Vacation to Ohio and Washington, D.C.

Alyson decided to take a vacation to Columbus, Ohio to visit a friend and her sister. As it seems to happen when you are having a fun time, no pictures were taken except one of Marcus and his cousin. They were great playmates together. It will probably be a few years before they actually play with each other. Marcus must be in the 'mine' phase because he always took his cousin's toy away and didn't mind pushing him away. Luckily, his cousin just gave the cutest smile back to him.

After Columbus, Alyson flew to Washington, D.C. to meet James who was attending a lawyers' convention. Alyson saw sights and James sat in discussions. Sadly, few pictures were taken so what you see below is literally all there is. This is Alyson's fourth visit to D.C. so she tried to see the lesser-known sites of the area.

The National Portrait Gallery (paintings of Pocahontas and the newly acquired painting of Pres. Obama)

The one evening James had free, we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant. Apparently, D.C. is known for having some of the best Ethiopian cuisine. You don't use utensils, but instead a spongy bread (almost with a soft pancake consistency). The food was spicy, flavorful, and good.


The National Museum of Women in the Arts
Walking across the Tidal Basin bridge with the Jefferson Monument in the background.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove. This deserves a little bit more information. Alyson is an avid collector of stamps for the National Parks Passport. She doesn't like to get the stamps unless she has actually visited the park, monument, etc. Some stamps are more difficult to get than others, such as the LBJ Memorial Grove. Not only does no park ranger know what this is or where it is located, the only walking path is along the maze of freeways near Arlington Cemetery.
So, in case anybody would like to go in the future, know this: take the Metro to Arlington Cem., walk towards the roundabout and take the walking path on your right. Follow the path along until it curves to the left and you see a sign for Pentagon Parking, no unauthorized photos. Walk through the parking lot, staying to the left (you'll also see signs for the Pentagon Memorial). You'll see a small parking lot and a wooden footbridge. You've arrived. Its probably a two-mile round trip. The Memorial isn't too much, but similar to the Roosevelt Memorial (another semi-difficult one to walk to), it is nice to get away from the noise of the city and enjoy a few moments in nature.




The Washington Monument. Last minute, Marcus and Alyson got tickets to go inside the Washington Monument. The views were magnificent and and excellent way to end our vacation.

Halloween!

Marcus was an elephant for his first Halloween. Alyson worked hard and made his costume. He humored us and wore the head part for quite a while before desperately pulling it off. There was no candy for him, just lots of adoring smiles!


With his pirate cousin.

Showing off his new standing move.

Visiting grandpa at the trunk-or-treat.

One last photo just for the record.

This must mean he's had enough?

October Visitors

James' parents visited in October and we enjoyed spending a weekend with them. We wandered through a corn maze, looked silly in a pumpkin patch, and James squished inside a cow barrell train with Marcus. Of course, we had another traditional Brazilian meal on Sunday.

October Updates

The end of September flew by past and before we knew it, October came and went. Here are a few updates:






Rio won the 2016 Olympics and James felt the need to celebrate (and find an excuse to have Brazilian food). We moved beyond our usual rice and beans and added pao de quejo (cheese bread balls) and bife (thin beef steak) with paozinho frances (small crusty french bread).










Marcus is always growing and having fun. He makes the funniest faces and sounds. Just the other day he learnedthe 'g' sound and made a girgling 'g' for the next few days. He can stand for about 10-20 seconds on his own and has even taken a step occassionally. I'm sure we're a long ways from walking, but he is practicing. He is loving food and we try new things all the time. Favorite foods are probably crackers, green beans, squash, and plain yogurt.






He continues to have a fascination with fans. Upon seeing one, he immediately sticks his arm up desperately trying to reach the tassel cord.






We've occassionally been buying our produce from a co-op type group called Bountiful Baskets. Our fridge was overflowing with vegetables so we decided to be adventurous and make a vegetable soup with everything. It included: asparagus, brocolli, squash, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, onions, and garlic. Throw it all in to some broth, let it boil, then puree it in a blender to make a great soup!





Alyson enjoyed a weekend in St. George for an extended family girls' retreat. We spent the weekend making fun aprons and watching great movies. Its fun to be in a family that enjoys sewing!






Alyson dressed up early for Halloween and participated in the Young Men and Women Wednesday night activity of "Where's Waldo?". The kids split into groups and had to find various church members dressed in disguise. Alyson took the disguise to the extreme by choosing a punk/goth teen. Proudly, it was among the youth's favorite disguises and some even said they were hesitant to approach her.












Lastly, our biggest news yet is James official admission to the State Bar to practice as an attorney in Arizona. We attended a short ceremony at the state court house to watch James be sworn in.

There's nothing like a fresh peach

Since peach season is upon us, I've been canning and freezing peaches to have for winter. When I brought the peaches home, I took the lid off the box to examine them and forgot to replace the lid. It wasn't long before I found Marcus helping himself to a peach or two!

Marcus!

I guess our lives have reached a mundane point in time because we aren't posting regularly. We'll try to do more exciting things and try to come up with something to post!

I will at least provide updates from Marcus. He has developed so much in the past few months. In May he had just learned to sit up on his own and now he can pull himself up to standing and do a cute inch-worm crawl. He has grown 7 teeth and makes the funniest sounds, the latest being a growl. He loves tearing up paper (everything from kleenex to magazines) and launches himself toward electronics if he sees something light up or make a noise. James got him to move the first time by enticing Marcus with his Blackberry. (I don't have pictures on the computer currently of him standing or crawling. I'll post those next). Here he is at 8 months.



We started with a little rice cereal when he was 6 months. Just last week (three months later), he is almost eating a whole container (2.5oz) of baby food in one sitting. No matter what we tried, he wasn't too excited about solid foods. Now, its actually an enjoyable experience to feed him because he eagerly opens his mouth. When it comes to water, though, he can't get enough. He would drink water all day long if we let him.





The pool was one of our favorite places to go during the summer. Marcus loves the water and is eager to get in and splash around. At the beginning of the summer he would keep his hat on, but soon he realized he could flip it off.




One of his favorite daily activities to do is play the piano. I keep hoping that if I let him pound away on the piano everyday, it might help him enjoy his piano lessons more later on.