Discovering Richmond

Last weekend we decided to explore new areas in Richmond. We'd read in the paper about pumphouse park and thought it would be interesting to see it. While it looks like a church, it actually was a pumphouse for water built in 1882. It was later abondoned, but there are efforts to restore the building.

There are trails near the pumphouse, so we brought the dog and took a walk. It is a nice area and right in the city. We were glad to find a new place to enjoy the river in Richmond. I think we'll try some other areas in the coming months.

Sarah is getting ready to transition to the two year old class next week. We're hoping she likes it. She has trouble when teachers change, but she knows a few in the next class, so it may not be as bad. She continues to build her vocabulary. It is nice to almost have a conversation with her and be able to understand what she says. She likes to say "that's silly" at anything we do. Her favorite book at the moment is Where the Wild Things Are and she loves to chase or be chased around the house in the evenings. Her favorite food right now is seaweed and rice-yes, those sushi wrappers with rice in the middle. Sometimes she'll just eat the wrappers. I can't complain. It is, for the most part, good for her and better than some alternatives. She still is a poor sleeper and makes it through the night about two nights a week. Other nights, she is up off and on. She has never been very good at sleeping since she was born, so I guess it is to be expected.

A view of the pumphouse.

Sarah looks at the stream from the bridge nearby.

Greg helps Sarah over the bridge

Sarah going down the trail

Sarah sits in her new chair from Aunt Julie, 'hypnotized' by her favorite show-The Backyardigans

Celebrating Sarah's Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated Sarah's second birthday with Greg's family. It was a fun day as everyone came to the house. It was the first time in a year and a half that all of Greg's family could be together. His sister and her family were stationed in Hawaii (her husband is in the Marine Corps) for over three years and they just returned in June. They are currently living just over an hour north of us near DC. We are excited to have them back in the area and look forward to many more family gatherings. Greg's sister, Susan has three children, Alex (8), Noah (6) and Lauren (10 months).


Greg's brother, Eric, helped out and drove their parents up from Fayetteville, so we had a full house. For the first time, we had a kids table and I wasn't sitting at it! I guess that means we've grown up. Eric took wonderful pictures of the day with his new 35mm digital camera. (I think I know what I'd like for a future birthday or Christmas gift now.)


Alex, Noah, and Sarah eat their favorite -seaweed and rice!


Sarah opens presents with Apa (Dad) and the help of her cousins Alex and Noah


Sarah let's us dress her up with her new hair clip


How do I look?


We finally get to meet cousin Lauren......


....unfortunately, Lauren gets sad when mommy isn't close by :(


Noah is very happy when Uncle Greg offers to help him build a birdhouse


Noah shows off his new birdhouse to Harabouji (Grandpa)


Sarah hangs out with Harmoni and Harabouji


All the kids hanging out with Harabouji and Aunt Susan


Alex and Noah wrestle with Dad (Kelly)

Summer Trip to the Cape

Over the fourth of July week we took a family trip up to the Cape to visit family and enjoy the cooler New England weather. The drive up (10-12 hours) is always an adventure. We tried driving through the night to make things easier. Greg was still on his working night schedule, so we thought it would help us avoid traffic. Unfortunately it didn't, we were stuck in traffice for over an hour at 1am, which made everyone in the car a bit cranky.

We drove straight to my friend Elina's house-arriving at 7am for an early breakfast. Elina had twin boys earlier in the year, so they were up and ready to go at that hour. Her son Zak and Sarah are only two weeks apart in age. We saw them last summer at this time, so it was good to see the kids together again. I am not sure if they recognized each other, but they looked cute together posing for their annual picture.

After visiting Elina, we drove to my parent's house to spend time at the beach, eat Cape food, read books, and relax. It was a nice week. My brother came from Rochester, NY with his wife and new baby (Abigail) and my cousin came down with his wife and two children (Rohan and Vrinda) on the fourth of July. We enjoyed a fun parade on the fourth in Orleans. It is small town and they throw candy from the floats (see my brother's blog to the right for more info). The kids seemed to enjoy it.

We enjoyed the nice weather. Ate good ice cream (It's hard to find homemade icecream in Richmond) and relaxed. The week always goes by too quick, but it seems all vacations end too soon.


Sarah at the beach.


Sarah watches Nanny make sandcastles.


Greg helping Sarah and cousin Rohan out of the water.


Sarah and cousin Vrinda play on the front lawn.

Sarah Waters the Plants

OK, so this isn't the best video. I used the one on my camera and not the video recorder. In Greg's wonderful wisdom to buy an HD video recorder, we still haven't figured out how to make plain old videos. If anyone reading this has suggestions, feel free to post a comment.

Anyway, I've attached this one of Sarah helping me water the plants. She's at the point in her life where she loves to imitate everything we are doing. It was helpful today since she wanted to imitate me washing the car. I thought it would be good to post at least a small video for those who haven't seen her in a while. Pictures can only say so much.

I've got some other photos to post from our trip to the Cape over the fourth of July. It was an adventure. Sarah had a great time going to the beach, seeing her cousins, and watching the parade. More to come in another post...

Corn!

Tonight Sarah had her first piece of corn on the cob. She seemed to like it and giggled most of the time. She's been more of a picky eater lately, so we're happy when she decides she likes something. I tried to video her eating, which was fairly entertaining, but of course she wasn't up for 'performing' when I turned the camera on. I will try to get some video to post in the near future.

It's been incredibly hot here the last few days and it seems the weather is not expected to break until Tuesday.

This has only made taking care of our new yard a bit time consuming. I finally counted the other day and realized that we have over 100 new plants in our backyard. I bought a soaker hose for one side of the yard and was hand-watering the rest. It was taking forever and I decided to get a few more soaker hoses this weekend. I'm slightly paranoid of killing all these new shrubs, bushes, and flowers since my reputation has been to kill things (my maiden name wasn't Brown for nothing!) so I've been very cautious to water. I can't wait to see the water bill this month. However, we are starting to see the fruits of our labor. Some of the rose bushes have bloomed, the blueberry bushes look like they'll have ripe berries next month, the gardenias smell wonderful, and the hydrangeas are beginning to flower. We still have a few more plants to put in, lattice below the deck to put up, and the shed to paint, but that will have to wait until fall.

In addition to spending what seemed like half of my weekend watering or weeding, I pulled out the sensory table that Julie sent us last year and filled it up with water for Sarah to play in. My friend Kat brought her daughter, Emma, over this weekend and Sarah was nice enough to show Emma her way of using the table, which was to climb in and sit in it. It was real cute and the girls had fun playing in the water. I think I'll need to upgrade to a kiddie pool in the near future.

The beginning of the herb garden.



The bushes in the side yard


Sarah helps mommy water


Sarah and Emma beating the heat!

Our trip to Zion/Vegas

Last week we took a trip to Zion National Park and Las Vegas. Zion is located in southern Utah and about a 2.5 hour drive from Vegas. We spent three days in Zion hiking and our last two days in Vegas for a little R and R. I had been to Zion in my drive across country in grad school. (After finishing up my summer internship in Hawaii, I joined another classmate of mine who worked in southern CA to drive back). Greg had wanted to go for a while and I was happy to return. It really is a beautiful area.

We started off our first day a bit jet lagged and tired, so we did a short three mile hike to get ourselves warmed up. The next day we were ambitious and decided to do a 14 mile hike in Kolob Canyon to what they claim to be the world's largest free standing arch. It was a long hike and were were very tired at the end of the day. The last day, we did a great five mile hike up to the top of a ridge overlooking Zion. It was a rough last .5 mile with chains to help you up a very steep incline on a very narrow path, but the view was spectacular as you can tell from the photo above.

After our hiking, we headed back to Vegas and stayed at the Venetian hotel. We spent the days by the pool and went to a Penn and Teller show. All in all a great trip!

The arch at Kolob Canyon

Standing on the ridge over Zion


Another view of Zion from the ridge

Hanging Out with Nanny and Pop Pop

While we were enjoying ourselves on our little vacation, Sarah stayed home with Nanny and Pop Pop (my parents) and had a fun week. According to the grandparent report, she did't ask for us once :( Sarah was very happy to see my mom again after the week together in March. She was also happy to see my parents three dogs as they like to kiss her and she thinks that is fun.

They took Sarah to the zoo one day and she had a great time. She's really into animals now and loves to point them out. They also brought her to a birthday party at Kangaroo Jack's, which is basically a building filled with all kinds of moon walks. I guess Sarah was the one to "get the party started" as all of the kids (including the birthday boy) were a little shy to start playing. We were sorry to miss the party, but were glad that Sarah could still make it.

We're glad Sarah got to spend time with them since she doesn't get to see them as often.

Sarah hangs out with birthday boy Shawn at Kangaroo Jacks



Sarah enjoys the merry-go-round at the zoo


Checking out the ducks-one of her favorite animals