Papa's Birthday

We started off the weekend right:

On Monday night, Papa's 28th birthday, we cooked an amazing lamb shank dinner with roasted potatoes and sauteed brussels sprouts. It doesn't show up well in the pictures, but Oly and I draped the rest of the dining room in black and orange streamers (Flyers colors.)

Oly scarfed everything down.

Then as is tradition, we had homemade chocolate cake with mocha frosting.

She scarfed that down too.

As an added bonus, Autumn is definitely in the air around here so it was time to bust out the FLEECE FOOTY PAJAMAS!!!!!! (Thanks to Bryn for the hand-me-downs.)

Here is a video of Oly eating and then patting her nice, full belly.

Rye, NY

Papa had a conference in New York this week and since we missed him so much while he was in Asia, Oly and I went with. It was 750 Investment Analysts and Hedge Fund Managers and...... me and the baby at the Hilton. All of those people away on their business trip missed their kids and grandkids though, so she was a welcome distraction most of the time.

We jumped on the bed.

We found a playground nearby and I swear she had fun but....

.... she looks pretty melancholy in these pictures because she was pining for the big kids playing nearby:

We sat on a bench and stalked them for a long, long time.

Since Papa was busy with work from 8 to 6 each day, we went sightseeing to pass the time. We went to Katonah, NY one day, which coincidentally is where Martha Stewart lives. We didn't see her. The place was almost painfully scenic.

This is the little cafe where we had lunch, it was charming of course.

The food was delicious (it's a good thing because everything was expensive!)

Charm has it's price, and it's steep.

After lunch we went to the Homestead of John Jay:

"Jay’s many public roles included principal negotiator of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the United States, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and second Governor of New York State."

I didn't get any pictures of the grounds or the house but I did snap a photo of inside a tent where a garden club was having a sale of some sort. At one point I turned around and a woman was stroking Olympia's hair while she was in the Ergo. I should start charging these people.

The next day Oly and I went to Lyndhurst to take a tour of the Gothic style mansion owned by railroad tycoon Jay Gould, among others. The volunteer tour guides outnumbered tourists about 5 to 1 so we enjoyed a private tour.

Our guide was a very nice woman but I had to suffer through the entire tour in baby talk.

Finally Papa's conference was over and we could all hang out together on Thursday night. We went to Greenwich, CT and walked around:

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We had an awesome time but are all glad to stick close to home for awhile.

Presents!

Papa returned from his business trip to Asia on Saturday night and I wish I had set up a video camera to record her reaction. She was sitting in her high chair finishing up a delicious and messy dinner when he opened the front door. She squealed, bounced furiously, waved her arms and pointed at him. It was the sweetest thing I had ever seen! Then, while I tried to wipe her off before Papa picked her up she melted into desperate tears until she was in his arms. This lasted 48 hours. Every time he went to the bathroom, put her down to change his clothes, etc. she lost it. He was flattered, but it became a little tedious.

Here she is trying on the beautiful outfit he brought back from Hong Kong for her. The pictures are blurry, and her butt is a little big but I think it's cute all the same:

Non Wedding Days #3

We stayed at McMenamins in Chehalis and each room had the name, portrait and facts about a person that was important in the hotel's history. Our room was Marie something and she was the proprietor of of the restaurant in the 70's. Oly was obsessed with her.

Perhaps because she mentioned something about an....

Mmmmmmm, Oly Burger.

After dropping Papa off at the airport for a business trip to Asia we went down to Woodinville to see Auntie Bev.

And she got to put an actual baby in her antique high chair!

We went to Auntie Margie's again where she inherited a red coat from her (grown) cousins Robert and Tom, and was asked politely to not tear all of the cook books off of the book shelf.

We went out to dinner and she finally met her Great Uncle Gary and Great Aunt Sharon. We also got to meet brand new baby Hayden, my cousin Megan's 3 week old daughter- I can't believe I don't have a picture of her to post!

I don't have time to scan them and put them on here right now, but there are pictures of both Grandpa Mac, and Oly's Mama in this very high chair, at this age, in this exact spot in the dining room in front of the china cabinet, eating. And now here is Oly's:

It was a very good year for the plum tree and Oly had her first fresh plums. She loved them so much that she screamed until I gave her another one. She had about 6, along with a tummy ache.

We had so much fun on our trip to the Northwest. We can't wait for the next one!

The Wedding!

First, on Friday, we practiced the wedding. Which for Olympia meant being admired, pointing at cats, and playing with Grace.

The other theme of the trip was pointing at people and then when they obeyed and came over to her, she put her finger in their mouth.

The wedding! It was gorgeous! And hot! Jeff and Niki were both beautiful and the ceremony was sweet and romantic. Oly chewed on a plastic water bottle the entire time but I think the happy couple were pretty busy and didn't mind.

One of Olympia (and our) favorite part of the wedding was meeting Grace, one of Jeff and Niki's nieces on the other side. The girl loved Oly and was spreading her gospel all over. "Hi Olympiaaaaaaaaah. You're so cute!". "Have you seen Olympia? Isn't she cute?" With new twin baby sisters, she also knows how to pose with a baby for a photograph, so we have tons of smiley pictures of her with Oly.

Sweaty Oly and Sweaty Jeffrey, mingling:

Grandpa time:

Stephanie time:

The upstairs of the barn where the reception was held was amazing:

It was warm, but the industrial fan was put to good use:

The wedding had a lot of babies in attendance and at the beginning of the ceremony they were all dressed to the nines in new dresses and little suits. 5 minutes into the reception they were naked:

And finally, there was dancing.

Quick break for wedding cake:

And more dancing!