Our Second Home

Last week we were in NH again.  Who could pass up an opportunity to have a live-in babysitter (thanks Mom!) free food, laundry and unlimited swimming in an in-ground pool and hot tub?  Certainly not me.

Bob drove with us and stayed for the weekend, and MiniM.E and I stayed until the end of the week.

We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but I think that's part of what made it awesome.  A nice relaxing week...

To keep your reading time to a reasonable 5 or so minutes, I will avoid a photo bomb and instead try to recap some of the cuter highlights from our trip.  Note the word try.

Swimming with Daddy

Toss the baby

We had a toss-off.  Daddy won.

Playing with pool toys

Finding MORE pool toys

In the baby-friendly hot tub

Going for a walk

Playing with a broken pair of glasses.  Looks even more fun than the pool toys.

In the hot tub with Gram

Finger up the nose

Testing a smoothie

 C & H came over for a play date and we broke out the long-lasting bubbles.

Bubbles with H

Come back here!

Love this photo.  Might have to replace the engagement photo from this post.

Walking with Auntie Jen

Standing alone!

Just woke up

and wasn't too happy about all the pictures!

Double Digits

I don't even know how this happened, but my little girl is *gulp* TEN months old (what will I do when its years?!?).  They grow up so fast... everyone was right.

I can't believe what an incredible little person she's becoming.

A Week Ago... (A Recap)

MiniM.E.'s grandparents visited for the day.  In my last post I mentioned that Bob may have lost the camera, but as a typical guy might, he just did a bad job looking for it.  Turns out, it was in his backpack.  Here are the photos...

Thanks for the mini chair!

Snacking at the track breakfast

Practicing standing

Pointing at the horses

Guess the tour of the backstretch wasn't very interesting for MiniM.E.

Swinging with MeeMaw

A Weekend Away

I'm back from our weekend away, and due to the lack of photos in my last two posts, be prepared for a photo-bomb in this post.  If you don't have at least 20 minutes to scroll through a lot of photos of the cutest baby ever, you should probably come back and read this post later.  Once you start, you won't be able to stop.  I promise.  *spoiler alert* There's pictures of MiniM.E. in a tutu with her daddy in a tux. It doesn't get cuter than that!

We went away for the weekend to Geneva.

Sadly, not the Geneva pictured above... Geneva, NY.

Which, from this picture, doesn't look nearly as awesome as Switzerland.  BUT, even though the downtown wasn't anything to write home (or on a blogpost) about*, it was right on Seneca Lake, which was beautiful.

*I will post that the two restaurants we ate at were pretty phenomenal.  If you're ever in Geneva, check out the Water Street Cafe for a cheap but tasty diner and Opus for amazing breakfast burritos and in-house-roasted coffee.

We drove to Geneva Friday for the wedding of one of Bob's high school friends.  MiniM.E. and I were just along for the ride since babies don't really belong at weddings.  Especially loud babies like MiniM.E.

Upon arriving at the hotel I snapped these few photos of MiniM.E. hanging out on the bed (read: attempted to shoot photos with one hand in while simultaneously lunging for baby attempting to throw herself off bed and trying to keep myself out of the frame).

Friday evening we were invited to attend the rehearsal dinner.  We hadn't really planned on going but fortunately I brought us a couple "just in case" nice outfits in the event Bob wanted to show off the baby at one or more of the wedding festivities.

Most of the rehearsal dinner was spent playing on the grass.  Luckily the dinner was on the patio, so it was easy to go back and forth from the table to the lawn.  I even managed to have a few bites to eat thanks to Bob's mom who took MiniM.E. on a few walks.

I mean real walks! This kid will be walking any day!

Saturday morning we went out to breakfast at the aforementioned Opus.  On our way back we took a detour with MeeMaw out to the pier.  MiniM.E. did some crawling around.

Later in the day while most of the wedding guests were off at the Finger Lakes Wineries, we took MiniM.E. on a long walk to the SprayGround.  Best. Idea. Ever. (well, not the walking part, it was almost 3 miles each way, but the SprayGround part...)

MiniM.E. LOVED it.  We could have stayed there all day.  Except it was windy which made it a little too cold to be wet for too long.

MiniM.E. totally had a fan base.  These girls followed her around the WHOLE time.

Later that evening we stopped by the cocktail hour to say hi to the wedding guests.  We were a bit early, so we played in the grass.

Finally, Daddy was done taking photos as part of the wedding party.  As if he probably wasn't done smiling for a month, we made him take a couple more.

While Bob danced the night away MiniM.E. and I ate ice cream for dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday we had a quiet ride home... since everyone was sleeping off the wedding excitement.  Except me of course... can't sleep and drive... maybe someone should invent that... a car that drives itself...

**Apologies to Grandma and Grandpa who visited on Wednesday on their way to the wedding from North Carolina.  We had a great time eating breakfast at the track and playing with MiniM.E. and hanging out in the yard... Bob might have lost our camera with all photo documentation of that day.  We had a great time seeing you, thanks for visiting!

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday we went for a hike in the state park since there seemed to be a break in the million degree weather.  Okay, its only been in the 80s... but its been humid and I hate hot.

MiniM.E. rode in the frame pack.

We stopped at a playground and MiniM.E. went down the slide all by herself (almost).

The Victoria Pool and the Philadelphia Orchestra

We had a pretty eventful Saturday this weekend.  Usually my posts are filled with 17 too many photos because I take 50 and after the painstaking process of choosing the best ones, I can't not post 17.

This post you get one.

Half-naked baby!  So cute!

And its not even a photo from this weekend... though it is from the pool.  So its half legit.

Why you ask?

Well...

We got up early as usual, packed a lunch, some toys, some diapers, some more toys, some baby food, some towels, an extra bathing suit, some toys, some drinks and of course, sunblock.  We were ready to go to the Victoria Pool at the Saratoga State Park... when somebody needed to take a nap.

So... instead of arriving early to get a great spot, we didn't arrive until 2.  Fortunately, our friends were already there and had been staking out spots for about an hour.

As we arrived we saw a line.  Yes, a line.  Of hot, sweaty, irritated people that just wanted to go swimming.  But instead, had to wait as the pool was filled to its capacity of 344.  HOLY. CRAP.  That's a lot of people.

30 minutes later we were inside.  Dying to get in the pool.

We parked our 35 bags near the one lounge chair and one other chair our friends had procured (good thing we brought our own) and tried to nestle our cooler into the tiny spot of shade provided by our half of the shared umbrella.

We had a blast.  MiniM.E. loved the water and we swam most of the time.  I planned on being Photographer Extraordinaire, but between swimming with the baby, keeping her off the hot pool deck, pulling her out from under the lounge chair, making sure she didn't eat the coffee stirrers, park maps, and rocks that kept finding our way into our space, and the "reusable swim diaper poop-splosion", I really found very little time for snapping pictures.  (I won't get into the gory details, but suffice it to say I'm soooo glad I'm not using cloth diapers for anything but swimming!)

When we'd had it with the heat (and MiniM.E. passed out cold and slept in the grass), we headed home for a rushed two hours of unpackingrepackingtakingashowerbathingthebabygroceryshoppingmakingdinner.  That's how it felt.  And headed back to SPAC for the Philadelphia Orchestra.  They were fantastic.  MiniM.E. was super cute and I had a much needed glass of wine.  Then MiniM.E. stopped being cute and started being fussy (not to blame her... after a short afternoon nap in the grass and it being two hours past her bedtime) and we left after the first half.

It was SO nice to fall into bed when we got home.  I figured MiniM.E. would sleep like a log after all the sun and heat and water and orchestra... let's just say I'm still tired...