Monday, August 22, 2011

A Visit to Indiana (Hunter's Staycation)

Arden is so advanced for her age, already learning to drive. Hey, aren't you supposed to crawl first? This photo reminds me of the car commercial with the father looking at his daughter as if she's still 5 years old. Someday, that will be a reality for me, but thank goodness that day is not today.





Cierra took both of the kids for a quick 4 day jaunt up to Indiana, leaving me at home, lonely but relaxed this past weekend. It was weird being without everyone, but I needed some time to myself just to reflect on life and realize how good I have it.





This will be a different kind of post, because I'm writing about all these pictures without having been there to experience anything firsthand. So Cierra will be breaking in occasionally to correct my mistaken impressions and provide the finer details.





Great-Grandma Treva and Arden smile for the camera. Cierra told me that Treva made a wonderful meal and all Carter would eat was strawberries and grapes. Boy, Carter, that was a big mistake. Treva's cooking is legendary. Now, I guess I'll try not to take it so hard when he does the same thing to me.







Great-Grandpa Hemmerlein got Arden a birthday cake, and though it was either 5 months late or 7 months early, he's wise enough to know that nobody ever gets mad about getting cake. Arden certainly has a hilarious expression on here and with her arm out like that, looks like she might be about to throw the cake in the direction of the camera.





Carter enjoys a boat ride with Mimi on the "slow boat", their pontoon. They also have a speedboat, which he refers to now as the "fast boat".




Arden is a go-getter like her mother and already training for positions as flower girl that may open up in the years down the road.





Quick guide on how to get all the relatives to show up at Grandview Lake... bring a cute couple of kids by for a couple of days. Either that, or book a sushi chef. We went for the less expensive option. Terri and Kara got their chance to give Arden a squeeze or two.





Great Grandpa Baer got to bounce Arden on his knee...




... While Great-Grandma read to Carter to keep him from getting jealous.





Papa grabs some time with Arden in his lap. I think the pattern on that chair has her attention!





The main reason for the trip was Cierra wanting to help her sister Alexis as she moved in as a freshman at Xavier. Sounds like it was an exciting move-in day, and most other campuses could learn a lot about how to streamline the process from Xavier.






When they pulled the two cars up to her building, the "Move Crew" of upperclassmen descended upon them and had both cars cleaned out in less than a minute. Then they followed her up to her room and deposited everything for her. The only thing she had to carry was her new key. When I think back to lugging everything up 4 flights with no air conditioning in my freshman dorm, I'm feeling just a little unreasonable jealousy. :)





Carter hanging out down by the lake, soaking up the sun amidst Mimi's flowers.




Wait, how did this happen? No one is holding Arden. I know, just off camera, everyone is arm wrestling each other to determine whose turn comes first.




.... Ahh, back to the natural state of things.






Okay, that's all I know... now we'll see how much Cierra has to add. Peace!






























Saturday, August 6, 2011

Just back from the beach!

Here we are back from our week in Rhode Island at Hunter's family reunion and we've brought back a different little girl than the one that left our house just a week ago. Arden is way more alert, full of smiles and giggles. She grabs things and interacts with them... mostly orally, but you can tell that everything she does is with intention. She can turn over now, and she's even started to be able to scoot sometimes. But the big difference is, now she gets bored if you're not playing with her. Hmmm... 2 kids, one of me. And both wanting my attention. This could get interesting.



So Block Island is a good distance from the mainland, and it takes about an hour by ferry to get there. Carter liked standing on the benches so he could look out over the water.





Here are Arden and Mommy, posing in front of one of our rental cottages. The family rented the DuPont Compound, a grouping of 3 houses on 18 acres of beauty that just happened to be the high point of the entire island. The sunsets were beautiful and we had a great view of the harbor and airport.


The island is covered with stacked stone fences, not built with mortar, just stacked in place. On a 10 square mile island, someone told me there are 200 miles of fence. Think about how much work that was, and how long it took. I imagine that when it was first settled in 1660, it was just littered with rocks all over the place, so that you just had to build the fences so you could walk from A to B without stubbing your toe.



What is Carter thinking? Probably something along the lines of, "How much trouble would I get into if I knocked all these fences down?"






Arden still has those beautiful blue eyes. We're starting to really think she might keep them. Whatever her eyes' color, I think I'll always love staring into them.



Carter stares at a tree? Not sure where this was taken, but it might have been at Carter's "jumping rocks", which were 2 low-lying rocks near our house that he liked to stand on and jump off with big fanfare. I tried to do it with him, but he got very upset. These are my jumping rocks daddy. Get your own.




Looks like Arden is auditioning for the role of flower girl in future weddings!




Carter got to the beach one day to play and build sandcastles with his second cousins Zidane and Biggie. Well, they built them, Carter was more in a knocking down mood. Nobody wanted to go near the water, though. Carter got the closest, with a few toes going in before he ran away in tears. The other 2 kids wouldn't go within 15 feet of the ocean. In fact, they even refused to sit in the wet sand, and kept sending me with their tiny buckets to fetch more water for their building.




Carter loves the family reunion because there's always music! Practically everyone plays something. Here, my cousin Stone entertains.



The day of cousin Seth's wedding. Mom and Dad are dressed up, and so is Arden....



... But nobody can come close to Carter and his little suit. He is PIMPIN!!! You can't see it that well but there's a tiny purple hankerchief in his pocket to match his little purple tie.



All three of the cousins sit together after the wedding. Carter was so patient, he sat through a ceremony that lasted nearly an hour!