Colorado trip

OK, so I'm many months behind. But I couldn't post last week's events without posting a few photos of the winter and spring. I'll make them all brief.

Our big event was our trip to Colorado in January. We went with Dave's mom Martie (Nana) and got to see Sara's sister Jennifer and her family, and Dave's brother Doug and his girlfriend, Georgia. Sara's dad and Cynthia came up for the weekend while we were there, too. Big family reunion!

And when we got home to DC, we visited with Sara's brother Rob and his family. So Katie got to see all her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in one week!

We went to several museums, including the Art Museum, which was really terrific. They had a whole section of interactive exhibits, which explains why Katie and Aunt Jen look like this:

Here's Katie at the Children's Museum with Georgia:

It was a long time before Katie stopped talking about the Bells' cats; Rosie was willing to let Katie pet and cuddle with her (Oliver never lets that happen at home!).

New Year's Eve 2009

We went to State College again this year for First Night (New Year's Eve) - mostly because Callanish was performing. It's a great gig for us - we get over 200 people every year, and we get a professional sound guy. And I see friends and fans from State College that I only get to see once a year.

We also got to have yummy Indian food with our friend - and Katie's godmother - Ann Marie and her boyfriend Brian.

But the most fun that day was ice skating at the Penn State ice rink. Katie has been wanting to go ever since she saw some on TV; those ladies are ballerinas on ice, right? We even prepped with books from the library - here she is on the trip to State College, saving her energy. :)

We got out on the ice - Katie VERY reluctantly - and took at least 10 minutes to go once around with her between me and Dave. So she and I got off the ice while Dave skated. We got her back on a few minutes later for one trip around. With 10 minutes left in the session, she wanted to get back on the ice with Daddy - and then didn't want to get off! We're excited to try ice skating on our outdoor Lewisburg rink when it opens back up (this week, I think). No photos, though - Katie was moving too much and they're all blurry!

I guess my New Year's resolution will have to be to update our blog more regularly! I'll try to catch up again in the next few posts.

Christmas this year was so much fun - Katie really got into the excitement. We had two Advent calendars for the countdown; my Aunt Leza sends her a new one every year (like I had growing up) and this year she loved opening the little windows. And Betty Steffensen (aka Oma) made her a cloth one last year that taught her how to use snaps finally!

She finally was willing to talk to Santa, although not in his lap, and she loved all the lights and decorations everywhere, including our house. She helped hang ornaments on the tree. And of course she made lots of her own decorations in preschool. We also took her to the Candlelight Concert at Bucknell this year, which she really enjoyed (as did we - so beautiful). Here she is in one of her Christmas dresses, ready for the concert.

The best, of course, was Christmas day. Nana (Dave's mom) came up for the week, and it was so much fun to see Katie's reaction to all the presents - and to each individual one. Each one was the "best ever" until she opened the next one. I have to say that this is really the first year that I didn't care much about celebrating my birthday - it was just great to watch Katie. Her big present from Santa was a "Belle dress" (from Beauty and the Beast, for anyone who doesn't know their Disney princesses). What a great day!

Snow White

This is Katie's first Halloween that she has really understood -- OK, at least the American commercial understanding. Nana bought her the Snow White costume she really wanted (thanks, Nana), and she got to wear it for five different Halloween events this week. This was after a party at Bucknell last weekend.

My favorite event was the preschool parade and party - they were all so cute! After a "parade" around one town block, the kids played games and then sang songs for all the parents who could come. Here are Katie and her best friend Laura singing part of "Five Little Pumpkins".



The town Halloween parade was really fun, too. We followed the high school marching band -- all in costume -- and saw lots of friends (mine and Katie's) in costume.

Katie's favorite part was probably the trick-or-treating, of course. She is definitely her parents' child, with a love of sweets. Why did I work so hard to keep her away from sugar for two years? Oh, well. She at least understands the concept of rationing, so her haul will hold her for several months, I hope.

She's already informed me that next year she wants to be Belle. I'll be interested to see what happens next fall....

Fall in Pennsylvania

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything, so I'll make up for it with beautiful pictures in the next few posts!

One of the things we missed last year in Texas was the beautiful fall colors of Pennsylvania. We've had a record amount of rain in October, but that's only made the colors more vibrant. I'm coveting the next door neighbor's scarlet gum tree....

On Columbus Day weekend -- Fall Break for Dave -- we drove up to Wellsboro to take the Tioga Central Railroad fall foliage train. A little boring for Katie, once the conductor punched her ticket, but we loved watching the colors.

We capped off the day with a trip to the Pine Creek Gorge, also known as the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. We usually forget about going in the spring, when mountain laurel and rhododendron are out, but we try not to miss fall there.

First day of school

Here's Katie on her first day of preschool (09/09/09, easy to remember). She told me (and later, Nana and Aunt Jen) that she loved, loved, LOVED preschool. I'm still not sure what all they did today, but apparently it didn't matter. Her best friend is in the class, as are several other kids we know at least by sight, and she's making other friends already.

And I did not cry, although I was a little nervous yesterday for her for some reason. I went to my meeting, and then home to do house stuff -- amazing what you can get done all by yourself -- and then picked up my smiling, happy kid.

I'm so glad she loves school!

Trip to DC in August

I know it's a month later, but now I have the photos ready. We went down to Virginia in early August to celebrate Martie/Mom/Nana's birthday, and to have Dave and Doug (who flew in from CO) go through some stuff in the basement. While they worked, Katie and I played in DC.

The first day we met Alyce and Tobey Phinney at their house and took the Metro into the city to the natural history museum. We thought they'd like the butterfly house, but the aquarium was a bigger hit. They also loved the carousel on the Mall (big surprise there) and the Hirshhorn fountain. It was fun to see the cousins play together after so much time apart.

The second day Katie and I took the Metro in, planning to go the National Archives. The line was too long so we did the National Gallery instead - both west and east wings. Katie loved it, which was really cool. Her favorite pieces were this Manet ballerina and the Calder mobile in the entry of the East wing. She didn't know it was her parents' favorite art there, too!


On Friday we drove in to the National Zoo, along with every other tourist in DC, I think. It was hot and crowded, and we parked several streets away (I almost lost our car). But we saw the giant pandas -- my whole goal. We've been to three other zoos now, and this is the only one with pandas. I have to say that the zoo is not as impressive as I remember from my childhood.


On Mom's birthday we all went to the Udvar-Hazy center of the Air & Space Museum -- it's an annex at Dulles Airport. We met Rob and Tobey there, and later Alyce for birthday dinner with the extended family. The museum was really cool, for air geeks and non geeks alike. My favorite plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, was the first thing you saw when you came in, which I thought was great. This was our first visit and we'll go back.

There are so many museums in DC that I'm sure this will become a regular kind of trip!