Olives and Otter Pops

Unlike myself as a child, Hailey LOVES olives. It took a few separate occasions to convince her that she like them, but now as a favorite food, she loves to eat them off her fingers. She was thrilled when I put them on all 10 of her fingers. It was hard to contain her for even one snapshot.

Once she started, it looked like she was playing the chubby bunny contest.

Another favorite is otter pops. This shot was taken on the 4th of July. You can't celebrate the 4th without a parade, otter pops, a hamburger and fireworks. We didn't find a parade, but we found everything else. It was a great holiday weekend together.

Random Bits

I love these snapshots of my sweet little summer baby. She loves her swimsuit and flip-flops or "sanals." She rarely wears any other shoes and has the cutest little tan lines from them. She has grown up so much lately. She talks tons and her hair is super long. It's back in a cute little bun in these photos.

We have a new form of freedom: a second car!! I have loved being able to go out during the day, any day I need/want. It has been so great to make it to my exercise class every day, make appointments when I feel like it, visit friends on a whim, etc. It has been so heavenly. It's not so fabulous having double the insurance and gas receipts, but I'd say it's about worth it. Oh yeah, it's a Chevy Impala for anyone like me who doesn't know their cars. Apparently we have a thing for "cop cars" - a Crown Vic and an Impala. Oh well, they run well.
We have had so much fun working in the yards. Like I said in our original post about the house, it hasn't been taken care of for the last year or so, but it has great potential. Here you can see a before and after (different parts of the same flower bed) weeding. We're pretty excited to get it all cleaned up. It has taken some time and we have to be picky about hours so we don't get overheated in our 110 degree (including heat index) weather. I have never sweat as much as I have in the last few weeks. I'm dripping, literally, in no time at all.

We're pretty excited about a fantastic yard sale find (thanks Zach!). Only $20 and it's solid wood. It's a little bigger than we had planned to get for the baby, but we're happy with it.

I planned a small surprise birthday party for Matt and invited a few friends over. We had a great time - an international potluck, cheesecake, a round or so of Mad Gab and relaxed chatting. I'm so glad to have such a wonderful husband and great friends to help us celebrate.
He really was surprised, by the way, a great feat for me. I told him after we dropped Hailey off at the sitters' that I forgot my wallet at home. Our friends had gone to the house while we were out. I ran in to "look" for my wallet, set up the camera and ran back out to ask him to help me look for it. He walked into the house and saw my bag hanging on the weight set. He was shocked and jumped when we all yelled "surprise!" I laughed all the way through the birthday song.
Random order, I know, but this is what Matt's legs looked like after mowing our "lawn" in the back yard. It's more dirt than lawn in many places. Even so, it looked so much better after several bags of leaves/twigs were raked and what little grass there is was mowed. We're just so happy to have a quiet place to play. Right now with the heat we don't spend too much time out there, but we're looking forward to it when the weather is a little more tame.

Bzzz.

I went to a yard sale the other day and found a $2 steal on this year's Halloween costume for Hailey. I brought it home and she got so excited. She calls it a "jacket" when she brings it to me to put it on her. It's hilarious to watch her run around in it because the little stinger wiggles. I tried to capture it on this clip but didn't really succeed - sorry. Enjoy anyway!

Memphis Tornado

Friday evening proved interesting with a sudden burst of storm and tornado. Matt and Hailey were in the back yard raking and swinging while I was running errands. The wind started so he stopped immediately and put the rake away. By the time he got the shed locked, he turned around and branches were starting to fall from the tree. He grabbed Hailey and ran for the door. By the time they got into the house the rain was dumping. He said it sounded like they were in an ocean. The tornado sirens started going so he and Hailey got in the closet and called me. I was at Walmart and headed toward the door when I saw how immediately dark and horrible it was. Matt said to wait it out there. I was walking around when I heard the announcement that there was a tornado in the area and all customers were to report to the meat department. I stood there for about 20-30 minutes and headed home as soon as they said it had cleared some. It took me about 30 minutes to get home the way that usually takes me about 12. All the stoplights were out and debris everywhere. When I got to our neighborhood I had to keep detouring because of huge fallen trees. The photos below were taken Saturday afternoon. Most people had already cleaned up their yards, but there are still several trees down. The photo with the grocery bags shows the downed power lines. We are very relieved to have power back this evening. 48+ hours without power made me realize some weak points in our emergency preparation. We felt very blessed with safety and relatively very little debris to clean up. Our meat is still frozen and we lost just a few things in the fridge.

Barcelona

Thanks to the incredible generosities of his sister and her husband (and their incredible amount of frequent flyer miles), Matt and I had the opportunity to spend ten days in Europe. It was a wonderful fourth anniversary celebration. The only down of it was leaving Hailey. Matt's parents were very kind to take care of Hailey for us and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was able to relax and enjoy the time away. We took hundreds of photos, but I trimmed it down to a small selection from each city. Thanks Bill and Melissa for a wonderful vacation!
In the evenings they have a beautiful fountain show. The water shoots so high in the air and the lights change colors. The dramatic classical music finishes the experience.
Matt dipped me in front of the fountains, but the wind changed direction and got the camera lens so it didn't focus exactly right, but it was fun anyway.
A view of the city. For as crammed as it looks, it didn't feel so much that way when we were wandering the streets.
Matt's aunt lives in Barcelona right now and was our tour guide and hostess. We were so glad to have the chance to see her and spend some time. Thanks Katie!
This is an incredible building that they're still working to build. If I remember right, they've been working on it for close to a hundred years.
There was a magnificent and large rose garden we visited. There were thousands of roses of all colors and variations. It was a wonderful Sunday walk.
This is what their sidewalks look like. I thought they were so beautiful I had to take a picture.
While in Barcelona, I learned of an architect name Gaudi. His work is absolutely incredible. He works heavily with tile - see photo above and below. He made a great influence on the city and was designer for many prominent buildings.
I just had to take a photo. We were just walking down a street and saw this window. It was just so perfectly Spanish that I had to capture it.
This isn't a very clear photo, but it's of the steps that Christopher Columbus returned to after finding the Americas.

Paris

It was so fun for me to be back in Paris. I was a little anxious that I wasn't going to remember enough to be a good tour guide, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I remembered. The language came back really quickly and it was incredible what details of getting around I recalled. I was very relieved. It was so much more fun to be there with Matt. I loved showing him around and introducing him to the foods. The most regret I have is not taking a photo of any of the boulangeries. We spent enough time in them, for sure, but we never thought to pull out the camera. When I told Matt my disappointment he simply said, "well, I guess we'll just have to go back." Great!
I finally got my kiss in front of the Eiffel Tower. Well, technically I got one when I was there for my study abroad, but it didn't count because it was just a pose for a photo. Now I have a picture I'm actually going to keep and show my kids.
This is a view from atop of the Eiffel Tower. It's unreal how high it is. The distance we could see was unbelievable.
These are the buttresses of Notre Dame. We had tons of photos of the front too, but I thought the photos of the back were beautiful and not as well known.
We visited the Louvre, of course. I couldn't imagine Matt visiting Paris without a stop there. We spent three or so hours and didn't even scratch the surface. We did see the Mona Lisa, Vermeer, etc. Matt was so fun to watch. It was like a kid on Christmas morning.
For one of my classes I had spent several days and hours in the Louvre, but I had never seen the painters there to make paintings of originals. It was absolutely fascinating to see how prefect their replicas were. I just always assumed replicas in other museums were prints. I never imagined this scene.
This is Sacre Coeur - a beautiful Catholic cathedral on the outer parts of the city. It's kind of up on a hill and lights up a nights. It's gorgeous.
Right next to Sacre Coeur is a painters market. It was fun to walk around a look at all the different original works.
I don't remember the name of this Cathedral. I walked by it every single day and I cannot recall it. I remembered when we were there (although I cannot promise it was correct then either). It's a prefect example of the intricate beauty of Parisian architecture.
This is just to show you how thrilled Matt was to visit Versaille.
This is the hall of mirrors inside the chateau at Versaille. It's almost sickening how massive and extravagant the buildings and gardens are. It's now wonder the starving Frenchmen didn't like their king.
This is just one piece of the several gardens surrounding the castle. They go on for acres and acres. The designs of the greenery were astounding. I was happy to be back for a second visit. It was still just as beautiful.

London

London was our first and last stop. We flew there from Chicago, and spent a few hours touring before our flight to Barcelona. I thought Windsor was beautiful, but of the three cities, London was my least favorite. It just seemed to overcrowded. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I enjoyed the streets of the other cities more. I could see enjoying living in England, just not right in the city.
We attended the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The horses were my favorite (surprised?). They were so well groomed and uniform in their rows. It was beautiful.
The Rosetta Stone is at the British Museum. Thanks to this stone we now can translate and understand hieroglyphics. It's pretty incredible. There were so many things at the museum that were just fascinating.
St. Paul's Cathedral. Or as Matt accidentally called it - St. Peter's. I laughed pretty hard at that. The Mary Poppins song of "Feed the Birds" was stuck in my head the entire time we toured it. It was incredible how many famous people were buried there. Matt was excited about Alexander Flemming, the discoverer of the first antibiotic.
The architecture of the old buildings is just gorgeous.
I loved the ivy climbing the walls. It was very well kept and looked beautiful.
There are so many gorgeous old churches there.
This is Windsor Castle. We didn't tour it for lack of time, but the outside was worth the visit.
A view of London from atop St. Paul's. We had to climb quite a few hundred stairs to get to this point. The wind up there was so strong that it pushed me around. It was a cool feeling. I'm just glad there were high walls to enclose us in. I wouldn't have liked to be that high up with winds that strong without security.
London Bridge, of course.
You know I love gardens and flowers. They had so many beautiful ones. This was taken at the palace that Princess Diana lived in.