Welcome Holland Fitzpatrick Sept 8, 2011

I wish I could claim her as my own,
but at least I can claim her as my BEAUTIFUL niece!

So tiny, so precious

So peaceful

Having recently left the presence of Heavenly Father
and Jesus Christ, she must be now wondering what
is now happening to her in this earth life!

And, getting a little tired thinking about it :)

The proud parents THE NIGHT she was born!
They don't look tired at all!
That is yet to come :)

Another family portrait

One proud aunt holding her at 3 days old.
More pictures to come!
But, I am so happy they're so close by for the next few months!

One last adventure... Great Point Light House

One of the things to do on the kids "Bucket List" for the summer was to go out to the Great Point Light House which is at the very tip of the island. This is a little bit of an undertaking because you need a special beach permit in order to drive out on the sand, and it takes about an hour to get there because you can only drive about 15 mph on the sand.

Well, it just so happens that this is where Amanda worked all summer and invited us to come out to "volunteer" for a morning! We were able to follow her out (and avoid paying the $150 beach permit fee!), get a personalized tour inside the lighthouse (which isn't usually open) and then help to pick up trash along the beach. It was a beautiful day and a very cool experience.

I had never driven on sand before. Did you know that you have to deflate your tires to about 13 psi's instead of the usual 32 or 33?

Here's our lovely Jeep who did well on the sand!

We also passed some beautiful ponds along our
drive and saw some ducks and geese which the
kids told me I had to take a picture of!

When we arrived, the first thing
we did was climb up the lighthouse!

Amanda & the twins

Smiling.
Not something she does for cameras very often :)

OK - So, these are shacks without
electricity, water, etc. But, people come
and stay in them for glorified camping.
Ummm... no thanks.
I'll drive out to the tip instead!

This is the light inside!
Nice and Big!

After we climbed down all the steps,
we got ready to gather some trash!

Sadly, it was INCREDIBLE the amount of
trash we were able to gather in only a short
distance. I think in total... over 100 pieces!

One of the very cool things about Great Point is that this is where a lot of the seals are located. This one got very close to us, and I have to admit, I even stopped to watch it for like 10 minutes! It would surface... have a staring contest with us and then dive back under and pop up a minute later in a different location. The kids had fun trying to figure out where it would pop out next!





And, finally, me. At the very tip of the island! Or... as far as humans could go. They did have the last few yards blocked off to preserve the area for the seals and the birds... pipping clovers, I believe!

It was such a fun morning!!
Thank you Amanda for letting us come out with you!

The next day we left Nantucket... It was a very, very fun summer. Nantucket is absolutely beautiful and I am glad I got to experience a summer on the island! I met some amazing people, enjoyed being a member of the small LDS contingent, and look forward to a future visit in a few weeks when I fly back to pick up their mini and drive it back to DC... with a few stops along the way, like Boston and my dad's!

Please touch! Ummm... No thanks!

Since the kids didn't have any camp options as the summer wound down, I was the camp director. Luckily, the Mariah Mitchell Association still had some things going on. Mariah Mitchell Association, for lack of better words, is the science and preservation organization on the island. They have a small aquarium, two observatories, a natural history museum, etc. The kids did a few of their camps during the summer and LOVED it. They would go digging in the beach or the marshes to find creatures!

Well, I took them to the aquarium and on one adventure where they sorted through some ocean creatures that were found. This is NOT my forte. Quite gross, I think. But, glad there are other people who enjoy this type of thing. And, the kids I nanny for LOVE IT!

At the aquarium... digging in the tank
I didn't put my hands anywhere near it!

This was our next adventure. The two people below worked for MMA and went out to collect whatever was in the water in to their net. Then, they brought it back and all the kids could sort it! Again, my hands stayed on the camera :)

Hmmm... a crab and oyster

Don't remember what that was,
but he's so happy he found it!

Another crab.
How can they pick it up?!!

The twins really learned a lot at the camps for MMA and new the actual names of so many of the different types or sand and water creatures. I was so impressed!

Prep for the Hurricane... that never came

Growing up I lived through Hurricane Bob one summer while I was in RI. I wish we had digital cameras back then because my dad took the coolest picture of me after I had just run out to my front yard and stood there in the wind. My crazy, frizzy hair was completely blown at a 90 degree angle and I was tilting to one side because of the strong forces of the wind.

So, I was kind of excited to hear that another Hurricane was coming our way. I wasn't as excited knowing that I was on an island this time, but we lived mid-land and I felt pretty safe. All week long I had seen people taking their boats out of the water, the basics at the one grocery store were completely gone, and it was the talk of the town!

Well, some areas of the eastern seaboard got slammed with the hurricane. But, we got clouds on Saturday and then a very strong wind and sun on Sunday! No rain even.

People went to lots of work though preparing their house. I guess you can never be too prepared, although I thought this was a bit over the top considering we were never on the "direct hit" line of the hurricane.

On Saturday evening I went to go look at the beaches and the waves. I couldn't see very far because of the clouds, but the surf was rough! It was pretty to watch and it made me think about the power of Heavenly Father controlling the elements!


On my drive back to the house, I had to stop and take a picture. I had passed this many times before all summer long and it always made me laugh! This house had these tin statues in front of their yard. They were very bright and very unique!
But, this one always made me laugh. It's some kind of "person" but it's offering advice for 5 cents! Ha! I just thought that was really quite creative! I asked it a question about what I should do with my life/career, but since I didn't have any change on me it didn't answer. Advice doesn't come free these days :)