Family Pictures

Thanks Kash and Cara!

Our Trip South

Last week we went on vacation with our friends the Sullengers. We had a great time and spent most of our time in Pensacola, FL. We spent one night and 2 half days in New Orleans. We spent a lot of time on the beach, but those pictures are to come. These are the other pictures from the trip.


On the way down we stopped in Mobile, AL to give Morgan a little break at the Battleship Memorial Park. She sure enjoyed the short lived freedom and was not excited to finish the last hour of the trip. She did very well considering.


While in Pensacola, we got to watch the Blue Angels practice and go to the Aerospace Museum.


We also got to climb to the top of this lighthouse. We were pretty lucky because it's only open for tours on Wednesday mornings and Saturday afternoons. We just ended up there at the right time by chance.


On the way to New Orleans we stopped at Dr. Wagnor's Honey Island Swamp Tours and saw ourselves some Alligators. It was actually really cool. I don't think I care to ever be that close to an alligator again but I'm glad I did it once. Captain Jack gave us a good show as he fed the alligators hot dogs and marshmallows.

Here Kash is inspecting an above ground grave at a cemetery in New Orleans. As you can see, all the graves are actually built above the ground. Each one of those vaults holds between 4 and 8 bodies. I don't know the logistics of it and I'm not sure I want to.

We also checked out French Quarters and unfortunately didn't find anyone to speak french to. We did visit the cathedral, as seen above; ate some Beignets at Cafe du Monde and got powdered sugar everywhere; checked out Bourbon street (which I don't ever care to return to, not even during the day); checked out some shops, and drove through the garden district.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip full of sunshine and memories. We're glad the Sullenger's were able to join us. We really enjoyed their company and are grateful for their friendship.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

The new PBS Ken Burns documentary about US National Parks comes out on Sept. 27th!!!! I(Brent) have been looking forward to this documentary all year. It is guaranteed to have some spectacular footage. I wanted to give everyone a heads up so you can pull out your old John Denver cassette tapes to get warmed up for the series. Check out the gadget above(if you are bored) showing which national parks I have visited thus far. Visit PBS to find out more about the series.

Morgan's new throne

Well I have finally finished a project I started about 6 months ago. Some friends of ours generously gave us this antique wood highchair(thank you Abbotts).

The chair definitely showed signs of wear and tear and was in need of some TLC. I fabricated a couple replacement parts, repaired the broken tray, and sanded down and refinished everything. I am happy with how it turned out.

It was a fun project to pick at here and there over the last several months. The sad part will be to watch it get all nasty as Morgan breaks it in. However, with cheesy smiles like this I might be able to handle it getting a little dirty.

A fun thing that adds character to this highchair is that it doubles as a potty training chair. I don't think we will be using this chair to its full potential. Something about associating eating and certain bodily functions doesn't settle well with me.

Walking?!?

So most people wouldn't brag about their child starting to walk at 14 1/2 months but it's too cute not to share. She still certainly doesn't do it all the time yet but she has the ability; just not the confidence. We're working on it.

ABC's

So my friend Cara saw this idea on a blog and emailed me about it. The girl on the blog had just done her daughter's name but said she was planning on doing the whole alphabet. We figured, if we were going to do them, we might as well do the whole alphabet. It seemed like a great idea at the time. Four days and countless hours later, the alphabet it complete. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun too. We painted all capital letters on one side and lowercase on the other. Hopefully these will help Morgan learn her letters.


Now I need a new project to keep me from cleaning my house. Any suggestions??

I'm a big kid now!

Okay, it's not like she's potty trained or anything but now she's in her big girl car seat. It's taken a while to reach 20lbs. Sorry about the poor picture quality but you get the idea of the princess on her throne.