Bored

So it is Saturday night. 

Got BOTH girls to bed before 7:30pm (pat on the back). 

Got the church bags ready, house picked up and even got breakfast ready to grab and go in the morning. 

So what do I do at 8:30pm when Ryan is still doing research at the lab, and I am bored and don't feel like watching anything...

BLOG! 

I have been really bad taking pictures this week {sorry G'mas}. Which stinks because we went to a very cute Beach themed birthday party and I didn't take my camera... I missed out. Oh well. 

So lets chat about the week a little. It has actually been pretty good (aside from one really downer day... but I don't want to talk about that. Nothing happened it was just blue). We had a guest come and stay with us Friday night so she could get an early start on house hunting this morning (hopefully she moves here, I think we'd be great friends and she has two kids close to Sarah's age, so it'd be great). So, in a frantic whirlwind I cleaned the house and now it feels nice and sparkly... *sigh* ... just makes my heart happy. 

Friday afternoon I was making Sarah's bed (she had an accident so I had to wash the sheets...big downer to bunk beds... pain to change the sheets!). Well, I don't know if I have taken a picture of Sarah's new room layout, but we put Abby's crib where the bottom bed would be on the bunk bed to make more space in their room. Sarah was climbing on the beam of the lower bunk and slipped and landed right on the back of her left upper thigh. She cried, but I didn't really think anything of it. 

Well this morning Sarah could barely walk on it. It was drama, drama, drama. It was hard to tell how much it really hurt her because she was playing it up so much. She either pulled her hamstring or bruised it (can you bruise a muscle?) I don't know. She wouldn't even stand on it. I really didn't know whether or not to take her to the B-day party because she wouldn't have to much fun limping around, or to take her to the doctor.  My other thought was that maybe it would encourage her to walk around on it and warm/loosen it up. So that is what we did, and it worked! Everyone was very concerned about how she was limping... but after ten or fifteen minutes she was walking around flat footed again. I think she'll be fine, I am just a little nervous that it will get tight again tonight and we'll have the same drama, drama, drama before church in the morning (please oh, please oh, please NO!). 

Hmmm... What else, what else. 

Oh! So, the desk up in our guest bedroom was bulky and awkward because you couldn't push a chair under it. It drove me bonkers... and so I found a cute little desk on freecycle and asked Ryan to pick it up with me. Here is how our loverly pick up went. 

(Keep in mind the lady giving it to us (for FREE) was standing right there). 

Ryan looks at the desk (it is kind of cute, she put a floral paper on the front of all the drawers, but very girly). 

R: Thats the desk?

L: Don't worry, I'll fix it so its not so girly. 

R: Where is this desk going to go?

L: Upstairs for you to study at. (I thought this was obvious... where else?)

Our current little desk has the space for a PC to go in, and that is where Ryan sticks most of this books, and it has a little hutch he could put things on, but NO DRAWERS...

R: (a little irritated) Liz, where am I going to put my books?

L: We'll figure it out...

R: *sigh* (or Hmph more like it).

Needless to say, Ryan was not too happy about the new little desk. But it is narrower (giving more room between the bed and the desk), has drawers, allows for a chair to be pushed under, and will look EXTREMELY cute once I match it up to the current decor. I had to negotiate boxing up books on the downstairs bookshelf so he would have somewhere to put his books... but it is up there and I love it. I even found time to recover a little chair to match. It needs to be painted... but it works for now. 

I feel a tad bit guilty for getting my way on this one. After all... Ryan is the one who studies in there. But I am the one who is stuck home all the time and would be driven crazy by the old desk day, after day... yup... still feel guilty. 

Oh well, the great news is the old little desk fits perfectly where my couch and love seat meet up and create and awkward space in my living room. We've never been able to find an end table high enough to be functional and it works perfect. Plus, I was able to put all the toys into little spaces in the desk... sounds weird, but I really like it (today at least). 

Blah, blah, blah. I am being way too wordy on this post. So here is what everyone is going to skip to the bottom to see. The pictures!

Sorry no pictures of Sarah.

Its official

Abby is walking. 

Too crazy, but I kind of prefer walking to crawling, because dirty feet aren't as noticeable as dirty hands and knees (hehehe...*sigh*).

Anyway, this a longer video {sorry}, but it has lots of things in it... like Abby walking, Sarah being crazy, Sarah singing the Wonder Pets song, and Abby waving hello. So if you can bear the four minutes you get to see a lot. You'll just have to look past my messy desk, the hand weights, wii board and toys on the floor, the left out vaccuum cleaner (I refuse to put it away until I finish vacuuming what I started...a day or two ago), the blankets and towels all over, the laundry basket on the couch (at least they are folded), and just ignore the fact that I am letting Abby play with a water bottle cap...

Oh, and the heat and humidity have really kicked into gear this past week. It has been pretty bad. I have been trying really hard to get my exercise in during the morning (Ryan has been a great help, he pulls me out of bed some mornings). But I feel like I am never cooling down afterwards. Its like I need to carry a washcloth with me the entire day to pat my face dry {sorry, too much info?}. Anyway, it has really put a damper on my motivation to do anything... it is so. stinkin'. HOT! Bleh... and it is only June... oh dear. If the mall wasn't so far away I think we'd be going there everyday to play at the little indoor playground.

Acadia National Park

This post is a little late, but better late than never. I tried to get Ryan to do this post, but I don't think it will ever happen. So you will get my version instead, bwah ha ha! Just kidding. I really just want to get the pictures on here and a few memories. :)

So the day after Ryan finished his first year of medical school he flew off to Maine to "learn how to research." I believe he was gone May 23-29... a whole stinkin' week and I didn't even get a chance to celebrate finishing his first year! Sheesh, probably was more fun to celebrate with some of his fellow med-students in Maine.

Anyway. The research lab/learning center place that they were at was located right next to Acadia National Park in Maine. So jealous. We are definitely going sometime... hopefully soon. I actually almost went with Ryan, but it is a good thing I didn't because they stayed in girls/guys dorms and that might have been weird.

Their schedule was pretty crazy. They would work all day in the lab one day (like 8am to 10pm) then the next morning they'd present on what they learned and then go and play the rest of the day. Not too bad of a deal. Their first play day they went hiking. Ryan didn't take many pictures, he told there were people there with really nice SLR cameras... everyone is going to share the images on a blog or facebook. Yeah... right. I knew I would never get them to use them, so I encouraged him to take more pictures... or at least have people take pictures of him, because that is all I care about. Anyway. I think this first picture is either on the trail, or right out back of their building (you'll have to ask Ry).

LOVE IT!

And every night they would walk out onto this little dock. 

And watch the sunset. 

Most evenings Ryan and I would webcam for a little bit (there really was no cell phone coverage). Man I was so jealous. But it was good for him to get away and have a little bit of a break. 

Another one of the days they took a long bike ride. 

(Isn't he such a cutie!)

Ryan really loved biking (thus the reason we just did it in THIS post). 

Here is another day of hiking (with pictures this time...hehe).

One of the days they headed into the small little town and cooked up some lobster. This was Ryan's first experience of lobster and really wasn't that crazy about it. I think it probably needed to be cooked better... we'll see when we finally go somewhere nice and have some good lobster. 

(I love this picture)

This town was all about Lobster. There was even an ice cream shop that sold lobster flavored ice cream (yuck!). 

Ryan passed, and I am sure he got his usual Chocolate and Peanut Butter instead. 

It was a really fun week for Ryan (even if he did have really long days in the lab). 

He has promised me that we will go someday... someday...

Camping

This weekend we had BEAUTIFUL weather! So on a whim Ryan and I decided to head off camping. This was good because I love being spontaneous... but bad because we left late, forgot numerous things (including our air mattresss...yeesh!) and were all a little hungry and cranky by the time dinner was ready (at 9:30pm... a tad bit late).

Regardless, it was still fun. I love camping, and we plan on doing a lot of it this summer. 

I had seen a friend post recently about Moraine State Park, which was only 45 minutes north of us. It looked like lots of fun because there was hiking and a lake you could swim in. Sarah is quite the little water baby, so I knew she would love this! We drove around forever trying to find a campsite and finally found one with openings. It was http://bearruncampground.com/. I am kind of bummed that I didn't get more pictures of the campground because it was huge and had everything, including a heated pool, playgrounds and billiards/arcade. I guess I was planning on taking more pictures when we went swimming... but I'll talk about that later. 

So we got in, set up the tent (check out Ryan all tuckered out on in the tent) and dinner on the grill (we had the most amazing shish kabobs, yum!) . The site didn't look all that impressive in the dark. 

But in the morning...

after we woke up a little...

It was beautiful!!!

We slept under this HUGE canopy of trees.

Absolutely beautiful.

 

Everyone was a lot happier in the morning. 

And check out what Abby learned. 

So cute!

Like I mentioned earlier we forgot lots of things in our rush to get out the door, including Sarah's swimsuit. We knew she would be heartbroken if we didn't go swimming, so early that morning, after some charcoal flavored sausages, we drove home and back just to get Sarah's swimsuit (and a few other things like baby wipes and my shoes). Good thing we weren't too far from home. 

When we got back we went straight into Moraine Park and planned to go hiking, but instead we decided to rent some bikes and go for a ride. It was so much fun. Honestly I was a little nervous because I haven't been on a bike since...oh gosh, I don't know, maybe the eighth grade? Anyway, I was afraid a little, but did just fine. Still not good at the gear shifting thing, I only had to put my chain back on twice...

Sarah and Abby were thrilled to be in the bike trailer. 

Well Abby was once we took off her helmet (I know we're bad parents...)

Sarah on the other hand LOVED wearing her blue helmet. She felt so big. She looks so proud of herself here. 

The bike trail was perfect. We were in the shade most of the time (which was good because it was hot and humid) and there weren't any major hills. It felt like it was mostly downhill, even when we came back. We only rented the bikes for an hour, so we just rode 3.5 miles in on the trail and then turned around and came back. It was a good little workout! I think my seat was a bit too low, but whatever. 

We are definitely going to have to do this again. Ryan and I are really starting to think about investing in bikes... I just don't know how often we would use them around our neighborhood with all of the HILLS!

So after this we headed back to camp to eat some lunch, pack up our stuff and then head to the pool to swim before we headed home. Well right as we were rolling up our tent it began to pour! Of course, a rain storm is not complete in PA with out thunder and lightening too... so the pool closed. Sarah was so heartbroken! I felt really bad, she was so excited to go swimming. I felt like a terrible parent for promising that we'd go swimming and then not being able to follow through. I was half tempted to just take her to the lake and let her splash around in the rain, but the lightening stopped me. 

I was also bummed because I really didn't have the chance to take that many pictures. There was an awesome swamp full of dead trees that begged for a picture and I wanted to show off more of the campground, but can't really take good pictures in the rain (at least I can't). So we drove home with a whining fussy girl (at least until she crashed) and could only promise that we'd go again soon. Which we most definitely will! 

Twiners

I always get comments on how my girls are dressed the same. 

People probably think that I am a big nerd, but I just love it. 

What do you think?

Wonder Pets

I don't know exactly what I was thinking when I suggested that Sarah watch Wonder Pets because that is all that she'll watch now. Not that it isn't cute listening to the three little characters sing in a little kid off tune way. Or to hear that darn theme song over, and over, and over again! It just gets old. real. fast. 

What I do love is how Sarah has started to sing everything she says.
♪ "I've got to go potty" ♪
♪ "No, I don't want to" ♪
♪ "Mom, can you please help me" ♪

You get the idea. I have tried catching this on film but have yet to be successful. Maybe someday soon I can get it. But until then I had to write it down so I could remember my happy singing Sarah.

Poisoned Apple

Picture Walk for Ash

My Friend Ash begged asked me to take her on a walk through my neighborhood with pictures. So here we go, a post full of pictures of our walks. (Hope you enjoy this walk too Brooke!)

We live on a little street called Flemington, I say little because it is one of the narrowest streets EVER!!! It really should be a one way street. Only one car can drive down it at a time. So if you are driving on it and another car comes the other direction you have to cross your fingers that there is an open spot to pull off the side to pass each other. I have seen many a cars driving in reverse to get to a spot where one car can pull over to let the other pass. Even though it is narrow and tightly pack with houses, I love it. It just feels so homey to me.

Here is a shot of our street if you were to walk out our front door and turn right up the street. Check out how close the houses are to each other. I swear there are two to three houses in Pittsburgh to every one house on a street in Utah. The summer is the best because almost every house has a porch in my neighborhood and people just sit out on their porch and hang out. I really need to take more advantage of this and get to know my neighbors better. Maybe I'll be ambitious this summer and plan a block party or something... maybe...

But it is fun for our walks getting talked to all along the way.

 Our street is shaped like a boomerang and here is the bend, to the left is where Flemington continues on and straight ahead is Monteiro street (that steep hill that I talked about HERE). We almost always take a left and continue on Flemington.

 Here is the rest of the street, it is a little hill that gets our walks started right, with a good sweat! Sarah used to always just run up this hill the whole way because she was so excited to be out on a walk. But now she has learn that it is tiring and usually asks to ride in the stroller (or on Daddy's shoulders) until we reach the top and then she runs down to her favorite spot...

at the bottom of the hill is where she climbs on the wall. 

See Sarah walking on it HERE... or HERE.

This is also where we hit...

Off to the left is Kennebec Street and straight a head we hit Greenfield Avenue.

A picture of the neighborhood from this street. Don't you just love it! I do. 

What a close community little Greenfield is!

To get to our two favorite parks we turn right and head down Greenfield Ave.

Down this street is a little four-way stop. The cross street is McCaslin. When I am really feeling like a need a good, sweaty workout I hit this street. You can't really tell from the picture but the street takes off straight up for about half a mile! It is a tough hill! And when you are pushing a stroller with two kids in it, you really get a work out!

Also at this intersection you'll find the cute little Greenfield Rec Center/Senior Center.

It has a little gym in it that residents can use for free. And in the back is...

A playground (not a very good one), pool, basketball court and...

A baseball field. I really need to go to a game sometime. I know some of my neighbors have stickers on their car windows for the Greenfield team. It would be fun to go and watch them play. 

At the very far left of the stands there is a staircase that meets up with Monteiro Street, it is a little shortcut we could take if we didn't have two kids in a stroller, and if we wanted to walk up a hundred stairs or so. 

Lets keep going on Greenfield Ave. 

Here is a set of stairs off to the left. Pittsburgh has the most city owned stairs in the country. This set is about 60-70 steps, which really isn't much compared to other ones I have seen. 

At the bottom of the hill we have Rialto's pizza and meet up with Beechwood Blvd. There used to be a great little ice cream shop called Bruster's on the corner, but it closed right after we moved here. Bummer. Off to the left is this really neat looking Catholic church and sometime I plan on going to mass there, I've always wanted to go to mass, but never have. 

We go through the intersection and cross...

Beechwood Blvd Bridge to enter Schenley Park. 

This is where the walk gets really BEAUTIFUL!!!

I love all of the trees.

Especially the ones with the really wide, bumpy trunks.

We come around the bend to this on the left...

and this on the right.

Most days we stop and play here at the Barlett playground. 

But today we decide to go down this little trail to another playground.

Breathtaking isn't it?

So lush and green, I just love it.

This is a great trail and it is always filled with walkers, runners and bikers.

We take a small exit on the trail to bring us up to Panther bridge. 

The park is off to the left, but if we turned right on to Panther Bridge we would head towards Phipps and then the Carnegie Main Library where the Summer reading festival was. 

Here is Anderson park, known by the locals as Dinosaur Park. 

Why you ask? Well because of this giant dinosaur. 

 This is a really awesome playground, and huge. I really like it, but it can be hard to keep an eye on your kiddos. Plus, because of the bigger slides and things it attracts older kids, so we usually just go to Barlett, but on special days we come here to have our playground fun!

The ice cream truck comes and waits on the street by the park... so Daddy spoiled Sarah.

Here is Sarah's first treat ever from the ice cream man.

YUM!

Abby loved watching the other kids, crawling after her big sister, eating sticks, rocks and whatever else she could get her hands on, and going down the slide!

So there you have it. A walk with us. Hope it wasn't a total photo overload and that you got a better feel of this amazing city we live in.