Three Years

Three years ago today, Mark and I were married on a brilliant fall afternoon in Emmitsburg. While so much has happened since then, I can still picture our wedding like it was yesterday: The way everyone looked so gorgeous in the late autumn sunlight, dancing the night away in the Gettysburg Hotel, and not being able to wipe my smile off my face the entire day through. Mark made me the happiest girl in the world on October 29, 2005 and has continued to do so ever since. Happy Anniversary to us!

Fall fun in New Paltz

This morning, Eamon and I, plus Keren and her friends Richard and Alex hauled up the road for an idyllic fall day in New Paltz. First, we hit up a local orchard for some PYOP (that's pick your own pumpkins in orchard-speak) where I found a beautifully-hued and shaped pumpkin that is probably way too big to successfully carve--I might just keep it uncarved since it's so pretty. After that, we made a visit to Rose Lane, where we hung with Bec, John, and Karl. The house looks as beautiful as ever, especially against a background of a cloudless blue sky and picture-perfect color on the trees.

The ride home was a bit intense, as we hit some major snags due to Sunday evening traffic. Add a very hungry (and LOUD) baby to the mix, and you've got a pretty, um, eventful ride. Thank goodness for Keren, who pulled a Chinese Fire Drill with me and got in the driver's seat as I jumped in the back to feed/console E (we were hardly moving). He was fine after a bit and we eventually made it back in one piece. Just another day in the life with a ten-week-old!

Here are some new pics of Eamon... as you can see, we've been working on his "tummy time" to strengthen his neck muscles. The one on the star pillow looks like he's emerging out a deep hole.

Bees

This morning, Eamon and I went to see "The Secret Life of Bees" with our friends Jaimie and Sadie and Amber and Aiden. The movie theatre in Edgewater opens up at 10 a.m. each Thursday for "Baby Pictures"--they make the theatre friendly for little ones by leaving the lights dimmed and turning the volume down--and you don't have to feel that bad when your baby screeches at the top of his lungs! Each week is a different movie and it's almost always some sort of chick flick (go figure). Anyway, TSLOB was pretty good. I couldn't get over how grown up Dakota Fanning is. She seems to be going through a bit of an awkward stage, but then again her character was a bit of a ragga-muffin, so it wasn't a true depiction of her current appearance. I thought she did well, as did Alicia Keyes and Queen Latifah. Jennifer Hudson, on the other hand, just demonstrated once more why she should stick to singing. Oscar or not, she just can't act!

though they didn't focus too much on the bees themselves, they did offer some snippets about making honey and other bee-raising fun facts. Did you know that when bees eat elderberries they make purple honey? Bec--will we be seeing any purple honey out of Rose Lane?

More pics

Here are a couple more pics from Chicago taken by Mr. Flynn. As you can tell, Eamon was having a great time!

Another wedding weekend

We had a great time in Chicago this weekend for Pat & Mary's wedding. One would think it would be a bit exhausting to endure two back-to-back family weddings, but it couldn't have been more fun. Eamon, who has become quite the seasoned traveler, did wonderfully on the plane, and slept thru most of the reception and all of the ceremony. And to think I was worried he'd be the crying baby in the back of the church!

After a couple of days outside the city (where the wedding took place), we ventured into Chicago with Mr. and Mrs. Flynn to check out the sites. Neither of us had ever been there, so it was a good opportunity to explore a little and see what Chi-town's all about. Although we didn't have too much time, we squeezed in the architechtural boat tour (very cool) and got some good ol' deep dish pizza for din. And thanks to Mr. Flynn, we stayed on the 22nd floor of the very swank downtown Renaissance Hotel with sweeping views of the famous Chicago Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and Lake Michigan.

Lots of pics below!

Finally, wedding pics!

Sorry for the delay in getting these posted...a few faves are below and there are plenty more in my picasa album.

bec's wedding