Sliding Down and Driving Up

After spending a couple of days at our house, we took my parents up north to spend some time enjoying things around our other home in the White Mountains. The first and only other time they had been there was their visit in October\November of 2008. Incidentally, it was the day they left for home on that trip that Mike and I found out we were expecting Dylan.

Mike and my Dad had spent the day, Thursday, working on the play set and my Mom and I had spent the day running some errands. It took some time to pack up the 5 of us and all our gear, so we arrived to the condo at night. That meant that we would start fresh the next morning and have a full day of fun.

Friday morning, we drove through the beautiful Franconia and Crawford Notches on our way to Mt. Washington. En route, we passed by several mountain ski resorts, one being Attitash mountain. Attitash offers some great activities in the summer, including the alpine slides. You ride the ski lift up and then get down the mountain by riding down "carts" on cement slides that ride down the mountain. It's a ton of fun! Mike and I had done this once several summers ago and have tried to again on several occasions but were unable to for one reason or another. So, when passing by, we made a last minute decision to stop at the mountain to slide down! Unfortunately, they won't let kids go down the slide with you unless they can walk on their own. Dylan's just shy of mastering that skill, so he waited at the bottom with Mimaw and Pipaw.

But Doesn't He Look Cute As a Wanna Be Rider?!?

Pipaw and Dylan (left) Watching Me (Right Slide) at the Finish

Me and Dylan on the "Water"

It was a really fun detour. Then, we continued our drive to Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the northeast. We paid our entrance fee to drive up the road, popped in the cd audio tour provided and headed up. After about a quarter of a mile, the light to our gas tank came on, so we headed back down and filled up the tank at the station conveniently located at the base. With a full tank, we headed up again, this time going ALL the way up!

It's a really exhilarating drive - narrow winding road, a steep drop down to the right and a low gear to handle the climb. I think it was nerve racking for my parents at times but they were troopers and kept gasps to a minimum. At the top, we parked and headed to the summit point. Man, it was COLD (41 degrees) and WINDY (47 mile an hour winds)! (I might have gotten thos numbers switched but it was cold and windy either way!) But, it was also a clear and gorgeous view. We took our pictures as quickly as possible so that we could get indoors and warm up.

Dad at the Summit (Rocks and Wind Kept Mom From Getting There)

Mike, Dylan and I at the Summit

Windy Family Self Portrait (LOVE Dylan's Straight Up Hair!)

After a few photos, we went in and checked out the small museum they have up there. Mom and Dad enjoyed the exhibits while Dylan, Mike and I just played, warmed up, and let Dylan "walk" off some energy. One more photo of the group and we were off again.

Group Photo - A Little Less Windy

It had been a fun full day already but it was not over yet. We had one more awesome stop to make. This story is to be continued.....

The Playset Pain

Oh the joys of the assemble it yourself playset! I had read\heard about the drama but didn't believe that it could really be that bad. Well, apparently it is! If you're planning to get a wonderful wooden swing\playset for your kid, save up the extra dough and have someone assemble it for you. You'll save yourself a lot of time of and A LOT of headache.

Okay, I'm getting WAY ahead of myself. This story begins last week with the happy arrival of Mimaw and Pipaw (my parents) for a visit. Dylan hadn't seen them since our trip to Texas in April so it was a much anticipated trip. The main reason they came was to celebrate his big first birthday, but we managed to fit a lot of other fun, memorable events into their time here. Unfortunately, the arrival of the playset we had ordered for our yard (that came several days late along with lots of drama with the delivery company) for Dylan coincided with their visit, so my Dad had the "privilege" of helping assemble it. Poor guy!

Yay! Mimaw and Pipaw are Here!

Fun With Pipaw

What should have been a one day event turned into 4 full days of madness. The problems varied from crappy instruction manuals and missing hardware to flat out mislabeled pieces and missing parts (as large as the slide) altogether. After many hours in the hot sun, a half dozen trips to Home Depot, several do overs of steps and cutting and hacking pieces to our needs, Mike and my Dad (with some supervision help from my Mom) finally finished the playset.

The bad news is that my poor parents were put to work far more than they should have. The good news is that Dylan has a set he's already really enjoying and will (or at least better) enjoy for many years to come.

Wahoo! It's Finally Here!

What's In This Box?!?!

This Clubhouse Is Awesome!

Rewind: Emily's Mojo Birthday

Three weeks ago we celebrated Mike's niece's, Emily's, birthday party which was also a party for her cousin, Noah. The family just installed a new pool so the kids had a great time playing in it. We had a great time hanging out with family, playing in the pool and getting to meet Emily's big birthday present, their new puppy Mojo.

Happy Birthday Emily and Noah!

Mojo is probably the most mellow puppy I've ever met in my life. He snuggled with most of the adults at the party throughout the day. Right before we left, he went out on the yard and played ball for a bit. We took the opportunity to get some uber cute baby\puppy pictures. There were so many I wanted to share. Lucky for you, I narrowed it down to just a few. Enjoy!

Must. Get. Puppy!

Gentle Pets

Extreme Double Cuteness!!!

1 Year!!!!!!

One year ago today, Mike and I welcomed our little Dylan into the world. What a wonderful and crazy whirlwind the last year has been! Over the last day and a half, I've been reliving the memories of our labor and birth story. It's very surreal to try and take in what a incredible difference a year makes!

Yesterday, we celebrated Dylan's birthday with some family and friends and had a really great, albeit very hot, time. That story will be a post for another time. For now, I want to focus on Dylan's milestones for the last month.

To add to the firsts of his first year, he had his first haircut (to lose the mullet) and first time drinking out of a straw. He's also continued to try more first new foods (pretty much anything we eat) like cherries, brussel sprouts, clams, whole fruits (apples, plums), garbanzo beans and much more. The addition of his 5th and 6th teeth helped with those efforts.

Big events for the little guy during his 11th month were celebrating his Daddy's first Father's Day and having lots of fun having his Dallas grandparents (Mimaw and Pipaw) here to vacation with him and ring in his first birthday party.

Dylan is cruising everywhere and smiles ear to ear when we're holding his hands and helping him walk around. He wants to walk SO bad, but just hasn't quite made that leap yet. He got a little closer today, on his birthday, with the help of his new toy (given to him by his Nana and Bumpa...grandparents).

Walking!!! (With a wee bit of help)

We continue to take this boy as many places as he'll let us and he is such a trooper for just about any event that we throw at him. Over the last week or so (that I've been on vacation), he's been a bit of a momma's boy....clinging to me whenever possible. We suppose this is either a new phase in life or he's just needing a little extra comfort during a developmental transition. Only time will tell!

1 Year!!!

As I'm sure it's fairly obvious if you've read this blog over the last year, Mike and I have had as much fun with this little guy as possible. Even though this parenting thing is hard, tiring, confusing and overwhelming a good portion of the time, we also just eat up the laughs and good times we all have together. Family is a good thing. We couldn't wish for a better kid, absolutely cherish the time with him and just can't wait to see what else is in store for us all in the future.

His Mimaw and Pipaw leave in the morning and then we're headed off to vacation in NH with Mike's cousin and family. Since we have limited internet access there, I won't be posting anything, but promise to soon. There are lots of events to report on....the grandparent visit, before and after pictures of our lounge and backyard, AND (of course) the big birthday bash! Stay tuned!

1st Father's Day

When Mother's Day rolled around this spring, Mike asked me what I wanted to do for my first one. I suggested dinner out and hanging out with the boys. My expectations were pretty low. Several weeks ago, I posed the same question to Mike for Father's Day. He said he didn't know and would think about it. A couple of days later, he came up with pretty grand plans for the day - A visit to Rockport, Ma, beach time at Good Harbor Beach and dinner at The Village (a favorite family post beach spot from his childhood). So, it was going to be a packed day.

Plans were revised the night before, by Mike, to start with walking around the grounds of the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Ma which I had been interested in seeing. So, we got up, packed up for the day (not a small feat given the grand plans) and headed out.

The day was really hot and muggy so it's a good thing we had gotten there pretty early. Because even walking around that morning, the heat was strong. Also strong were the mosquitoes! I, being a mosquito magnet, got virtually eaten alive (luckily I took the brunt away from Dylan who didn't seem to get even one bite). To add to it, I didn't know how big the grounds were and only had flip flops so my doggies were starting to woof after walking around for a long while. Despite these minor inconveniences, we had a really fun time walking around the grounds.

Back of Castle Hill, Crane Estate

Dylan Enjoys Touching EverythingCool Statue

Estate and Casino

Crane's Beach

View of House From Beach Area (About 1/2 Mile)

Crawling Around The Grounds

The Boys!

After our hike around the estate, we headed to Rockport. Mike wanted to try out a seafood shack for lunch that he had read about. We parked in the middle of town and started to walk there not realizing that it was about 3 miles. Given the poor shoe choice for hiking around all day, I sent Mike back for the car about half way there and Dylan and I finished the walk. The timing was pretty good and Mike, Dylan and I all arrived about the same time.

We opted for a seat indoors since we'd been out in the sun plenty already. While we enjoyed some great seafood (and watermelon), Dylan entertained the diners around us....mostly elderly couples that just ate his hammy behavior up!

Mmmmmmmm, Watermelon!

After lunch, we headed back to town, shopped around a bit and then called it a day. We were getting into afternoon nap time and didn't want to risk having an unhappy first experience on the beach. So, we'll do that another time. We'd had enough of the heat and the sun anyway. We headed home, Dylan napped in the car, Mike napped when we got home and Dylan and I enjoyed watching the crazy afternoon storm we got. The rest of the day was spent being leisurely at home.

It was a full first Father's Day but Mike had a great time and we all had a memorable time together.

Inflatable Architecture

(Still behind on events....still playing catch up. Story of my life.)

Two weeks ago, I had the honor of attending the Common Boston kick off party that my cousin, Mary, was hosting. Common Boston was several days of events around the city highlighting architecture and design. I just popped the party by for an hour or so after Dylan went to bed, but I was so happy to be able to support Mary and her event. I also got to meet her long time boyfriend, Brandon, for the first time.

Brandon, Mary and Me

The theme of the party was monochromatic clothing and inflatable dressing rooms. That's right, I said inflatable dressing rooms. It was also in a very cool, modern space - The Artists For Humanity Epicenter. The effect of it all was very visually interesting. If you didn't have a monochromatic outfit, you could obtain one for a small donation and quickly change into it in the dressing rooms that Mary and Brandon had built. The inflatable dressing rooms came about from a course the two of them recently taught on inflatable architecture. Pretty cool\fun stuff. You can check out more info on this topic on Mary's blog.

Babies Galore

It seems I'm always a couple of weeks behind posting events here. Well, at least I get to (most of) them eventually! Today, we'll go back a couple of weekends to a great visit from out of town friends and an exciting baby shower.

My good friend, Ana Maria, came to Boston with her daughter, Elise, and we had the pleasure of hosting them. Normally, she stays with our friend Tamara but given there's a new baby in the house, she decided not to impose on them. That was great news to me...that meant I got to spend a lot more time with her than I usually do on her visits!

To start the weekend, folks gathered at our house on Friday to welcome the gals to town. We all checked out our new patio that had almost been completed that day (more on the yard renovation on posts to come), ordered in some grub and had a nice time together. Dylan and Elise had a lot of fun playing with each other....well mostly next to each other but they stayed entertained non the less.

Elise, Ana Maria and Tamara
Dylan Flying High!

7 Week Old Elsa and Dad (Ross)

Elise and Dylan Having a Great Time On the Soon to be Folded out Couch

Elsa with Her Mom (Tamara)

On Saturday morning, Ana Maria and Elise left for the day and Dylan and I headed out to my friend Jennifer's baby shower. Jenn is due in August....with twins! Yep, she's going to have a boy and a girl. I seriously cannot even imagine how chaotic and wonderful her life will be when those babies come. I'm obviously no baby expert, but I will do what I can to help her out when that time comes. Given that she's just moved into my neighborhood, hopefully that will be a decent amount.

Dylan had an awesome time crawling all around the venue, flirting with all the ladies and eating practically my entire plate of food. It's funny, I used to dread baby showers and now I actually enjoy them. Maybe it's because all the gifts aren't so foreign and incomprehensible to me now or maybe because there's increasingly less time to spend with friends and any reason to get to see them is something to look forward to. In any case, even though I spent a good portion of the time running after Dylan, it was great to see the gals and I had a nice time.)

Jenn (Carrying Twins), Me and Dylan Saturday night, Ana Maria and Elise met us back at the house and we all had our traditional pizza and a movie night. Dylan and Elise continued to have a great time playing together. That night, we found out that laser pointers are not only entertaining to cats but entertaining to little tykes too!

Can You Get that Little Red Dot?

After a nice morning together on Sunday, Ana Maria and Elise packed up and went off to the airport to pick up the missing piece of the family, Theo. He was in town for business so they'd all be in a hotel together for the remainder of their stay in the area.

Monday night, we were able to see them one last time at a group dinner. This was Tamara and Ross's first venture to dinner with baby Elsa and, with so many young tots about, it was certainly going to be interesting. While I'm sure our surrounding diners didn't love us, the kids were mostly behaved and the parents all survived. But yes, it was a little bit crazy.

Elsa, Ross,Tamara,Elise,Ana Maria, Theo, Me, Mike and Dylan

Man, there were a lot of kids around that weekend. I suppose it's just a sign of what's to come. We're certainly not used to being surrounded by wee ones on friend gatherings, but we'll have to get used to it!