Our BFT (Part IV -- Grammy's House)

We finally arrived at Grammy's house in Massachusetts Monday afternoon.  What a relief to being staying somewhere for a whole week!  We've had a terrific time, and Sarah has made great strides in getting to know her family and in talking.  She cracked us up at dinner the other night by saying "yes" very clearly and carefully while nodding her head and rocking her fist to also sign the word.  She then went into "no, no, no" while shaking her head and tapping her thumb and two fingertips together for the sign.  It was a routine out of her favorite video, "Signing Time," and it was precious.

She's had a blast with her three cousins -- Forrest (11), Sam (9), and Kelley (7).  They've been doting on her and driving her around in the little car Alison's boys gave her.  She loves it!  It was definitely worth cramming it into our car. 

She's gotten quite close to Grammy and now says her name, crawls into her lap, and gives her kisses goodnight.  Grammy hates every minute.  :)

She went to the beach for the first time with Mommy, Grammy, Auntie Heather, and the boys.

We drove about an hour away to see my brother's "new" house.  It's a farmhouse built in about 1850 on 90-some acres.  George and his fiancee Chelsey are renovating the whole house, inside and out.  It is very cool and will be beautiful when done, I'm sure. 

Yesterday, we had a mini family reunion at my mom's, with my Uncle Bill, "Aunt" Jane, Uncle Bing, Cousin Bitsy, and her two kids.  We hadn't all been together in more than 10 years.  It was nice to catch up.  Here's my brother George, Mom, sister Heather, and me:

And here's our latest family portrait:

We had fresh Maine lobster for dinner the other night, and we're going out for fried clams tonight.  I'm loading up on everything New England while I can.  Tomorrow, we head back to Wisconsin and plan to arrive Wednesday afternoon.  We've had a wonderful Big Fun Trip, but I think we're all looking forward to being home on the farm.