July Post

The week after school ended, I helped teach a technology course at Champlain College. Once that was over, it's when my vacation really started. That following Tuesday the O'Haras were off to Colorado to see the Gardiners. We got back exactly one week later and then quickly scampered off for a weekend camping trip with the rents and the rents-in-law. Not to slow down, we're off to go camping this upcoming weekend with our neighbors. Don't let this fool you, I'm not 100% sure, but I think Lexi hates camping. We'll have a better idea after this weekend.

As with anything that I do, these pictures are completely out of order and I no longer have the energy to make them sequential so that they tell an eloquent story. You're now going to have to be the one to somehow create your own story from these random pics.

Here we go:

The "girls" are listening intently to one of us "boys" telling a story. See, girls are taught at an early age to pretend to be interested in what we are saying.

The final leg of our hike up Ampersand (a peak, so to speak, in the Adirondacks). Little Lexi is getting a couple of helping hands from Nanna and Grampon.


The boys are being chivalrous and holding this rock up for the ladies coming through.
On top of the world... oh, I mean, Ampersand.
From on top of the world to KING OF THE WORLD! Ron playing king of the mountain with himself.
Hikers are always so much happier when first starting out. I wish I got a shot of us leaving.
Back at the campsite, where we
... and take a little snooze.

Then Papa came back and the world was perfect again... at least in her eyes.

When Nanna was giving her Sprite, she spent time teaching her of the birds and bees... literally of course.

The morning was spent looking for Grammie, but Grampon and Lex finally found her stranded out in the middle of the ocean.

"Oh Dad, stop taking my picture."

Our neighbor Wyatt is BIG into tractors and trucks. Unfortunately, I think Lexi is quickly falling in line.

Ahhh, Lexi's leg and mouth are bleeding profusely. Oh wait, it's just jello. Stop freaking out, kid. This really does look like something from a Tarrantino movie.

While Lex was flipping out, Olivia was smiling away.

Not sure why, but to me this picture sums up my little one perfectly....

...as does this one....

... oh wait, let's not forget this gem.
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack be one happy kid.

Out in Colorado now, Miss Lexi did a phenomenal job hiking down from Shark's Tooth.

How do you keep a kid happy at 12,000 feet? Lots of food.

There was a grizzly bear about five feet away that Lisa was pointing out... as if we didn't see it.

Lexi looks psyched. Me? Not so much.

Again, proves my point about hikers being happiest at the bottom.

If it weren't for the Dodgers hat, this would be one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Montezuma County, where my sister lives, has a regulation on the size of the pool you can have in your backyard. This enlarged bathtub sure did do the trick, though.

For the 4th of July, Lex decide to take her Harley for a spin. Don't even think about making any jokes about her riding without pants.

Delores has a wicked nice playground. Lexi enjoyed a swing in which her legs didn't have to fit through two tiny holes.

Addy, aka sissy, showed Lexi how to ride the big girl swing.

Most nights we congregated in Maisy's room for a little dance party....

and sometimes we even converted to new religions.

When not dancing, the kids found entertainment on throwing themselves down on the bed. As you can imagine, there were many injuries with this activity.

Lexi kept saying to the chickens, "Get in my BELLY!" When they didn't listen, she sat on them. Those pictures were a little too graphic to show.

This was Lexi in her "time out" after she sat on the chickens. She doesn't look too remorsefu.

I have a feeling this may be the last time we're able to get a picture of Sissy standing under the table.

By for now.

New Videos

April Post

As I think of what to write, I never think much has changed with Alexis as we see her every day. People always ask, "How's Lexi?" and I always give the canned response of, "She's great!" But what has she really been up to? Let's see...

Our neighbors have seen quite a bit of us as their two year old and Alexis have become inseparable. As soon as either gets home from daycare, they ask where the other is and then will immediately run for that house (or in the case of Wyatt, he drives his tractor over- you'll see him in the picture below). They play effortlessly for hours which is great for everyone.

Lexi has also become more vocal lately. Her vocabulary is growing pretty quickly and it's a very cool stage to see this growth happen, almost daily. She's been singing her own version of happy birthday for over a week now and has begun to try to sing some other songs as well. Mainly jibberash, but cool to listen to nonetheless.

If I had to describe Alexis to someone in as few of words as possible, I'd describe her as a helper or a mother. She loves to do jobs for us and absolutely loves to care for her baby dolls, even though she did throw one in the toilet this morning. I'm sure it did something very wrong to get such a harsh punishment from the Queen Mother.

Now that the weather is beginning to warm up, she spends most of her time in our garden beds or in Wyatt's sandbox. She loves to dig and fill up buckets with dirt. I guess she dumped a bucket of sand on her head and was quite amazed at what that felt like. I'm not really sure what she was expecting, but it took her off guard a little bit.

I should mention that she doesn't play with any of the toys of her own, rather plays with all of Wyatt's cooler toys. Anything you see in the pictures below is probably Wyatt's.

I have begun to teach her how to kick a soccer ball. Now I want to strap a zapper around her neck (think Pavlov) for every time she tries to pick the ball up with her hands. Is this wrong?

So, our baby girl is growing up so quickly and we are so lucky to have her be part of our life. Here's some pictures to go along with the items above:

I just thought this showed how old she's looking lately.

The famous scrunched face in her favorite chair with the aforementioned bucket and shovel.

Have I shared this already? One of my favorites!
Wyatt's four wheeler. The gas is by her right thumb and every so often she pushes it by accident and gets quite the surprise.

Not sure why I included this one, but I love it when she has that grumpy look on her face. Makes me laugh.

The not-so-Irish twins on St. Patty's Day.


You can't tell, but this is Alexis at our waterfront museum.

Alexis and her cousin, Addy, sharing a naked laugh.

Alexis, when she's not biting, is very loving (thus the motherly reference above). Here she's showing her other cousin Jack how much she loves him... or how much she'd like to eat him. One or the other.

She could play in this sandbox for hours.

On Wyatt's tractor.

The first video is of Wyatt giving Alexis a ride. This happens at least four or five times a day. The second video is of Alexis dancing. She has better moves than this, I just haven't been able to capture them on video.

Everyone always tells us that Alexis is always happy. To prove people wrong, here's a little sampling from the past two weeks.






Here's a little dancing video. She has better moves than this, but we haven't been able to capture them yet. She takes after the best dancer in the world... ME!!!