If you eat turkey in the woods...

will you still eat way too much?
Umm...of course!

We spent Thanksgiving in Deep Creek, Maryland which only loosely qualifies as the woods as we rented a beautiful condo and spent most of our time there with a little bit of nature time sprinkled in. Both sets of grandparents met us there and even with the sprint to the finish to get dinner on the table a good time was had by all. It was especially exciting that the Ladies (Grandma 1 and Grandma 2 and I) handily beat the men at Trivial Pursuit the 90s edition. Matt begs to differ that answers relating to 90210 and RuPaul should count as winning at a trivia game but we'll take what we can get. Bridger had a great time bossing all of his grandparents around. Two funny anecdotes from all of his chatter.
1. When we were going around saying what we were thankful for Bridger would call on each person. When it was my mom's turn he said in a coy little voice "Grandma Sneaky Ross". We have no idea where that came from but the Sneaky nickname might be here to stay.
2. On our last morning I wanted to get him outside before the drive and he said:
"No I am going to annoy you and stay inside!" I think I told him once that we were going outside because he was annoying me a few weeks ago, but apparently that was one time too many and he figured out how to use it. Don't worry...Mom still wins and we went outside!

On our way out we had to make a pit stop for the B and found a little slice of homemade heaven. If you are ever on route 68 in Maryland, exit 56 has all the homemade goodness you could ever want. We bought fruitcake for GrandDad and Grandpa as pre-Christmas treat (yes they are crazy as the love that stuff), delicious dinner rolls for Thanksgiving, and whoopie pies that were to die for. There were so many other things we would have loved to have sampled though. And as a bonus their bathroom was sparkling clean!
The first night we were there we headed over to Mountain State Brewery for delicious pizza using a wood-burning oven and fun beers. Bridger entertained himself by building domino towers!
We got our nature time in at Deep Creek Lake State Park. Bridger got to build a bird feeder that he couldn't put up at the condo due to bears but sadly it will likely only feed pigeons if we put it up here. Hence the bird feeders are still in the bag given to us at the Nature Center, which I really should address or the mice that have taken up residence at our house might enjoy their own feast.


Just to show you how much we were "roughing it" here is some of our downtime in the condo. Guitar hero, toys galore, a beautiful deck, and great weather made for a very relaxing time.



What a blessing it was to have some great family time. We are thankful for our families, the good health that we have, the means to make a trip like this, and a moment to press pause on our busy life. (And now I have to get moving as I need to get to work on making Christmas holiday memories...Bridger is already worried that we won't be having a Christmas tree since it isn't up yet and his friends all of have trees...who are these friends and can they decorate for me??)

I'm going to California...

That's right friends I went to California a couple of weeks ago. It was so fun. I had a great time seeing all different kinds of people. Even though we had tons of fun, everybody got a little tired while we were there. My baby sister did not sleep well at all so Mommy was very tired. I also had some trouble sleeping as it was a new place. It was my first time to sleep in a big boy bed that is regular height off the floor instead of my big boy bed and I fell out once and got a little scared a few nights. Not too scared though since I am a big boy.

Here is all the fun stuff we did while we were in CA.

If you were a fan of the first blog we did you might remember Ezra. Ezra and I were friends in Michigan (where I was born). We played together lots there because our mommies worked together. The first day we were in CA we played together and had a great time and our mommies talked and talked and talked since they don't get to see each other almost every day anymore!

First we made "cookies"
Then we went to the park....

Ooops I almost forgot Ezra has a baby sister just like me. Her name is SoniaThis is the 4 of us enjoying CA sunshine together...long live friends and hope that we get to continue to have these special visits for a long long time!

Another fun thing we did was go to the Oakland Zoo with my cousin Jonan. We had a fun time seeing all the animals. Our favorites were the monkeys and this giant alligator!

Don't forget any good zoo adventure starts with a "dog" product!

Rule #2 is that it shouldn't require anybody to pose for a pictureThis includes our baby sisters...Lucianna and Larsen are too busy for picture taking Mom!
Though it is a little fun to play around with the camera while sitting in a giant turtle shell!

Just for fun here is a picture of me now in the turtle and one when I was not even one year old yet.

We ended the day with a fun train ride and then headed home for some yummy food somewhere as we also did a lot of good eating in CA!Most of our time was spent playing at MorMor and Grandy's house or Nana and Poppi's house. They both have fun toys and I like playing with them. My favorite thing to do with Grandy is feed the birds. Everyday we had to fill up the bird feeder. My favorite thing to do with MorMor is to do projects in her bed in the morning. We made door knob hangers for Thanksgiving and Christmas trees. Even though we had tons of fun with MorMor and Grandy we forgot to take a lot of pictures and this is the only picture we have of them. Hopefully they got some better ones on their camera!
At Nana and Poppi's house my favorite thing to do was check the size of the dinosaur that Nana is growing in water for me. We also got to eat yummy cake. We made the cake because my Daddy was having a birthday. He turned 15. He loved his candles and all of us singing Happy Birthday! Poppi has been a little sick, but we tried to cheer him up and keep him company. He loves the Raiders can you tell?!


On our last day in CA we went to see Jody, Trevor, Amy, and Erik. They are super fun and we had a great time. I can't wait to be a cool teenager like Trevor, Amy, and Erik. They taught be fun things like how to play "Mad Birds," but I was too cool to pose for a picture with them.
That is all of our adventures in CA. It was such a great time and I am "thank you" for all of my family who live there and I am so glad I get to know them and have fun with them. (Larsen is "thank you" for that too!)

Seven Spectacular Months

My seven months update is also spectacularly late, but that is because I have been traveling.

Where you say??
I went to Detroit just before I turned seven months and then was in CA when I officially reached the mark. However, I love to travel everyday because I am crawling!! I was doing a lot of rocking on all fours and limited army crawls during the month of October, but right around Halloween I started putting together some actual crawling. I took the opportunity to perfect my skills in CA and went from being able to get to something close to me to slowly be able to work my way across the room. Now, however, I am off to the races. I can get anywhere I want which has gotten me into a little trouble. My brother doesn't like that I always have an eye out for his toys and can get to them quickly. I also love to chew on electrical cords which means my parents are finding new spots for everything. To add to my new list of talents I am also pulling up. I usually have to get to my knees and then up so items have to be a little low, but my parents loved seeing me stand up at my toy basket and slowly go through things and make a pile on my mat of things I would like to play with. They think that all of a sudden I have gone from a little baby to little person who knows exactly what she wants. (Didn't they know I was hiding in there this whole time??)

I am eating finally!! I don't like to be spoon-fed...try it and I will blow it back at you so hard you'll have to get a washcloth to wipe your sorry face. However, I will feed myself thank you very much. I am getting better and better at it and have become a regular at the breakfast and dinner table. So far I have eaten bananas, sweet potatoes, avocado, apples, rice, noodles, toast, pizza crust (don't ask!), bagel bits, ground beef, bits of crescent pie, Cheerios, puffs, green beans, and pancakes. I can't wait to try little bites of Thanksgiving this weekend.

In other new developments I will now sit and listen to some books. I love peek-a-boo books and books where I can feel things. I belly laugh at about anything my brother does (p.s. He is the best!) I have started to do some babbling but I mostly still do my interpretation of the roaring and growling I see Bridger do. I have waved a few times but not consistently yet. I am starting to love songs more and more and I am getting a little more clingy to Mommy. I still let most anybody hold me and I smile at them, but if Mommy leaves unexpectedly I get upset. I also love to cuddle with her and sometimes wake up twice at night to get in some extra cuddles...usually though it's just once.

Hope you enjoyed pictures of me on the move this month...I'm too busy to stay still!

Octember is for Oh so busy!

While our lives are normally one step away from chaos the October/November season is particularly nutty. With birthdays, baptisms, haunting holidays, school celebrations, and a bunch of work deadlines we barely came up for air in the six weeks from early October to mid-November. This year we added in a work trip for me to Detroit, a conference for me in DC, and a family trip to California so we are just plain exhausted! Despite this the kids keep growing, changing, and keeping us one our toes. I can't believe Larsen is 7 months old(um...no we still haven't taken her 7 month pic but we'll get there). The big news is she is crawling, pulling up, and starting to eat real food. Where did my infant go??? Bridger continues to expand his vocabulary and his imagination and story telling are getting better everyday. Even when work is super busy and sleep is hard to come by, we still try to celebrate life's moments and enjoy the season. So here is a peek at the fun stuff that has kept us busy the last six weeks...no need to take pics of all the work nonsense.

In mid-October we went to Larriland Farms to pick apples and pumpkins. We went there last year. It feels like we were just there last year with Bridger. In our nomadic life of late we don't have too many repeat adventures so it was special to be able to repeat out apple picking adventures as a family of 4.



So here is our big guy this year, followed by pics from last year. He seemed like such a big boy last year, but now he looks like such a baby at that time.
I know I said no work pics but I had to document Larsen's first flight. All the build up for this first flying adventure and it is to Detroit...fancy that!
In case you were wondering Grandma DeCamp worked her magic again and made two fabulous Halloween costumes. Our shark and mermaid were a hit at all the festivities!
We did do some trick or treating in the 'hood (at the homes of people we knew of course). Bridger is really into candy now but still was a bit nervous about the whole knocking at the door and asking for candy business.

Finally to round out our fall fun, here are some pics of our little Scotsman. Bridger's school has International Day around Halloween every year. It is either go big or go home with the costumes and after our big fail last year (somehow a track suit and a Portugal soccer ball didn't cut it as a traditional Portuguese outfit) we enlisted Grandma Ross to help with Scottish garb. We think she did a great job...Bridger looked awesome. Did I mention how grateful I am to have a mom and mother-in-law that can do the homemade thing!?! We love the end result and the special touch it brings to celebrations.

Scotland meet Germany!What you have never seen a guy in a kilt doing the limbo before??

Well that is our October...our November adventures in CA and 7 month old Larsen pics are coming soon!