Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day was fantastic!  We started by going to our ward's breakfast at a nearby park (we were a bit late and missed the flag ceremony).  After that, we headed out to a dairy farm about 40 minutes away that some people at Ryan's work recommended.  It was fun- there were cows, goats, chickens, and some other animals.  There were also rides, games, and a little park of tractors for kids to play on, as well as mini golf and batting cages.  And of course there is their homemade ice cream made right there on the dairy farm.  Thankfully Ryan was willing to hold Lucy while exploring because it was scorching hot outside!  After we ate our peaches 'n cream ice cream, we swung by the outlets for a little shopping.  We ended the day grilling dinner at home and watching the Bachelorette and basketball.  It was a fun day.  Craig left the next afternoon, so it was a good day to end on.

Palmyra

We decided to split up our drive home to Columbus and stopped in Syracuse Friday night.  Saturday morning we drove the hour or so to Palmyra to visit all of those sites.  Our first stop was the Printing Press, followed by the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove.  Next we drove up by the temple to see what it looked like (so pretty!), and finished our Palmyra tour at the Hill Cumorah site.  The church did such a great job making those sites so interesting, authentic, and nice.  They even have an original Book of Mormon there that sets off an alarm at the Church headquarters in Salt Lake City if it's moved at all.  Crazy!  I even learned a few things that I used in my YW lesson on Sunday.  It was a great way to break up the drive.

Boston

Ryan had a work trip to Boston last week and since I had never been there, Lucy and I planned to tag along for the free hotel.  Ryan's brother, Craig, happened to have his break from dental school that week and joined us as well.  We decided to make a road trip out of it so and drive through Palmyra on the way home.  We drove down on Monday, Ryan went to his conference Tuesday and Wednesday while Craig, Lucy and I explored Boston (he met up with us by about 4:30 each evening), and then Ryan joined us all day Thursday.  We then went to Lexington and Concord on Friday morning and then drove to Syracuse and stayed the night there.  Saturday morning we got up and went to Palmyra and then came home.

We saw all of the historical things along the Freedom Trail, plus some: The church where the presidents were buried, John Adam's homes, the Museum of Fine Arts, Fenway Park, the U.S.S. Constitution, Bunker Hill, Boston Commons and the public gardens, the State House and Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's home and church where the lanterns were hung, an old cemetery, the Cheers Bar, and Harvard, MIT, and Cambridge. It poured rain the first day and we were pretty wet, so we didn't get too many pictures.

And then there was the food.  We were told about some places we had to go, so of course we went.  Ryan and Craig really wanted some good seafood.  There were two restaurants they were debating between, and so we ended up going to both on separate nights for dinner.  They had fish n' chips, fried shrimp, and clam chowder at The Barking Crab, and then salmon and swordfish at Atlantic Fish Company.  We made sure to hit up Mike's Pastry for some amazing cannoli's and Boston cream puffs.  Our last dinner in Boston was going to be at Pizzeria Regina's.  We got there, got seated and drooled over  the best looking pizza ever, but as we were about to order, Lucy lost it.  Like, REALLY lost it.  She didn't get a single nap in all day and she was inconsolable and screaming so we left and ordered take-out that we ate in our hotel room.  We were bummed that we missed out on the pizza.

Speaking of Lucy, I was really nervous about taking her on this trip since she sometimes struggles with sleeping, not to mention in the same room as three other adults who don't want to go to bed as early as her.  Also, she still totally hates her car seat so a 13 hour drive sounded awful.  But, she did awesome!  She was really pretty good on the car rides and did so well being pushed around in her stroller all day.  She was quiet during all of our tours as long as I kept moving her around in my arms.  And amazingly, she went right to sleep every night, despite the fact that lights and tv were on and we talked a bit.  She even slept for 12 hours straight for two of the nights!  We had to wake her up one morning.  Definitely answered prayers and made the trip so much better than I expected.

This was the great view of downtown Boston from our hotel room:

At the Church of the Presidents:

This is at the Museum of Fine Arts, where we got in for free because we were there for the last hour of the day.

Dinner at The Barking Crab, which is under a big red tent so the picture has funky lighting:

On our tour of Fenway Park:

Craig and I sat with Lucy in Boston Commons while waiting for Ryan to meet up with us after his conference one day.  When Ryan got there, we walked across the street to the public gardens which were way cooler than the park we were in.  Had we known it was right there, we would have gone there.  At least it was fun to people watch and talk with some randoms that were interested in Lucy.

This was in the public gardens, which were beautiful.  Ryan had just gotten out of his meetings, which is why he's wearing his glasses and Mars shirt instead of a normal one (I'm only mentioning that since he didn't really want to be in pictures for that reason, but since I'm posting them, I figured I should explain.  As for me, I unfortunately have no excuse for my look... other than the shoes I was planning on wearing got ruined the day before from walking in so much rain, so I had to throw them out and resort to plan B.)

On the trolley that took us around the city to all of the historical sites.  I think Lucy was happy to be riding in a vehicle sans car seat:

Paul Revere's house (surprisingly big for that time):

Here we are at Mike's Pastry.  Holy Cannoli... so good!!

Where the lanterns were hung ("one if by land, two if by sea"):

The U.S.S. Constitution:

Bunker Hill (there were too many school groups around to get us in the picture too):

Mitt Romney's campaign headquarters.  He was actually there that day, so there were police cars and barricades all over that area.  Mitt 2012!!

She NEVER sleeps in my arms and I loved it.  Although, this meant she was completely zonked and when she woke up a short while later was when she had her meltdown.  Poor girl.

This was my first trip to Boston (Ryan and Craig's second time) and I have decided that I could officially live there at some point. :)  It was so fun to explore a new city!  Now onto Palmyra...

Conversations with Craig

Whenever we talk to Craig, we always end up laughing so hard over the funny phrases and things that he says, usually when he doesn't even mean to be funny.  He's pure entertainment.  Like at Christmas when he was eating a bowl of ice cream and after taking what he thought was a scoop of ice cream but realized nothing was on the spoon, started looking around and so casually asked, "hey- did anyone see a really big chunk of ice cream fly across the room?"  Or the time when Ryan and I had a long texting conversation with him solely using lines from Justin Bieber songs.  I think I'm a few years late on this, but I could do a whole segment on our conversations with Craig.  Since I can't quite remember the past ones, I'll just start with the funny one that happened a few days ago.

(Side note: these are probably only funny just because we were there.  But at least we will understand how funny they were in the moment and laugh when we go back and read it someday).

*As we were watching a singer on tv...

Me: Wow, he's actually a really good singer.  You know how some famous singers are good when they're recorded and fixed up, but not that great singing live?
Craig: Oh! Yeah!  Hannah Montana is the perfect example of this.  Have you ever heard her live?  She's terrible.

(Craig and I both started cracking up right after the words came out of this mouth.  When I told the story to Ryan a few minutes later, he asked why this was so funny.  I explained that it was a) because he chose Hannah Montana out of the TONS of examples he could have used, and b) because he called her Hannah Montana and not Miley Cyrus. haha.)

Sometimes we bring Craig on vacation with us for this kind of entertainment.  And also to carry all of our heavy bags so we only have to take one trip from the car to the hotel room.

Actually, I told Ryan and Craig that we should just take two trips so that they didn't have to carry so much (you have to take a LOT of stuff with a baby) but they refused.  I told him and Ryan that they looked ridiculous and Craig's response was, "If by ridiculous you mean really strong, then yeah, I totally agree."  So, one trip it was...

Half of a year

I can hardly believe that Lucy is 6 months old already!  Time flies when you're having fun and these days we're having fun.  I've come to terms with the fact that "content, easy-going, and calm" are not words that I will be using to describe Lucy any time soon, but as long as we are moving from one thing to the next every 5 or 10 minutes she's a fairly happy camper.  She's just a little high maintenance, but that's what makes Lucy "Lucy" so I'll take it and love it.  Here are a few things about Lucy at six months:

• Height: 26 inches (75th%);  Weight: 15 pounds (25th %); Head circumference: 25th %
• Sleeping through the night.  She goes to sleep at 7:30pm and sleeps for 10 hours until about 5:30am.  Unfortunately I do not go to bed at 7:30... or 8:30.... or 9:30.... or....
• When she wakes up from a nap crying and I have to go in her room, as soon as I stick her pacifier in she will immediately close her eyes, turn her head to the left, and grab the corner of her blanket right next to her face.
• Lucy has had a jumperoo for a few months and liked to play with a few of the fun toy things around it, but just within the last week she figured out how to actually jump in it and now she goes crazy jumping away!
• She is no longer loving her little floor mat thing as much.  She mostly just grabs the things hanging above her, tries to pull herself up, and gets really mad when she's stuck halfway sitting up while hanging on to the toy.  This is unfortunate because it's the only way I got to eat breakfast- while she would lay and play.
• Speaking of food, she wants to eat EVERYTHING (food or not).  Anytime Ryan and I are eating something, she will stop whatever she was doing and stare directly at the food and start smacking her lips and drooling like crazy.  She will reach as far as she can to get her hands on any kind of food.  While I let her have little licks of things here and there that I'm eating, she really just has baby food.  She loves carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes, but hates peas, peaches, and apples.  She also loves drinking water out of our cups and does a really good job at it, too.
• She really wants to sit up these days but struggles.  She mostly just falls to the side or forward so her face hits her feet. 
• Lucy is now bottle-fed.  We quit nursing about a week ago.  The weaning started after my MRI when I couldn't nurse her for a while and kept giving her bottles.  Both nursing and bottle feeding have their pros and cons, but had I known the actual monetary cost of being full-time formula, I would have stuck with nursing a lot longer.
• She will no longer sit and let me read her a book.  Her main goal is to figure out how to get the book into her mouth as quickly as possible... which actually seems to be her main goal with everything.
• Lucy sticks out her tongue when she's happy.  
• She gets super excited when Ryan gets home from work.  As soon as I hear the garage opening I say to Lucy, "Guess who's home?" and she gets a big smile and looks towards the door where Ryan comes in.
• My cell phone, the tv remote, and the crinkly bag of baby wipes are about as cool as any toy gets.  Forget about her actual toys...
• Lucy loves being outside.  Any time she starts to get too fussy, I take her outside for a walk (either in the jogging stroller or just around our sidewalk in my arms) and she's content again.