Our Anniversary

Just a couple days ago, Josh and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. We had an amazing time. We dropped off Isaac at my parents' house Saturday afternoon where "out-siah" (outside) became officially his favorite word. He loved wandering around on the grass, touching the trees, being on the "tam-een" (trampoline). Josh and I drove to Portsmouth, NH and checked into the fancy Hilton in the downtown. We wandered around the town, holding hands, checking out cute shops. Eventually we wandered over to the public garden area and bumped into high school friends. After that surprise meeting, we slowly went back to our room and prepared for our date night. We went to dinner at the Wellington Room (thanks Masons!). It's a small and very intimate chef-owned place that came up first when I Googled "romantic Portsmouth restaurant." After dinner, we wandered over to the public outdoor theater where they were showing Indiana Jones. The whole time, we called my parents only twice or three times. Isaac was doing great. He was happy and excited to be there.

The next morning, we went to breakfast at an outdoor cafe and eventually struck up a conversation with a nice couple with a toddler. It turns out they live in Arlington, MA and are new to the area.

Meanwhile, Isaac slept way late (6:50am), went to church and flirted with the people there. He ran up and down along the pews and waved at everyone.

Those were invigorating 24 hours.

OM Road trip to Wellsboro, Lewisberg and Larchmont

We took off last Thursday afternoon for a three-night trip. Josh had packed among the bags, our favorite homemade dinner of quinoa-chicken and then picked up Isaac from daycare and then me from Brandeis. We drove for about 100 miles and then took a rest stop to eat dinner. Isaac was the mayor of the travel plaza: he approached every stranger, looked them in the eye, and then waved and smiled. He had a parade of fans. A Mcdonald's employee gave us a toy just because she thought Isaac was so cute. Unfortunately, when Isaac is in mayor mode, he doesn't want to eat. We eventually gave up on dinner, put him in his pjs and went back to the car. We drove until around midnight. We landed in Wellsboro, PA. What a sweet town! Josh's boss/professor lent us his home. It's a loft-style place and was very clean and comfortable. The next morning, we explored the Main Street area and admired the old-time feel of the place. It's all mom-and-pop stores. They even have one of the oldest diners in America. Of course we had to check that out! Then we went to the Rails and Trails path down the road--a railroad that was converted into a bike path. It was very lush in the "Pennsylvania Grand Canyon" as its called there.

In a very lazy way (very different for us!) we made it back to our little house to shower for the wedding that night (friends Jared and Laurie from Boston). The wedding was at Laurie's family farm in Lewisberg, PA (about 1.5 hrs from Wellsboro). Absolutely beautiful working farm! There was crazy thunder and lightening, but it all ended just in time for the ceremony. Isaac is always chatty, but was particularly vocal during the "moments of silence." Uh oh. Jared later said he loved it (phew). Instead of camping at the farm as we had planned, we piled back into our car and drove all the way back to Wellsboro with the idea that everyone would sleep better. I was really tired so Josh powered through and drove us.

The next day we packed up and got on the road to drove to NY. We hit terrible traffic and ended up 2 hrs late to visit my elderly aunt and uncle. Thankfully, they were very understanding and were just happy to see us. It was a fun visit and Isaac really enjoyed Aunt Sylvia's special Italian cookies and drinking out of a bought water bottle (another unusual thing for us).

That evening we stayed with Falmouth Road Race-pregnant goddess, Ali, and of course Jason too. We just hung out together that night. Having Isaac explore their fashionable glass coffee table and wine glass display cinched it for Jason that they need to change up their furniture for post-baby life.

On Sunday morning, after a quick walk to my all-time favorite bakery, Bradley's, we had a full breakfast at our other great friends', the Reists. The food was very good, but a highlight was sitting in the living room listening to Josh and Adam jam. Isaac squealed with delight when they played "Monkey Man"--a song Isaac loves to sing along to.

Late morning, we hit the road and felt so good from all the love and good times we'd had with our dear friends. Below are a few pictures (stupidly, we didn't do a good job remembering our camera this visit). There is also a short video of Isaac saying "Josh." Enjoy!

Falmouth Road Race!

Yesterday we drove down to the Cape and visited with our New York friends, the Blairs. Their daughter Ali is our good friend and has been talking about the Falmouth Road Race for years as a bucket-list worthy race. She wasn't kidding--it's beautiful, attracts a crazy number of people and is really hard (apparently). Basically everyone in the house ran the race except for Ali's dad, three children (including Isaac of course), and me. By the way, Ali is 5 1/2 months pregnant! Alli's sister finished the over 7 miles in under an hour and Josh, Ali's mom and Ali finished just moments later. It seems like a crazy hard but fun race and we were really happy to finally be a part of it.

Smile-guy

Future Obie and/or possible hair stylist!

Summer 2011

It's been a busy summer--see our pictures below of us letting it all hang out (literally) at Walden Pond, celebrating the 4th of July, going to the Aquarium, enjoying cousins in Barrington and lounging at the beach with the Masons. We love summer in New England!

Isaac Walks!!

After many weeks of cruising and taking one or two steps, Isaac seems more comfortable with walking now. He still prefers crawling, but everyday he does more and more walking and seems to be really proud of himself. Special thanks to Mom for playing the red-ball game (also known as fetch!) with Isaac on Saturday. He loves it!

Isaac enjoying the summer

This weekend we bought a child bike seat and installed it on my (AOM) bike. This morning we tested it out and went on a family bike ride into Cambridge to visit friends. Isaac enjoys the ride, but dislikes wearing is helmet. Hopefully, he won't mind it so much as the summer goes on.

Another exciting thing is that Isaac LOVES being in water. He squeals when we swim in our condo pool and gets really happy when he's wading in the water at Walden. He crawls around in the water and splashes. It's very cute.

Check out these pictures of our summer so far. The first batch are of our trip to the Cambridge River Festival and the bus ride home. After that, I grabbed some shots of Isaac enjoying a homemade popsicle--simply pureed peaches and pineapple.