home again home again jiggity jig

Now that we are back at home, and adjusted to Pacific Time (which took wayyyy longer after this trip than it has after any other), we have been busy playing our days away.

We've been trying out a lot of new art mediums.

Finger Paint. A big hit at first, but generally only holds Ezra's attention span for about 7 minutes.


Sidewalk Chalk. Quite fun. And since we keep it outside by the front door, we often draw a line or two whenever we exit or enter the house. However, I think that there is a strong shift starting to take place in wanting to fill the chalk bucket with rocks vs. actually using the chalk, which is also super entertaining and totally cool by me. My favorite part about the chalk is that when a piece breaks he says, "uh oh" and then tries to put it back together.


And, we've also been playing with playdough. Sadly, I don't have any photos of the playdough playing though. I'm impressed that it holds his attention for 15+ minutes, and he doesn't eat it (I made it gluten-free just in case though :)

We were given a new dryer, and a certain someone realized that the fact the door opens down (as opposed to the side like our old one) makes a great little stool to stand on and throw things into the washer. He is the quite the helper. And he loves clean clothes. It doesn't matter if they are already clean, it's fun to throw them in the wash again.


Oh, and we've been rockin' out to the ipod. (I have some video of it, but it turned out all choppy...I'll have to see if Ryan can fix it.)

Maine Part Three: The Wedding!

The night before Jill and Oakley's wedding, there was a lobster bake. Ryan had the privilege of going with the dads (fathers of the groom and bride) to get the lobster. They walked down one dock to the lobster-man's boat where the lobster were handed over in their cage and then lowered back down into the water and tied to the dock. Then when it was time for the lobster bake, the cage of lobster were taken by row boat over to where the bake was held. These were real deal fresh Maine lobsters, folks. Delicious.

Playing on the beach before lobster-eatin-time!




Abby and Jana (a great friend from Boston--Americorps City Year to be specific)


Our sleepy boy...


DINNER!


Oh, and this was the view from our bedroom window...


In case you can't see what we saw while lying in bed...here is a closer look (wedding set-up taking place in the background in this photo)...


Ryan played the music for the ceremony...


The ceremony. so. beautiful.


Post-ceremony trip to the beach...


Ezra and Isla (less than a week apart in age), testing out the lawn games...






Ezra, the self-appointed bartender


He took his job very seriously.


Congrats Jill and Oakley! We love you!

Maine Part Two

The week before the wedding, Jill's friend Christina and her daughter Amelia were our "housemates". Amelia just turned one, and was Ezra's BFF for the week. :) Here they are eating ginormous green beans from the garden just after our run.


Ryan in charge of the tractor...ahh! He actually did ride around on this for a day, although he was the passenger. :)


The Cutting Garden, where you can come and pick fresh flowers all day, everyday. One of my favorite places to be. Lucky for me, I was in charge of getting the flowers for the wedding and spent lots of time here. :)




It also has a great stash of herbs and veggies...


More time on the beach...


Look at how beautiful these rocks are!! (I think Ezra is on the rock phone again)


If only this had been video instead of a still shot...Ezra was singing and dancing to the radio...this boy loves a good jam.


stay tuned for part three...

lots going on in the kitchen...

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. My hard drive is practically full, so I can't download (upload? I can never remember which word to use when) any more photos until we get an external hard drive to put them on.

So in the meantime, I present to you what is going on in our kitchen...

Ryan is playing a private house party tonight, and Ezra was really tired (teething) and went to sleep at 6:30pm. So, I decided to create a total mess in the kitchen and create all sorts of things at once.


Spinach Ricotta Bites These are already out of the oven and I may have tried 1 or 4...and they are super scrumptious! Gluten-free, and toddler friendly.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream As good as it sounds.

Roasted Honey Cinnamon Chickpeas Pretty dry and dull tasting...probably won't make again.

Creamy Coconut Quinoa This is a breakfast staple for Ezra...and I like it quite a bit too!

Maine...Part 1

Our last week in the northeast was spent in Maine. We loved it. Like, really really loved it. And therefore, more pictures were taken than can be acceptably put in one post...so I will be presenting Maine in several stages.

A little background... Our trip to Maine was centered around our friend Jill's wedding. Her parents are the caretakers of an estate right on the ocean. It's gorgeous. There are about 7 houses/cottages on the estate and the owners generously offered the wedding guests to stay in them. Well, we just happened to be free the entire week before the wedding. (Convenient, no?) And Jill said we could stay there for the entire week. Remember, I said this was right on the ocean?? For free?! With a wonderful friend and her family?!! It was nice. Really really nice.

Here we are exploring the yard and beach of one of the cottages. This is where the lobster bake was the night before the wedding.




Here, Ezra and I are on "our beach"...can you find us? (We could see this view while lying in bed...Oh Maine, I do love you.)


Jill made us work super hard all week. Like, we had to spend time walking the beach and collecting gorgeous rocks to be used as center pieces. It was rough work...but someone had to do it. :)


This beach was probably our favorite places to be. Well, this and the cutting garden...but that will have to wait for another post. We would just throw rocks into the water and Ezra would laugh when they splashed.




Ezra spent lots of time calling people on his rock phone...


...and licking the salt off of rocks...


...and smiling really big...how could one not?






...I think being next to dada is one of his favorite places to be...

Meet Seamus!

While we were in the northeast, we got to meet a very sweet little man...Seamus (Shay-mus) Patrick, son of our dear friends Will and Orla...both of whom I met while studying abroad in Ireland.

Here they are after our outing to the park...


And, here is Seamus after the walk home...

Andover Adventures!

While we were in Boston, we got to spend an afternoon/evening with our friends Peter and Claire, and their daughter, Ellen.

Just to share a fun little history... Ryan and Cameron met Peter and Claire when they were busking at Fanieul Hall in Boston. (I may not have the order of details right, but Ryan is in the other room, and I'm too lazy to get up and ask him... so I'll just share my version of the story.) Later during the busking season, Peter came back and saw them playing again and asked Ryan and Cameron to come back to his place for drinks. Ryan, being the cautious man he is, instead suggested they go to a public place (you never know who is a creep and who is just plain nice!) so they went to a pub and became fast friends...Ryan and Cameron played at their wedding...and we try to get together whenever we are in the area to see them...

Claire is from France and teaches French at Phillips Andover Academy (a boarding school just outside of Boston). It's a sweet deal. They live on campus for FREE in a massive "apartment", as do all of the other faculty members. They can eat all of their meals for free in the cafeteria (along with their co-workers and their families). Basically, they are paid to live on a commune of sorts...how great is that??!!

Peter is from Germany and works at MIT and can take the commuter rail in and then bikes from North Station. He is a crystalographer. I wish I knew what that meant. I am pretty sure hit means he takes photos of crystals...although, probably much more complex than I am making it sound like.

And Ellen, is three and totally tri-lingual. It's ultra impressive to see her float between the three languages all within one conversation.

Claire, Ellen, Ryan, Ezra, and Peter:


Ezra making friends with the ducks...


The geese on the other hand were not too interested in his company...


Peter was the dragonfly whisperer...


All of us post-dinner...

home sweet home...

We made it home safe and sound after 15 hours of travel today.

3.5 hour drive from Rockport, ME to Boston Logan Airport

2 hour wait at the airport

6 hour flight from BOS to PHX

1 hour to get bags, retrieve car from parking, etc.

2 hour drive from PHX to Tucson...

and the final half hour goes under miscellaneous (a.k.a. stopping at Culver's for our first butter burger experience :)

Oh, and did I mention that we were just traveling within the United States?

I think this means we are ready for some international family travel. Feel free to let me know if you'd like to fund such an adventure. :)

I have lots of fun photos from our time in Boston/Cambridge/Andover and Rockport yet to share...but it might take a few days as we settle back into home life here.

Second City

Ryan and Cameron made a music video for their song Second City. Cameron, being the artist that he is, did all of the drawing. And Ryan, being the computer guru that he is, did all of the editing.

Enjoy!

Friends...

I haven't done the best job taking photos of all my adventures with friends over the past week. I think it's because when Ryan is touring, I feel the need to be hyperfocused on Ezra (don't want him to fall into the pit of the train tracks, you know), so therefore, no photos get taken.

Yesterday however we met up with a friend and her kids at a park, and there were no train tracks in sight, so I was able to snap a few shots! :)

Teresa and I met in grad school. She was actually the very very first person I met at orientation. We studied different things and only ever had one class together, but we remained good friends.

Her daughter, Ava, is almost 5 and was soo into Ezra. In fact she was going around the park saying, "Brother Ezra this way".


And her son, James is 9 weeks old. I got to here all about her home-birth. So peaceful.


Oh, and I want to give a shout out to the Ceremsak/Lindsay family that we are staying with. They have been sooo helpful with Ezra! It took him a few days to warm up to them, but now they are all quite good friends. Ezra has been showing off a lot of his new dance skills. My favorite is when he bends his knees really low and stays there while swaying back and forth. :)

Here are Ezra and Lisa watching a music video. I love how pudgy his cheeks look in this photo.