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30 June 2011

catching up

I didn't realize how long it had been since I really updated everyone on everything last.  Yikes.  Life has been moving quickly, I can tell ya that much!

Last weekend, we did a power trip to Findlay.  My Findlay Grandparents are moving out of their current home and into a new home at an absolutely wonderful retirement community.  This place is so awesome, I can't wait to go back and visit them there!  It has an ice cream parlor!  And many other nice and convenient things..anyway, we went to Findlay to get some things they gave us and to see their house one last time.  I'm sure going to miss it, but I'm really excited for them in their new apartment!

From Findlay, Jess, Jesse, Lily and I drove to the Ohio Scottish Games near Oberlin, Ohio.  Oh, the games.  It made my heart happy just being there, even if it was a bit chilly and we didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked.  We met Mom and Joel there (both were going to the Scottish Arts School as counselors following the games) and got to spend some time with them, wander the games, see some dance of the dance competition and visit with some dancing friends.  I hadn't really thought about how long I've known some of these people until I was explaining to Jesse who they were, but some that we ran into have watched me dance since I was 10.  Maybe one day they will get to see Lily dance :)
Anyway, it was great to see everyone, especially since I got to spend a week at that camp last year as a photographer and they all got to "meet" Lily when I was 6ish months pregnant.  We had to leave earlier than I wanted to, but we had a bit of a drive to get back to WV and didn't want to be pulling in at midnight.


for Mama
the guy giving a weapons demo gave the kids play swords and let them charge the British
In other news, Lily has 2 teeth (at least) all the way through.  Jesse claims he saw a third, but I haven't really gotten a good peak to know for certain.  And since Jesse didn't believe me when the first came through, I'm not sure we should take his word for it (he was expecting to see a full-sized tooth..not just a little white sliver of sharpness!).  Just kidding..kind of.  With this fun teething, she has also decided she needed an ear infection.  Fortunately, we had her 9 month check up on Monday, so we were able to get her an antibiotic quickly.  This round of amoxicillin is going so much better than the last time (when she had RSV) and she actually seems to like it.  No allergies so far, praise God!  The doc was kind of nervous about that since I'm allergic to penicillin (see, Mom?  I spelled it correctly for once!), but so far so good!

And last story I have: Jesse made black raspberry jam!  And oh man, it is quite tasty!  I was going to help, but by someone got excited and antsy and didn't want to wait for me..



yum!
Oh, just kidding, I do have one more story.  Just wanted to let everyone know we're looking at houses to buy.  Haven't decided on anything yet, and are still in the beginning stages, but just so no one is completely caught off guard whenever I announce we have a house, there ya go!  I'm not sure when we grew up and became adults..

xoxo

22 June 2011

9 months!...

...and crazy as ever.  I seriously can't get over how much of a personality Lily is starting to show, and let me tell you, she is going to be ridiculous.  Of course, look at her parents, this shouldn't be too much of a shock.  She is very expressive, laid back and easily entertained.
Here are her 9 month pictures.  














What a little goober.  

16 June 2011

the rest of the trip

Alright, I will try and fill you in on the rest of the awesome trip, since I know you were waiting with baited breath..

I forgot to mention in my last post that we also went white water rafting (more of a scenic float with some choppy spots, honestly) on one of the days.  I will post pictures when I get them from someone in my family (hint, hint), but it was super fun, even though it was cold and rainy out.

So.  On another day, we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which also has the Upper and Lower Falls.  Yay, more waterfalls :) again, because of snow, Lily and I didn't venture too far down into the canyon, and this time, Jesse, Jess and Mom stayed with us and we hiked around the top and got some pretty good views of the falls.  From here, we went to check out some of our favorite hot springs: The Black Dragon Cauldron.  When Team Pagano went to Yellowstone the first time, we lovingly nicknamed this one "Double Stinky Swamp" because it smelled so strongly and awfully of sulfur.  It still smelled horribly, but I didn't gag this time, as I seem to remember doing often last time.  Lily didn't seem too concerned by it.
GC of  Yellowstone
Thursday, we just hung out.  Mom got sick while we were there and she needed a day to relax, and I thought that Lily could use a day to relax as well (and me!) where she didn't have her naps in the car driving from one place to another.  It was a fabulous day, in my opinion.  We hung out, played games, walked around Gardiner..just took it easy.  Unfortunately, this was Jess and Richard's last day out there, as they had to fly out Friday for Richard to work Saturday.  Work is lame.  

Friday..while Dad and Uncle Mike (I think?) took Wayman's to the airport, Jesse, Joel, Kimmy, Lily and I went back to Old Faithful to wander around a bit more and to see some more hot springs.  Because who doesn't love seeing hot springs?  We also found a fabulous little bridge where we played Pooh Sticks.  
Old Faithful Inn
Pooh Stick Selection
winner!

While we were there, Jesse got the inside scoop on where the best place to check out the Grand Prismatic Spring is, so off we went.  I am so glad we did.  
Grand Prismatic Spring.
Saturday was our last day there.  Mom, Dad, Joel, Kimmy and my little family all headed to West  Yellowstone for some touristy things, and we stopped at the Artist Paintpots on the way back.  Lots of cleaning and packing when we got home before we crashed for the night to head home the next day.  

the perfect shop for them: sandwiches for  Joel, ice cream for Kimmy
at the Paintpots

That's roughly it!  I may think of other things I wish I had added, but it was incredible.  And as my mommy friends understand, coming back from vacation and a time zone change has been *super* fun this week with Lily trying to re-adjust.  Plus, she popped her first tooth out Monday!  So it's been a great week..


15 June 2011

blog overload.

So, we're back from vacation!  And it was tons of fun.  I've spent the last few days looking through the over 600 (I know, amateur) pictures I took and editing some of them.  Now, I'm not entirely sure where to begin to tell you about our trip..

We (Jesse, Lily and I) drove to Pittsburgh Friday night, thus beginning our adventure.  As our flight was really early in the morning Saturday, we felt it best to stay in a hotel Friday night and head to the airport from there.  Funny story, we met up with our friend Mike for juice at the airport, who also had an early flight the same day (hi, Mike!).  We mostly got through security with no issues..I just didn't know there was a pocket knife in a carry on.  No biggie.  Lily was a champ, sleeping most of the flight or playing peek-a-boo with the folks behind us.  Dad and Uncle Mike picked us up at the Bozeman, MT airport, and so our fun began!  After a few mile hike back to an abandoned dude ranch, we all crashed for the night.
Day 1: why not jump into vacation with both feet?  My family pretty much goes full throttle on vacations, especially when we feel there is a ton to do and see.  Sunday, after we had all converged on a wonderful rental house Aunt Shasta found us (Jess, Richard and Mom had an adventure getting there, but they made it!), we went to church in Yellowstone National Park before heading out for our first bit of fun- the Hoodoos!  These are basically several acres worth of fallen apart mountain, which is super fun to climb over.  From here, we went to see some hot springs at Norris Geyser Basin.
Hoodoos
Norris Geyser Basin

I think this is also the day we saw grizzly bears.  Is this correct, family?  Anyway, we saw a Momma bear and two baby bears.  I didn't get too many pictures because I was standing on the roof of the van (from a safe distance!) to take pictures, and ditched my 200mm zoom lens pretty quickly for my mom's 300mm lens and binoculars.
Day 2: because of the time difference and the fact that everything was new and exciting, Lily got up super early this day.  "Super early" was really just around 630 or so..it just seemed so early because I was still adjust to being in Mountain Time.  She did pretty well overall with adjusting, but that first day was kinda tiring for me!  The whole family went to Old Faithful and wandered through the Old Faithful Inn, Lodge and visitor's center for a few hours.  We didn't spend as much time there as I think the original plan was because we hit a major roadblock on our way there.  A two our trip turned into 4 (at least) because some bison decided that they were just going to walk down the middle of the road.  And by "some bison," I mean a huge herd.  You don't rush bison, or tell them what to do.  A ranger was following them, trying to help direct traffic, but when you have 30ish large animals with pointy horns..you don't really push them.
Old Faithful
the Inn
Day 3: Tower Falls!  I love these falls.  Last time we were out in Yellowstone was over Christmas break when I was a sophomore in college and we cross-country skied up the (closed) road to see these.  Jesse and I had decided before we went out there that if we came across something that we didn't think we could do with Lily, or it got too cold/rainy/hot/whatever and just didn't want her outside, that I would stay behind with her so Jesse could see all the sights (since this was his first trip to the park and my sixth..).  This day was cold and rainy, and none of us had really anticipated the drizzly rain.  Since Jesse and I didn't want Lily out in that hiking, Dad and I stayed up at the gift shop/car area and had some coffee while the rest of the family ventured down to the bottom of the falls.  Unfortunately, half the path had been washed out (right?  Is this the right day/event?) and they couldn't go too far.  
Tower Falls
After Tower, we drove back to Mammoth Hot Springs and had lunch before exploring that set of hot springs for awhile.  Since my family has been here a few times, we have a normal lunching spot in Mammoth, and when we got there, it was taken!  So we took over what was basically a hallway for lunch.  I let Lily crawl around on the floor, and she went straight for the floor-to-ceiling windows and started making faces at the people outside.  
Our days ended back at our house making/eating dinner, hanging out, talking and playing games.  Good, relaxing evenings to busy days.  Which is good, because we had a very tired little traveler with us.

That's it for now!  More later. 






10 June 2011

oops.

So, rumor has it that my picture didn't load to my last post.  Since I know you were all so curious about this picture and to see us..here it is!


So, hooray!  Here it is :) I will post more pictures when I get home and sift through all of them!

oh, hey!

Hey y'all!  Since I'm still on vacation and didn't bring my laptop, I had to steal Joel's when he wasn't looking.  Except that he is sitting next to me..I tried to take a picture of us with his webcam, but it was too dark and it is too late for me to care.  This is just a quick update anyway to let you all know we're alive and having fun :) Jess and Richard have to leave tomorrow (boo) but the rest of us don't leave until Sunday.  I will bore you all with details in later blogs with fun pictures when I get home and have some time to sift through all my pictures.

Team Hildebrand at Old Faithful
photo credit to the fabulous Kimmy

I will be back in action hopefully next week sometime..I will also try and update my daily pictures of Lily.  Something to look forward to there: guest photographer Kimmy a few days!  woohoo!

Until  next time, ciao!