Take Me Out

When we were in Virgina, we took a day and went up to DC to go to a Nationals game. The park is beautiful, probably my favorite after Fenway and Safeco, and definitely #1 in terms of kid friendliness... likely because very few people actually go to see the Nationals so there is plenty of space to fan out (hee hee, I just reread this and caught my pun. Too much heat is making me crack up). Our seats were $10 on the day of the game when we walked right up to the gate and just bought them, just like that. There were no sweaty guys in too tight jorts who needed a shave back in '83 and hadn't gotten around to it yet trying to sell tickets. The crossing guards were nice and actually let pedestrians cross the street instead of sending them out for a game of chicken for their own personal amusement. Basically, an entirely different experience than going to Fenway. Molly will most certainly go to Fenway at some point, likely when the springs in her legs stop bouncing quite as much and when she won't mind a little beer being spilled on her. For now, though, seeing the Nationals was a treat for all of us -- for the adults, it was nice to get to see a game (some of us were more excited to see D-Lowe pitch than others -- I just waited for the water works to occur when his team lost. Crybaby.) and for Molly, it was nice to go on a french fry and gelato binge.

Enjoying the view from the nosebleeds... of the food. The game could have been being played on Mars for all she really cared.

Family pic with Uncle Greg in the background. Yes, it was warm. Yes, Greg is wearing a ridiculous amount of clothing for a hot summer day in DC. I'm not sure how we're related sometimes.

Don't be fooled into thinking that Molly was ready for an afternoon snuggle. She's trying to make an escape from our human fortress so that she can snag someone's cotton candy or smoothie. Grammy was a hurdle that just had to be crossed.


Realizing that her plan had been thwarted, she turned her attention to mugging for the camera like it was her plan all along.

And finally, just a random picture of the binky queens who are waiting for the friends of binky meeting to start in the pack 'n play. Or they look like those forlorn smokers who have been relegated to back alleys and or loading dock doorways to sneak a smoke in where they won't be judged, gosh darn it.

Even MORE Monsters

Speaking of monsters, I think we have the Skaha Lake sand monster living with us. Egads! One of her favorite things to do? Waddle into the lake and sit down (sometimes going deeper than expected and getting a little splish splash on the face) to get all wet and then come back out and dive bomb into the sand. How this doesn't hurt or get uncomfortable, I'm not sure. What's funny is that she often wants her hands wiped clean... so that when she eats her snacks, she doesn't get them all sandy. How convenient.

Monsters, Monsters Everywhere

Yesterday was most certainly not a sunny day in the Okanagan. We went up to Kelowna to drop Nana and Grandpa off at the airport and walked around there for a little while before heading up to Vernon to check out Silver Star ski resort. On our way home we got caught in one of the weirdest thunder/hail/rain storms ever -- complete with tumbleweeds a-blowin' down the street. We hightailed it off the mountain when the clouds rolled in, but the resort looks very funky and we're looking forward to heading up there once the slopes open. I especially appreciate the signs that advise you to carry chains in your car (yet there's still a bus stop up further on the road) and then they warn you a couple times that you need good winter tires beyond certain points or you're forbidden. This is likely because there are no guardrails to stop you from plunging off the side of the road/down the side of the mountain. Gulp.

Before we entered the twilight zone, Molly checked out Ogopogo, the Okanagan version of the Loch Ness Monster, in downtown Kelowna.



We decided to pull off the road while the hail rolled through. Sorry that I didn't get a picture of the tumbleweeds -- it was pretty funny, though.

At Ease, Folks

I know many of you have been worried sick about what has become of Harry. How is he faring? Does he have a passport? Does he meow with an accent? Poor (or, actually, lucky) Harry is still an inhabitant of the good ol' US of A and has been boarding at my parents' house, where he has been the model of cat sainthood and able to enjoy the good life with great friends, good food, and nice scenery. I just wanted to put all of you at ease who have written to me in emotional agony about his status (and that would be exactly none of you, thank you very much. PBBBBBBT).






On this side of the Continental Divide, we've continued to poke around the hometown and are receiving our first set of visitors, Molly's Nana and Grandpa. Right before the Doyles got here, Molly and I went hiking (note to self: carrying two wee ones -- one on the inside and one on the outside -- on a 90 degree day, not one of my smartest moves. Unless, of course, I'm trying out for the high school wrestling team and attempting to sweat off some pounds before the big meet. Then, it's an awesome idea and I can be hailed as a genius.) up in the hills on the edge of a gorgeous crevasse area that was the site of some forest fires in 1994. It was quite stunning and not anything I could adequately capture on film, so you get to see the petite hiker instead because she fits into my camera lens easily.

Molly often manages to read my mind and know EXACTLY when I would like her to move along at her quick-like-a-bunny pace and she chooses those times to sit on her rump (calmly saying "sit down" as if I couldn't tell that's what she was doing) or she runs one step forward and 37 steps backwards. She also seems to know when I would like her to hold my hand and walk with me and chooses THOSE times to put on her bat-out-of-hell turbo charged shoes and wriggle from my grasp and run Forest, run. That's usually in traffic. This time, however, we were simpatico and when I finally had to let her out of the pack so that my body mass didn't reduce by half, she and I moved along at a mostly healthy clip and only needed to put back in the pack for some steep parts. It was a beautiful thing.


Nana and Grandpa arrived on Tuesday and Molly has died and gone to heaven to have a bigger audience than just moi during the day. She's played lots of call and response with Grandpa, learned about riding in a big Jeep, and tickled Nana a lot. Meanwhile, I've loved having extra sets of hands and have had fun having other people with whom to explore. We also have found some good restaurants and while the weather has been strange due to the forest fires (including a really odd blanket of pea-soup smoke for a couple of hours this afternoon), we've gotten ourselves out and about quite a bit. Nana's birthday is tomorrow (as is Uncle Greg's and Molly's great-great Aunt Tid) so we celebrated with dinner tonight and some pretty exciting duck watching to end the evening (can we say best birthday EVER?!). It's been fantastic to have family here and look forward to their return visits and to my mom's visit next week.




I will also admit that today was not another sunny day in the Okanagan. We had some fierce thunderstorms this afternoon that cooled things off and watered our grass. I just wanted to throw the east coasters a little bone.

Land O' Lakes

On Sunday (yes, it was another sunny day in the Okanagan), we went out kayaking on Lake Vaseux about 15 minutes south of us. It's one of the Provincial Parks so it was very scenic and fairly empty (I think we saw two other sets of boaters) compared to Skaha or Okanagan lakes here in town (which really aren't that crowded compared to some of the vacation lakes in New England).

Molly enjoyed the things I hoped she would enjoy -- all the ducks and geese and other birds. She also enjoyed the thing that I hoped she would NOT enjoy -- namely standing up in the boat. For someone who I'm fairly certain is genetically unable to sit still for any significant period of time (unless there is food in front of her), I wasn't expecting miracles. Considering we were out for a couple of hours, I'll call it a success and all in all she did do well as long as someone was singing to her. Lots of singing happens here.

I think she was happiest at the end of the trip when she got to (ironically enough) sit in the water and toss rocks. Or, maybe it was the ice cream that she got on the way home. It was some really good ice cream that came from a dubiously named establishment called Tickleberries.

I wonder what would have happened if we had let her launch herself out. Maybe swimming with the fishies would have been just the ticket.


A lecture from John on boating protocol. Or perhaps this is the beginning of a few rounds of Old MacDonald.

Rocks, rocks, rocks. The kid loves rocks.

Rocks and water in general -- especially when it's bath water temperature. The lake is shallow and thus very warm -- John's type of lake.

For those of you who are inclined to laugh at my hat, well, you may have a point. It's a big, straw hat that I have had for 10 years and it's very near and dear to my heart. It was a hat I bought when I went on a road trip with Erin and Nicole after college and we were in the desert and it was hot. Considering I'm back in the desert and it's still hot, I figured it was time to break it out again. Is it attractive? That would be a resounding no. Is it useful, ah yes, blissfully so.

Forget the Joneses, Keeping Up with Molly...

We're back with a new computer after ours decided to poop the bed late last week. The blog shouldn't have to suffer, though, so we are good to go with our new machine. Today was a beautiful day after a 100 degree day on Friday and somewhere in the 90+ plus range yesterday. In reality, 90-something feels a heckuva lot better after 100 degrees. Dry heat or not -- that's just warm. Since there are those enjoying 110+ degree temps in Phoenix, though, I'd better not turn into Wendy Whiner.

We declared ourselves officially unpacked this weekend with all boxes that are going to be out of the house out. Most things have homes although there's still a little more organizing to do and we even have a few pictures up on the walls. Okay, there's a lot more organizing to do but we're in decent enough shape.

In an effort to thwart the inevitable, I'm trying to take pictures of baby #2 (only belly pictures thus far, obviously. Also, I'm still searching for a name since Skeletor scared some people) at about the same point as I did with Molly. I'm not sure that I actually want this trend to continue since we have thousands of pictures of Molly right now and I'm not sure I need to duplicate that effort. Nonetheless, I'm making an effort not to leave the little one in the dust. Here we are together at 26 weeks.


Molly is turning into a baby hog and is very excited by the idea of the new baby (whatever that means... I'm a little nervous about what's going on in that noggin of hers). She attacked all the baby siblings at her music class last week (talk about a great way to make friends -- have your kid put her mitts all over a 10 week old). She also enjoys her own little family a lot, which includes head wound Dolly (Molly woke up one morning in Block Island covered in blood. She had picked a scab off that bled prolifically. As a result, poor Dolly also suffered what appeared to be a massive head gash), big pink bunny, little pink bunny, bunny, brown bear, doggy (both brown and white doggy and black doggy), lamby, and baby. We're really creative on the names around here. She likes to make sure they are all patted on the back, fed, and watered.


Her non-stop action also continues (at my prenatal appointment this week, the midwife commented a couple of times that she can see why I'm exhausted. The little jumping bean wasn't exactly sedentary except for when the midwife let her push the button the doppler and she got to listen to the heartbeat. She was very alarmed by the whoosh whoosh and asked if it was a helicopter. Um, if I'm growing a helicopter than someone's getting an ear full). Here she is "strolling" down the garden path.

She also enjoys being her own cheerleader -- ready, set, go!

I'm not sure what I sound like on the phone, but I'm worried that I say a lot of "really? wow" because I hear that a lot when chatty Cathy is on the "phone". She also likes to say "hell-oooo" really loudly. Weird.

Ever the multi-tasker...

p.s. In case you happened to read Boston.com (or maybe you're reading the Penticton Herald) this evening, you may have seen the story about the forest fires in BC. They're burning about 30 minutes north of us. We can't see any flames but we can see and smell smoke. The highway is closed to Kelowna, the big city to the north, and we can hear all the planes in Penticton taking off to drop water and flame retardant on the fires. We aren't in any danger at this point but there are lots of displaced folks in town.

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.