Alaska Fun

My dear friend, Laura, emailed last night to say she was thinking of me as she was looking at the photos her parents took during their recent Alaska vacation.  Why would that make her think of me, you ask.  Well, before Laura met Matt and I met Hubsters, Laura and I had each other (we've been sweet friends since our freshman year of college) and we took an AMAZING Alaskan cruise one year.

I miss Laura very much as we don't get to see each other often.  I've been tardy in getting back to her email, so that is on the agenda today after Bopper has his breakfast and we take our morning walk.  But until then, here are some fun moments from our cruise.


Laura and the Glacier

Whales and Dancing Sea Otters

Picture Collage

Kitchen Creativity

We had the pleasure of hosting my mom for about 9 week while I healed from surgery on my rotator cuff.  During the last few weeks we had a good system down; she would play with Bopper while I made dinner.

Well, since my shoulder is much better, my mom went home.  Now it's up to me to figure out how to keep Bopper contained and entertained while I create dinner.

The first attempt was to put him in the exersauser.  That lasted for all of 15 minutes.  Then I set out a blanket on the floor and surrounded him with pillows.  He refused to sit, and just laid on the floor doing this:

Then he decided to find his toes.  But it was the point when he rolled around and looked for the garbage can and the fire extinguisher that I knew this would no longer work.

So this was the final solution:

Don't judge me for containing my curious 8-month old with a laundry basket.

Father Son Fun Time

Baseball.  Need I say more?

Date Night

Lest you think our lives revolve around Bopper, Hubsters and I had a date night.  And this is what we did:

Swimming!

Mom and I took Bopper swimming for the first time last Wednesday.  At first, he wasn't too sure about it.  But then we put him in a floaty, and he LOVED it!  Check it out!

July 4th - Birthday, Fireworks, and Family!

The July 4th week was full of adventure for our family.  We traveled to Hubster's parent's house in Blacksburg, VA.

July 4, 2013 was not only the 237th birthday of America, but also the 7 month birthday for Bopper.  I can't believe it has been seven months!  A couple at church had a little boy two months ago who was 1 ounce larger than Bopper at birth, and when you compare the two today, the difference is amazing!  Bopper is so big, and has learned so many things!

Bopper, from birth to seven months!  My, how he's changed!

 

7 month birthday fun!

Bopper is probably about 20ish pounds (he was almost 18 pounds at his 6 month check up, so the 20 pounds is just a guess).  He is firmly established on eating non-formula food.  He LOVES broccoli (huge surprise there if you know me and my distaste of anything green) and carrots, apples, peas, pears, peaches, potatoes, string beans, and sweet potatoes and there are more to come!  Welcome to the world of yummy tastes little one!  There hasn't been a food that Bopper hasn't enjoyed.  Now we are working on making the food thicker and transitioning to finger food and self feeding.

Bopper loves to sit and explore.  His favorite thing to do is sit and pull all of his toys out of the toy box.  He rolls over like its no body's business and has decided that he likes sleeping on his tummy (after a week of not liking it and not wanting to roll back onto his back and therefore screaming at 2 AM for Mommy or Daddy to roll his back over).


Along with a birthday, we also had July 4th fun!  Hubster's sister and her family came down too, so it was a full house.  I have to say, her boys were smitten with Bopper, and Bopper was equally smitten with them.  Even Uncle Ray got in on some of the fun!

"Uncle Ray, are you making fun of me?"

What would a July 4th be without a parade and fireworks?

Bopper wasn't too sure about the parade, and the firetrucks at the end made him cry, but other than that I think he enjoyed it.  The parade even had a street sweeper as a part of the line up!  Yes, small town America!

I was hoping we could take Bopper with us for the show, but by 7PM he is dead to the world and there is no way to wake the child up.  So Hubsters and I, along with Sharon and her family enjoyed the show.  Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Cook for watching Bopper!

The festivities did not end there!  Hubster's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the end of December.  Because Bopper was due to arrive on December 27, it was decided that the celebration would be postponed until the summer - which we celebrated on July 6 - and what fun we had.  Not only did Bopper meet many of his distant relatives, but he did such a good job at the party.  He didn't cry at all, even though we were outside all day.  He even fell asleep in his new stroller without fussing.

It's always wonderful to spend time with family!

Daddy gives E the giggles!

E has started laughing, but it's an elusive little sucker.  What got him laughing yesterday most likely will not make him laugh today.

Today Hubsters found the laugh and it's precious.  We love E!

A Birthday Present

Today is E's 5 Month Birthday!!!  I took the pics, but I still have to go through them and post them.  But, E gave Mommy and Daddy a very, very, sweet present today.  He gave us his first laugh!

Birfday Time

December 1, 2012

Yes, my birthday.  Or, as I like to say, my "birfday."  I won't tell you how old I am, but I will tell you that I'm old enough now that I have to stop and think about it whenever anyone asks me my age.

It was a wonderful day, because I got to spend the entire day with Hubsters.  Any day where I get to spend the entire day with my Hubsters is a blessing to me!

Hubsters' birthday was in October, and we didn't really do much to celebrate.  So I told him he could choose where we had lunch.  He selected Pork Barrel BBQ in Del Ray.  Here was our feast:

One of the only things I really wanted to do was have Cold Stone Ice Cream.  I had my usual, Cake Batter ice cream with Heath Bar, chocolate chip cookie dough, and chocolate fudge.  I was in heaven.

 

The best thing about the ice cream...it was free!  Not only did I redeem a coupon for a BOGO-free, but I found a $10 gift card that Mrs Feeney gave me in August of 2010.  Score!!!

After stuffing my face with BBQ and ice cream, Hubsters and I made our way to Stafford for our married small group.  Normally we would have read and then discussed a few chapters of Randy Alcorn's "Money, Possessions, and Eternity," but the leaders decided it would be more fun to decorate gingerbread houses.  Hubsters and I didn't complain.  Here is what we created:

Front view.  Includes a walkway, mailbox (on the left) and some bushes (on the right).

Side and rear view.  A green and red tree and a patio.

The other side.  That fenced in area is the Christmas tree farm.

Thanks to the Turner's for hosting us, and happy birthday to Mary R too!!!  It was a wonderful day.

Fall is in the air!

Fall is FINALLY here, with temperatures in the 60s!  I am so excited.  Fall is my favorite season, and it reminds me of growing up in Maine.  But nothing will ever be as beautiful as the foliage of the Maine trees.  Nothing.  And I miss that so much.  And to honor those, I few pics I took a couple of years ago when I was visiting home.

But this being DC, we have to make do with what we have, and what we have are pick-your-own-apples apple orchards about an hour outside of the city!  Last weekend included Columbus Day on Monday, and that gave Hubsters a three day weekend.  Months ago I put "go apple picking" on the calendar so we would remember to go this year, and we went on Monday.

In my 8 years here in DC, I've been to a few different orchards and apple festivals, and one of my favorites is Stribling Orchards in Markham, VA.  So, after dropping a friend off at the airport early Monday morning, we headed out I-66 to Stribling.

It was a little cold, and drizzly, but we made it, and had a wonderful time!!

Apple picking is one of those things where you can really only pick so many, because, in reality, what are you going to do with all those apples?  Well, Hubsters and I really didn't think through this very well, because we picked a bushel and a half of apples, which translates to about 45 pounds.  Yes, 45 pounds.  When we had them in the car, it didn't look like much.

But when we got them home and put them on the counter, I went, "What am I going to do with all these apples???"  The gallon of milk is in the picture to help give you some perspective of size of the bags.

Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do with those apples.  I'm going to cook them.

I made a batch of apple sauce yesterday, and I've got another one simmering on the stove this afternoon.  It's my mom's super-secret recipe.  But not so secret that I wouldn't share it with you as I've already given it to my mother-in-law and the check-out lady at Stribling.

I have a recipe for apple butter in the crock pot that I'm going to try out this weekend after a friend from church loans me her apple peeler.

Other things I intend to make:

• More apple sauce - it freezes so well and we love it
• Apple bread
• Apple cake
• Apple cookies
• Apple pie for Hubsters
• Did I mention more apple sauce?

Another friend from church gave me a wonderful suggestion today, which is to slice up all the apples and freeze them so that you can make apple pie later in the season.  I'm going to try that one too.

It's fall, and that means apples, and pumpkins, and open windows and fresh air.  It's my favorite time of year!
 

Dams, Big Ditches, and Psychic Stewardesses...Family Vacation Fun

The countdown to September 15, 2012 has come and gone!  Not only was the 15^th my mom’s 23^rd birthday (well, she may be a little older, but who’s counting?) but it was also the day Hubsters and I, along with my parents, started our family vacation!

Way back in March, Hubsters and I booked our yearly vacation and invited my parents to come along.  Our destination this year…the Grand Canyon!  Neither my parents nor I have ever been, and Hubsters went when he was 8 years old, so I don’t really count that.  We thought it would be nice to see another part of our country’s vast landscape.

We decided to fly to Las Vegas and then drive to Williams, Arizona where we rented a great house for the week.  I should have known that the vacation was going to be a good one when the stewardess on our flight out west put her hand on my stomach, told me she was a psychic and that I would be having a little girl.  When I told her that we were actually having a little boy, she looked very puzzled and said she thought the doctors were wrong.  She also said that little Bopper was going to have blonde hair.  I didn’t think that was too difficult for her to guess as she had been giving me cups of water every 20 minutes during our 4 hour flight and I was sitting next to my naturally blonde-haired husband.

Las Vegas was hot.  As in 100 degree shot.  Yuck.  Thankfully we only spent the night there which included a birthday dinner for my mom at the Cheesecake Factory before we drove to Arizona, which started with a visit to the Hoover Dam!

The Hoover Dam is amazing.  Run by the Bureau of Reclamation under the Department of the Interior, the Dam is economically self-sufficient as it is funded through the power it sells.  The massive scale of the Dam is hard to imagine, one has to see it to believe it.  We started out with a tour of the innards.

Then we spent some time wandering around, going through the museum, and taking pictures.

Oh, and did I mention that it was hot?  And that my dad makes me laugh?

And for your viewing pleasure…a very amateur video, shot by yours truly.

(Note, the commentary in the background just happened to be playing over the loud speakers and does not necessarily match up with the video)

Then, it was off to Williams, AZ.  We rented a great house, but I forgot to take pictures of it, so you’ll just have to go by the pics that I pilfered from the rental website.  By the way, if you’ve never heard of it, Homeaway is a great site to find vacation rentals.  Hubsters and I have used it more than once and have been pleased.  (Plug done.)  

The house was about 10 minutes from the center of town.  Williams, AZ is a little tourist town that, by my determination, only exists to cater to the tourists who come in the summer to go to the Grand Canyon.  Other than a very small and very touristy downtown road, there is nothing there.  But we enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with being in the middle of nowhere, with the exception of the howling animals at night.  And we also saw some animals (well, a bunny).   

And did I mention that the night sky was amazing?  I mean, AMAZING.  AMAZING!  I’ve never seen stars like that.

We ended up doing two days at the Grand Canyon.  It was beautiful both days we were there.  We took the shuttle bus, talked with a ranger, walked a trail, drank some authentic free Grand Canyon water, took in an IMAX film, and got a little sunburned.  It was wonderful.  A once in a life time opportunity.  Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 

 

We also spent a day in Flagstaff looking at a large hole created by a meteor.

That evening we went to the Lowell Observatory after a great steak dinner.  The observatory was one of my favorite side trips.  We were there at night so we didn’t get any pictures, but they had telescopes set up all over the campus for visitors to look at the night sky.  We saw the moon, a little constellation affectionately nicknamed Wall-e that looked like the little robot from the Disney movie, and then a cluster of stars called M-15 which is not visible to the naked eye.  Here is a link to some pictures so you know what I’m talking about.  It was amazing to look into the night sky and take in the handiwork of God – to see His creation.

 

That about wrapped up the vacation, and on Friday we made our way back to Las Vegas.  But you can’t go to Vegas without at least taking a drive down the famous Strip.  Dad was very kind and drove slowly down the Strip so that Mom and Hubsters could get some pics.

And Bopper enjoyed the vacation too!

Go Nationals!

One of the nice things about living in DC is that there is never a lack of activities to take part in!  And now that it's summer (even though it's almost over, but it's still hot here!) we have baseball!  In the past, the Washington Nationals have not been so hot, but as of this posting, they are in first place in the National League!  We went to a game earlier in the season with Bill's sister and her family.  It rained, but they won.  Last Friday night Bill took me to another game.  We splurged for the cheap seats, which I personally find to be the best, because you get a bird's eye view of the entire game.  Let me tell you, it was hot.  Like 94 degrees at 9PM hot.  Ugh, especially for being 5.5 months pregnant.  But the boys did great, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 10-0, and Mr Gio Gonzales pitched his first career shut-out!  But the best part was the soft pretzel Bill bought me.

Call it being pregnant, but it was one of the best pretzels I've had.  Shortly after I DEVOURED the pretzel, Bill snapped this picture of me and little Bopper.  This is technically Bopper's second baseball game, but the first where he could hear things in the outside world.

As you can see, it was hot that night.  But we had a great time.  Especially when Bopper started jumping up and down at the end of the 9th inning when the rest of the crowd was on its feet cheering for Gio.  Good game!