Bahama beach baby

We're back from a week on Grand Bahama Island. Not too much to be done other than what Zach is demonstrating here: waiting for someone to cook up some conch at a very relaxed pace, and playing in the surf.

Dogwood

We're off to the Bahamas on vacation butt-crack early tomorrow...till then, here's something pink/seasonal/local:


Sidenote: Josh and I fight over some dumb stuff. Recently, we had a week-long spat over the identity of a tree he claimed was a dogwood blooming weeks before any other in the area. Neither of us could prove or disprove this claim, since I wasn't anywhere near said tree, but I did irritate him with asking to cross reference every tree specimen in sight for days. (Josh, I'm pretty sure it was a white magnolia.) And this is definitely a pink dogwood.

Craig/Alyssa wedding/firetrucks

Finally, these 2 got hitched! (ok, so, they only waited about as long as Joshua and I did, but who's counting?) I unfortunately didn't get a spectacular photo of the couple, but we did catch a kiss.

Oh, and as Cate alluded in a comment, there was a fire incident with the caterers that caused a bit of a stir. These guys move quickly, which didn't so much agree with the evening light and my reaction speed, but here's the fire gear mingling into the cocktail hour. (More wedding photos here.)

Patriots Day Parade

Patriot's Day was a few weeks ago, and I'm finally coming back out from under 2 weeks of miserable sinus cold. Apparently Arlington puts on a parade the Sunday before Patriot's Day, which we found out about from Jer and Sha a few minutes before it started on one of the first nice days of the season. (Well, it was actually long enough that we had time to drop by the very quiet police station to file a report for some stolen electronics from the glove box of the car. Thank goodness for insurance, as we seem to get our money's worth.)

Here Zach wrestles with Lilia's dolphin balloon, before I notice he's likely to spear himself or some other random child with the handle stick; the kids watching the action, and Lilia's serious face, as she sips lemonade.

Ra-ra (aka Ryan)

Zach and Ryan, out enjoying some nice weather in our raggedy back yard. The boys were particularly thrilled to discover they could sit their butts down on that step.

The latest addition to Zach's vocab, along with duck, bubble, ma-ma (which is either me or more), and a few animal noies was: Ra-ra (that's as close as he can get to "Ryan").

Springtime in Arlington Center

Conveniently labeled, it's the library. With a tree coming back to life for the warm season.

Children's Museum

Last stop on Jeni's visit was to the Children's Museum. Zach was totally into to the Bobcat. I guess that's a boy thing?



Jeni asks, why is there a big milk bottle? Who the hell knows. But it has been there forever.



And here Jeni looks down onto the lobby, her fluffy pigtails in silhouette.

Zach eats bathwater

Something new, a video. It goes on for a while, but you get the idea after about the first 10 seconds.

And, yes, instead of taking the spoon away, I got out the video camera. A little soap never hurt anyone, right?

Just Jeni

My niece, Jeni, 5. Unceasing energy, so hard to catch her still long enough to get a non-fuzzy photo. I took her to the park to wear her out and she ran/walked/swung for over an hour, then she was still bounding with energy for the rest of the day. (Sarah, I don't know how you keep up with her on a daily basis!) Couldn't even sit still long enough to watch more than about 30 minutes of the Care Bears movie in a single sitting. But, then asked to "snuggle" while she drifted off to sleep at night with almost equal vigor.

Passovster

I haven't decorated eggs since the way-back days of my Jewish childhood (really - well, the childhood part), but it seemed like a fun way to keep Jeni entertained on a rainy day-before-Easter Saturday when she and my mom visited over the weekend. Eggs are one of the symbols of Passover, just these ones are prettier (all but the one I accidentally turned brown, that is).


Above is the work in progress and below Zach's take on the whole affair.

Mainly, he wanted to eat them.