Mass visit!

Last weekend we made our way down to Mass for a couple of days to see my mom and dad....we left on Saturday morning and had our trip delayed probably a whole hour while we got stuck behind a Chinese funeral motorcade originating somewhere the Kneeland St exit in Boston and leading ALL THE WAY til I couldnt take it anymore and got off the highway somewhere in Brockton....

We got to Nannie and Upbob's on Saturday afternoon and we went for a nice dinner at Wright's Chicken Farm in East Japeepee RI (only about 20 minutes away from my mom...........................) where they have only two things on the menu: Chicken or steak. No one gets the steak. It is all you can eat roast chicken, salad, rolls, pasta with sauce, and famous fries.....a nice dinner!

Callum and I really enjoyed playing with the water guns Nannie got for the kids...we ran around the whole condo complex looking for, as Callum described, 'stupid liberals.' Kidding. He was looking for robbers. 

I am really beginning to think Maira a) has no conscience whatsoever b) is really not biologically ours. She has more sass/drama/attitude/spunk than any human I have known. She astounds me each day with the stuff she comes up with. She was obsessed, as usual, with this TALKING SANTA game or app that my mom has on her ipad. The kids always love playing with either MeeMee or Nannie's ipad because we dont have an ipad at home.

On Saturday night my mom and Amanda and the kids went to the dollar store to buy crap, and I took advantage of the forty minutes to head out for a run...I always love finding new roads on which to run....it is easy to get bored running 'at home' all the time.

My mom got mad at me for pirating her FB and writing a status that said something about having a rash on her butt, so she went upstairs at like 8 or so and we didnt see her for the rest of the night. So I went to Wendy's to get Frosty's for me, Upbob, my mom  (thinking she would come down), and Sally. The three of us watched some CNN show about the 60s (the 1960s) for a couple of hours. Did you know MLK was a REAL person???

We went to Fresh Catch with my dad and Babs on Sunday....here is Maira just being her sassy self at the restaurant. When GrammyGoldsmith told Maira that she liked her pink shoes, Maira responded with "Umm....Grammy.....those are NOT shoes....those are KEENS." Maira will tell you what you need to know....

And look at this guy.....twin lobsters for 17 bucks. Cant beat it, right? Callum did pretty well....he ate a couple of claws and some of his tail...he also sampled some fried clams and such from my meal...and in the end Papa did a bit of charity work making sure none of the lobster meat went to waste....

We spent some time at my dad's house before going to lunch; he made sure to have plenty of theeeeeeee best donuts ('franchise' donuts, anyway...I mean, Hillmans are the best) from HoneyDew. Maira was so happy about this that she did her 'angry pirate face' for Papa....

We spent some time outside with my dad and Barbara, and the kids played with some little toys the grandparents got them--Callum got a pretty neat helicopter that launches and spins through the air...you pull a cord and it just unwinds quickly....very cool....and Maira was enamored with her battery powered bubble fan!

One thing I always have to do in Mass is get as much Honey Dew coffee as I can; this makes me a happy man. Callum asked me if he was old enough to drink coffee yet. Why not?

At Fresh Catch I got a seafood platter to write home about. So many clams. SO MANY. And the bellies were huge and plump and beautiful and the scallops were tasty and all was good with the world. It made Helen's #RestinPeace look like FirstDayFood....

My mom got this great picture of the kids--they look like very happy kids because they are. I dont know how they manage to be happy with their sulky, moody, OCD, short tempered dad always in their way...but they do. So at least they their mom to show them how to be happy!!

If Jay, Jawn, or Timb read this, they will see the same BOPIT! that we used to play with when we were in freaking junior high and I was going out with Jenn Digiantommaso and Rich Schifffer said HOLE IN THE HEAD and such. The batteries have never been changed. Do all of you readers know what a BOPIT is??  Callum played this game ad nauseum with my mom and bob....he LOVES it!! If you havent ever seen one of these, check it out:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL5bB5fpgms

And here is Maira sequestering herself playing that TalkingSanta game I was telling you about....