Sea Shells and Wedding Bells

This past week was vacation week! My family and I spent a week on Cape Cod, and then came home for my cousin's wedding. It was a week filled with family and fun.

My family and I went camping in North Truro for five days. Each day we spent some time on the beach (even when the weather was cloudy and cool at the end of the week we still went to the beach for a little while)! Maybe that was partly due to the fact that we were staying at a campground where the beach was only about a 15 minute walk through the woods. Plus, the beach we went to was beautiful with its really impressive dunes. Here are some pictures from the beach:

While we were on the Cape, we also did some sightseeing. We went into town in Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Chatham. We went to the harbors and walked around all the little shops. We had a great dinner on the water in Provincetown, and got some yummy seafood at a popular place called Moby Dick's in Wellfleet. We went to the lighthouse in North Truro, and climbed up to the top. Here are a couple pictures of the lighthouse and the view from the top:

My favorite part of our sightseeing however was our tour of the Truro Vineyard. I thought it was really neat to get to walk out through the grape vines, learn about the process of growing grapes and making wine, and see where the wine is fermented and bottled. Of course, we also bought a bottle of Chardonnay to go with dinner! It's really neat that the grapes were grown and the wine was fermented all at the winery that we visited.
Unlike with most vacations, I was actually excited to come home at the end of the week...because I knew that on Saturday it was my cousin's wedding! My cousin Jason married Monica at her church in Worcester. The reception was held at the Wachusett Village Inn. It was a VERY hot day! But we all survived the sweltering wedding service, and made it to the air conditioned, and brand new, reception room in one piece! And the day was well worth the heat, everything was so beautiful! The food was delicious, and I was so hungry, I felt like I ate so much! We had cheese and crackers, hot appetizers, a fruit appetizer before dinner, salad, fillet and lobster or chicken for an entree, and a delicious chocolate and raspberry cake and ice cream. I had a lot of fun dancing with my cousins, aunts and uncles, and parents. My family also stayed at the Inn, so at the end of the night we could go to the after party in the bar rather than having to drive home. Here are some pictures of the beautiful bride and groom and their wonderful wedding:

My sister and I with our cousin Amanda (bridesmaid and sister of the groom) and the newest addition to the Charest family, Cameron (the groom's nephew). Isn't he cute?!

The whole fam.

Now I have one week left of summer!! I can't believe it! I move back in at Stonehill in just one week for training and preparation for Fall Orientation the following weekend! Can't wait to see everyone back on campus!

Summer School

This summer I had a job that gave me, as an Elementary Education major, perfect experience for my future career in education. I was a one-on-one aide for an energetic seven-year-old in the special education summer school program at my old elementary school. The program ran just four mornings a week, for five weeks. Although it was a short program, I grew close to all of the students in my classroom, and especially the student I was working with.

During summer school, we did small projects, such as painting birdhouses and making flowers out of coffee filters, went outside for recess, and worked with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists. I also did ABA, or Applied Behavior Analysis, one-on-one with my student. ABA involves setting up an environment in order to elicit a desired response, often with a reinforcer (I used M&M's), in order to teach skills. With my student we worked on skills such as matching colors, grasping and releasing objects, maintaining attention, and communicating with gestures, communication boards, and other speech devices. My favorite part of each week was music therapy. A music therapist came into our class once a week to sing songs and give the students a chance to play some instruments. The students, as well as all of the teachers, always enjoyed this part of the week.

I am starting to think more about my plans for next year, after graduating from Stonehill. I have some possibilities in mind. I may find a teaching job and starting work on my Master's in a couple years, or there are some service teaching programs that I am interested in that would allow me to teach and work on my Master's at the same time. My experience this summer however, has me thinking more about the possibility of going into special education. It seems crazy that I will already be applying for more school and a real job so soon! Most importantly, right now it's time for me to take the GREs!!!

One of the other perks of my summer job this year was that I still had time to spend weekends with friends and do lots of summer things! This past weekend my roommate, Carrie, came to visit me. We went to the beach, had a cookout and campfire with my friends from home, AND went to the Taylor Swift and Keith Urban concert at the TD Banknorth Garden! Here's a picture of the concert goers in Boston and a couple pictures of the concert: