Summer Vacation 2012

We are in the middle of a big two-week vacation to our hometowns in Washington, and we're having a blast.  I think this is actually our first real vacation as a family since Andrew was born, except for little trips to Philadelphia and New York during Paul's grad school year in Pittsburgh.  Here are some pictures of things we've done so far.

Andrew fed some animals at the Clark County Fair

Also at the fair, we saw the Pirate's Parrot Show.

If you hold out a dollar in your hand, a parrot will fly over and take it from you.  Andrew got a bonus when one landed on his head for quite a while.

Here are the parrots with their loot.

This is the pirate ship  

Andrew went on his first roller coaster.  It was this little dragon ride.  He liked it so much that Paul and I each got a turn riding it with him.

The next day he got to go on this little ride at Walmart, which he loved too.

Riding the swing at Hockinson Park near Grandpa and Nana's house.  See those beautiful evergreens in the background?

At the edge of the park I found some blackberries to pick.  The great thing about this area is that blackberries are weeds that grow everywhere, so you can pick some whenever you want to in mid to late August.

Laughing, and laughing with his cousin Melanie

Drawing on Grandpa and Nana's front walkway

We went to the zoo with my sister-in-law Rebecca and her kids, Melanie, Alex, and Liam.  Then my little camera died, so that's the only photo I have, except for on my phone :(

We took an early morning family walk.

Andrew ridin' in style

We've gotten to say "hello" to Grandpa and Nana's neighbor's horse, who often grazes in their backyard.

No gathering is complete without me agreeing to make some sort of elaborate and/or time consuming food, so we had my family and a few friends over for a little Indian buffet.  My mom made the aloo gobi masala (cauliflower and potato curry), and I made some navratan korma (nine-vegetable curry in cashew cream sauce), masoor (lentils soup), and brown basmati rice.  We also had sliced mangos and some store-bought naan and paratha (Indian breads).

My sister Bonnie and me

Paul and our friends, Ryan and Elizabeth

Bonnie, my dad, and my mother-in-law (aka Nana)

My father-in-law and my mom

Elizabeth made a beautiful strawberry cream tart for dessert

I jogged a 5k for the first time!  I am so proud of myself.  For someone who has always hated running, I was amazed that I was able to jog for 33 minutes straight.  Rebecca and Paul ran it too.  Woo Hoo!  

Spring 2012

I haven't updated the blog is so long, there's a lot of material to cover.  Here's a look back at Spring 2012 at our house (based on the photos from my camera):

We visited the firehouse a block from our house with our playgroup friends.  The kids got to go in the fire truck and make siren sounds over the loud-speaker.

We hosted a St. Patrick's Day playgroup party at our house, for which I made these (way more time-consuming than I thought they'd be) rainbow cupcakes.  

We went into the city with our friend Varnali to the First Robotics competition.

Andrew and I went to a park during cherry-blossom time with our playgroup friends.

Andrew was so proud that he filled the whole perimeter of his little table with dominoes and vehicles.

We celebrated our half-birthdays (April 20, 23, and 26) with half of a cake.

We bought a bunch of glow sticks and we've held a couple of family glow-stick dance parties right before Andrew's bedtime. 

Our grad-school friend, Diya, visited from Atlanta and we took a little hike with her and Varnali around the reservoir that's a block from our house.  Yes, this is right in the middle of our densely populated neighborhood.  It's surrounded by a big stone wall, so you can't really see what it is from the outside.

Here we are, instagrammed at the reservoir.

I got a cheap plastic chip-and-dip in the Target dollar section, since I have a serious lack of serving platters.  Andrew thought it was a great tool for organizing his cars and trucks.

Andrew went to the dentist for the first time, and he was great!  He let the dentist look at his teeth and clean them with no trouble at all.  

Here he shows off his nice, clean teeth.

We met up with our friend, Diya, again on Memorial Day weekend when she and her parents were in town.  We all went to the Statue of Liberty

We got pretty close, but couldn't go inside because it's closed for renovations.

When we returned to New Jersey from taking the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, we saw the New Jersey September 11th Memorial.  It's two big parallel walls with the names of all the New Jersey residents who died in the attacks.  

When you look at the memorial head-on, the walls look like the twin towers, and at the right angle they stand directly in front of where the twin towers used to be in the New York skyline.  

Happy Easter

We've had a really great Easter this year.  It's the first year that Andrew is old enough to absorb and express the concepts surrounding the holiday.  I was amazed the other day when he was asking me where my dad's mom is.  (He likes to ask questions about different family members).  I told him that she is in Heaven because she has died already.  I told him that everybody dies, and that when we die our bodies are buried and our spirits go to Heaven to live with Heavenly Father until the resurrection when our spirits and bodies go back together again.  Andrew said, "then we will be like new again!"  Did he get that from a recent Sunday school lesson, or did I tell him that at some point in the past?  I don't know, but it really surprised me.  Then today when we were waiting for our "resurrection rolls" to come out of the oven, Andrew said, "I don't want to live with Heavenly Father because I want to ride my bike."  I assured him that he needn't worry about details like that.  I don't think he was convinced.

Here are some photos from our festivities:

How cool are we that Andrew and our church playgroup friends had an egg hunt with Manhattan in the background?

Here's looking up the river at mid-town

Andrew didn't get as many eggs as some of his friends because he stopped to eat their contents

Here's the group

Here we are with the new World Trade Center Freedom Tower in the background

On the way back to the car, I made Andrew pose with these beautiful tulips.  At first he wouldn't look at the camera because the sun was in his eyes.

He was much happier once I got him his sunglasses

This reminded me of taking pictures of him in a Pittsburgh park this time of year three years ago:

He wasn't too happy about sitting on the bark dust.  Poor guy.  I laugh every time I see this picture.  (My mom does, too, so I don't feel so bad).

On Saturday we had our friends Melody and Brent and baby Lily over for an Easter lunch, since our church schedule on Sunday makes it difficult to do a dinner and get kids to bed on time.  They brought baked potatoes and toppings.  I made a ham, asparagus, and strawberry shortcake.

This morning Andrew and I made "resurrection rolls" for the first time.  We dipped marshmallows in butter and cinnamon sugar and wrapped them in crescent rolls.  This symbolizes Jesus' body being prepared for burial. When the rolls are baked the marshmallow dissolves/oozes out of the rolls, leaving a hallow center like empty grave clothes after Jesus is resurrected.

Here they are finished

See, hallow!

Yum!

Then we decorated some Easter eggs

And had an Easter egg hunt for Andrew in the living room and Andrew's room using some plastic candy-filled eggs to minimize the mess.

After all that we went to church and enjoyed our Easter Sunday talks and lessons.

Andrew's Newest Wheels

I guess Andrew is benefiting from our sudden tax-refund-induced sense of wealth, since yesterday we bought him yet another new mode of transportation--a scooter.  Paul got himself a scooter a couple of weeks ago to use on the walking portions of his commute (included traversing the Brooklyn Bridge), and ever since Andrew has wanted one too.  Andrew has had a three-wheeled scooter since he turned two, but it's actually not that great (horrible turning radius, slow), so we've been planning on getting him a real razor scooter eventually.  I can't believe how fast Andrew has learned to ride his new two-wheel scooter!  I thought maybe he'd get the hang of it by the time he's four, but he was riding it and balancing pretty well last night right after getting it.  He still stops frequently, either because he loses his balance, gets tired, or gets distracted by something interesting on the ground (trash, dog poop, plants, the usual).  That's one advantage the bike has over the scooter--it's harder to climb on and off it so he usually stays on and keeps going.  Nevertheless, he loves his new scooter and I'm looking forward to a spring and summer full of bikes and scooters and generally being outside!.

Andrew's New Bike

Andrew got his first pedal bike yesterday, and we took him out on a boardwalk path to try it out.  This video is short, but shows how much he loves to ride.  In case you can't tell, he says, "I do trick!"