Halloween, Chad's Birthday, and a Visit from James and Mare

Ripley had a series of Halloween events, starting with Boo at the Zoo in Cleveland (penguin - see previous post), the Halloween Lantern Parade in Patterson Park (ladybug - thank you Grammy!), Ghoul at the School, and Fells Point Kids Halloween.

We were also happy to see James and Mare this weekend. They

joined us on our Fells Point Halloween adventure, ate yummy food with us at DiPasquales, and wrapped up a visit to the American Visionary Arts museum. We seem to have a bit of a jinx when it comes to our visits with James and Mare, as James slipped and banged himself up in the wooden tree house at the museum as we were leaving, but we are hoping for a quick recovery.

Despite the busy week, we also had time to celebrate Chad's birthday. We went to the B&O Brasserie where Chad got the mixed grill, which to our surprise came out in a ceramic pig. A memorable evening all around.

New Years at Cape May

We'll get to Christmas eventually, but a few words about New Years. We've been so lucky over the years to be able to meet up with our "architect" friends (even though not all of them are architects) in Cape May for New Years. The short version of the story is that Chad's college roommate Alan went to high school with Scott, who married Nina and had Cai and Von. Scott knew James from grad school (I think - and/or living together in Philly); Mare is James' sweetie and they live in NYC. I should ask again how Teresa knows Scott. Anyway, we all have a fun time together that involves a big house, walks on the beach, dominos and Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

This was Ripley's first new years in Cape May. We did a few new things - including going to Sunset Beach to watch the sun go down over the water. A fun adventure!

Inauguration Adventure

I am not sure where the month of January has gone, but here we are almost 2 weeks after the last update. And I still haven't written about the many Christmas celebrations and baby's first New Years. I've decided to start with the inauguration, and think I'll link most of the pictures to my Picasa account instead of trying to put them here.

I like to think we did inauguration-lite. No outside standing in the cold for hours for us. Chad's college friend Nicole had reservations at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant The Source in the Newseum, a museum on Pennsylvania Ave. in DC. She called the weekend before and asked if we wanted to join her - Chad had been pretty uninspired about going, but this was an invitation that could not be refused.

So we got up at 5:15 am on Tuesday, January 20th and made our way to the RI Metro stop. Little to no traffic on the BW Parkway heading down. We got the last spot in the lot after Chad sweet talked the manager into letting us into the lot. He directed us to a half spot where we ended up on the curb (see photo of this in the album).

We walked to Nicole's and hung out there for a few hours and watched the people standing on the mall freezing and realized we had made the right decision not take Ripley out in the cold for that long since she was just coming off some lung gunk. We took a bus downtown, did some walking and ended up at the restaurant right as the swearing in ceremony was about to start. We finally made our way through the mob at the Newseum and watched Obama take the oath on the TV screens in the bar. For the sake of full disclosure, I have to say that they would not turn on the sound, so when I say we watched it, this is accurate.

We headed up for our lunch reservation and had a leisurely time enjoying good food and good company. Ripley was an angel through the meal - eating, sleeping and playing without one bit of ruckus. At one point, I thought I saw Wolfgang Puck, but no one else had, but we asked the waiter and sure enough, it was him. We were good about not being stalkers, but at the end of our meal, he came over to us and we had to ask if we could take Ripley's picture with him (see photo on Picasa). He said he has a 2 year old that he could hook her up with!

After lunch, we went outside and tried to catch a glimpse of the parade through the glass windows of the restaurant and the barricades. I did have a good view of the car, but the Obamas were not walking when they passed where we were.

Our final stop of the day was to meet up with Drew, Naya and Cai who had been out on the mall in the cold and had come all the way from Los Angeles for the event. We didn't have nearly enough time to catch up but I am so glad the little ones got to see each other. They had both been troopers all day long. We headed home around 6:00 and were once again lucky in that we hit very little traffic. We have wonderful memories of an amazing historic event - it will be fun to share them with Ripley when she is older and can truly understand the significance of the day.

Thanks for reading the long update - I'll try to get back to Christmas over the weekend.

Out of Town Visitors - my friend Cai

Some very good friends visited us this past weekend. Most of us met in 1993 when they came to Baltimore with Teach For America - Drew, Sara, Kelly, Deirdre. Naya was in DC, but we don't hold this against her. She and Drew have been married for a while now - one of our most fun weddings in Southern Colorado.

Last year when we started telling people we were pregnant, we called Drew and Naya. Somewhere along the way, I think we both doubted that the other couple was going to have kids. I vividly remember walking in the square down in Fells Points and telling Drew that we had something to tell him, and him telling me that they had something

to tell us. Somehow we managed to get pregnant within a month of one another. Cai was born on Apri 24th and Ripley was born on May 27th. Right now that month makes a huge difference - Cai is motoring around while Ripley is still just barely edging along - but as they get older, that month is going to be insignificant, and they will, in effect, be exactly the same age.

I know other people have better pictures from the weekend, so when they share one of the group shots, I'll upload it here (done 11/20/08). My photos from the weekend are linked on my Picasa account. We had such a fun weekend visting old spots like Jimmy's and some new ones like Hampden. There is never enough time, but we've been good about making sure we see one another at least once a year. Everyone got along swimmingly - except for Chad scaring Cai for some reason? Maybe next time, we will try clean-shaven Chad.

October 11th and 12th - Marathon Cheering and North Run Farm

It was a beautiful weekend here in Baltimore, so we did outside things. On Saturday, we cheered for 3 hours near Patterson Park for the Baltimore Marathon runners. Ripley did amazing - she was up for 2 hours of it and then slept in the sling for the final hour. I am not a runner (maybe Ripley will be), but it was inspiring to see people come past at mile 16. I saw our neighbor Dana, and Chad saw our friend Kari - both of whom were doing the 1/2 marathon.

Then on Sunday, we met up with our friends the Lindamoods (Kevin, Melisa, and Sienna) and went to North Run Farm in Baltimore County. North Run Farm is a pumpkin patch, has farm animals and a hay ride, and has a pretty sizable corn maze (themed to the election this year). We picked our own pumpkin, visited with the chickens and baby sheep (I suppose you'd call them lambs).

We rode the hay ride and somehow Chad and I ended up sitting on the hay, which I am not sure was meant to be sat upon as much as it was to be decorative. And finally, we wandered through the corn maze. Those of you who follow the adventures of Ripley will not be shocked to read

that she ended up napping in the sling (see the bump in the green fabric) for the maze - probably for the best, as my mental energy and navigation skills were needed to keep us from getting lost in the corn.

Duckpin Bowling and Fells Point Festival

Two of our adventures earlier this month were quite Baltimore specific - duckpin bowling at the Patterson Bowl and the Fells Point Festival (an aside - my first kiss with Chad was at the Fells Point Festival in October of 1993!).

We don't have very good pictures (I think a new camera might be in the works), but here is a sampling of photos from duckpin. Note the shape of our daughter's head and the duckpin bowling ball - I am just saying...

And then we met up with the Martins (Kate, Marc, Adam and Charlie) at the Fells Point Festival.

Charlie is about a month younger than Ripley, but you wouldn't know it from their sizes. We've talked about starting a girl band, with the third girl being Olivia - Omari and Shaylin Todd's new little one (4 months younger than Ripley - so about 2 weeks old right now). Check back in 15 years.

New York City - September 13-14, 2008

I realized that even though I posted last weekend, it wasn't really about Ripley, so it is high time for me to steal a few minutes for some updates. I tried to put them in order - so this update on New York is the most recent, but I also just added a few others, so scroll on down.

Ripley made her first trip to the Big Apple this weekend. We stayed with Pop Pop in NJ on Friday night - Granny was away on retreat, but we'll see them again this coming weekend when they are down in Baltimore so Vivienne can fly to Detroit.

We headed up to James and Mare's place on Saturday. So beautiful. A wonderful view (Chrysler Building on the left; UN on the right), and a gorgeous courtyard. You can just make out the

Empire State Building in the background of the photo with Ripley in her stroller.

We did a lot of walking on Sunday, and it was sweltering, but we found a cool toy store, Kidding Around, and bought a fun rattle for the little girl to chew on. Of course, Ripley spent some time napping in her sling...

All in all, we had a wonderful visit and will have to make sure not to go almost a full year without seeing James and Mare again. Chad seems to think we could live in Manhattan, but I am more incined to make more of an effort to visit more often.