A Few from the Zoo

for Gina...

It's wonderful to have such a nice zoo close to home. The animals all gave us quite a show...a show-down between the rhinos, wresting and growling leopards, elephants all lined up, zebras herding together, polar bear playing in the heat. Even the petting zoo was extra busy with goats standing in line to get their coats shined up.

It's even more wonderful to have a gaggle of cute cousins to share the sights and sounds with, to hold hands with, climb in giant birds nests with and ride the train with.

Rhinos are HUGE, no?

Beach Week

We spent time at the beach with some of my family a bit ago.

It was wonderful. I wanted to stay much longer and hope that we'll get a chance to go back this year. The open sand is the perfect place for running toddlers - Owen ran, ran, ran, ran and SLEPT. Ahhh.

He wanted the cat. Zoe doesn't realize what a lucky kitty she is. If not for these adoring kiddos....DUNDUNDUUUN.

Ever's beach basket. She was very happy to play with a few water toys in this laundry basket. But then again...when is Ever NOT happy?

First ice cream sandwich. Jon took a video.

My favorite picture. Owen in the tide pool.

Thanks for a great time fam!!

Mango, banana, pineapple, orange popsciles

We are BIG popsicle fans here. By 'we' I mean me...and I'm assimilating Owen.

We finally replaced our broken popsicle molds and I was so excited to start freezing. I thought I'd just go with the usual suspect flavor - lemonade. However, a shortage at TJs left me bummed and waiting.

Then Owen got a bad case of diaper rash and I started looking for ways to incorporate yogurt into his diet, thinking it might help. So I mixed up some plain yogurt with a bit of fruit juice, froze it, and voila! Yogurt pops.

They were ok...not stellar. Jon ate a few bites of one and gave it to me to finish. His face was so sadly disappointed during those few nibbles. It's hard to expect something syrupy sweet and get a tangy mouthful instead. (which Owen and I like but, eh, it's not for everyone.)

These popsicles are super awesome though. I've stumbled onto my new favorite. Yesterday I was looking for a way to use a slightly overripe mango and banana sitting in the fruit bowl. This is what I came up with.

1 ripe or overripe mango - make sure to squeeze at much juice out of the stone as possible.

1 orange or juice of 1 orange.

1 slightly overripe banana

2 cups of frozen pineapple chunks

Blend until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds. (makes about 10-12) Freeze. Wait impatiently. Yum.

You could also freeze into cups and stick a spoon for a handle (in once they get slushy so the spoon will stay straight while it finishes freezing).

I also threw in one cup of plain yogurt to a second batch...we'll see how those come out. You could stretch it with some water or extra juice as well.

Might be my new summer way to eat fruit. I love that it's the actual fruit...not just the juice. Gotta get that fiber!

Anyone else have any popsicle combo ideas?

And now it's fall.

Fall fell at 5:19 am this morning.  

I was sleeping, so I missed it. 

 

We informally celebrated with a cookout on Sunday evening.   Meet our new grill.  

My parents found this little number and fixed it up for us.   They dropped it off Sunday afternoon, complete with charcoal, steaks, potatoes, a salad, rolls, AND desert.  It was an amazing way to celebrate everything that summer was.  

Already the weather has been cooling and it's felt very appropriate to walk to school in crisp morning air.  I feel the urge to go buy new pencils.  And maybe a trapper keeper. (anyone? anyone?)

Summer was wonderful:  we had the move to Baltimore, our weekend beach trip with the family, I started school, Owen started solid foods,  Gina joined our family, Les and Tay came for a visit, Jon started his LAST fall semester at AU, we had walks in the park, weddings, a fun trip up north, ice cream, Bananagrams, family, friends, and fun.  I loved it.

Deep down, I'm a fall girl.  I love the color and cool air, the apple cider and sweaters.  Down comforters and warm soup.  Mums and the smell of cloves.   Fall is such a nice way to transition to winter's grey cold.  It kind of fools you into thinking that icy, slushy, windy days won't be so bad.

Yay for fall!

Swimmingly

Did I mention that we love summer?

A day in the garden

Owen, owen, bubbles blowin,

How does your garden grow?...

Like crazy apparently.  

This little tomato plant had over 80 cherry tomatoes on it at last count.  

Vintage is so in right now.  

Does this count?

Hopefully Owen won't mind me airing a little of his laundry on the blog. 

We love summer!

Bums

We love the beach!

Breakfast with a view...

Running, running, running...

Sandy castles...

Sandy Toes!

I am a beach bum so getting to spend Friday and Saturday at Sea Isle City in New Jersey was nothing but fun.  

And Owen was properly initiated with a toe wiggle in the sea.  Poor baby wasn't too keen on the cold surf.  

Thanks for the hospitality family!

Westmoreland State Park

Last Tuesday I drove about 1.5 hours south of DC to vacation with my brother Dan and his wife Trish and daughter Ava at Westmoreland State Park. It's a place that Dan visited multiple times growing up - and I went once on a family camping vacation. They had rented a 'rustic' cabin as a "tester" for real camping. Westmoreland's main draw is Fossil Beach. It's a short section of beach with limestone cliffs on either site. The sand is course - but with a little sifting you can usually find sharks' teeth. The park also has a few hiking trails, a big pool, and a fishing pier.

Here are a few pictures of adorable Ava.

Ava and Dan 'swimming' in the river. She's fearless. Mostly though, she liked eating sand and shells. And finding trash on the beach and carrying it around.

Ava and Trish. Ava just turned one on August 17th.

Playing in the cabin. Yes - it was a real log cabin. With spiders.

It rained a lot of the week but on the last day we were there the rain was scattered so we ran down to the pool. For a swim. It was cooooolllddd but Ava didn't care.

Jon came down by train on Friday. It was a long week and he had just flown in from Florida late Thursday evening - so this was one of his well deserved naps that day.

Here's a video of Jon awake and practicing for the 2012 Olympic diving team. His fan club is HUGE - so just remember to keep your comments short to let others tell him how awesome he is. (Jon will happily note that I didn't post the underwater video example of the dangers of loose diving shorts.)

And here is an example of my brother Dan's skill diving. Not too bad! :)

It was fun to spend a few days with family. :)

Week 17

16 Weeks! I guess that means it's been a month of posting the 'podulation' pictures. We are creeping closer to the halfway point now - which is a little hard to fathom. At our last checkup we heard the baby's heartbeat again (150 beats per minute!) and got a good report from Dr. Cobbs. I think we hit a milestone because they scheduled the next three month's of visits instead of just one month ahead. We finally got to break into the morning appointments!!! (Previously it's been impossible - I felt like it was reserved for a secret club.) It's the little things that make me happy.

The big news for this week is that I've started to feel the baby move. I'm pretty sure that I felt the first movement about two weeks ago - it was like a little goldfish flicked around for just a second. This week was more fluttery - I've felt something almost every day. A little wiggle or a little quick series of light thumps. It's so exciting to finally have some physical proof of the baby. After all, the baby is pretty large at this point! I'm constantly amazed that it's so big but so 'invisible'. I can't wait for the movements to get more intense and frequent as time goes by!

We've been having wonderful, cool weather. It's starting to smell a little like fall. Jon and I went for a run on the C&O Canal yesterday and, even though it was warm, I noticed that the trees are developing that deep, dark green of late summer. The nights here have been chilly now too - with no humidity. Great sleeping weather.

We have a little bit of traveling coming up this week and next and Jon will be away in Florida for a few days next week - so I'll be attempting to take the week 17 picture alone! We'll see how that goes. :)

The Beach and the Great Sleep

Tired. Apparently the last blog posting was from June 10th. That was 20 days ago. I feel like that was yesterday. Maybe I was asleep the whole time. Yep - I pretty much was. Actually - I felt too sick the week of the 10th. I even felt sick in my sleep.

The week after that we were at the beach with my sister and her family. Here are a couple of pictures from that. The beach was great - super relaxing. I slept a lot which really aided my return to feeling more normal.

Here is the beautiful beach. We were walking on the boardwalk in Ocean City (NJ) in the evening. I thought this was a nice shot of the moon and the beach.

Here we all area at the Wonderland Pier - the amusement end of the boardwalk. Sarah is very kindly sharing her Kohr Bros ice cream with Caleb.

Here's uber-cute Caleb again. Not such a fan of the merry-go-round.

But a BIG fan of the tide pool down near 93rd street. For awhile. And only after a few days of trying. To be fair it was cold. Anyone see a pattern in these pics with Uncle Jon getting quality Caleb time. They were big buds after the week - even did high-fives.

Sarah is practicing her 'diving' skills - known to most of us as pulling-yourself-along-in-calf-deep-water-on-your-stomach skills. Which were pretty killer. She loved the water and would run into it splashing around - even though most of the time it was pretty cold. After awhile her lips would turn blue and she would need some cuddle in a towel on the chair time.

The trip was great. The week after I felt MUCH better. Well, at least through the end of the week. But hey - we're over 9 weeks along!! All downhill from here, right?? :)