October 2010 | NORTHasaurus

Jeremy, Carrie, and Mila-- oh my!

The weekend before last, we again got to spend some time catching up with some great friends.
Jeremy, Carrie, and Mila came to town for a laid back weekend of eating out, spending time around our townhouse, and seeing some sights. It was an unbelievably refreshing time catching up with them. Hopefully we'll be able to persuade them to head this way again in the not so distant future.
We had such fun chatting, eating out, visiting downtown, and just spending time with such old and dear friends.
North, it would seem has totally and completely given Mila his heart (in fact he only refers to her as "my Mila").

North, giving Mila a big hug while they both ride on the back of a stone bear at the zoo...

and while they ride on the back of a metal frog...

turned out that by far their favorite part of the zoo was not the actual animals but the fake, metal animals.

It was a wonderful wonderful weekend and we miss them already!

Happy Birthday Alan!

Quite recently Alan celebrated turning 1 more year older.
We filled the weekend with lots of fun things including:
a visit to Great Falls of the Potomac --a beautiful park not far from our house, where we enjoyed the unseasonably warm October weather on a hike and visit to the falls;

a tasty meal at food-network featured Comet Ping Pong (where of course we got in a couple of rounds of ping-pong after our pizza);

a trip downtown to some of the less crowded sights;

like the Jefferson memorial

and George Mason memorial

North also saw his first 3-D IMAX movie (Legend of the Guardians) which totally blew his mind. Since seeing the movie, he keeps putting on his sunglasses at home and running up to the tv in hopes that his movies will start popping out of the screen. Alan is using this as an argument that we need to purchase a 3-D tv. I'm not falling for it.

Visit from Grandma!

When the McGranahans headed back to Indiana we were all pretty bummed--but didn't have to be sad long... The very next weekend grandma came for a second visit! It was great getting to spend time with her. She kept North home from daycare with her for a few days which he loved, and watched him one evening giving Alan and me the rare opportunity for a date night. I didn't get many pictures but did snap one on a visit to the zoo and following her helping me to cut North's hair. It was a great visit!

zoo!

haircut!

visit with the McGs!

After getting home from Texas, we had the great pleasure of getting to catch up with our dear, dear friends the McGranahans when they made the trip out to Virginia to hang out with us in our new space! It was so wonderful getting to spend some time with them--not nearly enough of course!--but their visit went a long way in helping us cope with our "home"sickness for Indiana.
North absolutely loved having Lincoln around morning, noon, and night--I don't think either of them slept more than 6 hours in any night for the week of their visit, given their eagerness to spend time running around playing with one another. I recall waking up at 2 am the night of their arrival, hearing the pitter patter of Lincoln and North's feet as they scurried about on the main floor while their dads chatted the night away--they certainly outlasted my (and Sam's) ability to stay up on a weeknight! It was such a treat getting to see them.

grabbing some Vietnamese food!

enjoying the Natural History museum!

having a chat...

...and a stroll on the National Mall

Lincoln Memorial was far more exciting, it turned out, with our buddy Lincoln actually being present

spending time on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and at the National Aquarium

So good to see our old friends!

Mr. and Mrs. Gary Weeks..and their delightful ring bearer

The weekend after our trip to Rehoboth we took a much bigger trip--all the way across the country in fact! We headed to Texas to attend Gary and Christina's wedding--and Alan and North had the honor of participating in the ceremony!
North always loves flying--with this time being no different. He was, as always, a great little flyer and loved looking out the window and hanging out on the plane.

North adored Christina's daughter Shelby, and the two of them had a great time playing during the rehearsal and day of the ceremony.

I feared he would refuse to wear his tux--which he had been adamant about at home-- but, the day of the ceremony he came through like a champ and was happy to wear his dressy clothes.

He and Alan both looked very handsome all spiffed up.

The wedding was beautiful--we were so happy we were able to share in the day!

Rehoboth

Hello again old friends (or mostly family as the case may be).
We've had some adventures since my last post.

Like eating with chopsticks...

(an obsession of North's--he calls them "chip chops". pretty sure he will eat ANYTHING if allowed to use "chip chops")

or taking baths while working on our cheesy smile skills...

or binging on donuts...

...mostly though, we've continued exploring our new(ish) surroundings-particularly on the weekends.
The weekend following my last post for example, we had one such adventure in which the little Milner family took a road trip to Rehoboth beach!
Rehoboth is a great community with tons of great food (including Dogfish Head brewery's home location), lots of fun shopping (with the nice perk of no taxes due to its location in Delaware), tons of arcades and rides, and lots and lots of glorious beach and boardwalk for spending some leisurely late summer days.
We had an amazing time on our visit swimming, playing in the sand, eating junk food on the boardwalk, grabbing some dinner and beer at dogfish head, buying some fun toys at the shops, listening to live music downtown, and exploring the arcades and rides.
Here are some photos from our trip--Rehoboth definitely captured a place in our hearts and we will certainly be heading back soon.