Been Long Time Now

Feels like forever since I last posted and that's most likely b/c it has been forever. We've been living a whirlwind this last little while with Marci, Matt & Sam's visit, Bryce's Dartmouth application and finally recovering from the Dartmouth application. Well, I've been recovering, anyway. Poor Bryce is on a 3-day campout with his boy scouts and will return on Saturday. Then he'll get to recover, too. :) Phew!! I'm sure Bryce will post something about his last application since it's a bit of a story, so I'll leave that to him and post some of the millions of pics we took last weekend with our guests!

Marci & Sam arrived last Wednesday and Matt showed up 2 days later. We had a wonderful time going to the zoo, seeing the cherry blossoms in full bloom around the tidal basin, hanging out with cousins and - of course - making treats galore. G-A-L-O-R-E. Somehow this always seems to happen when Marci and I get together. Just before they came I found this awesome awesome book at the library called One Cake, One Hundred Desserts. It gives a recipe for a basic yellow cake and then 100 ways of sprucing it up to make these incredible desserts. So of course we had to try out some of the recipes -- for any of you who care to look this book up, the Black Bottom Cupcakes and the Peppermint Cupcakes are both excellent. Then Marci made this monster batch of cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning -- the end result was 50 rolls. Did I mention there were only 4 of us (plus the babies who don't really count in roll consumption)? They were divine.

Anyway, blah blah blah. We had a super grandiose time and if I don't get a move on uploading these pics Sophie will wake up and then I'll never finish posting this... so here you go!

At the National Zoo -- here we are stretching out Sophie's legs and checking out the Giant Pandas in their new digs.

Sam thought the elephant was supercool. (and I thought I did a great job on this pic)

This was a really steep incline -- Marse and I huffed and puffed our way up. At the top of the hill there was this sign that you can see behind me. It says something like, "WARNING: Steep incline." Umm, a bit late, but thanks.

Sam getting tossed in the air by Uncle Bryce. Anytime Sam was eating Sophie would cruise over to him and try to snake food off his tray. Sam made everything look good -- his toys, his food, his shoes... Little cool man. :)
I love the eating pics.

Marci & I at The Cousin Dinner hosted by Oliver & Kristin. You can read Oliver's recap of the event and see lots of pics of all of us here. What is going on with my hair in this pic?? Sigh. That's another post - stay tuned to hear Lisa's post-pregnancy hair woes.
My little Cutie-patootie.
These pics need explanation for sure. Sophie has been doing this hilarious scrunch nose face lately and she's been doing it a LOT. I'm thinking it's a phase, but I suppose time will tell. You might notice the nose scrunch in some of these pics. In addition to the scrunching, she also has what Bryce and I affectionately call her "Angsty Moments" when she gets the craziest looks on her face. It would crack me up every time until Marci got these pics of it... then I thought, mmm is this something I need to be worried about?? I've been assured it is nothing to fear, so I'm going with that for now. In the meantime these pics are too good not to share. Here is our little firecracker Angsty Girl.
ps - please ignore the lovely nose jewels here... remnants of her cold and I just couldn't keep up with it!

The Wind Up

Getting Warmed Up
Full AngstMy personal favorite

A trip to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. Mary & Nikolai also joined us!

Ok, so there you go. Phew. It is way too late now and I have got to go to bed. But that was the awesome visit. Got lots more pics over here so just be thrilled that you don't have to look at any more! And for the Boston Roms -- come back SOON!!! Sophie (and the rest of us) are missing you already!!