Christmas memories

We had a wonderful Christmas in Tennessee.


Anna did a great job with Santa Claus at her favorite place, the library! He was a wonderful, library-friendly Santa...with a real beard. Anna needed her thumb for reassurance, but no tears, so I consider this visit a success.


Grandpa and Grandma came to celebrate with us. Anna could not have asked for a better Christmas present.


Anna was getting a little tired of pictures by this point.



And here is the tree on Christmas Eve. Anna actually went to bed on time without too much fuss, and we reminded ourselves we should enjoy this stage while it lasts.

We have had a truly blessed year. Christmas was a reflective time for us to remember and give thanks.

My Poor Neglected Blog!!

Oh dear. I haven't forgotten you. This blog has been rattling around in the back of my mind for--let's see--about four months now. Booting up the computer, uploading images from the camera and videocam, uploading them again to Blogger, editing, proofing, troubleshooting---it's all been a bit much for me to contemplate right now, not only because we have a 21 month old, but also because

we are expecting our second child in May.

We could not be happier, and personally, I could not be more tired. Well, that's not quite true, since I do remember life with a newborn. But it is true that I was wiped out for the first trimester. I slept through just about every spare moment I had, and maybe even some moments that weren't so dispensable. The great thing is that even though I'm ages behind on everything, I have not had much nausea, which is fantastic. Now that I'm well into the second trimester, I have more energy, but those 1-2 hour naps in the afternoon are just hard to give up. So I'm not making any resolutions here, so much as poking my head out and saying, Yes, we're still here, and yes, there is more to come.

As always, we appreciate your love, support, and prayers.

Where did this month go?

I realize we are well past the first day of fall, but I still have lots to share from our summer. Let's hope I can get caught up by Christmas...

Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa took us on several memorable excursions while we were visiting in New York. Among them--

Saratoga







(if you enlarge this picture, you will see that she is holding a Saratoga Springs water bottle)



And Hancock Shaker Village:






Hey--a SHADOW!!


BAA-BAAS!!!!!



When Anna sees our souvenir magnet on the refrigerator, she says "Baa-baas!" so that's definitely what made an impression on her.



Thanks for such a great trip, Grandma and Grandpa! We can't wait to see you again!

Ausable Chasm

While we were in New York, Grandma and Grandpa volunteered to take care of Anna while we took off for an overnight excursion. We chose to visit Ausable Chasm near Plattsburgh, and we were not disappointed. The location, as the website suggests, has become quite "touristy." Fortunately, the views are still spectacular.






You will probably be relieved to know this walkway is closed. The site has quite a long history, and this is a picture of one of the earlier washed-out paths.





The trails give you access to different elevations along the chasm. If you look closely near the bottom of this picture, you will see people tubing in the water. Ben and I weren't dressed for it, but it was a hot enough day to be very tempting!


Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for giving us this time to celebrate our 11 years together as husband and wife. It was a memorable and relaxing trip.

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Whew! It's been a busy month for us with travel to New York, visits from family, and now the new school year beginning already! I am a few posts behind and have quite a few photos to choose from, so let's get started--

For starters, here are some of my favorites from our trip to New York during the first week of August. There's nothing like going to Grandma and Grandpa's house and seeing the local sites.


First stop, of course. We wouldn't want Anna to miss out!


Hanging out with Grandma at Collins Park. What great weather we had!


Teaching Grandpa some bad habits, which I guess is fair since Grandpa taught Anna how to say, "Yankee."


Sharing Madeline with Grandma. Now when we read "To the tiger at the zoo,
Madeline just said," Anna still says "pooh pooh."


And Happy Birthday, Grandpa! We were so happy to be able to celebrate with you! Thank you so much for a wonderful visit. I'll add some more photos to these soon, but these really did bring back great memories for me.

Our little Capitalist

Earlier in the week, Anna came walking down the hall with a book, and surprised us by asking for it by name. Here she is sharing it with you:




We have ordered her priorities well, don't you think?

Children's Museum

For a change of pace today, we headed out to Oak Ridge to see the Children's Museum. It's a converted elementary school, and while it's not polished, it has enough interactive exhibits to easily hold a young attention span for a few hours, plus warrant some return trips in the future. Anna was in full excitement mode.



We realized too late that we really should have brought the video camera. This snapshot doesn't do justice to the way she hunches her shoulders and waves her arms when she's really thrilled about something. She was doing it in each room we went to. And there is quite a variety of displays. There are some areas devoted to pioneer living, Native American culture, wildlife, the Oak Ridge atomic research facility during WWII, plus a World of Trains exhibit, the "Waterworks room" AND a child-sized doll house (!) I will spare you photos of each area and just hit the highlights.



This bobcat was pretty cool.



The castle-slide provided perfect climbing practice.


And that slide was fast.



Also a highlight for Anna: the globe in one of the classroom exhibits. The old-fashioned desks and chalkboard didn't mean much to her at this point, but the globe was amazing.



She just kept spinning it and saying "globe" over and over again. Yes, once again, she is making her grandfather proud!



Taking a break to admire the artwork from one of the museum's day camps. (I especially like the robot sitting on the chair).


And here is Anna in the doll-house living room. The house was quite impressive. I rarely wish to be two feet shorter.



It had two floors complete with furniture and props, such as dishes in the kitchen and food in the fridge. Anna was already tired by the time we got there, or I think she would've been more excited. She didn't venture upstairs, which is probably good since Ben and I couldn't go up, and she has not mastered going down stairs yet.

All in all, it was a great day trip, and it will be fun to go back as she gets older and can interact more with the exhibits. We decided to save the Waterworks room for another trip, so there is definitely still more to explore.