Week 1

The first of our three weeks here in Rochester has come to an end. Here's what you've missed so far.

Saturday:
We were all sporting our BYU gear for the season opener--Go Cougars! Dan's parents were in town for the weekend, and it was great to see them again!

Lisa and I took off while Walt, Andrea, and Dan watched the kids. This isn't a great picture and doesn't even make us look much alike for all the people we are confusing!

We went to the DCA World Championship here in Rochester! Which means we watched a marching band show! We're nerds; we'll admit it. It was actually kind of chilly and the corps at the beginning weren't great. We realized later that they saved the best for last. We had to leave early to put the kids to bed and see the game, but we saw some great shows before leaving. Check out the awesome trees and buildings in the skylines below.


This corps did a show with music from Wicked! Marching band and Wicked?!? Totally fitting for me and Lisa!


Sunday:
Church, two dessert "parties" at friends' of Lisa and Dan's.

Labor Day:
Lisa's ward had a picnic. Here is Ethan heading to the car holding several train cars and an apple (notice the wide-legged funny walking).

Every few steps he would stop, put his head down, and take a bite of apple. Now that it is cool here, he has decided to eat again. I'm beginning to think that the reason Ethan has been such a terrible eater the last few months is because it was too hot. (Ok, actually, my sister-in-law Cecilia put that together when Ethan all the sudden started eating on our Utah trip, but his behavior here seems to prove it)

Chilly day at the park, but Ethan is loving being outside so much!



Tuesday:
Children's Museum! The Strong Museum out here is amazing, so we had to make a visit. Here are the cousins:

Ethan signing "fish".

And grocery shopping. He loves the grocery carts, but there are no pictures of that because I was too busy trying to slow him down and keep him from bumping into other kids with them.

James was excited to show Ethan all the trains and cars at the museum. He said Ethan "will never want to leave." Lisa gave Ethan a token to ride a train inside the museum, which of course he LOVED:

Signing "train".

And there was a train table.

"Choo Choo!"

In the fairy tale adventure area they had a "troll bridge". Ethan was staring at the troll so I asked him to sit next to it (notice the stool), but Ethan decided to sit on his lap instead.

And then give him a kiss.

Cousins playing in the sand:


Wednesday:
James started preschool! We had a relaxed day, but did get to head over to the library and play with another train table (and check out train books).

Ethan must have pushed this stroller around for at least an hour or two outside. He also practiced riding a bike. He gets very excited to see the little bikes and shouts, "by" while signing "bike". Lately, he loves to shout "Go!" while running too--adorable!


Enjoying the new library books:


Thursday:
We went to High Falls and learned about the history of Rochester. Did you know that this used to be the flour capital of the US? They also created prepared, packaged mustard here. And Kodak started here (which I guess is why there is such and awesome Optics program here for Dan). Susan B Anthony and Frederick Douglas also lived, and are buried, here. Rochester has been an important part of US history, apparently, but I don' think I'd ever heard of it until Lisa moved here.

We went to a museum/Rochester visitor's center. The kids are watching a video about Rochester in the cab.

Here are the falls. The water here ran the mills among other things. If it sounds like I don't really know what I'm talking about, it is because I only got to halfway listen/read at the museum in between chasing Ethan around.

Two days until the big race and my trip to Manhattan!

Summer Fun Rochester Style

I claim extra picture allowances so that Mike can see more of Ethan while we are out of town, so excuse all the pictures.

Phoenix summers aren't really conducive to letting Ethan go in and out of the yard at will. We have to keep the doors closed and I don't really like sitting outside for extended periods of time with Ethan unless water play is involved.

Here in Rochester, Ethan is loving constantly walking out the back door and playing on this picnic table, among other places in the yard.

Signing train and saying "choo choo".

Saying "hi!" Ethan currently waves by opening and closing his hand in a fist.

On Thursday we went to an awesome ice cream place that gives kids free kiddie cones and anybody who brings a banana half off a banana split. YUM! Thank goodness the fitness challenge is over so I could enjoy! Ethan, of course, drove his trains.


I don't think he's ever eaten his very own ice cream cone before. Here he is signing "ice cream".

Finger-lickin' good!


He didn't finish off his cone, but here he is thoroughly enjoying the end of my sundae. He ate the banana slices inside (covered in toppings) which was pretty much the first banana he's eaten in probably over a year.


He's a mess, but when he dripped ice cream, he stopped to wipe it up-his father's son.

Then he actually ate some plain banana!!! He loves saying "nana" and signing "banana" but will never eat them, maybe now he will?


On Friday we went to the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, New York. This is where Joseph Smith lived when he had the First Vision and began translating the Book of Mormon. I love going here and Lisa had a photo shoot to do, so it worked out great.

Here are "the babies" exploring the stairs very seriously.

And not really wanting to sit for a picture.

I got to push this load around the dirt paths in the grove. I counted it as my exercise for the day.

Notice the train in Ethan's mouth.

Gorgeous greenery!

It was in this grove that Joseph Smith knelt to pray and in answer to his prayer he saw a pillar of light in which stood Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love the spirit in these peaceful woods.

Friday night Dan's parents came into town and we went out to dinner. Check out these clouds!!! It was cool and cloudy and chilly and green! While the weather has been hot and humid, the evenings are nice, and it is now cooling off-hooray!

Before we left, Ethan was sitting on this step watching, and laughing loudly, as James ran back and forth. Ethan kept saying, "Go, Go!" I took a video of it, but only got the "go, go!" before Ethan took off running after James.

And then he fell. His knees were already scraped up, so now they are looking pretty pitiful. Poor baby.

It rained while we were at dinner, which created some very exciting puddles for Ethan. James played with him--Ethan is loving playing with James!

From the Mouth of Babes

James hit it on the head when talking about Ethan:
"He just likes trains! That's all he wants to play with. And not eat."

Ruthie when talking about me:
"Aunt Mommy".
I'm not fooling her with my identical twin similarities. I am, however, confusing many a neighbor who thinks Lisa has an extra child and suddenly long hair.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Off to a Good Start

I'm determined to keep up on taking pictures and blogging as I am in New York, so here is what we've been up to so far.

Tuesday afternoon we left Phoenix for Rochester. Ethan was Mr. Social at the airport. He was saying "hi" to everyone and playing peekaboo with strangers. He was very excited to see the planes and would sign plane while exclaiming, "weeeee".

You can't tell from these pictures, but Ethan went over and started playing with these girls. He said "hi, hi, hi" a million times and then they showed each other their toys.


Ethan was AWESOME on the first flight! We took advantage of early boarding and Ethan was SO excited running down the aisle of the plane! After we took off, he fell right to sleep and when he woke up he watched movies and played. We never left our seat and he never even fussed.

I love this light tunnel at the Detroit airport. You can't tell, but Ethan likes it too.


We got to sit on the runway in a little plane with no air conditioning for quite awhile before leaving Detroit. I tried really hard to get Ethan to fall asleep on the second flight, and right as he did, we started our descent. I thought it was a 1.5 hour flight, but turns out there's a time change and the flight is only about 1/2 an hour. We arrived at about 11:30pm.

We spent Wednesday catching up on sleep and taking Dan and Lisa's second car in for a check up before they generously let me drive it to NYC (later in the trip). That night we played games at a neighbor's house (after the kids went to sleep).

So far today, we went for a morning walk (loving the shade, but let's get some cooler temperatures!) and then took the kids to pick peaches and apples. Mmm! I LOVE peaches!

Ethan was a little whiny, especially here after hitting his head on the tree branch.

Helping me carry the bag of peaches. He mostly liked putting the peaches in the bag. I think he was confused on the fact that he couldn't pick the ones from the ground.