Halfway there

A few nights ago, before Ryan began orientation for his new job, he and I pulled out a map and decided to count how many states each of us had been to in our lifetime (Not counting layovers. Not travel-worthy enough). Due to Ryan's jam-packed-road-trip schedule last year, he beat me by a landslide--he has seen 35 of the 50 states. "Twenty-four." I declared after adding mine up. "Well," he said, "Let's head to Rhode Island for the day tomorrow and make it 25." So we did. And now I have seen half of the states in this blessed union which we live.Rhode Island is one of the most beautiful.

We arrived in Newport around lunchtime, so we stopped at Flo's Clam Shack. It really was a shack, right on the beach, and exactly my kind of restaurant. A total dive but with award after award hanging crookedly all over the walls. We got take-out and took the kids to McDonald's since we were pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate the seafood like we would. Hooray for clam chowder, a crab cake sandwich, coleslaw, and fried clam cakes.

Newport's beaches had the clearest water I've seen since our vacation to the Bahamas for our honeymoon.

This little girl can't get enough of throwing rocks into the ocean.

We took a walk along the boardwalk. Newport reminded me a lot of Park City, just with a beach instead of mountains. When we asked Maddie to smile for the camera, she barked back, "I ALREADY DID!" Easy, girl, No need to be so touchy. This shot was taken right before Davis somehow wriggled out of his stroller seat belt and attempted to dive headfirst to the ground in the middle of the street in a busy intersection. He got about an inch away from success before we saved him.

We also took a tour (in our car) of the beautiful mansions that Newport is famous for. Someday I would like to go back and walk through them (sans cute kiddos, of course). The kids were all so tired that they slept almost the entire drive home.

Only 25 more to go.