A Picture Look Plus a Video

We spent a couple nights at the pool. Ari loves to swim, and Matthew's never been, so it was a good opportunity.

Ari looked so goofy in those goggles :)

A cool family pic if it wasn't so blurry. See, when I used the flash, it came out dark. And when I took the flash off, the picture was brighter, but they tended to be blurry.

A cute father/son picture. I got a few of those on this trip.

Matthew wasn't too sure of Ari's floatie device. He wasn't too sure of the water in general. It took him a while to warm up to all these new experiences.

The Willey House
We went to a historical landmark called The Willey House. There's a nice pathway to walk on, a gift shop, and ducks to feed.

More sunscreen. Oh, I guess there is another picture of him with his hat on. But I'm pretty sure he took it off before we left the parking lot.

My two boys posing oh so nicely for me.

Matthew checking out the ducks.

Ok, I know it's not a picture of Ari's face, but I love this one, cause you can see the ripples in the water coming off her finger. I think it's pretty cool anyway.

More ducks. I like how you can see the V trail behind each one.

Me and my hunny.

A candid of my family. And yes, that's my sister's candid face. She always looks like that in pictures ;)

Silver Cascade
There are many beautiful waterfalls along the roadside, one of which is the Silver Cascade. We all stopped there for a little while. I stayed at the bottom with Matthew and my parents and my grandmother, while everyone else climbed higher. Josh took these pretty shots.

The Cog Railway and Boise Rock

A much needed juice break.

A sibling picture.

Future model :)

Mount Washington

Family picture in front of the cog. There's four of us here, can you tell? ;)

There was a little museum indoors that gave the history of the railway and all. Matthew and Ari liked the more interactive components, such as this part of the train.

We are so strong. With Tony on top there, it made it much heavier ;)

I guess Josh must have taken this one. We're on our way to get some fresh mountain water--yum! Some days we spent much time in the car, so whenever Matthew had a chance to get out and walk around, we let him. Those little legs need to stretch too, you know.

FOOD!!

After a long hard day of sightseeing and such, we found a local pizza joint that was so yummy! We got Matthew spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread, while Josh and I had salads and a meat lover's pizza.

I love their expressions here.

Yeah, I know, we look awesome, don't we? :)

Matthew was eager for food, but it's impossible for him to understand that the chef has to cook it and yadda yadda. Luckily I happened to find a basket of blocks for the kids to play with. And we entertained ourselves with some trivia cards they had.

Mm, dessert! We hit a local ice cream place and I got my fav--black raspberry ice cream. They had this elaborate play area for the kids, and Matthew and Ari had a good time there.

Alright, that's all the pictures for this entry. I think I can get the rest into one more, so be watching for a final installment...

A Picture Look

First Airplane Ride (outside the womb, that is)

Our day started early, since we had an early flight. We had to wake Matthew up and I fed him breakfast in the car while Josh drove us to the airport. Matthew did surprisingly well on the plane. The first flight wasn't full, so we had a whole row to ourselves. It gave Matthew a place to sit on his own and gave our laps a break. He was a little nervous when the plane took off, but Daddy assured him it was really cool and lots of fun, and he relaxed. He really liked standing on the seat and peeking at the people behind us.

When we first sat down, he was most interested in pulling out the magazines and airsick bags and flight information pamphlets.

And once we showed him the tray table, he was amused with that for quite some time. Here he is patiently waiting for snack time.

Saturday Night

We arrived at my parent's house in the early afternoon, so that gave us a chance for some downtime. Matthew didn't nap, but Josh and I managed to rest on the couches, sort of. That night Dave and Jess came over with Micah. Matthew played nice with him.

Then Micah played nice with him. This is right before he pulled Matthew's hair. Tiredness and being in an unfamiliar place brought instant tears.

But they hugged and put it all behind them.

New Hampshire at Last

We went to church Sunday morning, and after lunch at Boston Market, we made the 5-hour drive to the White Mountains. We ate at a restaurant that night and did some grocery shopping. Monday was the start of more vacation-y things.

Gramma gave Ari and Matthew a little gift each day of the trip. Here Ari is checking out Matthew's new book, and Matthew is paying close attention. I don't know if he's learning right along with her, or if he's making sure she doesn't keep it forever.

At Clark's Trading Post, we watched a trained bear show. Well, first Matthew watched Mommy with the camera.

Then he got interested in the bears.

My awesome action shot. And he caught the ball too.

And the bear so nicely faced the camera for me.

See? I'm a good mom. That little bottle Matthew is holding is sunscreen, and I made sure to put it on him. He actually didn't protest when I rubbed the goop all over him. The hat of course is adorable, but seeing as I only have one picture of him wearing it demonstrates how much he doesn't like hats. Oh well, I tried.

There was a nice train ride that we went on as well. The horn was really loud for Matthew's little ears, but other than that he enjoyed the ride. Here he is with Grampa. He really took to him on this trip, by the way. It got to the point that when he saw him leave the condo in the morning to go for a walk with my mom, he would whine and try to follow him.

Some pretty scenery from the train.

We also did the included segway rides at Clark's. This is Josh riding one, the old pro.

And the pregnant rookie.

Another rookie, an unpregnant one, my sister.

I think it was my brother-in-law's first time on one too. I was really nervous at first, but it got easier the longer you were on it.

We left Clark's Trading Post a little ahead of everyone (after buying Matthew a souvenir stuffed moose). Back at the condo while Matthew napped, Josh took the camera to the creek near the house and got some nice pictures.

A rested Matthew making faces at me through the window. I was on the deck and he was inside on the couch next to grampa. See how his tongue is curled to the side? I just noticed him doing that this week, but Josh says he's been doing it for a while. He did start to chew his tongue on vacation, and I know that's new.

The view from the deck.

Josh really wanted to see a moose while we were up there, and I told him I got this picture of 2 moose in the woods looking right at me ;)

to be continued...

We're Back, I Promise

Well, we survived vacation. This week is now devoted to recovering from vacation. Isn't that always how it is, though? You take a vacation to get away from the everyday and have a nice break, but somehow you wind up exhausted and needing more rest once you get home. Interesting phenomenon.

Anyway, I've got vacation pictures and all, but I haven't even begun to sort through them or try to put them on my blog yet. Like I said, this week has been about recovery. Josh and I have been going to bed early and putting Matthew to bed early. He's had it the hardest. While we were away, his naps were not consistent, and we were in the car alot, and it was a new place with new faces. On the plane ride home he was so weary that he actually passed out on Josh's shoulder for about 40 minutes.

His naps this week have gotten progressively longer each day, and that encourages me that he's getting back into a familiar schedule. He's started to roll and chew on his tongue this week, and he's grown more confident in trying to walk and stand on his own.

Oh yeah, we came home Sunday and we had a not-so-pleasant greeting. Everything was in it's place, but it was really hot in our house. Nothing unusual yet, since we set the air to go off at a higher setting. The surprise came when we set it back down to get the place cooled off, and nothing happened. Yup, our AC decided to kick the bucket while we were away, and it happened to be one of the hottest weekends too. Our internet and phone were also dead, all thanks to a severe lightning storm that occured on the Tuesday we were away. Our neighbors filled us in on that info and loaned us some more fans to cool us down.

Praise the Lord we found a guy that came Monday morning to figure out our problem with the air. The ciruit board in the furnace was shot, so we had to get it replaced, and not at a cheap price. It ended up taking all day to get it done, cause our guy's GPS would not get him to the store that sold the part. Then when he made it back here, he discovered they gave him the wrong part. So he had to go back and then install it, which took time with the many wires this piece had. Thankfully he got everything fixed, and the Time Warner Cable guy took our bad modem and gave us a new one at no cost. We have an old TV up in our room, and the lightning blew the speakers on it. It's ok, we wanted to get a new one anyway.

Did I mention we vacationed in NH where you can enjoy the cool mountain air, and then we came home to a muggy weekend with no AC? Ugh, it was not fun at all. But we made it through, and it's all good. Here are some non-vacation videos for you.


Matthew eating one of his favorite foods, strawberries.



I took this just today. He's started to make the "o" sound, and his lips look so cute when he forms them.


Vacation stuff will come, eventually...

It's a Girl!

We had our ultrasound at 22 weeks, and we found out we are expecting a baby girl! We weren't surprised at all, since we both have been thinking it's a girl, and everyone has been guessing a girl. She's healthy, and 1 lb. 4 oz., which the tech said is big. And then I was like, great, just what I need, another heavyweight (Matthew was 9 lb. 5 oz). But my doctor said her weight is only a week off from my due date, which isn't uncommon. He didn't sound concerned, but I'm sure we'll have an ultrasound later on to see how big she's gonna be. He also said my placenta is lying low, so they'll check on that with an ultrasound later too, cause if that stays low, it could interfere with the delivery.

Ok, enough with the boring doctor details. How about some pics? The tech took a bunch, but I only put up two, cause some weren't clear, and others were repeats. I tried to pick the best from the bunch.

These profile pictures came out so clear I think. In this you can see her little arm across the top of the pic. The bright white line is the arm bone.



This is another of her profile, but this time she has her tongue sticking out. What a silly girl. And the round thing it appears she's trying to lick is her hand.

I was gonna put up the pic that really shows she's a girl, but it looked clearer on the monitor than it does when it's printed out, so I didn't bother. But trust us, it's a girl. We're not really doubting this fact.

Matthew was good during the ultrasound, but it seemed to take a while, so he got restless, which is to be expected. Our girl was good too, but she didn't like the wand prodding and poking her, so she let me know by punching and kicking me. Josh was there, of course, and Grammy came along for the good news too. It was nice to share the moment with family, and the extra set of arms to hold Matthew wasn't bad either. We even went over to Babies R Us afterwards to pick up a girly-looking baby book. All in all, a good morning. Now I have to finish packing, for our vacation begins this weekend!

Outdoor Adventures

We've got a playset in our backyard that came with the house, and Matthew likes to play in the fort part of it.

I think he's starting to outgrow his 18 month clothes, don'tcha think?

Not so sure about the new swing. He'll only spend about 5 minutes in it before he tells us he's "all done."

Found a rock

Tasting the rock

Peek-a-boo!

Whoo-hoo! I'm the king of the world!


A play area was built near our neighborhood recently, so we've taken walks there a few times so Matthew can enjoy it.

Not so sure about this swing either. He'll stay in this one longer cause there are other kids around to distract him from wanting to get out.

Uh, Mom, Dad, do you really want me to do this by myself?

Oh yeah, it's much better when someone's holding me.

Wee! Fun with Daddy

And that's all I've got, folks. Josh is dealing with a tough week at work, and I'm busy packing and planning, but the reward comes Saturday when we head out for a much-needed vacation. My parents have been so gracious to invite us to share their timeshare in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Thank you! I don't know if we'd have taken a vacation otherwise!