Horsie!

Ela had a fantastic weekend this weekend. Saturday, we headed down to the mall and her Daddy took her on the carousel. This is one of her new favorite things. I'm told she's spent most of the ride saying "neigh!" After it was over, she talked about the horsie all the way home.

Sunday, we went to the fall festival out at Mount Vernon. They had lots of role playing dressed up people, who told us how the farm was run in General Washington's day, including Washington himself. Ela liked the people who played the music, and sat very attentively through their performance. Her favorite part, though, were the animals. There were sheep...

...cows...

...and a horsie!

Ela was fascinated, if a little nervous (a horse is awfully big after all). She wandered from one to the other making all the noises and talking up a storm. She had a great time, and so did we.

Civil War Battle Fields

Two weekends ago, it was Zack's turn to choose what we'd do for our weekend outing, and he chose a place he's been hoping to visit pretty much since we got to DC: Manassas Battlefield. Two Civil War battles were actually fought there, and now it's a national park.

It was a beautiful day, so we set off in the early afternoon with the hope of getting Ela a nap in the car. Traffic was pretty terrible, but we found it easily enough. We arrived just in time to catch a guided tour of the fields, so we split up for a bit. Zack listened to the guide, while Ela and I did our own tour. First, we checked out the super tall grass behind the house where a family actually lived during the first battle.





Then we discovered a statue of Stonewall Jackson (so nicknamed during the first battle), which Ela loved because it had a horse. Horses are her new obsession. She spent most of Zack's tour trying to figure out how to get up to this one.



When Zack's tour was over, he joined us, and we walked a little further up the field to check out some artillery. As we walked, Zack gave us the historical background he'd gathered from the tour.




Further along the trail, we found the remains of a house that, at the time of the battles, had belonged to an African American family. There's not much left to it now, but Ela enjoyed climbing the walls.

After that, we decided it was time to brave the traffic to get back into town. It was a great trip, though. We got lots of fresh air, a little history lesson, and a good time was had by all.

Good News

I've been trying for several days now to talk the ultrasound I scanned into a format that would post on the blog. No luck. I've scanned it twice, and still can't change it into anything workable. Instead, you'll just have to take my word for it that I'm pregnant and delighted! :-)
I'm about 11 weeks along now, and while I really am thrilled, it's been tough to be possitive lately because the morning sickness, which started around 7 or 8 weeks, has been terrible. I'm nauseous pretty much all the time. The ultrasound and clean bill of health from the last doctor appointment helped keep things in perspective. Baby is healthy, growing, and actually looks like a baby in the pictures, which is nice. All the same, the not being able to eat can get stressful. I worry because I'm losing weight still, and I really should start gaining sometime soon, but then the stress of it just makes it that much harder to eat.
Yesterday was a particularly bad day. Most days, I wake up feeling okay and get to feeling yucky around noon, then just get worse all evening. Yesterday, I woke up feeling terrible and had trouble eating breakfast, much less lunch or dinner. I struggled through a much-needed trip to the grocery store, and that was pretty much all I could handle all day. Zack had a long day, too, and was not exactly thrilled to come home to groceries still in the bags (don't worry, I put away the cold stuff), and nothing set up for dinner but rice (I knew he had leftovers available). He's very supportive, though, and we muddled through the evening.
As we got into bed, Zack suggested that may be I'd feel better tomorrow if I took Ela on a little outing to a park or something. This is a very good suggestion because 1) I get crabby really fast if I stay in the house too many days in a row and 2) exercise and fresh air have been helping with the morning sickness. I agreed with the suggestion and then pointed out that I had gotten out of the house that day.
Me: Granted, the grocery store isn't exactly a stress-free environment for me these days.
Zack: You talk about it like it's the sixth circle of hell or something.
I laughed.
Zack (imitating me): Oh Zack, it was so horrible! There was FOOD everywhere!
This got both of us going in a giggle fit (quietly so we wouldn't wake up Ela). It also reminded me that if the worst thing I have to complain about is that I have to buy food, I really have it pretty good. So having enjoyed a good laugh and a session of blessing counting, I went to bed in a much better mood.
Still not feeling great this morning, but it's so worth it!

Pittsburgh

Last weekend, we headed to Pittsburgh for a family reunion. I've said this to a few people and regularly gotten the reply, "I didn't know you were from Pittsburgh." I'm not. Our family is rather large, and all of us cousins grew up in somewhat different areas, so we don't go "home" for a reunion. I don't really know where I'm from. It depends on the day. Anyway, some of my cousins are currently living in Pittsburgh, and they volunteered to host the rest of us. So a bunch of us cousins, aunts, uncles, and so on gathered for a fun weekend.
We got there Friday night in time to have dinner. Ela even got to sit at the "big kid" table.

I think she was a tiny bit intimidated by all the kids, but she seemed to have a good time anyway. And she got to see Phoebe, who is one of her favorite people to see in pictures now, so that was awesome in her book. :-) She fell recently and gave herself a black eye, and over the weekend, Danny had a little spill and ended up with stitches, so we kind of looked like the walking wounded (or riding wounded?) as we wandered around on Saturday doing our sightseeing.

Here's our "look, we were really there!" shot.

After that, I kind of got caught up in chatting with people I haven't seen in forever, and forgot I had a camera, but we enjoyed a ducky ride (Ela enjoyed a ducky nap), and a trip to the science museum before dinner at the Hofbrau Haus (we're German and proud). Sunday we had to head on home to pick up the dog, but it was an excellent trip, and a great chance to see everyone!