Capturing Our Blessings: Week Two

10:10:10- Camping

Bryan, Olive and I loaded up the car and drove about 5 hours east to meet our good friends Jeff and Cicie, who drove 5 hours west from Washington D.C. We had decided to go modified camping all together and meet in the exact middle, which turned out to be BarkCamp State Park in Ohio. So much fun to eat bad food, roast marshmallows, and the unintended bonus of timing our trip with the beautiful Autumn leaves! A great weekend catching up with friends - now we're back, unpacked with a lot of clean laundry to be folded before climbing into bed tonight.

Clean sheets and clean laundry

pretty autumn colors

Sunshine at the park

Jeff and Bryan tend the fire

Cicie, me and Olive

Cicie and Olive meet!

Cold nose on a morning walk

Morning light

Bunk beds were hilarious until Jeff fell off the top one at 3 in the morning

Early morning walk with Olive, so we didn't wake up the other sleepers..

Fine Family Fall Feast

Occasion: First weekend of crisp, sweater weather, first fire of the season, and the annual pre-winter garage clean out.

Attended: bryan, olive, jesse, milo, delilah and fargus

On the menu: orange roast chicken, potatoes, stuffing, green beans, crusty bread, apple cider, and wine.

Afternoon Naps

I love it when Olive falls asleep - not for the obvious reason of getting a little down time from her, but because it's so funny that she's going 100%, and then bam - she's down for the count. Sometimes I can get lucky and I can tell when she's about ready to fall asleep, but usually it takes me completely by surprise - she also isn't picky about where she sleeps either, which is pretty funny.

Heading into our first weekend of October and really looking forward to it - LOTS of fun things to do, but have to make sure to carve out some time to do nothing.

Walking with Olive

This morning we went for a walk around the neighborhood - we were both happy to put long sleeve shirts on for the outing (finally!) Olive added some tights and a hat to her ensemble, and we were off. It's fun to see the neighborhood at a different time than I'm used to seeing it (commuting to and from work) -a whole new set of habits and people out and about. We're going further now that the weather is cooperating - I'm keeping my Seattle-spirit alive by going outside and walking to destinations.. I'm also keeping myself in walking shape, so when the day comes to go back to the puget sound, I'll be in coffee-shop walking distance shape! (kristen!)

Olive is 5 months today! Honestly, in some ways it's gone fast, and in other ways, very slowly.. all in all though, I think she's a pretty cool little girl, and we think we'll keep her ;)

Practicing

Olive fell asleep at the dinner table the other night, with Delilah right underneath her. Delilah hasn't been able to get anything good off of her tray yet, but she knows the day is coming when being underneath Olive will benefit her greatly, and I imagine she's just practicing and biding her time...

Foodie

We got the okay at our 4 month doctor appointment to start Olive on baby food and rice cereal, with the goal of it just being fun and experimental. Let the games begin! - we bought her a high chair, put on her seahawks bib, and dug in. It was pretty funny - she mainly plays with it, rolling it around in her mouth and letting it fall out. I get such a kick out of it - a very entertaining way to eat :)

Thursday

Funny Faces

Not meaning to abandon the blog - trying to find the time to write more meaningful things than status updates of daily chores. Enjoying taking pictures of our baby girl, staying in touch with friends, reading books, getting ready for football, keeping doors and windows open - these are the things that are keeping my days full.

Poem

Found today on the interwebs and too lovely not to share:

I need a word

a brand new word

nobody ever heard

I need a word

that can express

You are the dearest

on the earth

{by Monique and Hans Hagen}

That's sweet - makes the run of the mill days a little less so :)

Tuesday

baby photo shoot

Story Time

Morgan and Yew

Olive's view from her perch on the floor

Goofy girl making unintentionally funny faces

Knitting project almost done - Beautiful new fall hat!

Our day was slow.. nothing eventful happened, it was mostly quiet around here - slow-paced late summer day i guess. Oh! i almost forgot - i made reservations for Bryan and I at the Searose - a tiny B & B in Oceanside, Oregon where we stayed during our honeymoon. We'll be staying there in December for two nights while Grandma and Grandpa Fine babysit - I am really, really really looking forward to this. it won't be an exaggeration that i'll be counting down to December 21st starting today! Life will speed up shortly - later this week I'll start watching the little girl across the street every afternoon until her parents get home, and my two Art Appreciation classes will be starting, so I'll get to slowly test my feet at being a stay-at-home mom who works from home as well. I'm sure it will be great - I feel lucky that i get to do this, though I'm sure I'll be a lot more on task grading papers than I have in the past! In the meantime, fall can't come fast enough, and winter too!

What is everyone else up to this Tuesday afternoon?

Bry and Olive 1980 and 2010

like father, like daughter...