Our Valley View Home

Sadly, Halloween was a bit of a wash this year. I had some mysterious flu-like symptoms and then on Halloween itself Sophie said “I’m too sick to go twick-oh-tweeting. Maybe we can get some candy some other time.” Such heartbreaking words from someone who otherwise would not miss such a “sweet” opportunity. We had to celebrate the next day, November 1st, by carving a pumpkin and then trick-or-treating at our own door and at Gaga & Grandpa’s house. Better luck next year? I hope so. My mom said “Well, at least it wasn’t Christmas” and then I reminded her that, indeed, we were sick then, too. We’re crossing our fingers for better health in 2010!

These photos are pretty self-explanatory so I’m gonna post them without captions.

Here’s a collection of photos from late fall, mostly just the kiddos hanging out inside and outside our house. It was nice having a yard this year to hang out in, instead of mostly mud, thanks to Brian’s efforts to grow us a lawn.

Here are some random photos from late summer/early fall. As you can see, Sophie & Zach have been having a lot of fun with each other. Now that Zach can run, there’s a lot of chasing and hiding and knocking each other down. Don’t be lulled into thinking these two sit around loafing in chairs together all the time!

Zach’s big day was Friday 9/25 and we celebrated that day with breakfast out then a trip to the airport and a nearby playground. Both kids loved the planes, and the playground happened to be near S.D. Ireland (a concrete/construction company) so we got to see lots of dump trucks and cement mixers while enjoying the swings & slides. The next day we had a party with family & friends and Zach loved the party energy, balloons, attention, gifts and especially the cake.

Here’s the next installment in our backlog of photos from somewhat ancient history. Storyland was a big reason for our August vacation in the White Mountains of NH and it didn’t disappoint. There’s so much for little ones to do and see, and it was a manageable size for our family to explore without too much stress. We had so much fun the first day that we decided to spend a second day there later in the week. Here are some highlights.

Happy December, everyone! Our blog has been busted for awhile now, and we just haven’t had time to spend on it, plus the dog ate our homework! At any rate, Brian worked his magic and now we’re finally getting around to sharing some photos from the last few months. If all goes well, I’ll be posting a new batch of photos every couple of days until we’re somewhat caught up. For those of you who are regular viewers, sorry it has been so long!

Here we go with the first batch of shots, from late August. These are from our summer vacation in the North Conway, NH region. We stayed near Storyland for a few nights and then moved to a house on the lovely Middle Pea Porridge Pond. Other than some illness in the beginning and an evening spent with Zach at the ER for a possible beach-pebble ingestion, it was a great trip and we’d love to revisit the area. I’ll share photos from Storyland in a separate post sometime soon. Stay tuned, and welcome back!

It’s official! Sophie has said “Bye-bye, diapers! Hello, underpants!” We celebrated on Sunday with a candlelit breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and three packages of new panties featuring Dora the Explorer and an assortment of Disney princesses. So far, so good, with only a handful of accidents and lots of proud proclamations from Sophie. She especially loves taking advantage of the convenience our backyard as one big potty wonderland. Here are a few shots from our festivities. These aren’t as nicely edited as Brian would produce, so forgive my Photoshop mediocrity. And we promise to post vacation pics from last month sometime soon. Enjoy!

In the interest of sharing this isn’t edited (otherwise I wouldn’t have time to be sharing it ;)

Can you tell she’s looking at herself?

Well technically it wasn’t all on the weekend, but who’s counting anyway? At least there was sun!

We had an action-packed holiday weekend and Brian and I wanted to share the highlights. Photo editing is courtesy of him, some of the photos were taken by my friend Kelly, and I’ll take a sec and give you some written details.

The weekend got off with a bang (not fireworks, either!) with me getting stung by a bee in our yard and having a pretty significant reaction that required more than the usual Benadryl treatment. Brian had to jab me with my Epipen and I went to the ER for more antihistamine and to make sure things didn’t get out of control. This threw a wrench in a few of our plans but we still managed to have lots of fun once I was back on my (swollen) foot. Saturday we spent the afternoon/evening at my parents’ house (aka Gaga & Pa’s) for a barbecue.

Then on Sunday we headed North for an overnight in Montreal. Monday we met up with friends Kelly, Paul & Tess to visit the Botanical Garden there and hang out downtown a bit. It was a fun though exhausting weekend. Sophie was fascinated by all the people and loved watching the horse-drawn carriages everywhere. She was so over-stimulated that she was awake (cheerful, at least, but geez!) for our entire ride home from 8pm until 10:30 pm and didn’t get to sleep until after 11. We’re all still trying to get back onto a schedule. And Zachary had a blast, taking advantage of the fact that he can fall asleep almost anywhere as long as he’s strapped onto mommy or in a car seat or stroller. His favorite part of the trip was looking up at the seagulls which were all over the city. His eyes were drawn upward much of the time by these birds and by the tall buildings. He spent much of our two days pointing his one finger up in the air and shouting “GAH!!” All in all, we had a great time and an overnight in Montreal actually felt more like a long weekend or so. Something about being in another country has that effect. Well, and having 2 kids under three in tow!

Here are a few pics from the weekend…