We flew back to the United States in June and stayed until the end of August. While we were there we went to my sister Sarah's wedding, ran an archaeological field school in Connecticut, toured all around New England seeing friends and family, and generally spending as much time as possible enjoying the beach. In the spirit of enjoying myself to the fullest, I kept the camera packed away most of the time, so these pictures only capture a fraction of our fun. Here's a few shots I snagged:
Sarah's Wedding
Thanks to Sarah's friend/ photographer, Rosanna, for most of these.
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| Sarah's swanky Cape Cod beach house rental. |
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| We all pitched in with the little touches to make the day go smoothly. I was in charge of the lemon signage. They came out looking great, if I do say so myself! |
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| Wedding day started out overcast and dreary. Our mantra was "It'll burn off." In the end, it did, and we had a lovely, cool day. |
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| Mid-morning lounging in the wedding pad. |
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| Craig and Dad assemble the wedding awning. |
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| It looked at little too boy scout camp-y, so Colleen to the rescue! |
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| The tables are all decorated. Time to get the show on the road. |
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| Okay, clearly these next few are a little out of order. Here's Craig and Maya cutting a rug at the reception. |
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| More dancing. |
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| Post-wedding photo shoot on the beach. |
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| Sarah and Brenton's united families. |
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| Walking down to the beach. |
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| The "I do" |
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| Grammy, looking stunning in yellow. |
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| Maya and Isabel walking down the aisle together. |
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| Maya danced until she dropped. Everyone takes a breather on the dance floor. |
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| Ferguson girls photo shoot. |
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| Izzy helps Maya with her flower girl duties. |
Mohegan Fieldschool
Uncasville, Ct
My second year assisting with the University of Leicester/Mohegan Tribe archaeological field school. We had a great new site, great new students, and we had really interesting finds.
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Session 1: Rowan, Jenny, Aidan, Nicki, Nadia, Sam, Nathan, Justin, Jamie,
Paul, Yvonne, Tonay, Tory, Theresa, and Jay |
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| Me, working with the survey equipment. |
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Session 2: Me, Tom, Ed, Jonnie, Craig, Michaela
Nicki, Nadia, Paul, Sam, Jay, Theresa, Andrea,
Tonay |
Fun on the North Shore
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| Colleen got Maya a cool, inflatable crab pool. |
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| Pouring water on her foot. |
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| Cheeky cheeky |
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| We took Maya to the park every day we could. She never got bored, especially of the swing. Photo by Granny Annie. |
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| Another action shot by Granny Annie. |
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| Maya and Grama Lila taking a break at the park. |
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| Maya playing waitress. Today's menu: bark chips! |
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| One hot day we took Maya to the bowling alley for her first shot at candlepin bowling. |
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| I'm showing her the ropes. |
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| Working on technique. |
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| Craig brings the style. |
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| Maya showing off her itty-bitty bowling shoes. |
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| I was really excited about the "super moon", so Craig and I drove around at night trying to get a good shot. I swear, it looked a lot more impressive in person. |
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| Super moon with the street lights below it. |
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| Our two canine companions, Pete and Ivan. |
Connecticut Happenings
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| We started calling Maya "little bear" because her diet consisted of a majority "bear" foods: straw-bear, blue-bear, and rasp-bear. |
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| Our summer apartment was just down the street from Rocky Neck State Park seaside in Niantic, Connecticut. One thing that we loved about this beach is that the water is really shallow with really mellow waves. It was a perfect place to learn to swim. |
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| Craig and Maya at the beach |
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| Maya and me |
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| One day someone put up a little driftwood sculpture decorated with multi-colored seaweed. |
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| Family selfie portrait |
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| Kate got Maya bathtub finger paints for her birthday. Maya was into them bigtime. |
Living room dance party
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| We took a trip down to the Niantic Children's Museum. Maya loved playing in the pretend taco shop. Here she is playing waitress. |
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| More tea? |
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| They had a bubble table outside at the museum. Maya literally dove right in. |
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| Topless jam session at the children's museum. |
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| Sarah and Brenton came down to visit us one weekend. We took them on a trip to Mystic. Here is Sarah getting picky outside the Mystic army surplus store. |
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| Ice cream break |
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| Sarah and Brenton |
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| Maya said "enough" to the photos and decided that any additional photos would be of her in this pose. |
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| If y ou can't beat them, join them. |
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| Craig and Maya in Mystic |
Barbecue at the LeClair house
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| We had a fun backyard BBQ right before we went back to England. Here is Maya, Stella the dog, Chris, and Olive |
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| Jenn and Alex sporting a nice pony tail. |
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| Liz, Dottie, Liz, Claudia, Dave, and Jamie |
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| Craig, giving Maya a good spin |
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| Olive and Maya |
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| Buddies |
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| Nice hair! |
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| Alex and Eli |
August English Adventures
At the end of August, it was back to England. We have been able to squeeze in a few little adventure since we have been back.
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| It already feels like fall here in Leicester. What better way to ring in the new season than with a trip to a humungous corn maze! Here's a picture of Craig and Maya at the center of the Wistow Maze. The Wistow Maze's claims to be one of the biggest, most elaborate corn mazes in the UK. |
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| The view of the corn maze from the observation deck |
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| Maya, leading the way |
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| She got really into it. |
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| Deciding which way to go. |
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| Craig and Me at the maze. |
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| They had all sorts of other "mazes" too. |
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| Like almost every day here, at some point the rain moves in. You can see the big rain storm gathering right behind me in this picture. |
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| Bouncy ball maze. |
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| We had so much fun at the Wistow Maze that we decided to go to the rhododendron labyrinth at Beacon Hill. |
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| Maya and Craig playing hide and seek |
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| Craig and Maya |
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| Big tangle of branches! |
