Music to My Ears

Back Home Again . . . Again!

At the pumpkin patch with the Grandma and Papa and all the Rhinesmith cousins!

Sadie and I recently traveled back to Indiana . . . all by ourselves! I was a little nervous about the flight since Sadie's pretty much half my size these days and freakishly strong (she's already given me a bloody nose and a fat lip at various times). Holding her in my lap for five-six flying hours was definitely a much-needed workout for me, but she did great! She loved making friends with all the passengers and even took a few naps. We were lucky to have some fantastic seatmates, too, for which I'm VERY thankful!

We definitely missed Derek, who was on a few different trips for work, but enjoyed having time to hang out with family and friends. Sadie made her first trek to a pumpkin patch, met some new friends, trick-or-treated, and even attended her first Election Day Pancake Breakfast!

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

At the pumpkin patch

Sadie loves playing with Uncle Javi

Happy Halloween!

She might need therapy for this one day, but I couldn't resist!



A fun visit with Cookie!

So happy to see the Shillings!

Finally got to meet Auntie Lisa!

Playing with Mema

A remote . . . so fun!

Chilling with the guys

Snack time with Cousin Maddie

Meeting Wilson (I guess it's Mrs. Lyon now, but she'll always be Wilson to the Rhinos!)

Giggling with Vinny

Love hanging with Papa!

Panckakes!

Nine Months!

Good times in a box!

One of Sadie's favorite spots in the house.

Sadie turned nine months a couple of weeks ago! She's quite an active little girl, crawling EVERYWHERE, waving, clapping . . . and just so excited about the world around her. She definitely keeps us hopping these days! She's also helping us to rediscover the amazing in the otherwise seemingly mundane. Who knew a cardboard box, a piece of paper or tupperware could be so fascinating?

Sadie loves bathtime!

Flipping through People StyleWatch . . . a girl's gotta stay stylish!


A new use for the exersaucer . . .

Oh Canada

Our hotel, The Fairmont Empress

We had our first family vacation this weekend! The three of us spent a couple of days in beautiful, historic Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. A three-hour ferry ride from Seattle, Victoria proved to be the perfect spot for us. We had a great time walking around the city, catching up with one of Derek's high school friends who now lives there, and just enjoying some time together.

We even took part in high tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel (Derek's a saint, I know) - a famous tradition in the city. I was a bit nervous about taking a boisterous eight-month-old to high tea, but Sadie was fantastic! She got quite a lot of attention as the only baby in the place and, ham that she is, she completely ate it up. And I actually think she liked getting dressed up. Fancy girl!

While we did have a great time in Victoria, getting there was another story . . . For starters, Derek discovered two days before we were scheduled to leave - and two weeks after we'd made our non-refundable reservations on the Victoria Clipper and at the hotel. While we found a loophole that would get him into Canada, it was tenuous as to whether or not he'd make it back into the States. So, of course, we decided to proceed with our original plans.

The night before our early morning ferry ride, we spent the night in a Seattle hotel. The plan was to grab an early, relaxed dinner in the city, then get a good night's sleep so we could all wake up early, feeling refreshed and ready for our big trip. Dinner, while fun to catch up with our friend, turned out to be anything but relaxed - and early. We waited almost an hour for a table and dinner itself (at a casual brewpub, mind you) ended up taking well over an hour. Poor Sadie was a bit of a mess by the time we made it back to our hotel. She fell asleep fairly quickly, but woke up after two hours, and inexplicably stayed awake for another three.

She finally fell back asleep and, two hours later, we got our wake-up call. We got ready and re-packed with as much energy as one can muster on three hours of sleep and headed to the ferry terminal. We easily made it through check-in and customs, and boarded the boat only to find a few seats left. We snatched the last two adjacent seats, exhausted but happy to be on our way.

About two hours into our trip, I started to feel . . . iffy. Whether it was due to the lack of sleep, lack of breakfast, or the fact that my only sailing experience thus far had been speedboating the high seas of Lake Tippy, I'll never know. I made my way to the back to get some air. And sort of blacked out. Needless to say, it was miserable. We docked in Victoria shortly thereafter and eagerly headed to our hotel . . . completely forgetting, until we were halfway there, our checked luggage which had been waiting for us in the terminal. We made our way back to the terminal, grabbed our bag and walked, again, to the hotel. We were thrilled to get an early check-in and settled in for a family nap . . . only to be awakened a short time later by some overzealous housekeepers who were dropping off bathrobes.

Not exactly the best start to vacation. We definitely wondered - particularly in the first 24 hours - if it was worth it, but in the end I think it was. While we've realized vacationing with kids isn't really a vacation - at least by our previous definitition, which typically included lots of sleeping in and lounging, preferably by a beach - it's valuable, even enjoyable, in its own right. It was fun to experience and learn about a new city, for one, but it was also a much-needed break from all the sorting, organizing, and list-making we've been doing for our move in a few months. And we'll definitely have some stories to tell Sadie one day. "Remember when you were a baby and we thought it was a great idea to travel to Canada . . . "

Anyway, here are a few pics of some of our fondest moments of the trip. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Derek did make it back into the States. We loved Victoria, but are definitely happy he didn't get stuck there!

High tea at the Empress, a famous tradition in Victoria

Sadie got her first taste of a scone . . .


. . . and clearly enjoyed it!


Thai dinner with Derek's high school friend, Brian . . .


. . . and his lovely wife, Katelyn. Sadie loves her new friends!

Beautiful walk along the waterfront.

One of several float home villages. These adorable, eclectic homes literally float on the water.

Sammy the Seal. He hangs out by the wharf, waiting to be fed by the locals and tourists. From the looks of things, he never has to wait too long.

Chowder at the wharf. A delightful lunch, with the exception of some aggressive seagulls who kept buzzing our table for food - and had me ducking for cover many a time.

Eight Months!

We took part in the parent-child commitment at our church . . . a poignant moment for our little family.

Sadie's eight months old and getting busier by the day! Here's what she's been up to this month:

Our good friends the Colliers and Elizabeth Downs joined us at church for the Parent-Child Commitment. We have all been so blessed by their friendship and were thrilled to have them there, celebrating with us.

We had our first family roadtrip! Over Labor Day weekend, we took a short trip to Washington's Upper Peninsula.


We had a great time hiking in the Hoh Rainforest. And Sadie was a hit in her safari sunhat!


Daddy's girl.

Sadie's working on drinking from a sippy cup. I think more water gets on the floor, her shirt and everything else nearby than actually makes it in her mouth, but practice makes perfect, right?

A floor covered in toys, and Sadie's enthralled by the basket of freshly folded laundry.

Social butterfly that she is, Sadie really enjoyed our recent dinner date with my college friend, Sarah, and her husband, Irving!

I can't even begin to speculate about what she's doing here. Silly girl.

Sadie's new playtable has kept her quite busy lately! She loves the lights and music, and I love that it buys me a few minutes to empty the dishwasher or vaccuum the floor!

Crawling!

Sadie started legitimately crawling this week! And, equally exciting, she appears to share her mama's love of shoes . . .

Havin' a Ball!

AF Ball 2010

Happy Monday! I don't know about you, but we had quite the weekend. On Saturday night we attended the annual Air Force Ball. The days leading up to it were a bit hectic as I scrambled to find a dress and the perfect accessories, while Derek made a few trips to the base uniform store for his man-cessories to update his mess dress.

It also meant finding someone to watch Sadie. I had no idea just how big of a deal this was. First, there's the immediate issue of actually finding someone to physically watch her. Then, I had to frantically clean the house since, heaven forbid, the babysitter might see the cobwebs accumulating in the corners now that I have a few - ok, a million - other things ranking higher than cleaning on my priorities list. And I had to shop for and make snacks so the sitter had something to eat while she was here. Oh, and I had to deal with the emotional trauma of leaving our baby with someone else for bedtime. Sheesh!

Fortunately, we found a wonderful babysitter - my friend and fellow AF wife, Steph, who graciously agreed to watch her. Steph has to be one of the kindest people I know, so I knew Sadie would be in good hands, which definitely lessened the trauma a bit. From what I hear, though, everything went well and they had a great time!

And Derek and I did, too. It was fun to get out, have some grown-up conversations with friends - and one another - and enjoy being adults. We left the party around 10 and as we were driving home, Derek wondered out loud why so many people were on the road so late. At 10 pm. On a Saturday. Hmm . . . maybe we need to get out a little more often.

We spent most of Sunday recuperating and enjoyed another ball of sorts . . . football! We had a great time rooting for Peyton and the rest of the Colts in the Manning Bowl. Sadie got into it, too, as you can see . . .

Goooo Colts!

Seven Months!

Sadie attended her first birthday party. Her friend - and apparent crush, judging by this picture - Dane turned 1!

Now that Sadie's over seven months old, life is definitely getting more active for all of us! Sadie scoots, bounces, and rolls EVERYWHERE . . . it's exciting but is keeping us on our toes. Just the other day I put her in the middle of our ginormous king-sized bed so that I could try on a dress. It took about a nanosecond for me to slip the dress over my head, but that was just enough time for her to roll to the edge of the bed and launch herself off of it. She cried for about 15 seconds. I cried for the rest of the day. Bad Mom moment.

Here's a peek at a few happier moments this month:

Willy the Penguin was a hand-me-down from our neighbors. It's a bit weeble-wobble-esque . . . you can punch it, kick it or whatever and it pops right back, with a soundtrack of giggles and peppy music. Apparently it was a hit with their little girl. Not so much with ours . . .

. . . she cries every time she sees him, completely terrified of the guy. Poor Willy has now taken up residence in our garage.


Mastering the oh-so-messy art of feeding herself.

Sadie now has two little teeth! Needless to say, the chilled teethers were a constant companion for a few weeks.

I'm not sure if it's the jean jacket or what, but I feel like this should be Sadie's back-to-school (or in her case back-to-playgroup) outfit.

The end result (no pun intended!) of most diaper changes these days. Maybe this is just preparation for all those calf wrangling tournaments we'll be in when we move to Oklahoma in a few months!

Bookworm

Another teething savior . . . frozen fruit in a feeder bag. As you can tell, Sadie LOVED this remedy.