A video

Hey, I finally got a video to upload!

I think maybe the one I was trying to do last weekend was just too long. This one is a little shorter.




I may still write an actual post later, if I have time. But here's this video at least for those of you who have been requesting one.

A visit, a hike and a trip

I've tried and tried this weekend to get a video to upload, and it just won't go. So here are some photos instead. We finally had a chill weekend at home this weekend, and it felt good. Two weekends ago, The Jenson's came up. They rented a house out in Oskar, and it was fun to hang out with them. For some reason we did not take very many photos though. We have a really great video of Willow and Grandpa Jack doing a puzzle, but oh well. Here is a photo instead, of Grandpa, Josh and Willow.

















That Sunday, after the Jenson's got on the road, we decided to do a hike from our book. The weather was beautiful - summer-like, really - for a couple weeks. It was a great day for a little hike. This one was just outside of town, at the Paavola wetlands.





















We walked by a swamp that used to be farmland back in the day. Apparently a beaver dam flooded the land. Here's Josh and Willow with the pond/swamp in the background. You can see one of the beaver dams too.

















Of course I had to take a photo of some fungi.

















Here's me by the old stone wall that used to mark the edge of some field on the farm (according to our book).






















Then we came upon the old farmstead. Willow did fall asleep for part of the hike, but she woke up when we stopped at this awesome apple tree. We picked about 20 good apples. We've been eating them since - they weren't just good-for-baking apples, but actual good apples you can eat plain. We'll definitely head back there around this time next year.































Here's Willow on the trail.



















Then last weekend, my mom, Willow and I took a trip to Minnesota. I had a training for work in Saint Cloud on Tuesday, so I decided to bring mom and Willow and visit my Grandpa Zip, who lives near St. Cloud. We left on Saturday, and spent Saturday night in Duluth. We met up with Sharon and went to the zoo. It was a special Halloween event at the zoo, and it was a madhouse. Still, it was a beautiful day (again), and we had fun walking around with the stroller. Willow was a ladybug.

















Here's a ladybug riding a ladybug.
















The next day we went to Great-Grandpa Zip's house. Some aunts, uncles and cousins stopped by too, and it was great to see everyone. I didn't get any decent pictures of WIllow with Great Grandpa Zip...my mom got this one, which isn't great, but it's the best we've got.

The night before my seminar, we stayed in the Holiday Inn in St. Cloud, which had a great kiddie pool, Willow had a blast! I thought this picture was cute.

















Willow went to the doctor last week for a check-up. She is 23 pounds now, and 33 inches tall. Her blood pressure was nice and low, which was good to see. She's been having these tummyaches lately, and icky poop (sorry if that is TMI). I'm sort of worried. The doctor's theory is maybe Willow needs probiotics...maybe since she had so many antibiotics when she was in the NICU, her gut doesn't have enough of the good bacteria. So, I ordered some online...we'll see if it helps. Here are a couple photos of Willow and Dada from around the house this weekend.

Two weddings

In the past few weeks some of our very good friends have gotten married, and we have had a LOT of fun. The first wedding was my college friend Sharon. Sharon and I lived down the hall from each other freshman year, then we lived together three more years in college, and then we lived together for couple years in Jackson Hole too. She married a super awesome guy, Andy, who we knew in college. We are so happy for them! They got married in Duluth, in September, on the beach. Against all odds, the weather was 80 and sunny. It was amazingly awesome. Josh and I brought Willow to Duluth, and stayed in a waterpark hotel with Mark, Amy and baby Ava. Jack and Jean came down from Hastings to visit, and to babysit the two girls while we partied it up on the beach! It was a really, really fun wedding, and weekend in general.

Many of our old, dear friends from Jackson came up for the wedding. It was so great to see them again! It made me realize how much I miss all of them...*sniff*. This was at the "groom's dinner" the night before the wedding at a super cool Duluth restaurant called the Zeitgeist.

All the JH gals (plus Ava):
















It's hard to take a camera into a water park, what with all the water splashing everywhere and trying to prevent your kid from drowning or getting trampled by 12-year-old boys. This was the best one we got.















Willow did enjoy herself, though it was a little intimidating for her. Above everything there was this huge bucket. It had a stream of water constantly flowing into it, and when it got to a certain level, it would go, "ding ding ding ding" in warning, and then the bucket would tip over, gushing water over everyone within like a 20-foot radius. Willow was both terrified of and fascinated with "the bucket". She is still talking about it.

Here's the bride and groom during the ceremony. Aren't they cute?
















Here's me and Sharon:





















They had two really fun bands at the reception. This one was called "too Many Banjos" They really made you want to get up and dance (and we did)!

















The very next weekend (actually, we left on Thursday), we left Willow with my parents and headed to Keene, New Hampshire for another wedding - Seth and Beth, our friends who live here. They met in college in Keene which is why they got married there. It was so great to have a kid-free getaway! We stayed at a bed and breakfast, a first for both of us. It was so relaxing and chill. We did a lot of relaxing, and apparently I did a lot of reading - I read three books on this trip. What a luxury to sit on the plane and read and read and not be interrupted!

Seth and Beth got married on this really cool farm, and the reception was inside this huge old barn:
















Here are some pics of us with the bride and groom:































The day after the wedding, Seth the historian brought a bunch of us out to see this really cool old meeting hall in the nearby town of Jaffrey. My favorite part was the cemetery out back. I love old cemeteries. This one was really old, with some of the graves from the Revolutionary war days. This one was one of the oldest ones we saw. The stones were still in really good shape, with the writing crisp and clear. It seems like all the older graves in the Copper Country are made of this white stone that sort of wears away over time and the writing is hard to read. I'm no geologist...someone said these were made of slate.















The next day, Josh and I headed for Boston, where our flight was leaving at 5 in the evening. So we had a few hours to spend in Boston. We walked around the Boston harbor and ate at a restaurant called Legal Seafood. We saw huge yachts in the harbor that must've belonged to celebrities or CEOs of huge corporations. We did a little shopping. Here's a pic of us with Boston in the background.
















I know this post hasn't shown enough photos of Willow! Here are a couple to leave you with.

With her backpack on. She loves wearing it - I guess it makes her feel like a big kid.




















Here are the two daddies with their girls. I know - Margot is bigger than Willow. Actually, she is still shorter than Willow - I think she just looks even bigger in this photo because of the angle of the camera or something. But I do think she's caught up to Willow in weight. She is 7 months old.