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!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation Part III: The Beach

So after a nice relaxing week with my folks, we packed up the cars and drove out to the coast for a nice, relaxing week at the beach! Zack met us there. We didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few highlights.
Ela's average day involved several visits to this lovely pool.

She'd play in it on the deck, or we'd drag it down to the sand and fill it with sea water. That way she could play in the sand and the water at the same time. Ela loved the beach. She couldn't wait for Mommy and Daddy to get ready to go down. So sometimes someone else would help her get down and we'd join her afterwards.

We had a nice set up down in the sand.

Generally, all the play would wear Ela out, so she got lots of good naps.

We had a really good time. Ela and her Daddy swam in the ocean. We took lots of long walks in the sand, and even got a few rounds of Bocci Ball in. It was an excellent week.

What I Did on My Sumer Vacation Part II: The Week in Raleigh

During our week in North Carolina, we mostly just chilled out. Ela spent some time in the pool.

We celebrated my birthday.

We got to see a few friends.

And of course, we got into a little trouble.

Ela and I also made a quick trip to Winston to visit Zack's folks, since Ela hadn't seen them. Mostly though, it was just a relaxing week.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Part I - Cruisin'

When we were in Japan, Zack had very few opportunities to use his vacation time. Now, he's got a ton saved up, so we decided to go on a cruise with his family this summer in honor of us coming back to the US and his sister graduating from high school. We dropped Ela and the dog at my parents' house, and hopped a flight to Miami. There, we met up with Zack's family, and we were off for our Eastern Caribean adventure.

Our first stop on the cruise was Half Moon Cay, in the Bahamas. This island is privately owned by Carnival. We took a kayaking tour around the bay opposite of where the ship landed and then chilled at the beach for the day. The water was perfect: clear and just the right temperature. It was a great way to start out the trip with just the combination of relaxing and activity.

Next up was a stop at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. We started that day with a trip to a high peak on the island with a great view.

From there, we caught a taxi to the shopping district and checked out some fabulous jewelry. In the afternoon, the "kids" went on a snorkeling trip, while the "grown ups" took a trip over to St. John. The water was a little murky from rain the previous day, but it was still good to check out some fish and just float around. The boat ride out and back was quite nice, too.

This is where we snorkeled.

After St. Thomas, the ship took us to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I learned that originally, the island was named San Juan (by Columbus) and the town that grew up at the port was called Puerto Rico (Rich Port) and somewhere along the line they got switched, though no one said why or how. There, we took a walking tour of the historical district, which mostly showed us around El Murro, a fort originally built by the Spanish.

Then we walked from El Murro through the historical district past several older buildings. We got rained on, and I mean really rained on, but it actually felt good because it was quite hot.

Factoid: the cobblestones are actually large stones that ships used as weights on their way across from Europe. In the Carribean, they bought spices or sugar or what not and left the stones behind. San Juan had literally tons of the stones, so they used them as pavement.

After the tour, we grabbed lunch at a place recommended by our guide and set off for more shopping. On the way out of the port, we had another great view of El Murro.

Our final stop was Grand Turk. Here, we split up again. The girls took a snorkeling/beach trip, while the boys went for some more intense snorkeling. We all ended up at the same place for part of the time, and it was amazing. There were fish EVERYWHERE. It was really gorgeous. After that, the boys were taken to another good snorkeling spot, while the girls went to a private beach where we floated around and relaxed. When we got back to port, we had a little time to look around at the shops again, picking up any last minute gifts we needed. Unfortunately, this stop didn't lend itself to lots of photography, but here's a nice shot of our home away from home.

The whole trip was a great way to relax, but by the time it was over, I think we were all ready to get back. Zack and I were delighted to hear that Ela was good for her grandparents. We had a quick birthday celebration at their house for me, then Zack hurried back to DC, while Ela and I hung out in NC for a week.