July 4th in Lansing

We were so happy to be able to fly up to Lansing, MI to visit Scott, Karri, Hudson & Kyan (& Ella!) for the 4th of July. Edie got to meet her Aunt, Uncle and cousins for the very first time. We made our own sushi, completed many puzzles, played a lot of Battleship, made s'mores, went swimming, went shopping and so much more!

Posts on the GO!

David & I finally made our way into the 21st century this week and got..... iPhones!!

As such, you will likely be seeing many more posts "on the go"!

I started an album on Edie's Picasa page for mobile pictures. Check them out :)

Summer Photo Shoots

I have too much fun taking photos of Edie. I have literally thousands... and she's only been with us for less than 8 months!!

Her "Aunt Dana" gave her some adorable outfits from GAP which inspired our Sofie the Giraffe photo shoot.

Her Uncle Alex gave her a wolf howling at the moon shirt before she was even born. To better understand the power of this shirt, see the 1,586 5-star reviews on Amazon.com. Alex clearly understood that 3 wolves howling at the moon would just be too much for one baby to handle so he rightfully found a "one wolf howling" onesie. In the second photoshoot of the series, Edie is clearly workin' it in this sweet sweet onesie.

Visit to Richmond

My cousin, Lizzie, graduated from high school on June 15th and her sister, Amy, graduated from elementary school on June 16th. Edie & I were able to drive down to Richmond to celebrate with family! We had a great time and are so proud of Lizzie & Amy (and Emily, of course, but who still has a few more years until she graduates from high school!) :)

Trip to Atlanta!

Our dear friend Dana turned Dirt Old + 8 in June and her sister, Lauren, called me to see if I would come into town to help celebrate. I was delighted to have an excuse to come down! Edie & I had a fantabulous time and were able to see lots of friends & family. I wasn't the best about taking photographs so I'm hoping to supplement this album with help from others soon...

Catoctin "Mountain"

One nice weekend in May we drove out to MD to go for a hike with some good friends. We also tried out Edie's new luxury backpack. We assume she likes it because she fell asleep on the way up the hike and also on the way down. Must be comfy...

We had snacks at the top of Chimney Rock (gorgeous views). Edie hopped out and did some rock climbing. Even Baxter had a blast (though seemed totally exhausted when we got back home).

The trip ended with a very successful visit to Chick-fil-a where Edie enjoyed a bit of chicken and Mom & Dad enjoyed a banana pudding milkshake. Oh yes.

Visitors!

There are a lot of things we love about living in DC. One of them is that we get lots of visitors throughout the year. My roommate from college, Emily, came through for yet another conference at the end of May. Also, my friend Kemi, who I have known since middle school, came to DC to visit a few of her friends and stayed with us for one night!

I added a few pics from their visits to Edie's "Friends & Family" album that I originally posted here.

OBX 2011

We were fortunate to be able to spend almost an entire week in the Outer Banks this year. Our friend Derek bid on a large house in Corolla in a charity auction and so 8 of us enjoyed a few days in NC. It wasn't busy season yet so there was hardly anyone at the beach or in our neighborhood which meant it was so quiet and peaceful. We had pretty good weather the whole time though it was a bit chilly some days.

Edie loved the sand but wasn't a huge fan of the ocean water (in her defense, it was incredibly cold and only Amina was brave enough to swim in it).