Oh, what do you do in the summer time?

A record of how we've passed our summer--so far:

Pool time

 We are really grateful that our good friends Dan and Hilary live in Durham for the time being.  We are also really grateful that their apartment complex has a great pool.  We take advantage of it at least 3 times a week.  Emmett likes the pool--more or less.  Sometimes he would rather be crawling around the pool and putting rocks in his mouth than actually playing in the water.  But he has a fun time playing motor boat and airplane; and he absolutely loves the green ball that Dan and Hil bought him.

 Dan is lots of fun in the pool.  He is great with Emmett, and Dan and Clark are always entertaining everyone by creating new pool games and challenges.

Youth Activities

 There is never a shortage of activities going on with the youth.  I got to spend an afternoon and evening up at girls camp with these lovely girls.  They swam in the pool, then we did bubble art and practiced our skit.  They were pretty cute spirit fairies that evening for skit night and were pretty fabulous dancers at the spontaneous dance party that happened afterward.  Sure do love these girls.

 Molly, our wonderful camp director with us day campers JoAnne, Ruth, me.

We had a blast at our combined YM/YW activity last month.  But seriously, what do you where when you go ice-skating in June?  

Visit from Pop-Pop

 My Dad had some business obligations in Richmond a few weeks ago but woke up early to drive down to Durham and spend the morning with us.  It was so great to have him here for a few hours.  Emmett had a great time showing off his tricks and playing with his Grandpa.

 Sporting Pop-Pop's glasses and taking pictures with the iPad.

 A quick bite to eat at Scratch.  All of my big talking set some pretty high expectations for my dad.  I think at least some of the items he tasted made it worthwhile.

July the 4th

 My favorite holiday always makes me a little homesick.  Utah and Idaho both put on awesome 4th of July celebrations.  While I love Durham, there isn't a ton going on for Independence Day.  We wore our red, white and blue and got together with some friends for a bbq and pool party.  Eating burgers, potato salad and watermelon always makes me happy to be an American.  That evening, Clark had to work and Emmett went to bed at seven, so I had to settle for listening to the fireworks from my couch.  :)

Festival for the Eno

 The first Saturday in July we decided to check out the Festival for the Eno.  It was a HOT day, so we only lasted about 3 hours; but we had a good time checking out the booths, listening to a variety of live music groups and eating some tasty food.

 This is where you go to make your shirt look wet with water rather than sweat...

 One of the bands we really enjoyed--complete with a wash tub base.  The musicians were a bit eccentric but talented, and the music was entertaining.

Outdoor concert in the rain

 Vaughn and Mags came up last week to join us at the Andrew Bird concert held at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  The storms in the early afternoon had cooled down the broiling temperatures, and it looked like we were in for a lovely outdoor concert.  And so it was...for about 15 minutes.  Then it rained and rained and rained.  Luckily we were well-prepared with blankets and umbrellas, and we were fortunate to have found seats on the wood benches rather than the ground.  I was surprised by how many people weren't prepared for potentially rainy conditions.  It worked in our favor though because as crowds headed for shelter, we were able to move around a bit and get pretty decent seats.  The music was phenomenal.  Andrew Bird is an amazing artist and musician.

My goofy (rather wet) date.

11 months

11-month stats
21 pounds
29 inches
7 teeth (4 top, 3 bottom)

Emmett has been so happy [mostly] and fun these last few weeks.  He's playful, loves to laugh, isn't really scared of strangers and certainly has no fear of leaving mom's sight.  Last week I took him to the church with me and during my meeting he crawled out the door and into the hall and all the way to the gym where he found a basketball without being remotely concerned about my whereabouts.

Food
Emmett loves scrambled eggs, pancakes, cheese and bread.  For a while, I was a little stressed out about how I was going to get my now self-feeding baby to eat fruits and veggies.  At first, spinach ravioli was his only source of veggies and he ate it every night for dinner; but we've slowly been branching out, and I think we're making good progress.  Now he eats cheesy broccoli nuggets, roasted sweet potato, roasted carrots, and tuna noodle casserole with peas.  He's also been letting me spoon feed him yogurt, applesauce and fruit purees.  He insists on eating (or at least tasting) anything his parents are eating.   He drinks from his sippy cup at a dramatic 90 degree angle, which usually gets him more water than he's prepared for.  He's a happy boy, especially when he's got a full tummy. 

Sleep
Emmett goes to bed between 7-8 p.m. and wakes up pretty consistently between 6:30-7 a.m.  He's generally been taking great naps lately--one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  He goes down well after a song and a snuggle.  He figured out how to remove the teething guard rails from the crib, so they are currently fastened with cable ties.  My very favorite time with Emmett is his 7 p.m. feeding.  After a full day of play and a tummy of warm milk, this boy smiles, sighs and crawls up to put his head on my shoulder where we rock and snuggle for a few minutes before putting him in his crib.  They are sweet, happy mommy moments.

Play
This boy loves balls.  He's got a dozen of them and spends much of the day throwing them around and chasing after them.  I think it's safe to say that "ball" is Emmett's first word.  It's pronounced more like "ba" but is the first sound that is definitely associated with a specific object.
"Ba" is also his word for "book."  We read lots and lots of books during the course of a day.  Emmett knows the routine of dragging or pushing a book over to mom (or dad) and then climbing up on my lap.
Emmett likes to play with the blocks that cousin Boyd gave him for Christmas.  He knows how to make a tower two or three blocks high.  Other favorite toys include the insert to the angel food cake pan and the salad spinner.
I don't know whether it's just the NC humid heat or if this kid just plays really hard, but he is a sweaty little boy.  The back of his hairline is always damp, particularly after playing a few rounds of chase with mom or dad.

Tricks
Emmett can show you what a fishy does and tell you what a dog says.  He recently discovered peek-a-boo, which is very fun.  He sometimes walks on his knees, and he's started experimenting with taking real steps without the support of the couch or chair.  He doesn't make it more than a few steps, but we're not too far away from a full-fledged walker.  He's got an uncanny ability to roll his tongue--he can seriously roll his tongue as he breathes both in and out.  I tried to do it for a bit today and failed completely.

As you can tell, we sure do love our little Emmett.  We'll wrap up with a little video clip of Emmett acting unusually hyper in the bath tub.  The clip really only captures a portion of the energy he was displaying!  Our favorite part is the face he makes after dipping his face in the water.

Bow ties and Babies

A good theme can make for very fun shower planning, and we had a great time putting together this celebration.  This shower was for Hilary and little boy Magleby.   After a pregnancy like this one, Hilary deserved a major celebration!  We used a bow tie theme with various shades of blue and pops of orange and green.  And pinwheels, too, just because they are fun.

I borrowed my friends Cricut, which made for simplified decoration prep.

Mini bbq chicken sandwiches and oriental bow tie pasta salad

Bow tie kabobs

Hello dollies and lemon bars--plated argyle style.

Brownie bites with almond creme

Diaper cake (made by Lisa)

Bow tie napkins

Lime punch

Bow tie sugar cookies

Griffin--our shower mascot

Who's that baby?  Not many guests brought pictures, but I thought it was a very fun activity that also doubled as decorations.

Gifts, games and conversation.

I was using a box cutter to prep the dowels that the pinwheels were attached to when it slipped and sliced my hand.  It probably could have used a stitch or two, but there wasn't time for that when guests were coming in 30 minutes.  :)  We had a friend bring some dermabond, and Clark fixed me up when I got home.  

Hostesses and Momma-to-be:  Kellie, Hilary, Jenny and me.

Say "YES!" to Michigan

Ever since we traveled to Chile and revisited parts of my mission, Clark has been wanting to get up to Detroit to show off his missionary stomping grounds.  When our good friends moved to Columbus, that gave us one more reason to jump in the car and head out on a road trip.  

Editor's note:  The red comments are me, Clark.  I told my wife I would write this blog, since it's my trip to visit my mission. I put it off and so finally Amy just did it herself.  I am apologizing to my wife and to you, our friends and blog readers.  Amy is the best.  She shouldn't have had to write this herself.  I will do better.

Our first stint was an 8-hour drive to Columbus where we got to spend a couple of days with the Mudrick fam.  Emmett is an okay traveler, though not nearly as good as he's been on previous trips.  Even with high quality entertainment from his parents (we're talking full on Disney medleys with Clark doing all the voices), the scowl of displeasure at being strapped in a car seat rarely left his face.  I suppose in a few more years he'll learn to appreciate his father's entertainment value.  I really was knocking it out of the park.  My impersonations were perfect, as was my pitch and comedic timing.   Emmett would just look at us with a look that said, "Oh, you think it's cool to just force me to sit in my carseat and not be able to get out and crawl around?  I will show you.  I control how much you'll be able to sleep tonight.  I will cry all night long.  That will teach you."  And he did.  But seriously, if you ever need a perfect reenactment of the middle 20 minutes of Disney's Jungle Book, just ask me.

The Mudrick's showed us a good time in Columbus, and we enjoyed spending time with Dan, Rebecca and their 4 monkeys.  One of our outings took us downtown for free Friday fun.  We rode the carousel, played on giant air toys and then played in the fountains.  Emmett was a little hesitant at first but was soon crawling all over and having a good ol' time.  

Crawling on the cement inspired a three-legged crawl and an attempt at the bear walk.

Emmett was rather indifferent to his first carousel ride, but his daddy was sure excited!  I was.  How often do you get to ride a carousel with your 9 month old son?  he really didn't care though.  Not that he didn't like it, but I don't think he loved it either.  He was sort of grumpy most of the trip, looking back.

Their trampoline was a favorite.  Emmett did love the trampoline.  He loved being bounced. He loved the static electricity.  He loved wrestling.  He was pretty happy on the trampoline.

My favorite, on the other hand, was a delightful place called Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.  Absolutely amazing.  AMAZING.  Amy got a flavor that tasted exactly like fruit loops.

We then continued our adventure up north.  We stopped in Ann Arbor and at Dan's recommendation also at Zingerman's.  We shared a dozen samples and ate a pretty fabulous reuben sandwich.  Mmmm.  It was the second best Reuben sandwich I have ever had right behind Arby's new Reuben sandwich.

Next stops were Mount Morris and Flint, with a burger from Halo Burger (though this cool downtown location closed early and we had to seek out a different one).  This Halo Burger fed my district of missionaries every Tuesday for lunch between December and August of 2002.  Lots of fond memories.

On Sunday we attended one of Clark's old inner-city branches, which has since become a ward.  This building is an old Roman Catholic Cathedral right in the heart of Detroit.  It fits probably 3000-5000 people, but sometimes it would only house 10-25 on any given Sunday when I first started.  This sunday, there were about 150 people, probably.  I have great fondness for Palmer Park.

That afternoon we drove through another of Clark's areas and over to the temple.  The contrast of the different towns Clark showed me is pretty unreal.  Upon returning from our trip, Clark showed me an article that listed Flint and Detroit as the two most dangerous cities in the U.S.  (We stayed in a hotel that was NOT in one of those two cities.)

Later that evening we headed to Mexican town in Detroit for dinner at El Pueblo.  Our Big-Gulp size horchata was delicious and the tacos were super tasty--until the next day or two when we both got rather sick.  The food was delicious and I don't know if it was the food's fault, but I haven't puked as much as I did the next morning since I was a kid.

This little guy was adorable, as always, though he did leave a bit of a mess on the floor.  I love Stinky Memmett.  He is an awesome dude.  Look how big he is eating handfuls of spanish rice.

Monday we hung out at the hotel for the morning, swam a little, and Clark tried to recover from the previous' nights tacos.  Then we headed to downtown Detroit to explore.  Not enough has been said about the pool at the hotel.  We stayed at a pretty nice hotel with an indoor pool, so we thought it would be fun for Emmett to be able to swim for awhile.  The water was ice cold and I was the one who got to get in and motorboat Emmett around for half an hour while Amy sat on the side of the pool and stayed warm.

On our way over to Greek Town we passed the old city hall building.  We were admiring the building when we noticed the for sale sign in front.  I love Detroit.  It's beautiful.  It was once referred to as "Little Paris."  The architecture is unique and lovely.  But it is run down and sad.  I hope one day someone will hold to answers to its revitalization.

For lunch we headed to a spot featured on Man vs Food to try rivaling coney island hot dogs.

We enjoyed walking through a cool urban garden and also did a little exploring on Belle Isle.  Unfortunately, not much is open on this potentially beautiful isle on Mondays, so we mostly just played in one of the parks for a bit.

We made it back to Columbus for another couple of days where we explored the North Market, jumped on the tramp with the monkeys (this is what Rebecca calls her sons, we did not actually jump on a trampoline with monkeys), went for walks, etc.  We really had such a good time seeing our friends and are grateful they were willing to put us up at their house, entertain us, and both make and introduce us to delicious food.

Rebecca was kind enough to watch Emmett for a day, while Clark and I got back in the car and headed to Cedar Point.  He had a much better time with her and the boys and the dog and the toys than he would have had with us.  We rode some pretty insane roller coasters including the Dragster, Millennium Force, Maverick and Magnum XL-200.  It was perfect weather, there was plenty of great people-watching to fill the time we spent in line, and our 30-something year old bodies held up rather well--expect for Clark's near-nervous breakdown while waiting to ride Millennium Force.  :)  I actually love roller coasters.  But I also have a crippling fear of heights.  I can't explain how these feelings coexist, but they do.  I love the ride, but am terrified of the suspense in waiting to ride the ride and the slow ascent to the top.  

A view of the Dragster in the background.  The ride goes 0-120 mph in 4 seconds.  I couldn't even get a scream out, we were going to fast!

Our trip was an overall success, despite the many hours in the car and minor bout of food poisoning.  The Harry Potter 7 audiobook kept us entertained during the 25+ hours we spent in the car, even though we failed to successfully entertain our 10-month old.  But we won't give up.