Seattle - Part 1

Edison & I flew to Seattle August 11 for a two-week vacation. Edison was such a great pilot, as you can see in the picture below. What was that old tag line from Delta, "we love to fly and it shows?" Actually, this was taken at the children's play area in the Philadelphia airport during a layover. He did pretty well on the long, six-hour flight from Philly to Seattle, sleeping for four hours on my lap. I was actually glad when he woke up because I really needed to stretch my legs! He adjusted to PST pretty well, too. My only complaint was that he caught a cold on the plane, so that put a damper on our fun for the first few days in Seattle.
I got to visit my friend Ashley and her son, Colin (remember him? he was born four days after Edison). As you can see, Colin & Edison both love keys and are getting into everything these days. He has beautiful deep blue eyes and will be quite a looker as he gets older. Ashely and I hope that the boys will get to be friends when Eben & I move back to Mill Creek. But maybe they would be too much of a dynamic duo...
I stayed with my mom in Issaquah. It was great that she was able to spend so much time with Edison (which helped me out a lot). On Friday we went to a local park with my Uncle Floyd and we all took turns kayaking (except for Edison). Edison was really excited to play with the valves on the inflatable kayak. While my mom and Floyd were kayaking, Edison & I explored the park. As you can see, it was wet and pretty chilly (for August). Edison continues to make great strides with his walking and now chooses to walk about 85% of the time when he needs to go mobile.
On Sunday Lisa & I went to Jetty Island in Everett. The west side has a nice sandy beach. At low tide, we could walk really far out into the water with it only getting up to our knees. Edison loved it (of course).
Edison also got to see his Uncle Pete and his girlfriend, Jennie (who was also a classmate of Eben's at the CGA). Edison is wearing the Boeing shirt they got him for his birthday. We had fun at the beach and then had a yummy dinner at a local Thai restaurant. It will be fun to see them again in October for the CGA 1999 10 year reunion.

Summer Fun

We spent this week here in Niantic, enjoying the summer with good friends. On Friday Jay, Suz and their kids Jazelle & Xavier came to visit. We went sailing and then down to the beach for a sandy dinner.

Eben catching up on some one-on-one time with his God-Daughter. Hard to say who was more tired.

Today we stopped at the Ray of Light Farm. They rescue and house animals, give riding lessons, and are open to the public to view the farm. Edison's favorite (mine too) was this goat, here he was standing on his back legs to reach the leaves of the tree.


This was from our sailing trip last week, couldn't resist adding it here. I think he was just excited to be off of the sailboat for awhile.




Showing off his supermodel poses.




Edison decided to walk this week. Every day he walked a little more until he woke up Saturday and just started walking everywhere.







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Sailing Again

We just got back from our last long sailing trip. This time we started in Martha's Vineyard and saw three towns there: Edgartown (a wealthy 19th century whaling town), Oak Bluffs (a quirky 19th century spiritual revival camp town), and Menemsha (a tiny fishing town). Then we went to Cuttyhunk Island, it has a small town and people get around the island on golf carts. Finally, we wrapped up in our favorite locale: Block Island.

This shows Edison's sleeping arrangement on the boat. From the cockpit, you can lift up a bench seat and peek into his room. Awww - how cute.

He is beginning to stand on his own - usually only if he needs to hold something really cool with both hands (like this here stick).





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This is a view of Menemsha. The movie Jaws was shot on Martha's Vineyard and the captain's house was here in this village.


Edison is just a fingertip away from walking on his own.


Hey, where'd the water go?

Relaxing at Home

Edison & I were ecstatic to welcome my cousin Matt for a visit. Matt & Edison got some quality play time in. Edison is showing Matt his new clapping skills. Matt was a master at playing with Edison and getting Edison to break out into full blown belly laughter.






Edison liked showing Matt his new favorite place - the beach at McCook Park. It is just five minutes from our house, so I find myself taking him down there for an hour or two each day.

On some of these hot days, Edison & I fire up his little swimming hole in the backyard.

He also is enjoying the swing - can you tell it is shaped to be a bear?


Edison reveled in his first Phad Thai - I guess he takes after me in that way at least!

Once More with Feeling

We finally got to host Eben's family at our house. Through seven years of marriage, we have never lived close enough to host a family get together for them. Edison's belated first birthday party was a perfect occasion to bring everyone together (except Eben's father who is out of town on business).

I improved on the bear cake - this one was lemon with a coconut cream cheese frosting. Yummy served with berries and sorbet and the toasted coconut made nice fur.
This time Edison did a little better job eating his birthday cake, but the berries were his favorite part - he knew exactly what to do with those.
Dean & Carolyn's family gave Edison a school bus for his birthday. His cousin Will (2 1/2) showed Edison what it could do. It was very sweet to see them playing together.
Everyone enjoyed lounging on the deck, especially once we got some shade. It was great to see the Phillips siblings so happy.

Visit from Matt & Lisa

We were so happy that our friends Matt & Lisa flew out to join us for some sailing. We spent Independence Day in the Newport, RI harbor. Eben & Matt got to savor lobsters. The fireworks were great and it was definitely a treat to watch them from our sailboat!

Edison was fascinated by the giant lobster tanks at the fish market.

Meanwhile, I really liked the Cliff Walk - walking between mansions and the bay. As you can see, we had perfect weather - a rarity this wet summer.




Lisa was quite the navigator. We sailed to Block Island on the 5th and actually had great wind for sailing.




And she helped me out a ton with Edison. He really took to her.




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Let Him Eat Cake!

This is a picture taken at the ceremony for Eben's promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Edison is very proud of his papa (me too!).That night the three of us had a little party for Edison's first birthday. Thank you to all of you who sent him cute cards and well wishes.
Eben and I made a bear cake for the occasion. Eben's mother used to always make him cool birthday cakes, so we need to keep the tradition alive.
Nana sent some blocks that Edison is already enjoying.