Back to the Block

Our trip up to Block Island was equally as fun as the earlier part of vacation. Eric, Mary, Katy, and Emmy were there to continue the small girl (no boys, though) ruckus and Karin and Rebecca came out for a day so we got to see everyone except for Holly. The weather remained beautiful and we even got a good BI storm one night with rain, thunder, and lightening -- for some reason they just make them better out there.

Favorite plane activity: reading the SkyMall catalogue. I had never paid much attention to it before but a) it has a lot of dogs in it (as well as 'puters, miamos (pianos), and watches) and therefore highly entertaining for some baldies (little baldies, anyway). I have to say, in addition to being a good distraction, I found a few things that might make good presents. There was a the bug vacuum (not sure why you can't use your own vacuum), the garden yeti, and the neck traction device. I hope you've been good this year so that Santa can deposit one of these under your tree.

Once arrived on BI, there were many other pursuits to occupy ourselves with, like...

visiting with the garden angel...

sharing snacks with cousin Katy. She's in charge but is a very good sharer...

taking twilight walks. S-l-o-w walks when someone is out of the backpack.

Swinging (I got better shots of her swinging but for some reason her head looked all distorted -- maybe it's the giantness of it all).

Building -- or more accurately, knocking down -- sand castles.

and becoming a total sandy nightmare. The kid brought home half the beach with her yet again.

Snuggling with Emmy -- and learning the finer points of pigmentation. Molly stayed Casper the friendly baby white while her cousins looked at the sun and got a shade darker. Poor bald kid.

Country Road

Our computer is a bit on the fritz, I've got some downloading to do, and Grammy and Grampy helpfully supplied us with some more pictures from VA, so I'm going to start with these before adding in our own and the ones from Block Island. Okay? Okay.

We're back in the sunny Okanagan (90 degrees and sunny at 6pm but without any humidity -- heavenly) after what was perhaps one of my favorite vacations ever. We just had a great time and got to do lots of stuff with both families and it was relatively stress free. It reoriented and recentered me after a frenzied several weeks and even though it was hard to leave, it felt a little better than last time because there was some place to (sort of) come home to. Someday I will write about my top ten tips for moving to another country but I'm happy to forgo reliving some of that stress for now and just concentrate on all the good stuff we just enjoyed.

We had adventures before we even left our adopted country. Our 6am flight out of Kelowna was cancelled, leaving us with only one option if we had any hopes of making our flight out of Seattle, which was a mad dash to the SeaTac in our car at 4:30 am. I didn't drive (I even did the driver a favor by snoozing for a little while, which I'm sure actually helped, instead of subjecting him to Driving Safety 101 -- about which I'm really not qualified to teach). We made it by the hairs of our chinny chin chins (Molly and myself excepted from real chin hair, I hope), and our vacation was pretty stress free from there on out and the beginning was, thankfully, not a indication of what was to come. We all survived our cross country flights without too much wriggling from the peanut gallery, although my lap had grown suspiciously smaller by our return flight home last night.

Molly simply died hanging out with her all cousins and she saw every last one of them. Biggest to smallest, in Virgina and Rhode Island, she just can't get enough of her playmates. Some may have had more use for her than others but she woke up looking for them, and, I'm sure, dreamt about them at night. She also became much more enamored with her aunts and uncles and now asks about all of them, even if she was initially shy or more interested in their beards and glasses and the bikes that they watched on television. All her cuteness is money in her bank when her climbing antics begin anew each morning, or when I find her sitting in the middle of the dining room table, or pulling over a cutting boards worth of veggies on her head. Ey yey yey. I just love watching her interpret her little world and making these really funny connections. Just now for instance, she dumped our her water and went from yelling "water, water" to "towel, towel" to dumping some more water out and saying "waterfall -- towel for waterfall".

Ramble, ramble... this trip just made me all warm and fuzzy inside and was so happy to see so much family (we missed you Holly) and watch Molly have a grand ol' time with them all.

Climbing something that was actually meant to be climbed.

The slide -- and please don't try and help her down. You'll be met with a "no (head shake) no".

Grammy pointed out that maybe Tiger's recent play would be improved if he had a binky.

Nudie running. Summer Olympics 2012.

"Helping" with Baby Evan. She really, really loves him so.

This cowgirl really does love her watermelly. Little thief kept stealing it.

Megan (part of EriMegnan) sharing some yummy raspberries.

Oh Shenandoah

Just a quick update part way through our trip back East -- and what a beautiful week we've had. My whole family met up in the Shenandoah Valley for a family vacation and to celebrate my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary (hot diggity!). Along the way, my brother and sister-in-law (Chris and Aimee) celebrated their eleventh anniversary and John and I celebrated our fourth. My other brother and his wife (Greg and Meglet) just HAD to be different and have an August wedding so they didn't get to go out for a solo dinner (although they have no kids so every night can be a quiet dinner without chasing wee ones around the dining room) but were thankfully around to lend extra hands.

This area is gorgeous and we've had great weather so we've been out exploring swimming holes, hiking, and splashing in lots of rivers and streams. Molly has been tuckered out chasing her cousins around (and Erin and Megan seem to have morphed into Erimegnan) and has been very interested in Baby Evan, which I'm hoping bodes well for us come, oh, October. She is also causing her usual amounts of mischief by crank calling people on the condo house phones, pressing the help button on the elevator, and throwing Grammy's cell phone off the balcony. The little parrot has plenty to say about all her high jinxes, too, so may I suggest that one doesn't make the same mistake that her mother has and say anything in haste or surprise unless you want it repeated from here to eternity. Also, while I've very happy that Molly can now tell me when she has a poopy diaper, I'm less pumped when she yells it out in the middle of a bank lobby or the grocery store. Never one to let a moment pass quietly into the night, either, she likes to repeat herself until she makes sure everyone is aware of the situation at hand. Awesome.

Luckily, the great outdoors is more forgiving...

Chilly stream water may didn't deter the plop plop plopping of stones in the water.

We did a gorgeous hike in Shenandoah National Park that Molly slept through half of. Luckily, she woke up for the big finale...

which, for you and me, would have been this giant waterfall. For Molly, it was everyone's lunch that she could bebop around to and scavenge.

Next up is our trip up to Block Island for a long weekend. We'll meet up with some more of Molly's fun loving cousins, Katy and Emmy, and Nana and Grandpa up there. Oh, what a trip!

Stop It, Stop It... Well, Okay

Yesterday was Canada Day, which celebrates the unification of Canada as one country (rather than individual provinces). Most businesses were closed, although John worked so that he could observe the Mother Ship's birthday on Friday instead. We did meet up for a drink after work so that Molly could listen to the music and we could sit outside and enjoy her pestering for John's brewski and my (virgin, boo!) daiquiri. She thought our beverages looked better than her milk -- huh, weird. That age-old parenting trick (that never works) of drinking the milk in front of her and saying things like "oh, yummy" and "mmmmmmh" didn't really fool her. Sunglasses, however, did distract her and she thought she would play the part of Hollywood starlet who is checking out the crowd and then trying to hide from the paparazzi (who I'm sure were lurking in the lake with their waterproof cameras, trying to get a shot of the little dame. I'm positive).

My entourage should be showing up any minute.

Oh, pictures? Oh stop, stop (wait, can you see me through my fingers? Is this my best angle?).

We are heading back east tomorrow morning to meet up with my family in Virginia for a week and then up to Block Island for a long weekend to see the Doyles. I think we're bringing the sunshine back with us so maybe the New Englanders will see something other than gray, cloudy skies.

Sunshiny Days

Well, it's another sunny day in the Okanagan. I'm really not trying to rub it in for the East Coasters -- I know that your 21 rainy/cloudy days out of 30 isn't really a badge of honor that you're excited to wear. But, since it is another sunny day here, Molly and I went to the lake this morning to get in a little sand and sun time before I dropped her in bed for her nap (she has decided that mountain time is really up her alley so she has been up and at 'em around 6 each morning. This doesn't really excite me a whole lot).





A funny Molly tidbit: her favorite thing to say now when something drops (or "drops") is "oopsy doodle". It's really funny to hear. Oh, and one more, she likes to imitate when I say "come here" and beckon her with one finger (to put on shoes or a diaper or get some cheese off her head). She stands there and tries to get her pointer finger to do the same thing but can't quite manipulate it right -- it cracks me up every time so now that's a fun game to play.

Lake Lessons

Monkey Molly is a leeeeetle hard to contain these days (although it's never been easy and perhaps almost five months of baby belly is a contributing factor) but we may have found some place that she will sit for more than 30 seconds. We went down to the lake this morning (granted, it's only June so maybe the hoards of people will show up later but it was so barely populated on a gorgeous sunny day -- it was really nice) and I think it may be my saving grace this summer. Although I love the ocean beach and will really miss being near the coast, the lake is perfect because there are only small waves (something that Miss Thang looooves and you can't keep her out of) when boats go by so she's not constantly running into the water and there isn't an edge like in a pool from where she can jump. It's just a theory and I could be completely wrong (as usual with my predictions for her) but I'm happy to give this hypothesis a good testing.

Here We Are!

I'm not sure how to begin catching everyone up, so I'll just start posting and if anyone has any specific questions about our new abode, let me know and I'll try and answer.

We got up to Penticton last Saturday (happy one week anniversary to us! Yippee!) and lived in our new (rented) house with virtually no stuff until Wednesday when our movers came. John commuted his five minute drive (complete with chauffeur, moi) happily -- such a nice change from the hour that it used to take -- and has been home at normal-people times all week. Our movers arrived on Wednesday morning (and I can pretty much guarantee that going through customs here was a more pleasant experience than anything we might go through on the other side of the border. The customs agent was so accomodating) and whipped through unloading our stuff like I've never seen. And then... we had a house full of seriously full boxes. And then... I remembered why I hate moving. Slowly but surely, we have been wading through the cardboard and I think more of it resides in the garage than in the house now.

We have managed to get out and have some fun, too. Molly and I went down to the lake on our side of town (we have sun and 70/80 degree temps in this part of the world) and played at the playground, we took a stroll along the canal, we've explored town and found some really neat little shops and stores, and today we all went to the Penticton Farmer's Market. This alone may make this whole move worthwhile and veggie and fruit season isn't even in full swing. So much good, fresh, local produce and the best part is that the market happens twice a week. YUM. After the market, we took a drive out to Naramata, a little town up the road about 15 minutes and then out to the Provincial Park. And then... we were back to unpacking. Blech.

Added bonuses to today's farmer's market were the classic car and Elvis festivals that were also happening. Molly liked the "muednik" (music) and running through the car show (although I think it was just unadulterated joy at being free from the stroller). She's a busy climbing bee (I keep finding her on top of the dining room table, the coffee table, and trying to scale pretty much anything she can get a leg up on).


Trying to get out of the house this morning, Molly was more interested in accessorizing than in getting dressed.


Vroom vroom! Molly was off to try and find someone to take her for a ride in one of the neat-o cars.

But settled for a ride from John.

Newest trick -- putting up her dukes.

Walking out on the pier after the market -- I really can't capture the landscape and gorgeous views. We're in a valley with beautiful mountains on both sides. If you want to see the whole shebang, I'll send you our address.

We're up and wireless now so I should be able to post more regularly now. We're also sending some sunshine back east.