Carley's Baptism

This last weekend we went to North Carolina for sweet Carley's baptism. It was a lot of fun to go down there and now that we know how easy it is to get there, I think we'll be going a lot more often.
Tender times with our little Carley : )
The Parrish clan with all those pretty girls. I hope I can get one girl as gorgeous as them!
Thanks Aunt Carey and Uncle Mike for letting us come down and play with you for a couple days!

North Carolina

We went to North Carolina this weekend to see this sweet girl get baptized.


And to play with fun times family! Dan and I are lucky that our extended family (completely independent of each other) decided to move to the same city. It makes it very convenient for visiting aunts and uncles and adorable cousins!

One of my favorite parts of the visit? When we walked into our room there was an 8x10 picture of our puppy and a dangerously huge plate of candy (only red starbursts of course!)


It was really funny : )

New York City Ballet

Saturday night we went with Ashley and Jonathan to the NYC Ballet. I'd never been to a ballet other than the Nutcracker and Dan had never been at all. It was amazing to see the athleticism of the dancers. It's hard to fully appreciate some of the moves but some of them I think about what it would look like if I did them and it would just be funny. The music was Stravinsky which is very discordant and the dancing felt like interpretive dance via ballet. I assume it was all ballet moves but they were done in a very interpretive way with the music. It was pretty awesome.
Lincoln Center
Pretty fountain
Silhouette shot of the Doctors.
Saturday was an amazing day full of friends and good times!

Ima gonna pick me some apples!

On Saturday we went Apple Picking with our amigos Ashley and Jonathan.
It was a ridiculously beautiful day!
Jonathan wielding an apple picking pole
Let's get serious about our apples!
Work it boys, pick those apples!
See I told you it was gorgeous!
Dan the man eating an apple and being serious about picking dem apples!
Christmas card shot! Tender times!
Orchards are pretty
Then the boys got the bright idea of putting Fitz in the apple picker. He fit right in! He actually seemed to like it in there.
Even when they put him way up in the tree.
Flying Fitz!!
Ashley getting her pick on!
Maddie getting her pick on! (this was after I asked Dan to take a pic of me to document that I was there).
They had a beautiful crop of sunflowers. They were big, bold and beautiful.
The next Christmas card shot : )
It was definitely tender times at the Outhouse Orchard!

We had so much fun bringing Fitz out of the city. He was rolling around in the grass and going crazy chasing the apples. We used a zipcar and trekked outside of the city to Outhouse Orchards. It was definitely much better than the one we went to last year and it was so much more fun to go with Ashley and Jonathan and bring our little Fitzwilliam along for the ride. Thanks Drs. A & J for playing with us all day long! We also went to the NYC Ballet that night with the doctors. Pictures to come!

Preview

Here's a little preview of what we did this weekend : ) It was wonderfully good times!

We fought the dog...

And the dog won.



This little stinker has been a crier since we brought him home, especially during the night. The first night dan slept on the floor with him to keep him company until we started putting his crate on an ottoman right next to the bed.

We've been trying to scooch him further away with the crate but it just got worse. The other night he seriously cried for an hour straight at bedtime and then another hour and a half randomly in the middle of the night.

So we gave in. We didn't want our neighbors to complain and we wanted to get some sleep. So now the dog sleeps with us. And it has been a glorious 2 nights of restful sleep. Except for the fact that he is glued to me making turning and repositioning a bit difficult BUT that's better than the alternative!

Brighton Beach aka...

Bonin' Beach!
Please see above photo for evidence as to why Brighton Beach should get a new name. This was our constant entertainment for the day. 2 teens were all snuggled up into all sorts of indecency while (I think) the girl's little brother watched and played right next to them. We started off the morning with some eye boggling positioning. The poor little brother eventually whined enough for them to bury him. They all played for a while and then went into the ocean where more awkward groping and movement ensued. They then came back and wrapped up in the above seen blanket and the movements became more and more obvious and awkward (because you know a blanket blocks everything from view--that's actually called magical thinking, something 1-2 year olds do). They seemed to be having some good times under that blanket!

We also saw an old man who was a bit excited for the beach. Dan saw a completely naked old man while us girls were in the bathroom. I saw a girl take off her top in the bathroom in order to make sure everything was placed just so. And Dan got to watch an older lady jump around in the ocean in a too small tankini that had been rolled up and down to look more like a bikini. There was some definite spillage.

Wooo wee! We had some awkward entertainment for our day at the beach.

Labor Day

On Monday, Dan and I went and celebrated the last day of summer with our friend the sweet Julie Mack-a-doodle.
I loooooove the beach and I'm a little sad that we didn't try and go more often this summer. Brighton beach was nice, pretty clean, free and only 1 transfer to get way the heck out there. The weather was absolutely perfect! Clear blue skies, breezy, warm enough, and the water was chilly but not unbearable.
My hombre and I had oodles of fun. (I hope to goodness our children get his tan skin!)
Bathing Beauty Julie Mack being stunning as usual!
I was a grandma and wore my huge black hat the whole time. Me no likey being sunburned! (too bad I got burnt in some weird and uncomfortable spots!)
My toesies were happy getting a little exfoliation in the sand!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the day. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'll explain why our new nickname for Brighton Beach is Bonin' Beach!

Best candy idea ever

I've recently discovered the new starburst fave red pack.



All it has are the reds from the different starburst packs. I am in love and may or may not have had 2 packs over the last weekend. You should go try them : )

Random Thoughts

1. I really like my parents, and they really like me. We're like friends now. I think this is my favorite part of family relationships, being able to be friends with your parents. I'm pretty sure that this is their favorite part too. Middle school through adolescence is pretty rough in my family. Everyone's a lot happier once we pass that.
2. My turtle is pretty entertaining. As shown in the video below, she's pretty funny. She's become a lot more animated now that we have the right voltage of light going on her. She's definitely perked up. I was somewhat conned into getting her, but she's aight!
3. Our puppy is adorbs. End of story.

Dan thinks we get more comments on how cute he is than normal puppies. I don't know about that but we certainly get comments no matter how early or late in the day we take him out. We can hardly walk during the more populated times because everyone is trying to stop us and pet him or chat with him.
4. Dan pretty much rocks my mundo. He looks super tan in this pic. I hope our children get his skin tone, long eyelashes, straight teeth, lack of cavities and super fast metabolism. Those would all be nice things for them. I think it'd be nice if they got my hair. It's a nice natural color and pretty darn think while still being silky. My hair is the thing I'm most vain about. Everyone's allowed one thing right?
5. I was 22 when I got married (turned 23 10 days later : ) and I thought I was soooo dang old! But 22 sounds so young now that I'm 24! 24 is soooo dang old! My mom was done having all her kids by the time she was my age for heaven's sake! Sometimes I freak out that I'm really old and I should already have my career years done and have had at least 2 babies, but then other times i think I must be crazy to have graduated with my masters when I'm 22 gotten married and already have a year of my career under my belt, I'm too young! Isn't this the time in my life that I'm supposed to dink around and do jobs that just pay the bills? I drive my husband nuts with my flip floppin on what I'm supposed to be doing with my life by this point. He's really nice to me. Does anyone else worry/think about those things?

Those are my random thoughts tonight.

Little boy

We're getting better at figuring out fitz's schedule and we're averaging 1-2 accidents in the apt. a day versus everything but 1-2 potty breaks in the apt a day.

We take him out when we first get up, once more before we leave for work, right when we get home and about every 1.5-2 hrs until bedtime. It's a lot but it gets us moving more outside and we don't have to deal with cleaning up messes all the time.

He still sleeps an awful lot. Probably about 1.5-2 hrs of sleep to every 1 hour of play/ being awake. But I sure do love it when he sleeps! Usually all curled up next to me or dan but sometimes he likes to get his space and stretch out!


Ps. Maybe if dan and I do something fun this weekend we'll post some pictures not of our pets but no guarantees!