What Sound Does Papa Make?

In the realm of fart noises are always funny, I taught Hadley how to immitate her grandfather by making *pfft* noises. It only took about a day of positive reinforcement to produce this behavior. And once it started, there was no stopping it. On repeat, driving around in the car. "pfft *giggle* PAPA", she would say, over and over like a broken record.

When we were in Connecticut visiting my parents, my Dad captured her on camera in her priceless moments. You can see the video here.

My Parents

It was the summer of 1971 and my mother, at the tender age of 19 turning 20 was married and about 6-7 months pregnant with me. My father, owning a camera, and always documenting everything for archival purposes, took them out into the lush green woods of New Hampshire to take some photos.

Here he told my mother not to smile so that it would be artsy and cool. And that is his HOT ROD car that he bought before he left Vietnam. Apparently, my pregnant mother would drive this car daily to drop him off at work, and then upon request peel out of the parking lot leaving dust and tire marks to the hoots of my Dad's coworkers.



It's hard to believe that I am in the belly of this beautiful young girl.



And much to his chagrin, I'm posting this one picture of my Dad. Because he's all 70's and bad ass!

And to run a bit down memory lane, here are some old posts of my Dad making my Halloween Costume in 1974, my parent's going to prom and mom Mom making us matching dresses.

From Mother to Grandmother

NOTE: Here is our first guest blogger, MY MOM! This is fresh off the presses from my parents visit this past week-end. The minute Nana stepped off the plane and sat next to H. in the back seat, she and H. were new BFFs. All week-end it was Nana this Nana that, where's Papa and Mom who? Little know fact, my mom is a Reverend, and I'm a PK (Preacher's Kid). Suddenly you are thinking, this explains a lot.

I have never understood how grandparents could just up and leave their homes to move closer to their families. Until now.


My daughter, son-in-law, and first grand baby live 2,000 miles away from us. My son and daughter-in-law live 10,000 miles away. 2,000 or 10,000, it doesn’t make any difference. It is too far. Long ago and far away families all lived within a few miles of each other. Now, in the 21st century, that is no longer the case. Employment opportunities call us to different places now. We are a less localized society.


But then a grandchild comes along and it makes the distance even harder. We try to see H., our first grandbaby, every three months. So far we have been pretty successful at that, but it is still hard to be away from her for periods of time. She would forget us if it weren't for video Skype. Even with video, it is not the same as seeing her every day or every week. But we do the best we can and we love every minute of our time together.


The other expression I’ve never understood is this: “If I knew it was this much fun, I would have had grandchildren first.” I have actually seen this on t-shirts. It is a lot of fun to have grandchildren. But I had a lot of fun with our own children. They made me laugh every day (except for some of those teenage years). They are/were so full of life and joy it was contagious. Christy began talking very early and was a regular motor mouth throughout the day (and into the night in her sleep) and Michael began to walk when he was 6 months old which is why I didn’t gain weight for awhile. Of course we had the usual worries with one child who climbed over a gate as soon as it was assembled and proceeded to fall down the steps and another who had a couple of hospital trips for tonsils and adenoids – really minor things in comparison but nonetheless worrisome to ignorant parents such as us. Being a grandparent is a little easier. Poopy diaper? Must be someone else’s turn. Cranky baby? Hand off to Daddy.

Spending this last week with our grandbaby made me realize once again that millions of grandparents across the country are raising their grandchildren and they are exhausted, understandably so. We are blessed that our granddaughter has capable and loving parents and we get to hold, cuddle, read stories, play and then hand her back to Mom and Dad. I just want to do it more often than every couple of months.

11 months old

Today you turn 11 months old. Since the day we met, every second with you has been joyous. How can it be that I am the luckiest person in the world to have you, the cutest girl ever, as my daughter? After we put you down to bed at night, as if we haven't had enough, your Dad and I find ourselves looking at pictures of you and getting all mushy and gushy.


I love watching your personality blossom. Every second of every hour of every day you learn, grow, and advance. You've been cruising for four months up and down the couch. But this week, you've started problem solving to figure out how to get over to where I am. From one corner of the room, you step over obstacles, cling to walls, desks and computers until you have made it over to me. Then we rejoice with hugs, kisses and high fives. Here you are walking with your Hippo. This is 4 minutes long and grandparents are the only people expected to sit through it.



Right now you are getting your two top front teeth and they are making you a little fussy. It already looks like you will have a diastema, a trait from your Nana's side of the family and your Dad's. Can we tell from baby teeth? We're not sure.


You've also started to dance. I dance with you all the time, but now when you hear music, your little knees start bopping, or if you are on the floor, your foot goes to the beat. It's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Your vocabulary is also growing. Much to my consternation, I finally had to admit that your first word was Dog. Whenever you hear or see the dogs, you point and say "da". We're still working on the g. You also know Mama, Dada, butterfly, and banana which sounds a lot like Anana, and you can wave hello and good-bye. You have fully grasped the sign for "More" and you almost have "All Done". Just this week I've been trying to teach you how to put O's in your mouth by yourself. Whenever you manage to get one in there, we clap and do a high five. You LOVE the high five.

Just yesterday, I found out something new that your Dad taught you; pursing your lips for kisses. I am completely tickled over this new trick and when I start laughing about it, so do you.

New England Vacation Part II

The next part of our vacation was an historic journey through northern New Hampshire to see where my parents grew up and to introduce David and Hadley to where I came from. Literally. Where does the story begin? What are the events that lead up to the story of me? Heritage is a crazy thing.

So we headed off and travelled up through Massachusetts (going through Hadley, MA), into Vermont where David's biggest excitement was that they served Green Mountain Coffee at the rest stops. One of the beauties of travelling through New England, is that you come across small towns like this that look like they have not been touched in 50 years. Here is a wooden bridge in Bath, NH.

First stop on our tour was the "center of town" in Landaff, NH (pop. 378 - no I didn't forget a number) which consists of a church and another building. Located here is a World War II Memorial with my grandfather's name on it.

The next stop was to the Allbee Farm in Landaff. This farm has been in the Allbee family since the 1800's and is where my paternal grandfather grew up. The Allbee Farm is on Allbee Road, you know where Allbee Road and Cemetery Road intersect. And not to be disappointed, the Landaff cemetery IS on Cemetery Road.

About a mile in, the unpaved road ends at the Allbee Farm. How absolutely gorgeous in this barn? Though it is no longer a working farm, the site is pristine. I wish my Grandmother were here to tell stories of meeting my Grandfather and all of the fun they had at the farm.

We spent the afternoon with with my dad's cousin Sally and her husband Cliff who live there. Sally's mother was my Grandfather's sister, and the last of the 5 Allbee siblings to pass away just last year. Sally gave some great family tree info to me. She has all the historical records. It's wonderful to hear her talk, as she and her husband are quite lively with some wicked accents. It's fun to see pictures of her Grandchildren as well with the traditional Allbee features. (i.e. big Allbee teeth and eyebrows). After our visit, we headed out to the Landaff Cemetery to see what is virtually the Allbee family tree with graves going back to my Great Great Grandfather.

Following Landaff, we took a brief tour through Littleton, NH where my father grew up. My grandfather had his own farm there. When he sold the land, they put a highway through it, and built a neighborhood of homes which is where I remember visitng them. In 1996, Littleton was also rated by Outdoor magazine as one of the top 10 places to live in the country. There is also a Vietnam Memorial here with my Dad's name on it. Unfortunately we will have to visit it and take pictures on our next trip.

Our final stop was Whitefield, NH where my mother grew up. This is a very small town of 1,800 people. Can you imagine living in a town so small? That is less people than I went to college with. We lived there until I was 7. I remember ice skating on this common in the winter and going to Blueberry Pancake breakfasts in the summer.

Just on the other side of town lies the Mountain View Grand established in 1865. This is a little gem nestled in the heart of the White Mountains. Aunt Betty has memories of working there as a teenager. Every Memorial Day, the rich folk from NYC would get driven up to spend the entire summer there until Labor Day. Aunt Betty was a waitress all day which included several outfit changes.

The Resort was shut down for most of the 90's, until it was purchased and completely renovated. I would love to spend the entire summer there and watch Hadley run up and down this porch. While sipping on a pre-dinner cocktail of course.

The Lobby, bar, dining rooms, and rooms were just as gorgeous. I am going to be posting for Restroom Critic soon about the beautiful bathrooms.

Our final destination before heading home was a visit to Hadley August's namesake, August Gronemeyer, my mother's father who died when she was 14. It may seem gruesome to have a picture of Hadley near a grave, but the entire time, it felt like she was talking to someone. It was quite cute.

A Beautiful South Korean Wedding

My brother was recently married to his long-time girlfriend Yoon Mi in South Korea. Due to Hadley's hospital stay, lack of a passport or proper shots, my inability to leave her for more than 2 hours at a time, and the loss of income, we were unable to go. It is one of my biggest disappointments in life. Family is so important, and especially my love for my baby brother and his wife, it broke our hearts not being able to be there. That being said, my parents took the 14 hour flight and 23 hour travel time to go to Daegu, South Korea to be a part of the festivities.

On their wedding day, they had two ceremonies. The first was in front of 200+ guests. Some of the highlights included a runway, bubbles, and fog machine. Can I take this time to ask if you've ever seen a more picturesque bride? Yoon Mi is a vision of beauty. She is glowing like an angel.

I would also like to take this time to state that I am not going to use this space to make a joke about how my father looks like Yoon Mi's butler. It is so very hard for me, but I'm going to take the high ground.

Following the large ceremony, the immediate family went to a separate room to have a traditional korean ceremony. I never thought I would say this, but fuschia is a great color for my brother. I also LOVE the backdrop on the wall. I would like to order some wallpaper please for our office.

Here is a great family portrait of Yoon Mi with her parents, younger brother and younger sister. What a handsome family.

And finally, there was a part of the ceremony in which my parents had to toss the newlywed couple some dates and nuts representing how many children (boys and girls) they would have during their marriage. By the looks of it, you can see they caught everything thrown at them. You better get cracking you little rascals.


Should your curiosity get the better of you because I was not descriptive enough, feel free to ask any questions that you have about traditional South Korean Weddings and I will have my brother and Yoon Mi chime in with all of the answers.

Winter Park Week-End

Sunday morning, DG and I packed up the car, the dogs, and the baby and took an impromptu trip up into the Mountains to escape the record setting heat going on in Denver. (20+ days over 90 degrees with the last 3 being over 100) As we headed out on I-70, we watched the temperature begin to drop and a mere 90 minutes later, across Berthoud Pass we were sitting cooly behind the pool (see that picnic bench?) eating our packed lunch. We stayed at the Vintage Resort (a pet friendly lodge) in Winter Park which is the first lodge you see coming into town. This is the view from our window onto the pool and jacuzzi. Yeah, we were roughing it.

Winter Park is a cute little ski town, and incidentally, the place where Cynthia taught me to ski 13 years ago when we moved here. I still remember her screaming at me to snow plow as I was careening off into the trees at the top of the mountain. It took me 2 hours to get down the mountain my first time. But I digress, back to this trip.


After lunch, we took a little walk in the woods, until it started to rain. So *yawn* since we were relaxing and on vacation and all, we took a nap.


In the afternoon, we headed into Winter Park to DG's favorite coffee house, followed by a little nature stroll through some wetlands.

Later on that night, since we are frugally minded these days and our room had a kitchenette, we ate a dinner that I had packed for us of grilled chicken, green beans and roasted potatoes. DG's contribution was dessert. He brought Twizzlers...because we were ON vacation! After dinner, we headed down and took turns getting in the hot tub.


The next morning, we headed 12 miles out of Winter Park to Snow Mountain Ranch (SMR) to meet Cynthia and Jeff who had rented a 4 bedroom house and had invited us up for the night. SMR (elev. 8,750) is run by the YMCA and is 5,100 acres of fun with horseback riding, day camps, hiking, canoeing, archery, a pool, and rec center complete with roller skating! It is open in the winter too, where they have a Nordic Center for cross country skiing, trails for snow shoeing, an ice skating rink and a tubing hill. Who wants to come out for a family vacation?


Here is a view from the porch of our house. Not bad huh?


Unfortunately, what is so sad about this view is that Colorado is currently experiencing a devastating Mountain Pine Beetle problem. These bugs have destroyed 500,000 acres in the last year alone. The red trees are those that are dead. If you scroll back up, you can see the dead red trees in every picture.


First activity of they day: a quick little hike to a waterfall. Cynthia thought the map said it was .3 miles one way, however as it turns out it was 1.3 miles, but well worth the view. And then I got to eat extra Twizzlers because I am sure I shed extra calories carrying a 14 lb. little girl.


There was a certain other little boy who insisted on being carried as well.


We had lots of fun at the house eating good food, playing Uno on the deck, and heading out to go Roller Skating! Check back tomorrow of the video I uploaded to youtube.com of DG busting some moves on skates!

Stay-at-Home-Mom

As you have all read from my twits, I was layed off on Monday morning. I feel like I've been dumped by my true love. I'm not sure what to do with myself and I want to call him to see how he's doing without me. Are you sure you're ok? Doesn't life without me suck? How will you get by? You NEED me. Don't you? *sniff*

Day three of unemployment and I realize that being a stay-at-home mom is not all bon bons and Oprah. I was always afraid of what 'staying at home' meant, fearful that I would resort to sitting on the couch, devouring lean cuisines and watching baby daddy's get dragged onto tv for paternity tests. *Gulp* As it turns out, the days fly by and the tv doesn't even get turned on. In between looking for a job, I want to take H. to the pool every day, hang out with my other friends with kids, and go to museums and the Botanic Gardens.

The question now is, what am I going to do? Ultimately, I will probably need to find a job that requires me to shower and brush my teeth every day. And wear clothes that aren't pajamas, and put H. in day care. I miss her already. Until then, I will enjoy every precious second with her.

Grandparents

Hadley's grandparents came to visit this week-end for cousin Bloom's 4th birthday. Even though they were in demand, we were able to get them for three whole nights! We were very excited and so was Hadley. Grandpa got her to clap her hands for the first time. She was so excited over the loud congratulatory attention, that she then proceeded to applaud herself for the rest of the day, causing a splattering of food during dinner. A small price to pay for the fun of clapping. Other milestones include playing peek-a-boo with a blanket in her hand, covering her own face and whipping the blanket down repeatedly. She also pulled herself from a seated position to standing, get this, twice. Yeah we know, excessive monotonous baby details followed by lots of proud parental gushing.

Fun in San Antonio, Texas

Upon arriving in San Antonio on Saturday, my parents had the Toyota Highlander gassed up and ready to go from Hertz. We got the car seat installed and were off immediately to the River Walk.

Downtown San Antonio is truly the bright spot of this city. The Riverwalk is vibrant, full of energy, and is the heart of the action with it's restaurants, shopping, and hotels. Doesn't my mom look awesome? She's lost almost 50 pounds since her heart attack! She is truly an inspiration. And no, there's no magic pill to lose weight. It's all diet and exercise.

First things first, we sat down for margarita's and chips. Mmmm, icy cool liquid lunch.



Nana and Hadley are reunited at last.


















Grandpa is equally as excited to see baby girl.
We had to slug down our drinks fast so that we could go check into our motel in Helotes and head to the surprise dinner for my Aunt Betty. The anticipation was building for us as we sat and waited for everyone to get there. In the car ride over, we called Susan to let her know we were running late, but she put Betty on the phone with my mom who had to FIB about being in between meetings in Pennsylvania. I told everyone to move away from her in the car because lightening was going to strike for sure. My mother is awful at not telling the truth, but apparently she did a really good job because doesn't Betty Lou look surprised?

Aunt Susan made reservations at a restaurant called The Lodge, which was located in an old mansion that had been converted into an eatery. The head chef is only 31 and quite the up and comer in the city. We had a beautiful private room on the first floor and the seasonal menu was a fixed price meal with six courses. I had a seared scallop over brioche with a potato puree appetizer, followed by an heirloom tomato with grilled watermelon and balsamic reduction salad, seared salmon over wild rice with fiddlesticks and olive tapenade main course, and for dessert a Soufflé Inspired Nutella-Dark Chocolate Cake with Homemade Caramel, Banana Fritter and Peanut Butter Mousse. There was also a complementary pasta course and a bacon wrapped fig with blue cheese. Good thing we were on a diet last week.

Before dinner, we watched a slide show that DG made of 70 years worth of photos of Betty Lou. Our entire group included: (From l-r back row) Aunt Susan, DG, Janny, Dad, Aunt Betty, Betty's daughter (my cousin) Linda, and Hadley and me. (bottom row) Loretta, Sue, and my mom.



After falling into a food induced coma and sleeping through the night, we got up and went to Susan's for breakfast in the morning, followed by a trip to Sea World.
Even with the big crowds, we never lost each other, because all you had to do was look for the ladies wearing bright cantaloupe.

We saw the Beluga Whale and Dolphin show first. At the end as I was clapping, Hadley started trying to imitate me, arms flailing about, attempting to clap, and hitting herself in the face. It was just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Then we headed to the Sea Lion, Otter and Walrus show. Well, minus the walrus because she was still sleeping. The main woman in this show lives on my Aunt's street, so she gave us a backstage tour afterwards. It was so fun. We got to see the walrus up close, all 2,100 pounds of her. And we had our picture taken with Spanky, who at 600 pounds has retired from show biz and lives out his days eating fish and swimming around. That's actually Spanky smiling on cue.

We also bought some slimy fish treats to feed the Sea Lions. They are greedy little buggers who catch fish really well.
















Of course, you can't leave Sea World without seeing Shamu. Now which one is Shamu again?
Hadley managed to beat the heat and remain cute through the moist humidity.

Until it got to be too much and she needed a nap. She missed the dolphin petting pool and sharks, but by then it was time to go home for all of us.