What We've Been Up To

The camera is officially broken for good, so cell phone videos are going to be it for awhile.

We've had a fun week:
-Had a water ice welcoming party at Oly's school, where as she met her teacher she said, "Hi. You're Robin. And you DON'T change diapers."
-We saw Winnie The Pooh in movie theaters and Oly loved it even though the Puss in Boots trailer was too scary and she missed the last 10 minutes because she had an accident in the seat (which Tim and I had to hold down because she wasn't heavy enough for it to flip by itself)
-Had her two and a half year check up at the Doctors and she was fantastically brave. She's 3'2", (90th percentile), 36 pounds (95th percentile) and 50-something centimeters for her head circumference which is completely off the charts.
-Got a new bike helmet and we've worn it in the grocery store, the Doctors, coffee shop, etc. Because of above mentioned head circumference, it's a helmet for, like, a 10 year old.
-Lots and lots of swimming in friends pools.
-Went to Ridley Creek and threw rocks for an hour just like last year. We all looked identical, even the pigtails.

And now for today. Whenever we go to Hill's Seafood to buy fish, we visit the lobsters and watch them crawl around the tank. She's been asking forever when she could finally take one home to eat and today was the day. We surprised her after nap and she picked the biggest one in the tank. Literally. Well, a deal's a deal so we brought it home, boiled it and gobbled it up!







All of those pictures are terrible and don't do the occasion justice. It's been made clear that that was a very special treat and it's not happening ANY time soon, (like ever.)

And this is about a third of the tomatoes that are constantly sitting on our kitchen counter. Yay!



And now you're all caught up!

The Farmer In The Dell

When Oly was a baby I swore that I would never let her listen to cheesy, simplistic "children's music". Somehow a CD with children singing nursery rhymes made it into the house and as long as she keeps doing this for the entire length of the CD:


I'm OK!

"Holding My Breath"

Our good friend Lisa bought a new house that has a gorgeous pool out back. The house is having some construction work done so they're not living there yet. It'd be a shame to let that cooling water go to waste in 100 degree weather don't you think? Oly and I picked up Ashley and Tommy early in the morning to go pool crashing.



Olympia had a chance to practice all of her swimming tricks learned from Buhcayshun. At one point she was walking around the patio with her hands cupped over her chest muttering to herself. When asked what she was doing she said, "I'm holding my breasts so I can put my face under the water." And then we had a long talk about air, lungs, closing our mouths: breath.

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

This is a TERRIBLE cell-phone video which will have to suffice for now because I shut our camera repeatedly in the car trunk hinge so it's at the shop. In 3 to 14 days you will receive a nice clean movie of Oly singing whatever song she has moved on to.

My favorite part is, "It's da trufe, it's akshool, everyfing is satisfakshool...."

Last Morning of Buhcayshun

Our last morning in Bedford Springs we got up early to get in a few hours of swimming,





And sunshine.










A we drove away, sleepy, pink-face little Oly said, "bye bye buhcayshun."

One Note Oly

These are the songs that she sang this afternoon on the phone for Grandpa Mac for his birthday. She has her father's musical sense.

Buhcayshun #3

Tuesday we again at at the steak house and Oly devoured a bowl of lobster bisque:



And jumbo shrimp cocktail, while also charming our waitress, who luckily had a two year old as well, and thought Oly was adorable. She even indulged Oly insisting to be called Izzy (don't ask).



After dinner we played on the lawn (do you see a theme yet?) and got dirty in the horseshoe pits:



Then we sat at the bonfire until it turned dark.



We spotted fireflies and went to explore the exceptionally loud frogs. Here is a photo that doesn't do them justice. They were seriously cool and very soothing background noise.




We also went on a nice morning hike that went tragically un-photographed (Please forgive us. Oly decided to climb into our bed at 2:30 in the morning, but also decided not to sleep until 6:00 in the morning. We were groggy before our morning trek and forgot our camera.)

More to come from the last morning......

Buhcayshun Day #2

We took no pictures during the day on Monday because they were the same pool pictures as the day before, plus Tim's solo golf outing (he burned the scorecard) and Hallie finished a book on the porch while Olympia finally took a much needed long nap. But at dinner that night we went to the fancy resort steak house and Oly was a peach.



We read books...



Colored and studied the wine list...



And the wine was fantastic.



After a good dinner of steak, asparagus and wild rice, Oly had ice cream for dessert and was even kind enough to share:





Then we checked out the sulfur springs which also was on the front lawn near the....



Chef's Garden.



This is surprisingly the easiest way to carry her long distances:



We had dinner early enough to grab a swim afterwards in one of the nation's first indoor pools, and the oldest in Pennsylvania, which is spring fed, and comfortably kept at 85 degrees. Perfect for cannonballs. Yes, it really is that beautiful. And yes, in the evening we had it all to ourselves.



We dried off and went back out on the lawn for the nightly bonfire.





And for getting dirty in the horseshoe pits:



Cool Bedford Springs history #2: since it was President Buchanan's summer white house, it was the location of the first received transatlantic cable from the Queen of England.

More to come tomorrow...

Buhcayshun Day #1

Last weekend we went on a vacation to Bedford, PA to the Bedford Springs Resort that dates back to 1806 when people started to first travel to the country for the supposed healing mineral spring waters. You may know it as James Buchanan's summer white house. Well, we know that because we were repeatedly reminded of it during our stay.

Here's Oly doing some art while waiting for us to bring her french fries at a rest stop during our long drive. The whole morning Oly kept asking, "Is this buhcayshun yet?":



Finally there! Swinging on the front lawn:



Kiddo, this is vacation.



Ready for the sunshine. Or maybe flying a fighter plan.



The first of many swims at the outdoor pool, with her "floaty fishy friend":





Dinner in the formal 'Crystal Dining Room'. She was as well behaved as a kiddo can be without a good nap. Here she is anticipating her surprise...



...and here it is. A chocolate cupcake for dessert.



Two very pretty ladies enjoying their fancy evening.



The only proof that we were both on this vacation together.



Lounging in someone else's garden for a change. There were lots of fresh herbs (we may have swiped some of the mint for mint juleps on our porch) and plenty of zucchini.







We put Oly to bed each night in a cozy nest in our room, then went out on the shared deck (you can see them from far away in the above photo) to play fierce Gin Rummy tournaments and drink red wine.

More to come.....

Life is Good

She climbed this thing to the top several times:











We're off early tomorrow morning on an excellent adventure to Bedford Springs, PA so we will probably be off the grid until Wednesday. You will all live, we assure you. We do apologize for the loooong time between today and the last post and promise not to do it again.