Catching up....

This post is long, long overdue and the photos in this post are all from July (with more recent ones to follow soon). We left North Carolina on July 1 and moved to the DC area for my new job. Somehow 4 months have passed since then, amidst a blur of activity. On a positive front, we love our new location. We are in a small city that is very walkable, family (and dog!) friendly, and we are only 1 block from the metro to go to DC. Our address has a walk score of 92 out of 100 (http://www.walkscore.com/), which is pretty amazing. We can walk to at least 8 different playgrounds, 2 dog parks, lots of restaurants and stores, Gymboree, 2 farmers markets, 2 movie theatres, a regular theatre, an upscale dog store that sells organic peanut butter frozen yogurt for Cassidy, Livia's daycare, the metro, the library, and many other places (not necessarily in order of importance). Livia has gotten used to the urban lifestyle of walking and being pushed in the stroller, and she often protests when she sees us going towards the car. Livia loves her new daycare, and she often talks about the kids and teachers. She loves to say everyone's name, especially a little boy named Alex. She often goes around saying, "Alex! I love Alex!" She is practically speaking in sentences now, which has been exciting to watch. Livia has grown and changed so much over the past four months. She just turned two and is no longer a baby at all. I started my job at the beginning of August, and that is going really well.


There is a sprayground in the center of downtown. Livia spent many days cooling off in it.

We went up to NJ/NY to celebrate Dan's and Dotty's birthdays. This is from Dan's birthday dinner (somehow we have no photo of the birthday boy).

Livia and her "Beba"

A rare family shot

Cassidy was on this family trip as well

Livia and her "Grandma Mimi"

We also celebrated Nana Dotty's birthday with the family. Livia now loves to say "Nana Dotty, Papa Sonny, and Elyse." She sometimes will be in the middle of eating dinner and will stop and say, "Papa Sonny!"

Here is Livia at one of the many playgrounds. This one happens to have a train and car.

Hanging out with Daddy in our temporary apartment (where we lived for the month of July)

We joined Gymboree for July since I wasn't working yet

We have gotten to see Karen and Ellie a few times since we moved here, now that they are much closer. It's great to be near them and Livia LOVES Ellie -- she cried a lot the last time that Ellie had to go home.

This last photo is for Livia's "Grandpa Owie"... Go Yanks!

Where's Alexey?

Here are a few more from the beach that I meant to include in the last post. One afternoon we headed over to an amusement area with go-karts and games. Alexey just wanted "to go in fast car." But Bob was driving, so it wasn't too fast. Alexey was so small that you could barely see him. When they first started to go, Gabriella said, "Where's Alexey?" You can see why she would wonder about that.


There's Alexey!


Livia didn't care too much about the fast cars, but she did enjoy playing skeeball. She could actually roll the ball almost entirely up the ramp.

Outer Banks with Gabriella and Alexey

A couple of weeks ago we had a wonderful beach vacation with Gabriella, Alexey, Michelle, and Bob. We rented a condo in Corolla and Cassidy got to come along as well. Livia LOVED being with her cousins and was so excited to see them each morning -- she would run into the living room screaming, "Gabrella! Alessey!" Unfortunately, this was usually at 5:30 or 6:00 am, and everyone else was either still sleeping or wishing they were still sleeping. Cassidy seemed to enjoy the extra attention and excitement as well, along with some early morning and late night strolls on the beach. We spent most of our days on the beach and in the pool, but there are a couple of other highlights posted below as well.

There were so many sand crabs on the beach!

One day we went to the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk.

We stopped at a mini golf course after the sand dunes. First we took a choo-choo to get to the beginning of the course.

Livia thought the point of this game was to grab the ball after someone hit it. She would retrieve the ball and hand it to Alexey. The only thing that could have possibly made our game more disfunctional was if Cassidy were there too.

Here are some photos of the kids hanging out in the condo. This collapsable chair was a favorite for all the kids.

On our last day, we went to see the Currituck lighthouse.

Asheville with Nona and Papa

During the last weekend in May, we spent a great weekend in Asheville with Nona and Papa. We went to Chimney Rock Park, which we hadn't been to since our first visit to Asheville with Cassidy back in 2002. It was a beautiful day and the views were amazing.

Livia enjoyed giving Nona high fives

We went on a hike to see some waterfalls. Since we forgot the Ergo, Dan rented a backpack to carry Livia. It was pretty uneven and rocky in places, and Livia didn't love being carried.

On the way back, I decided to let Livia walk for a little while, planning to carry her when she got tired. She walked the whole way down, over a mile!

The next morning we enjoyed an early dip in the pool

On the way home, we stopped at the Western NC Nature Center, just east of downtown. It was a wonderful place! They even had a petting zoo.

Sheep! Baa!

There was a peacock walking around there

A weekend at home

Memorial Day weekend was the only time during the past 2 months that we were at home and didn't have anyone staying with us. We had a fun-filled staycation, which included Dan and I going out to dinner 2 nights while Beth babysat for Livia.

One morning we had breakfast with Livia's friend Callie

We spent one afternoon at the Museum of Life and Science. Livia enjoyed painting with water (Daddy dressed her that day, which is why she is wearing pajamas).

We also ventured out to Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. Livia especially loved playing in the dirt garden.