a vineyard weekend

Dan and I arrived in Vineyard Haven on Saturday afternoon and were met by our limousine service, otherwise known as my cousin Pam’s husband Mike, and their little son, Zan, who was holding a sign that said “Oobahs.” Apparently we are known as the Oobahs (Mr. and Mrs., thank you very much) in their household dating back to when I told Zan that monkeys say “oobah oobah” in French! Here are Zan and his sister Zoe holding the sign:




And here is a video from last year at the Vineyard, when “oobah oobah” first came to be!



Late in the afternoon, a bunch of us went for a gorgeous sunset walk along State Beach.



All was fun and games until Dan accidentally threw some sand in Mariah’s eye…

The aftermath...

Oakley also came upon a small sealed wooden box along the walk that he was obsessed with. Mariah tried to guess what was in it by shaking it, and Josh tried to pry it open, but no luck. We ended up taking it home since Oakley was just so smitten with it, making us all quite curious. The boys finally got it open… and it was filled with a wood block and wet sand. Um...yay! (Actually, we were all pretty relieved, since we had started to feel like we were in some scary Steven King novel...)




That night, Zoe debuted her magic act. Scarves disappeared, balls fell through cups, metal rings were joined – magic!

The attentive audience!

On Sunday morning, I woke up early and took some pictures of our property in the pretty morning light.





Alison—who has just received her yoga teacher certification!—led a great yoga class in the morning for me, Mom, Carolyn, and Pam. Zan tried desperately to steal Mom’s pretty blue mat and joined in the stretching a bit… that is, until PBS kids turned on in the other room!



Later that morning, Alison mixed up some batter, and Josh flipped pancakes for breakfast. He made little “nibblers” for the kids to snack on while the rest of the pancakes were kept warm in the oven. They were a hit! Here’s Zan digging into his nibbler:



Sunday was mostly a lazy day, though, and crossword puzzles, Go Fish, and speed Scrabble seemed to be the reigning games this time around.

Josh and Zoe work a crossword.

Mom, Dad, and Dan do the Sunday paper crossword.

Dad loses to Zoe in Go Fish!

Alison loses to Mom in Russian Bank...again =)

All the women play Speed Scrabble!

The Nichols-Dietz family portrait with a kid that isn't theirs...

Another family portrait, this time with dogs that aren't theirs... =)

Sunday afternoon, Chris, Kim, Kim’s son Josh, and his girlfriend, Summer, showed up to officially kick off Slob-o-thon 2007. (They locked all their clothes and toiletries in the Thule, and then left the key in Maine…)

That night, the “kids” were responsible for dinner, so Carolyn, Josh, Dan, and I cooked up some delicious pizza. Here’s Josh frying up some Jimmy Dean sausage like a good southern boy, and Carolyn assembling pizzas.

On Monday, before Dan and I left for a New Year’s Eve party in Connecticut, we went for a walk along Lucy Vincent Beach. The family dogs, Oakley, Skippy, and Gabe, met the cutest little French pug on the beach. I know I would be disowned if I didn’t get the classic lab, but now I kind of want one…










We were really sad to leave on Monday afternoon (Josh lost a dollar to Carolyn betting that we wouldn’t actually go…), but had a fun time with Morgan and Ariel on New Year’s Eve (up next!).