An Ode to Friendship

The first week of November, Dan had to go out of town for about five days. Since this was about two weeks before our baby girl was due, I was pretty nervous about being at home by myself. My friend Kristine flew out from Utah to spend the week with me so I wouldn't have to be all by myself.
One of the things that we did was visit old Wethersfield outside of Hartford. Every place has some kind of bizarre things, but I think that only in New England would you get a display like this. Historical figures as scarecrows.

Here are Alyssa and Kristine's daughter, Katey. This was Kristine's first trip out to the East coast, so I wanted her to see as many quintessential New England things as possible.

It turns out that most things in Wethersfield were closed because it was Monday, so we went up to Hartford. A lot of things in Hartford were closed, too, so we took a walk down by the capitol building.

Here are Kristine and Katey. She made my week without Dan fun, and like she has so many times before, she supported me. And she didn't complain when our planned trip to New York was canceled by false labor. In fact, she laughed at me for feeling badly about it. Love ya, Kristine!

Strawberry Banke & Portsmouth

On a recent interview in New Hampshire (or New Hampster according to Alyssa) I had a chance to visit Strawberry Banke. Now a museum, it was the first settlement in the state. The oldest standing building was built in 1695. It is the dark brown house on the right of the picture below, next to the flag.
Below is a peek throught the entrance of the children's garden at Strawberry Banke.
The town is now Portsmouth. Below is one of the current houses. I was fortunate enough to be in New Hampshire at the peak of fall foliage.

Below are pictures of a church in the middle of town and one of the main streets. If you are ever in southern Maine or the New Hampshire coast it is worth a stop to look at the shops and architecture.

Halloween Fun

Halloween happens to top Dan's list of best holidays. Unfortunately for him, this year he was leaving for conference on top of having a very pregnant wife. While we always seem to have grandiose plans for celebrating Halloween, we fell quite short this year. But we were still able to do a few things to make the holiday special for Alyssa.

We asked her for several weeks before acquiring a costume what she wanted to be for Halloween. She consistently said "a doggy". When asked what mommy and daddy should be she also said "doggy". Dan and I didn't dress up, but we did have an adorable little dalmatian complete with tail.

This is Dan's handiwork. Several months ago he bought a cupcake decorating book for me. It is safe to say he has used it more than me. He made these werewolf cupcakes for his fellow residents and for his Sunday school kids. Everyone was notably impressed. Some people didn't believe he had made them.

Here we are at the ward trunk or treat. I think she was annoyed that we kept asking her to say trick or treat. But she did like the decorations, and of course, the candy.

Fall Festival

A couple of weeks ago we went to the local Fall Festival. We learned that a horse drawn hay ride should always be the last thing we do at a festival. We got to hear "Horsey ride again." over and over. It was a nice day and a beautiful setting.

The high school reptile club also provided Alyssa with a fun experience.
After a few cookies and pumpkin cider, we went home. Fall is the best season in New England.

Connecticut in the Fall

It seems like since we returned from the West our blog posts have dried up somewhat. Dan went back to work, I went back to work, and I have been rather sick on top of being near the end of my pregnancy. But we have still managed to get out and enjoy some of the things that we love about autumn in Connecticut.

This first picture is from Lighthouse Point. Alyssa seems to have gotten over her aversion to sand and being dirty. I think she played with her little bucket and shovel for over an hour and a half.

We love Bishop's Orchard. They have various pick your own seasons throughout the year, and a great little store. This is our first visit to their pumpkin patch. After reading a story about pumpkins and Halloween from the library, Alyssa has been enthralled with pumpkins.

She had a really hard time choosing just one pumpkin to take home. We asked her which one she liked. She ran to one close at hand, and then continued moving her way up the row, pointing out about every other one. She was a little sad to only be taking home one pumpkin.

Dan loves to take Alyssa raspberry picking. I unfortunately have not been able to actually go with them, but here are some great pictures of Alyssa enjoying the time with her dad.

The first time they went, she did a really good job of putting the berried into the bucket. Now she tends to just eat them as soon as she picks them. Maybe that's why she is sticking her tongue out, in anticipation of the delicious juicy taste!

Toddler / Doggie Wars

I have been working a ton and Marie isn't feeling great at 8 months of pregnant. That is part of the reason we have been behind on our blog (there may be several posts in close succession soon to catch up).

Then Marie got a cold. With me at work, and Marie sick on the couch, the occasional Doggie Toddler battles flared into a war on Friday. Marie lay helpless while the struggle wore on 3 hours. Here is a run down of the usually flash points. They have a good understanding of the division of toys with a few exceptions.

Tennis balls: We have seven of them, but at times Alyssa decides she needs all of them (to intentionally bother Sophia). She will pile them all on the bed, cover them with a blanket, and then throw herself over them. Sophia will fixate on getting the one tennis ball the was chewing on and none of the others will substitute.

Cloth ring: A toy Phil gave to Sophia as a puppy. Alyssa likes to pretend it is a steering wheel for an imaginary car.

Anything white and fluffy: A few people have given Alyssa white stuffed animals. This just doesn't work out. Sophia claims anything white and fluffy as hers. Maybe because she is white and fluffy? Who knows what that dog is thinking. Alyssa has pretty much given these up.

Anything Alyssa is eating. It doesn't matter where (Sophia's mouth can reach the table). It doesn't even matter if Sophia really wants it or not. If Alyssa has it, Sophia wants it. All it takes is a second of distraction on Alyssa's part and the food is gone.

The toy girrafe: This is the funniest. It's Alyssa's toy but one day she wanted to play with Sophia's duck. Marie had her offer the Girrafe in trade. It worked, but now (weeks later) Sophia refuses to acknowledge that the trade was temporary (although she still plays with the duck). Tonight I put Alyssa's toys away and moved them into her room. Sophia tipped over the toy basket and got out the Girrafe. She then took her duck and dropped it off in Alyssa's room.

Alyssa's offense generally consits of running away with Sophia's toys and hiding them. Also she slaps Sophia when she gets mad (this does not phase the dog). Sophia's offense involves quickly stealing Alyssa's stuff when she is distracted. As a last resort a mild scratch to the arm does the trick every time. We try to limit the conflict, but it often ends in barking and tears. Of course they completely love each other.

Albuquerque Part 2

The last day in Albuquerque Alyssa and I tried to see as much as we could before starting the long drive back to Phoenix.

Our first stop was the Natural History Museum. This is Alyssa in the lobby by the T-Rex. She looked at it for a while, then started walking hunched over. When I asked her what she was doing, she said in as deep a voice as she could manage, "Walk like a dinosaur." Every so often, she still walks like a dinosaur.

This was one of Alyssa's favorite rooms. Have I mentioned she is obsessed with water? There were sharks and sea stars in a tank, and fossils and replicas of aquatic creatures. I had a hard time getting her to leave so we could see the rest of the museum.

I had heard about a train that made an hour long loop between the zoo and the botanical gardens. Little did I know that in waiting for the train, we would also see the spot where the world's largest trout had been caught. Don't you just love random things like that? Alyssa really liked the fish. She kept running over to touch it.

And here we are on the train. Alyssa wanted to ride in the red car, so we did. There were two tunnels, which she absolutely loved. After the train we picked Dan up and headed back to Phoenix. The ride home wasn't quite as smooth as the ride out, but we made it! Then of course, in keeping with our crazy summer, less than 48 hours later we were in Las Vegas.

Sandia Peak Tramway

So, our first full day in Albuquerque was ended by visiting the Sandia Peak Tramway. Part of it was my attempt to make sure Dan got to experience something other than interviewing. Part of it was realizing I had never ridden a cable car before, and what a great chance to try it out! Truth be told, I bought this pack of travel books for Alyssa from Ikea, and one of them talked about cable cars. When I heard there was one in Albuquerque, I really wanted to ride on it.

There are a couple of things you should know about this tramway. It is 2.7 miles long, and has a vertical rise of 3,819 feet to acheive a total elevation of 10,378 feet.

What I discovered is that I am terrified of cable cars. Sure, I can stand at the edge of a cliff and not feel terribly nervous. But suspend me in a swinging car moving on a single cable over jagged rocks hundreds of feet below....not really my idea of a good time. And of course, my fearless daughter wanted ME to hold her up to look out the windows.

Still, the views from the top were gorgeous. At least I rode the world's longest aerial tramway, so any other one should seem like a piece of cake.

Albuquerque Part I

Dan recently mentioned our shuttle run to Albuquerque from Phoenix. Dan had some interviews in Albuquerque that he was supposed to fly out to. Unfortunately for us, all the rental cars in Albuquerque had been taken up by attendees of some kind of environmental conference. So, we had a last minute road trip. I don't know that I would recommend road trips with a toilet-training toddler. Alyssa did a pretty good job, though.

As usually happens, Alyssa and I were able to see more of the town than Dan. This is the entrance to the old town. Alyssa loved it, because there was a fountain. I thought it was a little strange, because the fountain water was actually dyed an unnatural shade of blue.


This is the front of the old Spanish style church in the main plaza of old town. Old town is a great place to find interesting jewelry and artwork. Unfortunately for me, that doesn't interest Alyssa as much, so we ended up going to the Children's Museum. Albuquerque museums were actually quite impressive in their quality.

Here are some highlights from our museum trip. Alyssa loved watching the colored balls move through this intricate maze.

Her fascination with water met this great fountain that had water shooting from the sides and the center. It made it look like the water was bouncing. We spent a long time by the fountain. And we kept revisiting it. Again. And again. And.....well, again.

I just love this picture. There was a long tube lined with mirrors that created a kaleidoscope effect. Alyssa could see me reflected at her end, and I could see her reflected at my end. I loved how this museum really let the children experience applications of scientific principles. We had a great time exploring.

Stay tuned for more Albuquerque adventures!

Dolphins in Vegas

After a surprise last minute trip to Albuquerque, we flew out to Las Vegas for a few days. The group I was interviewing with put us up in top floor of the nicest hotel I have ever been in.Alyssa liked the bed.

Unfortunately we were so tired from the Albuquerque "shuttle run" style trip earlier that week (Marie will blog about that one later), that we didn't get out and enjoy Vegas as much as we could have. We did however get to see the dolphins at the Mirage. Alyssa loved it.Back at the hotel she combined her two highlights from the trip by taking her toy dolphin onto the bed and jumping on the bed and yelling "Jump like a dolphin!" We caught a clip of this on video:

The Heard Museum

We were really looking forward to visiting the Heard Museum when we were in Phoenix. We were really lucky to visit on a day when they had some special performances and events at the museum.


Alyssa tried her hand at grinding corn.


The Inuit art was extremely exquisite. Here is one of our favorite pictures.


Dan really enjoyed the kachinas. Here are some examples of his favorites.


One of the highlights was seeing a H0pi dance performance. It even put Alyssa in a kind of trance.

Phoenix Childrens Museum

One of our favorite things to do in a new place is to take Alyssa to the Children's Museum. Her favorite part of the Phoenix Children's Museum was the room for 3 and under. It was a busy day when we went, and I think she felt a little overwhelmed in the areas with the older children. Here are pictures of some of her favorite activities.


Alyssa is always happy with dogs around. Pressing the button resulted in a dog barking. She loved it.


Balls. Another of her favorite toys. Notice that balls and dogs also go together.

Her exclamations of "Pretty! Pretty!" rang out as she "planted" the flowers outside the child size house.

At this point, I think the San Antonio Children's Museum was still our favorite.

Simple Pleasures

I really try to find new and interesting things to show Alyssa, both to keep her entertained and to introduce her to new experiences. Not that I feel my efforts are wasted, but it is interesting to see the fun that she creates for herself. Here is one game that she loves to play at the condo we are staying at in Scottsdale.

She has also invented a game we call "run to dolphin". In its simplest form, Dan or I sit on the couch holding her stuffed animal dolphin, she backs up as far as she can, and then runs top speed to collide with the couch and her dolphin. She has also recently invented "walking backwards" and "walk like a dinosaur". Stay tuned for images and video!

Old Town Scottsdale

Does anyone else feel like the are always playing catchup with their blog? We came out to Phoenix almost three weeks ago, and I'm just now getting to Phoenix pictures.

We love Old Town Scottsdale. There is a great mix of art galleries, jewelry stores and Old West inspired themes. We love to stroll around. This was Alyssa's first trip to this part of Scottsdale. The second picture is of Alyssa picking out her favorite polished rocks at one of the souvenir shops. We finished off this great, albeit very HOT evening with a trip to the Sugarbowl.

Paper Crown Princess

Alyssa seems to be drawn to jewelry at a very young age. Even at Target when we walk by the jewelry counter she runs over, presses her face up to the class, and declares, "Pretty! Pretty!" So I thought it would be fun to make some paper jewelry at home. For whatever reason, the only thing she actually wanted to wear was the crown. Here she is surveying our living room from her perch on the couch, studying up on different kinds of dinosaurs. I love what an eclectic mix of interests she has!

Catch up. More Florida pictures

Now two months late I'll finish off with a few pictures from our Florida trip. After Key West, I went to a meeting in Miami. Marie took Alyssa to the Seaquarium and a mall while I was busy. Then we had a day and a half at the end see the sights. We each picked one thing to see and then at the end of the trip took alyssa to the Zoo. Marie picked the Vizcaya, a mansion built to look like a renaissance Italian villa. I was happy with that because I like architecture, and because it is named after one of the provinces where I used to live in the Basque country. They didn't allow pictures inside, so here are a few from the grounds:

My pick was a fan boat ride in the everglades. Marie was less thrilled with my pick but was kind and indulged me. The water level was low so the gators were all concentrated near the streams. There were dozens of them. Whenever we stopped, the big ones would head toward the boat to check things out until we got moving again. We got stuck in the mud on the way back and everyone had to stand on the front of the boat to rock us out. A poor british woman was pretty scared. It was great fun.

Oh yeah, now at swim lessons Alyssa always picks the alligator squeaky toy to play with.