Sammie's newest tricks

Staying at home with Samantha has to be one of the most rewarding, satisfying experiences of my life! We have so much fun together, and she is just so wonderful and amazing to me. Everyone always reminds me, enjoy her while she's little, she'll grow so fast. Yes, I am enjoying her. And yes, I'm very aware how fast she's growing. Just last week Brian and I spent time looking at her newborn pictures and videos. She's already changed soooo much -- almost a completely different little person. I just wish I could capture these moments forever. Here are just a few pictures and paragraphs to share some of the latest greatest from our little ten-and-a-half-month-old Baby Little (one of her many nicknames)....

Here Sammie is displaying her TWO little teeth, both on the bottom row. I don't know if you can see them really well, but if there's a way to zoom, you definitely will notice them. We think she may be cutting a third, this time on top. She's chewing on anything and everything she can find... clothes, couches, the fireplace, the coffee table, etc. Most recently, she's taken a liking to her baby food jars. She's not so great about eating what's in them (mom gets lots of spits and raspberries), but she loves to suck/chew the outside of the bottle and lid. Funny girl.



On par for her age, Samantha is quite adept at getting into every drawer, closet, or cupboard she can find. Just this week she emptied her bottom dresser drawer, my sock drawer, and the tupperware cupboard all in one day. Here she sits with the tupperware. Our kitchen space is limited, so we also store potatoes with the tupperware (odd, I know). Sam had bitten little bites in two or three potatoes before I got the bag from her... In this picture, I think there's still a potato sitting right behind her. (Aside: tonight, Brian and I distinctly heard her say "tato" -- of course we knew that was short for potato, as any good Idahoan/Londoner baby would say, even though there were no potatoes around when she said it, hmmm.)

Cute as a button! Since seeing her little cousin, Ashton, all dressed up in ribbons and bows, we decided Sammie might enjoy a few hairpieces of her own. As long as I can distract her immediately after getting it tied in her hair, she's pretty good about leaving it in, at least for a little while. Today she wore a bright pink bow that matched the trim on her little green jumper. She got several compliments at church. We think she's cute, bow or no bow -- just for the record.

Samantha's latest new trick is that she can wave bye-bye! She doesn't just move her arm up and down, she waves those little fingers open and closed. It has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen. She waves at Brian in the mornings when he goes to work, sometimes. And tonight we had dinner with friends and she waved as they left. What's just a little bit funny is that she waves most often when she's in her high chair eating a meal. I don't know if it's just because I'm sitting right across from her at eye level, and she has an audience -- or if maybe she thinks it's somehow related to food. Whatever it is, I'm encouraging it because I just love to see how excited she is every time she moves those little fingers, open shut open shut. This picture below is NOT the best of either me or her, but it's the only one of the wave I've managed to catch on film. (She usually freezes up and smiles for the camera.) Wave bye bye, Sammie!

Sammie and Ashton in Wales

I have to add some cute shots of the very cute babies from our trip to Wales, don't I? Here's Samantha having a taste of mom and daddy's ice cream cones on Saturday afternoon in Ludlow. She couldn't bring herself to smile for the camera because she was too focused getting MORE of that delicious stuff! (Dad's strawberry didn't show up and make quite as much of a mess as Mom's chocolate!)

Ashton loved being carried by her dad all over the place. Her cute little hat she's wearing in this picture got lost during our tour of the castle while she was asleep in a sling on Brent's chest. But lucky for Ashie Baby, she has a very persistent daddy who went back and FOUND the hat in a top tower window well before we left!
Thankfully, the girls enjoyed much of the drive home with a big, long nap in their car seats. That meant we all enjoyed the drive home more. They were both really good little travelers, for most of the time. It's true, we go a lot slower with babies than we used to on our own. But they sure add some good entertainment and it's fun to have them along.

When we got home, Samantha and Ashton played with their toys together... for a few seconds, until Samantha rolled over and started attacking Ashton's face right after this picture was taken. They just haven't learned how to play together very well yet... maybe next time they hang out, they'll be a bit more sociable? We loved watching them together. 

Wales 3 -- Caernarfon Castle

According to the guide books we've read, Wales is famous for having more castles per square mile than any other country in the world. In the little coastal area where we stayed, there were four grand castles within 20 miles of each other, all built in the 1000s! Very old, and very cool!! We visited Caernarfon Castle (recommended by our Thousand Places to See Before You Die book). It's in ruins, but all the towers are still intact, and the stair cases around the ramparts are all functional. We climbed all over the place and explored all the towers.
It was a rainy day, but it seemed kind of fitting, for the cold wet stone of the castle just seemed to match the dreary sky. Brian and I both agreed the rain and mist added to the mood of the place. (But it didn't add to the picture-taking or the baby-care needs).

From the top of the tower, we could see all around the surrounding country side. The castle is built on an inlet, and is surrounded on three sides by water. Notice how the boats are floating in the bay/river beside the tower.
I like the comparison of these two pictures. These are the same boats we could see from the top of the tower. Only, the tide went out while we were visiting, and all the boats were pretty much parked on the shore by the time we came back to our car! We noticed they were all resting on their keels, and most of them had two keels -- probably designed specifically for that purpose. We thought it was interesting. You can sort of see it in this picture if you look closely at the boat behind Brian. (Notice Sammie loving the water!) 

Wales 2 -- A place to stay

Once we finally arrived at the coast, we had to do a lot of looking before we finally found a place to stay. Apparently there were a few conferences going on there for the weekend, because a lot of the places we looked at were full! I think we checked 6 or 7 different hotels in different towns before we finally found our place. It turned out to be a great little B&B right on a gorgeous half-moon beach! Our room had a little balcony that overlooked the charming village and the mountains behind. (We found out later that our balcony was actually the fire escape for the entire building -- lucky we didn't have to use it!) Brian and Sam walked out on it for a picture before we went to church.

This is the beach right in front of our hotel. We literally walked out our front door, down the boardwalk, and there we were! It was perfect! We didn't get to spend much time investigating, but we loved what we saw while we were there.

We went to church at a nearby little Welsh village. It's always so nice to have the familiarity of the church wherever we end up. The topic for the meeting was Believing the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Sam ate her Sunday shoes during the entire meeting.

Brian always likes to get a picture of the church buildings we see. I thought I'd post this one for him. 

Weekend in Wales

This past weekend we took a little road trip with Brent and Jenalyn to the north coast of Wales. We had such a good time, driving along and talking, enjoying the scenary together, etc. It's a trip we definitely want to do again, when we can stay a bit longer and relax. There was so much to see there, and the countryside was gorgeous!

The first night we got a late start (I'll spare you the details of Brian's unavoidable work adventures on his scheduled vacation day). We stayed in Burmingham and woke up just six miles from Cadbury World -- you guessed it, the home of Cadbury Chocolate!! We were so excited to go on a tour, but then we found out the wait to get in would be at least an hour, and the expected tour length was 3+ hours. Since we were on a trip to Northern Wales and not Cadbury World, we opted out. But just imagine the chocolatey dreams we had as we drove along after leaving there. mmmmm.... good!



We stopped in Ludlow, described as "the loveliest little village in England" in our Thousand Places to See Before You Die book. It was really charming, with quaint old buildings, cobbled streets, and even an old castle in ruins. We took pictures of it all, as you can imagine, but I'm only sharing highlights here.
Okay, so getting to the coast took a lot longer than we anticipated, but we finally made it -- about 5:30 Saturday night. We saw an exit that said "Beach" and headed over. It wasn't the most beautiful coast (it got much better as we drove along), but it was so fun to smell the sea, feel the sand, and collect a few shells.
As we were walking along the beach, two Welch guys came up to warn us the sand wasn't very stable in that area. There were huge mud pockets that were hard to detect and could be dangerous -- if you get stuck in the mud as the tide comes in, it can be a problem because in some parts, the tide comes "faster than ten horses can run," he explained in a cautious voice with wide eyes. (We later wondered amongst ourselves whether ten horses can run faster than one?)

I asked if I could take both their pictures, after they had informed us they were two of the best live bait diggers in North Wales! They were practically famous, don'tcha think?! (Aside -- the worms they were collecting were disgusting! They were about as thick as my baby finger and as long as my forearm... and black and slimy and gross! they were sucking them up with an air pump thing they would poke in the sand, suck, then spit out on top of the sand. It looked like a lot of work for the creepy crawlies.) 

More Bishops in London

We've had a lovely time this past week! Brian's oldest brother, Brent, and his wife, Jenalyn came over for a visit. They couldn't bring all six kids, unfortunately (we all would have LOVED to see them over here!) But they brought their youngest daughter, Ashton, who's just six months old. It was so nice to visit with family and trade baby stories and get news from home.
Sammie loved Ashton -- laughed big belly laughs at her every now and then when Ashton was playing with Sam's toys. And Ashton was really nice to share many of her toys with Sam -- including her pacifier, which was often forceably removed from her hand by an adept Samantha cousin. In this picture (above) with Brent holding both girls, Ashton looks almost the same size as Sammie, but really Sammie's a head taller and much heavier than tiny Ashie baby.
We took them to our favourite park, Primrose Hill, overlooking the city. I guess it was nearly dark because all you can see is Brian and Samantha. But the city behind was gorgeous, as usual.


We also visited Parliament, listened to Big Ben, toured WestMinster Abby and rode the London Eye. Actually, I walked around my old stompin' grounds by King's College while Brent and Jen rode the London Eye. I caught this nice shot of Big Ben and Parliament just after the sun set. Not bad, eh? 

Kickin' around the house

Sammie and I have been hanging around the house a lot this week, mainly because it's been quite rainy. Sam's been finding new things to get into, new ways to entertain herself. I'm constantly on my feet, chasing her away from the stairs, pulling books out of her mouth, or just walking her around the room while she holds my fingers.

Here she is in her laundry basket. She had pulled out half the clean clothes and thrown them on the floor with the dirty clothes within a matter of seconds, silly girl. She's also learning to open cupboard doors, which is a whole new set of messes for this mamma to clean up. She found a pair of pink pants in her toy basket one day (how did those get there??). My friend Jenny helped her put them on her head, and she wore them around like a cool hat for a little while, until they fell in her eyes and she got frustrated.
"A tight spot." Sammie insisted on crawling alongside the edge of the couch the other day, even though I warned her she would not easily get out after crawling in. I guess she didn't believe me... went head first and then squealed in frustration when she couldn't back out.
Her very favorite place to be is inside her toy basket. She's climbed inside almost every day this week, just to get up close and personal with her toys. She hasn't quite figured how to get out of it yet, so I have to keep helping her out when she wants to.
 

Stratford-Upon-Avon -- Shakespeare's Birthplace

After our visit to Warwick Castle, we decided to stop at Stratford-Upon-Avon (as in Avon River... and Stratford is on the river, get it? It's an English thing.) It's the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Perhaps you've heard of him? He wrote lots of plays and sonnets? Well, something I didn't know was that he was married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway, who was 26 at the time. She was also three months pregnant with their first child. The things ya learn!

Here's a picture of Sammie and me outside the back of his house. No photos of the actual "birth room" of course. It turns out lots of other authors visited Shakespeare's birth home, to pay their respects... Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, to name a few. Brian says Bill Clinton even visited, though I'm not sure we should count him as an author??
Here's Brian and Sam outside the front of the house. Notice how blue, blue the sky is, and not a cloud in sight! It was just such a gorgeous, lovely day -- perfect to be out and about.
We also stopped by Anne Hathaway's little cottage, just to take a quick look. We didn't go in, but peeked in the bookshop and took a few shots of the outside of the place -- charming.
Brian took this shot, quite artistic. If you look carefully, we're all three in the picture, doing some of the things we love best.
 

More Warwick

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Warwick Castle. We got to see the mighty trebuchet launch... Brian got good pictures and videos. I guess I was expecting a catapult like in Lord of the Rings. You know -- the one that launches huge hunks of stone into the walls of Gondor. Well, when they finally did launch, I think there was a baseball or maybe a bowling ball that flew out of it. Not really exciting, but the concept is cool.We climbed to the top of the towers and got some spectacular views of the surrounding area. Down below we saw beautiful green gardens, a river, and some grass tennis courts. Very cool!
Here are some shots of the wax figures... some men preparing for battle.
Another wax figure, washing maid. There was real water dripping from her rag she was ringing. Pretty cool!
 

Warwick Castle -- pronounced Warick

Last weekend Brian, Samantha and I took a little siteseeing trip to Warwick Castle -- a very cool place! It was built back in the 11th century and has been kept in very good repair. The grounds are gorgeous and the displays inside were really spectacular. They had wax figures dressed in costumes from the middle ages in one wing, and in 17th century costumes in another wing. The first wax figure I saw, I thought he was a real man. Very real!! Anyway, here are a few fun pictures from our trip.
Sammie mainly enjoyed crawling on the grass, getting all wet and muddy.