We've had a busy, jet-setting month, that little goddess and I. After our Yellowstone trip at the end of May, we had a few days at home and then hopped on a plane to go to West Virginia for the wedding of Julie and Zack, good friends from Duke. Our itinerary had us flying to Dulles via Charlotte... as luck would have it, some huge thunderstorms hit Dulles right as we were supposed to be flying that way, so Athena and I ended up stuck in the Charlotte airport for about 6 hours before the weather cleared up and we were finally able to catch a flight. So instead of getting to Dulles at 3:30 and arriving at the lovely Capon Springs venue in time for dinner, our flight didn't land until about 10 and it was close to 1 am before we finally reached our final destination. Luckily, Athena was an angel through the whole thing -- here she is sitting on the floor of the Charlotte airport.
She took well-timed naps (sleeping for the hour and a half they had us sit on the runway before deciding we weren't actually going to take off and bringing us back to the gate) and then occupied herself by crawling around and charming anyone who would look at her. I think every one of my seatmates on our various flights ended up holding her at some point... whenever she would have a moment of fussiness, all she needed to do was find a new person to smile at and she was happy again. The kid is quite social. At one point, I marveled at the fact that traveling with this 10 month old was actually making my ordeal easier.
The wedding itself was an AWESOME event spread out over 2 1/2 days or so -- we missed some of the fun on Friday (they had Julie-and-Zack-themed trivia after dinner), but jumped right in on Saturday morning with a shuffleboard tournament (I competed with Athena in the Ergo on my back... I will blame that handicap for our first round elimination). Next was the "taking the plunge" splash contest in the pool, and then a little rest time before the ceremony at 4:30, which was absolutely lovely. The setting was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and the ceremony itself was the perfect mix of fun (the first processional was "We Are Family," and Zack's 80+ year old grandpa threw his cane down with a flourish before walking down the aisle) and touching (recordings of several songs sung by Julie's late grandmother played before and during the ceremony).
The cocktail hour and reception were up on a hill overlooking the golf course...
And then after dinner there was a PIRATE-THEMED DANCE PARTY that was absolutely amazing... this shot of Zack's grandpa wielding his cane-sword at the inflatable shark just about sums up the awesomeness.
And here I am with the beautiful pirate-bride!
On Sunday, after a quick round of extreme mini-golf on the par-3 course (Hole 1: Use your putter like a pool cue. Hole 2: Putt while doing tree pose. Hole 3: Putt behind your back -- especially challenging when wearing a baby on your back! ...), Athena and I hopped in our rental car and drove back to the Dulles airport, and then flew to Asheville, NC, for an environmental economics conference at the lovely Grove Park Inn. Mazie and Caleb flew in earlier in the day and came to pick us up at the airport along with Uncle Michael and Lily and Abby. Over the next few days, I had a good, interesting conference and had fun seeing friends and colleagues from Duke, while Caleb and the girls slept in late and spent lots of time with Michael, Alaya, and the cousins. On Wednesday, June 6 we all flew home, and home we stayed for 10 whole days....
Then on June 17, Athena and I packed up again and flew down to Key West. A colleague of mine, Mary Hayden, invited me to come along to help out with a study on dengue virus in the Keys, and since I hadn't had the opportunity to do any real field work since before Mazie was born, this was a great opportunity! Since Thenes is still nursing a bunch (including a lot during the night, which is getting a little old...), I wasn't really ready to leave her for an extended period. Luckily, Mary and the project's lead researcher, Kacey Ernst, thought it would be great if I brought her along, and they helped put me in touch with a contact down there whose daughter, Lauren, offered to babysit. That ended up working perfectly -- I had Lauren stay with Athena in the mornings while I went out and did surveys, and then most afternoons I stayed at our rental house with Athena, got a little work done around the house (doing some data entry, etc.), and then taking little walks around the area. On a couple of days I even brought Athena along to do some surveys! She was very helpful in recruiting participants, and at one house she got to get out of the Ergo and crawl around and play with some toys belonging to the great-grandchildren of the nice couple I was interviewing!
We worked pretty hard while we were down there, but we did manage to squeeze in one day of "leisure" and on Sunday we decided to book a 1/2 day sail-snorkel-kayak excursion with Danger Tours. During the week leading up to the tour, a tropical depression had been hanging out over the Keys and dumping lots of rain on us, so we weren't sure if our tour would actually go out as planned, but when Sunday afternoon came around the sun was actually peaking out for the first time in a week, so we got on the boat (65 ft sailboat named Danger) and off we went.
There was a good wind and some fairly big swells as we motor-sailed across a channel, but then we got into shallower water and the water was fairly calm. They anchored the boat in water that was about 7 ft deep, and it was snorkeling time. Thenes got her first taste of saltwater as we floated in the water for a while, and then Mary took a turn hanging out with Athena on the boat while I snorkeled around for a bit. Nothing too spectacular, but always fun to see some fish and explore the reef!
Next was the kayaking. Andy, another reasearcher from NCAR along on the trip, was nice enough to be the oarman for me and Thenes... since I was mainly concerned with keeping her from launching herself out of the boat, I wasn't much help paddling.
All of us paddled from the big boat over to a little island of mangroves, which was pretty neat. We explored the trees, saw a horseshoe crab, and watched the cormorants for a while, and then noticed that Captain Wendy was blowing her horn for us to come back to the boat. As we started paddling away from the shelter of the island, we noticed that the winds had really picked up... in fact, it looked like a storm was blowing in. Getting to the boat took a little effort, but then when we got there Wendy yelled out that the anchor had been dragging... she told us to hang on and stay off the boat while her other crew member who had been leading our kayaking expedition got back on board and tried to help her out. A few minutes later they let us row in and get back on board, and by then the winds were getting really strong. The other crew member, Janet, was the last kayak out and had a really hard time paddling in... until she realized that the water was only a couple of feet deep and got out to pull her kayak over to Danger. But while that was good news for Janet, it was also big trouble for Danger, who with anchor dragging was now firmly stuck in the shallow water. As hard as they tried, our crew couldn't get the boat unstuck, and by this time the storm had really picked up and was starting to pelt us with rain. Luckily, there was just enough room in the aft engine room for a few of us to take shelter "down b'low," as Uncle Ty used to call it, and within a few moments Athena was sound asleep. So this is how she spent the next couple of hours as we waited for another boat to come pull us out and then made our way back to port....
This trip cemented her reputation as "best baby ever" -- she charmed everyone we met along the way. At just under 11 months, she gets more amazing every day... she is incredibly social, calm, happy, and curious. Ahya has recently noted her fascination with "moving parts" like lids, the stopper in the bathtub, cups that nest together and come apart... she studies these things and seems intent on figuring out how things work. She is talking up a storm -- there are a couple of sounds that are close to words... my favorite right now is "hi" with she makes into an enthusiastic, lilting "IIIIIIII" accompanied with a wave. A couple of weeks ago we were ready to declare "up" as her first word -- she says it very clearly and seems to know what it means, although she hasn't been using it as much recently. Other than these almost- or barely-words, though, she is constantly babbling and seems to pick a sound that she likes and repeats it over and over for a few days. In Key West, it was "Bobby?" repeated loudly and often, always with a little question-like inflection. We were all curious who Bobby might be, and Mary and I ended up finding her a little stuffed manatee that we've given the name. Yesterday's sound was "dap dap dap dap dap." We'll see what she has to say tomorrow! (oh, she also got 2 new teeth on our trip... so now she's up to 4 -- 2 on top, 2 on the bottom.)
After we got back from Key West, we had 2 days at home and then drove down to Colorado Springs for Eric Vivier and Maggie's wedding, which was lovely despite coming less than a week after the most damaging wildfire in Colorado history burned 360+ homes a stone's throw from their reception site. While this made things pretty stressful for them leading up to the big event, the actual wedding went off without a hitch... Ahya was nice enough to come down with us and take care of Athena, while Mazie got to come along and enjoy the wedding. She and two other four year old girls danced all night! Mazie also turned to Caleb at one point during the reception and asked him, "Who am I going to marry?" He jokingly answered that if he had to pick right now, it would probably be Miles, but that she had a long time before she had to figure that out. "But," he said, "whoever he is, he'll have to ask my permission." "Or SHE," I chimed in. (We've been doing our best to raise her in a way that leaves all those options open!) "Okay," Dad said, "How about if our rule is that if it's a HE, then he'll have to ask my permission, and if it's a SHE, then she'll have to ask Mom's permission." Mazie listened to all of this with a very serious expression, and then asked, "Why does he have to ask your permission?" Continuing to joke, Caleb said, "Well, because ultimately Mom and I get to choose." To which Mazie responded, very forcefully, "NO, they will have to ask MY permission!! Because I'm the one who chooses!" Of course, we immediately gave her high fives and told her that she was absolutely right and that we were just joking. She's a smart little kid.
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| From May and June 2012 |
Then on Sunday morning we got up, stopped by to give Eric and Maggie one last hug, and then drove home, packed up the car, and started off for the cottage! We went through South Dakota since it was one of only 5 states I had never been to... one of our road trip project was coloring in US maps for each of us! Here they are...
We made it to Sioux Falls late on Sunday night, slept at a Red Roof Inn, and then got up and drove another 9 hours on Monday, getting in just after 6. So after a whirlwind of travels, we are on vacation for 2 wonderful weeks.... This week, the whole Dickinson clan is here... I've hardly seen Mazie since we arrived. I think she's off playing pirates with Liv and Crosby, who are all 4 now until Liv turns 5 in September. (A little while ago Livi addressed Jen as her "minion." Awesome.) Gil has been up here for a while and will leave today, and then Nana is coming up tomorrow (July 4) for the rest of the week. So we get lots of family fun until Saturday, and then the Dickinson clan will head home and our friends' reunion friends begins! The Lupiens are coming from Maine, the Mitas-Boohers and Smiths are coming from Durham, and the Gray-Ekblads are coming from Guelph! It should be quite the vacation... this week, we're here with the 10 cousins aged 12, 10, 10, 10, 8, 7, 4 ,4, 4, and 11 months... (9 girls, 1 boy). Next week, we'll have a DIFFERENT set of 10 kids aged 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 11 months, 6 months, and 3 months, with 6 girls and 4 boys! The weather forecast looks great... speaking of which, Athena just woke up from a nap so I think we'll go jump in the lake!
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