Kaiya's Travels North!

I'm leading with this picture because it doesn't really apply anywhere but I just LOVE both expressions:)

It’s taken me a little while to get this post up here. The last week of my maternity was a whirlwind and my first week back to work was filled with nothing but work (obviously) and then Kaiya cuddles as soon as I got home. I’m learning that there will be a lot of little things that will be happily ignored in my attempt at a work-life balance. The dishes will probably suffer during the week, as well as the laundry, leisure reading and, most likely, these larger posts. All things that will just have to wait for the weekendJ

Back to our travels north though! This trip was…well, a trip!

We traveled north for the super special occasion of my brother’s high school graduation! I honestly cannot believe my little brother is old enough to graduate from high school. I have a hard time believing he’s old enough to BE in high school.

I left the house when Nathan (aka “Buddy” or, now that he’s older, “Bud”) was only 4 years old. I remember my favorite part of the family phone calls while I was in Venezuela  were with him. My favorite one of all times went like this:

Me: “Hey Buddy! How are you?”
Nathan: “Good. You speak Spanish now?”
Me: “I’m learning, yeah.”
Nathan: “Cool. Can you count to a million?”
Me: “Probably, but that would take a while.”
Nathan: “Oh. Can you say lion?”
Me: “Sure, it’s ‘leon’.”
Nathan: “’Leon.’ Cool! MOOOOM! Here.” (Passes off phone.)

I always loved how cute it was that counting to a million in Spanish and knowing how to say lion in Spanish were equally as impressive to his little 4 year old mind. And now here he is the same age I was when we had that conversation. Mind. Blown.

I am so incredibly proud of him. He may be a brat of a teenager today, like every other 18 year old boy, but he’s showing little hints of becoming the decent, responsible, standup man I know he’ll shortly be. Come August he’ll be attending SUNY Pottsdam participating in ROTC with dreams of someday becoming a pilot. Just awesome.

You know what else was awesome? His graduation party! It was so so so awesome to see so many family members that I hadn’t seen in so very long! It was yet another perfect opportunity to introduce sweet Kaiya to more members of her crazy large family.

The Line of "Atwell" Ladies (missing Delaney, Courtenay, Xela, Liana, Siana and Kaiya)

Perhaps my favorite part of the party was getting to see my 95 year old Uncle Henry. This guy is no joke. I take that back, he’s FULL of jokes! He’s also spilling over with history and a memory that’s quick to recall every detail. I adore watching him and Aunt Bev together.

Uncle Henry "poking" the camera :)

 Back when I was younger, parties with my family would go well into the night and get pretty roudy. I have fond memories of watching the adults get a little kooky (and drunk). Now I’M the kooky adult! When all the cousins, aunt’s and uncles were headed off to bed, John, Britt, Cassie, Nathan and I were just getting started.

Nathan and his friends had a little light saber fight in the yard:

Britt, John and I explored the Worcester Inn (long rumored to be haunted) and then headed to the Worcester cemetery to see if we could scare ourselves further. (We could).

All in all, a great night!

The next day was Nathan’s graduation ceremony. He looks so handsome in that green gownJ

Luckily, while home for Nathan's graduation, I was able to connect with my good friend Amy from high school. She's one of my oldest friends, and we have that type of friendship that is easy, relaxed, and picks up right where it left off. I adore her. She brought her beautiful daughter Eden, and her and Kaiya became instant friends:)

From the festivities in Worcester we headed south. Our first stop was in little ol' NYC to visit our friend Alan and his fiance Emily. We've missed Alan since he relocated to New York but we're holding out hopes that Alan and Emily will return to the DC area in a few years.

Doesn't Alan look like such a natural?!

We met Alan and Emily at a little restaurant in Chelsea for some cheese and a beer. Our visit was short, but sweet, and far too soon we were having to get on the road again. Our final destination was one of my three happy places on earth: Shelter Island. 

For those of you who don’t know, John and I met on Shelter Island back in the summer of 2004. (Has it seriously been almost 10 years since we met?!) Timeline seem wrong there? That’s because we didn’t like each other until 2006. We spent two years with a strong dislike for each other. Just long enough for him to turn 18 ;)

Nonetheless, Shelter Island will always be a special place for us with lots of great memories, beautiful scenery, and a family of people we love dearly.

Our first day on Shelter Island we actually traveled “off island” to Greenport. For those of you who don’t know, to get on and/or off Shelter Island you have to take a ferry. Kaiya slept through the whole experience:

While in Greenport we ate lunch at the Blue Canoe, a little restaurant opened by the same people John and I worked for while living on Shelter Island. Lunch was tasty and the weather was sunny and perfect. 

After lunch we headed over to the Greenport Harbor Brewery, an addition that joined the north fork after John and I moved away. The tasting room itself wasn’t all that special (apparently they have plans to move to a nicer location) but the beer was yummy. We did a little tasting of their 5 beers but I passed on the IPA’s, not a fan.

Dinner that night was a yummy spread of dumplings, deliciously prepared by Drew and his girlfriend Ariana. I was nothing less than super impressed, and I definitely ate more than my share of themJ

The second day on Shelter Island was actually Alan and Katherine’s 24^th wedding anniversary!! There are few couples in my life that I enjoy watching together more than Alan and Katherine. After 24 years together, they still flirt like teenagers, and their love story is one of happenstance, patience, and devotion and the result is a family of seven and a household so full of laughter, love and life that you can’t help but want to wrap yourself in it. John and I (and now Kaiya) treasure our time with the Garrisons.

Anniversary day consisted of a lovely walk/jog to Wade’s beach, followed by a nice little BBQ with the fam and ended with a viewing of Four Seasons. A perfect day.

Wade's Beach. I used to run here 3-4 times a week.

Our last day on the island started with a little walk to Fidi’s only to discover that our favorite little sandwich place had been replaced by Smidt’s, a Southampton native grocery/deli. I can’t complain, since the sandwiches were still good, but my heart saddened a little with the change.

The highlight of our day was definitely our date at the Shelter Island yacht club. Alan kindly invited us to dine on the patio while Kaiya stayed with the Garrison kids. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t freaking out half the time I was away, but I sucked it up and downed half a bottle of wine like an adult. The scenery was just perfect and John and I conversed hypothetically about what it would be like to live the kind of life that included giant sailboats, yacht club memberships and houses on Shelter Island. Then we hoped in our Ford and drove back to our baby. I have to admit though, nothing about our reality felt any less awesome than the hypothetical one.

Way too quickly, the time to leave creeped up on us and we had to load up the car and say our goodbye’s. Next time we see the Garrison’s Kirby will have packed on another couple of pounds in beer, Drew will be a real college student, Olivia will be finishing up her senior year in high school, Will will have started working his first real job, and Lily will be embarking on the dreaded teenage years. The only constants will be that Katherine will still be feeding the dog with a spoon and Alan will still be a boob man. I take comfort in the things that never change J

Lily and Kaiya

Will and Kaiya

A Day at the Zoo with Long Lost Family

I post so infrequently lately that when when I do post, it's generally super long and covers vast expanses of time, but today I'm keeping it short and sweet. Today I'm covering Kaiya's first visit to the zoo and (more importantly) her first meeting with family from the Linderman side of my family!!

Kaiya has been on the road 20 of the last 30 days, and she's been one heck of a trooper, but when we were given the opportunity to meet up with my uncle and his family, whom I haven't seen in YEARS there was no possible answer except to say "Absolutely!" Nonetheless, she clearly wasn't thrilled to be up and headed out of the house at 9am the day after returning from our most recent trip.

The day started off quite plesant for a DC day. Cool and overcast with only a touch of humidity. This lovely weather lasted about an hour or so before is started getting crazy hot and sunny. We walked nearly the entirety of the zoo and Kaiya's favorite exibit was the same as her cousin Melissa's: the elephants!

Note the change in outfits between when John's holding her (left) and when I am (right). It got HOT!

We love love love the national zoo and while we rarely ever hit any of the other smithsonians in the city we've been to the zoo probably 5 times since we moved here, and we'll probably go even more now that we have a little one to enjoy it with:)

To finish off our little tour of the zoo, we took a great big group shot. It's a picture that I will continue to treasure until our paths cross again (which will hopefully be sooner rather than later!)

Uncle Jeff, Erica, Aunt Cindy, Melissa, Kaiya and Me (left to right:)