went to were the Cradle Roll meetings for Caleb. This year the theme was The Farm, and Caleb loved that. We have been working on learning animal sounds so it was perfect! Steve has one cousin with 2 kids in Cradle Roll and a lot of my cousins have kids in Cradle Roll as well (Corey has 2, Alison has 2, Shannon has 2 and Camille has 2), so on some days, we were literally about half the class. Janel Tyson was the leader and she did a phenomenal job as always. The kids had so much fun singing and playing with all the props. Caleb especially loved putting the felts up on the board. The funniest thing (which happened more than once) was when Caleb tried to put his stuffed animal on the felt board because he was so used to putting up the felts. It was so precious. We enjoyed singing songs about the wiggly worm, mother robin, woolly lamb, turtle, kitten, rooster, doggie, butterfly, feeding the cow, giddyap horsie, etc. I am just going to put all my pictures from all the days in Cradle Roll all together instead of trying to separate them by day.
This was one of the times he tried to put his stuffed turtle on the board and teacher Dana had to help!
One day they brought in a couple of kittens
I didn't get a picture, but he also tried to put this goose on the felt board!
In the afternoons, Caleb napped from about 12:30-2:00. Then he would usually spend some time in his little pool that we brought. He loved playing with the sand toys in the pool. Some of his little cousins liked to play with him as well and one day Finley and Griffin came and got in the pool with him. The first half of the week was very hot so the pool was very welcome.
It was so hot, so I had to put my feet in!
The second half of the week was rainy so Caleb spent a lot of time in his new rain boots!
Although I'm sure it's not the best idea, Caleb liked to drink the water out of the pool
Alison's camper was not too far from ours, so we spent some time over there visiting and playing. Here are a few pictures from those times.
Caleb and Ty have matching boots!
This one was taken at the playground
One particularly hot afternoon we went with Steve's cousins to Winslow Park and went to the beach. Caleb loves the water, so Steve took him in and he had an absolute blast! At the end, he was shivering but still wanted to go back in so we had to just take him away since he was getting too cold and we went to the park instead.
On Thursday afternoon, all of Steve's cousins and spouses went out for a few hours and left the kids with the grandparents. So, Caleb stayed with Steve's parents and he did well. We were only gone about 4 hours, so it wasn't too big of a deal. We had a lot of fun. We basically just went out to eat. The original plan was to go sit and talk in a park first, but the park was going to cost money and we weren't going to stay long, so we just went to the restaurant (Ruby Tuesday) earlier than originally planned. There were 14 of us and we rode in 2 vans, the girls in one and the guys in another. It was fun and it is nice that we always take the time to just do cousin time.
Caleb with Grandma while I was getting ready to leave
Friday was the 4th of July and the weather wasn't too great, but I really wanted to take Caleb to the 4th of July parade in Freeport. All of my cousins had gone to the parade (and most of the kids had done the 1-mile fun run right before the parade), so we met up with the Brace/Grodack clan to watch the parade. The weather held up pretty well and we enjoyed the parade. One of stores was giving out balloons for free so that was great for the kids.
Friday afternoon we tried to take Caleb to L.L. Bean and it was so packed that we didn't even stay but we had to get a couple of pictures of him with the big boot!
It ended up pouring on Friday afternoon/evening, but Shannon wanted to have a cake for Griffin's first birthday (which was July 2), so we ended up doing it up at the school to avoid the rain.
The birthday boy!
The view from our camper on Friday afternoon
On the second Sabbath of camp meeting, all the kids' Sabbath School classes went up front so the adults could see them. The Cradle Roll class went up and sang our theme song, "I Like to go to the Farm".
After Sabbath School, I actually took Caleb back to the camper to take a nap because our nephew Tyler had decided to get baptized at camp meeting and the baptism was at 12:45, which is normally when Caleb is napping. I put Caleb down at 11:00 and was worried that it was too early for him to go to sleep, but he fell asleep instantly and slept his normal hour and a half, so it was perfect timing.
The baptism was very nice and one other girl got baptized as well. Greg baptized Tyler, which was such an honor for him to be able to baptize his own son. It was an emotional event and we are so happy and proud of Tyler for his decision.
In the afternoon, we got packed up and said goodbye to everyone and then left at about 6:30. We had to go to a wedding the next day and wanted to be able to get a head start on unpacking and we really couldn't bring our camper into Boston so we needed to go home. Here are a few more pictures of camp meeting that didn't make it in before.
Steve's dad made a bubble machine that the kids loved!
I typically don't spend as much time with my family at camp meeting because it is Steve's family reunion, but I try to spend as much time as I can and I am glad we got a 4 girls picture!
So, we got home from camp meeting around 9:30 and I got Caleb into bed (he had fallen asleep in the car around 8:00) and Steve and I started unpacking immediately to get as much done as possible before going to bed. Around 10:15 my mom called me and told me that our cabins in Nova Scotia had burned down. I can't even describe the feeling that gave me. It felt like someone had died. That place is so important to our family and it holds so many memories and I can't even imagine that it is gone. Our little cabins that we built 5 years ago were not damaged, so that is a relief, but the main house was a total loss except for the chimney. We aren't sure what happened and we don't know if we ever will know. All we do know is that we will rebuild and move forward and we will stay strong as a family. We are still planning on going to Nova Scotia this year and we are going to stay at a place about 30 minutes away from our cabins. We will still all be together and we will be close enough to check on things and to still do some of the things we normally do like go to the beach and Shirley's Spud Wagon. It will definitely be a different year, but I am happy we are still going to be together.
On Sunday we went up to Adam Rich's wedding in Stoneham. Of course it was the end of 4th of July weekend so we knew there would be traffic leaving the Cape so we left in plenty of time. It took us over an hour to get to the bridge so it was a good idea to leave early. The wedding was very nice and very emotional. Caleb needed to nap in the car between the wedding and the reception, so we took a longer route into Boston and he did sleep about 40 minutes, which I was happy with.
We had to wait awhile to board the boat for the reception cruise. But it was a beautiful location and a great temperature.
Unfortunately the boat was not air-conditioned (at least our side of the boat wasn't), so we were pretty hot. We did go outside a lot to get fresh air. The other thing that wasn't very good about the reception was the service. We didn't get our main course until other people were already eating dessert. So we were a little rushed at the end, but the food was good! It was a lovely cruise and a gorgeous view. Overall it was great and we had a fun time! Caleb especially loved being outside. He was very well behaved, even when it started to get late and he was very tired. He is such a good boy!
I love this family picture!
All of the cousins with Aunt Betsy
Zasha and Luccia enjoying their toasts
Bode and Finley - so precious!
Steve brought Caleb up and he caught the garter
There was a photo booth that we did right at the end
We got in our car around 9:30 and Caleb fell asleep almost immediately which was good. He woke up when we got home but then went right back to sleep after getting in his pajamas. It was a long but fun day!
Since then, I have gotten caught up on laundry and we have gone to swimming lessons at Joshua's Pond both Tuesday and today. Caleb absolutely loves the water so I am really glad to be taking him to swimming. It is from 10:00-10:30 so it is at a perfect time where we can stay a little longer and not worry about missing his nap. And as an added bonus, Tuesday after swimming he napped almost 3 hours and today it was 2 1/2, so I don't know if that is directly related or if it was a coincidence. I don't have any pictures of swimming because I am in the water with Caleb the whole time, but hopefully I can get a picture somehow before it is done.
One other thing I want to mention is that in the last 2-3 weeks Caleb's talking has really taken off. He says so many more things now, although they are not all recognizable. I can't think of all the new words, but some of them are: door (said with a Boston accent), yogurt, pool, keys, banana, blueberry, raspberry, water, bottle, wall, uh-oh, car, bat, etc. I just feel like he is just talking all the time now and it is so cute!
Anyway, that is enough for now. I need to stop writing now. Here is one more picture of Caleb trying to pull Cody on the leash in the house.
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