Finally, a decision.

Last week, Jon and I were in Salt Lake City.  Jon's work sent us (and some other employees as well) out there to check out the city, see if we thought we could live there, etc.

It was a heckuva long flight out thre, and on the long leg from Atlanta to SLC, we were not able to sit together and both stuck in middle seats -- the WORST.  Ugh.

We got in around 6:30pm local time, and found it was snowing.  Wha?  Neither of us really brought appropriate clothing, as the forecast hadn't mentioned snow.  But snow it did -- all weekend.

It's hard to get a real feel for a city when you're stuck on a bus for most of the time you're there.  Even harder when it's snowy and foggy the whole time.  We didn't have a ton of time to explore on our own, either -- the weekend was crammed pretty full.  We did go down to Temple Square one evening, and wandered around for about 10 minutes, before someone came up to us and told us they were ready to shut the gates for the night, and could we please leave?  Ha.

The Temple was smaller than I expected.

Overall, we liked the city, and when we could actually *see* it, it was really pretty.  There are mountains on two sides of the city, and those make for some stunning views.  All the people we met there were really nice as well.

We could finally see the mountains -- from the plane on the way home.

Ultimately, though, we decided that even though we liked it out there, and we definitely want to go back for a *real* vacation, it wasn't the place for us right now, and we're going to stay in NC.   There were lots of good reasons for us to move, but far more reasons for us to stay.  So that's what we're doing, and frankly, I'm thrilled :)

WDW Redux

This is long overdue, I know, but better late than never?

Anyway.

The trip down there (which I should mention was Ella's first flight ever) was awful.  Hellacious.  We were meant to fly out of Greensboro around 11am.  Our flight got pushed back once, and then again, because it couldn't leave Atlanta due to mechanical issues.  At that point, we wound up taking a shuttle (paid for by Delta) to Raleigh to catch a non-stop flight from there to Orlando -- and THAT flight was delayed as well, as they had no crew for the plane.

We legitimately could have driven to Orlando in the time it took us to finally get to our hotel.  It was about 12 hours.

And you know, I have to say, Ella probably did the best out of all of us with the whole ordeal.  She was a real trooper.  The rest of us were grousing and complaining, and she just took it in stride.

Outside of that (and the phone call Jon got the next day regarding the center closing), we had a really great time.

Ella *loved* meeting the characters.  We were unsure how she would feel about this, since she'd only seen them on TV and in books and whatnot up to this point, but she didn't even hesitate.  Everyone got big hugs, high fives, and kisses on the nose (or beak or whatever).  She wasn't as into the face characters, but I suspect that's because she's just not as familiar with them as the animated ones.  But overall, this was definitely the highlight of the trip for her, I think.

She went on a bunch of rides, too -- the teacups were a major hit.  We must have ridden those five times.  She also rode her first roller coaster -- Goofy's Barnstormer.  That one was not quite as popular, but it was over before she had a chance to really get upset about it.

Overall, an awesome trip -- the food was excellent, the weather was great, the crowds were low, and our suite at the Animal Kingdom Villas was amazing.  Can't ask for much more than that.

I'm *still* working on getting my pictures edited (I took over 600!).  We did order the PhotoPass CD, and a bunch of those turned out really great.  Once I get them uploaded onto this computer, I'll add a few.

The past month and a half.

Well.

It's been a little nuts around here lately.

Here's what's been going on:

• We took Ella on her first trip to Walt Disney World, which was fantastic.  Mom and Dad went with us, too, and we had a great time.  More on that later, plus pictures.  
• I completely fell off the "picture a day" bandwagon.  Boo me.
• We found out that the center where Jon works is closing by the end of the year.  Oh, mercy -- serious panic mode, especially given that Jon got the call from his boss on the first day of our vacation.  
• Since then, though, we've found out that the company is being *extremely* generous with relocating employees to their three other centers (Phoenix, Ft Lauderdale, and Salt Lake City), and are offering home-based positions as well.   We're still exploring the options -- no final decisions have been made yet, but right now, there's a pretty good chance we'll be Utah residents by the end of the year.  More on this later as well, as we find out more information, and decisions are made.

I think that brings us fairly up to speed, and now March is just around the corner.  Sheesh.

WDW Trip Report Day 2 - Epcot

On Wednesday, Jon and I headed over (not too early in the morning, though) to Epcot.  We had major plans for the Food and Wine festival, which unfortunately, didn't really come to fruition -- more on that later.

We started out going on the "new" Nemo ride at The Seas -- new to us, I should say.  We've visited several times since the ride was added, but had just never made it over there before.  It was pretty impressive.  The technology used apparently took a really long time to develop, and having seen it, I can understand why.   Very cool stuff.  The ride drops you off in the aquarium portion that was there before the ride existed, and we spent some time looking at the manatees and sharks and whatnot.

Since we got to the park sort of late-morning, and had to wait a while to exchange our vouchers for our annual passes, we were coming up on our lunch reservation.  We decided to head back to the World Showcase and start the trek to Italy, stopping in a couple of shops along the way in Canada and the UK.  

Lunch was at Via Napoli in the Italy pavilion, which had just opened a couple of months or so ahead of our visit.  The restaurant was lovely on the inside -- a nice big open space, gorgeous wooden beamed ceilings, and three fantastic wood-burning ovens.  We were seated on the back wall, so we had a good view of everything.  

The dining plan worked a little differently here, so we wound up each getting an appetizer (calamari for Jon and the arancini for me), and then we shared our two entrees -- the shrimp Caesar salad and the quattro formaggi pizza.  

Jon and I both were pretty excited about eating here, and I think we both were pretty underwhelmed.  The food was good -- don't get me wrong.  But it wasn't great, and if we hadn't been on the dining plan, I think we would have felt really ripped off.   Jon did really enjoy his dessert, though, which was the gelato frizzante (and Italian ice cream soda).  And I will say, the service was outstanding.  We were taken care of by about three different people, and our main waiter, Andrea, clearly knew how to earn a good tip with the ladies -- he was chatty and flirty, and very easy on the eyes.  (Sorry, Jon.)

After lunch, we wandered through the rest of the World Showcase.  Jon grumbled about Disney's newest moneymaker, Duffy the Bear, whenever he saw any of his merchandise.  My threat to make him have his picture taken with Duffy and wear the "I Hugged Duffy" sticker, sadly, did not come to fruition.  We also made our one and only Food and Wine stop at the Poland kiosk.  We were just too stuffed from lunch to do much damage otherwise.  We shared (although Jon drank most of it) a Belvedere Strawberry Balsamic Chiller, which was as odd as it sounds.  

After a ride (at my request) through Spaceship Earth (which for some odd reason was the ride I had been thinking about the most before our trip), we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit.  I should mention here that it was HOT while we were down there -- we had planned for a bit cooler weather than we actually had.  So we wound up going back to the hotel and taking showers each day before dinner.  

Full moon over the Boardwalk

We headed back to the Boardwalk and hung out there a little while before heading to dinner on the other side of the lake at the Yachtsman Steakhouse.  We'd eaten there once before, were very impressed, and were looking forward to our return visit.  

We were seated in a small alcove off the main dining room with only three other tables, which was nice and cozy.  Only one other table in our room even had kids, and they were very well-behaved!  

On a quest to be somewhat adventurous with my food on this trip, I decided to branch out and try the escargot to start.  I'd only ever ordered escargot once before, and when it arrived to the table, I was unable to eat it.  However, that was a number of years ago, and I've branched out a lot since then, culinarily speaking, so I was excited to give it another shot.  I have to admit, they were not what I was expecting at all, but the flavor grew on me, and they were pretty dang tasty!  (I expect that the very liberal dousing they got in the garlic-herb butter helped out with that.)  Jon started out with the charcuterie board, and I can't find a listing for the components online, but I recall some sort of venison sausage, maybe?  From the looks of my picture, there was also some proscuitto and a cheese with some manner of jam.  He seemed happy with the whole spread.  And yes, it really was brought out on a board -- good thing, as we both would have been disappointed otherwise :)

For entrees, we had -- you guessed it -- steak.  Jon went with the New York strip, and I chose the filet mignon.  Both good, but not the sort of knock-your-socks-off steaks that we remembered having the first time we were there.  

When dessert came around, we ordered the same thing again (two times in two meals!), which was the trio of Valrhona  chocolate.  We were both tempted by the description of "salted caramel".  Yum.  

All in all, lovely, if very hot day.  For Day 3, we planned to head over to the park we visit the least: Animal Kingdom.

Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 1

For our 5th anniversary, Jon and I decided to splurge a bit and take a few days for ourselves at Walt Disney World.  It only made sense -- we were engaged there, and spent part of our honeymoon there.


So last Tuesday, 10/19, having deposited Ella at Grandma and Pop's, and the dogs at the vet's for boarding, we headed to Raleigh to catch our 1:00pm (direct!) flight to Orlando.  Our flight was somewhat late in leaving -- never a fun way to start off a trip.  But I guess the pilot was able to make up some time in the air, as we arrived only about 20 minutes later that originally planned.


When we arrived, we collected our luggage and made the long trek from Terminal A to B, so that we could catch our ride on Disney's Magical Express.  This was our first time using this service, and as it was free, I really have no complaints about it at all.  (I should mention that normally, when using the DME, you don't even have to worry about collecting your own luggage.  It's done for you and brought right to your room.  However, we waited 'til the 11th hour to sign up for it, as we were hoping to get a cheap rental car, and because we waited, we didn't get the special DME luggage tags in time.)  The bus was there waiting for us, so we were able to get right on (and in typical Disney fashion, the process was super-efficient and organized), and the ride went by quickly -- they showed a cute video with the characters all about the check-in process and whatnot, followed by an old Donald Duck cartoon.

Our home base for the next few days would be the All-Star Sports Resort -- crossing another resort off our list in our quest to eventually stay at all of them.  (So far, we are at 9.)  I had used the online check-in service, another first for this trip, which was wonderfully convenient.  There was no line at the check-in desk, so we had all of our documents and information in no time at all.   We had booked a standard room, but were upgraded to a preferred room, which turned out to be in the building right next to the main building -- a nice treat, and not expected at all.

Since we arrived so late in the afternoon, we opted not to hit a park that day, and instead killed a little time at Downtown Disney before heading over to the Boardwalk.  We had dinner booked that night at the Flying Fish Cafe, and I have to admit, I was leery.  I'd gotten *really* sick after eating here a few years ago, and was definitely nervous about going again.  However, Jon is a big fan of the place, and he finally talked me into it.

I wasn't disappointed.  In fact, it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

The "cafe" wouldn't light up for me at the right time.  Hmph.

I started out with the Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala, "Ugli Ripe" Beefsteak and Tiny Florida Grape Tomatoes -- your basic caprese salad, more or less, which is always hard for me to resist when I see it on the menu.   Deeeelicious.  Jon had the  Signature Flying Fish Cafe "Crispy Maine Coast Jonah Crab Cake" - Savory Vegetable Slaw, Roasted Red Pepper Coulis, and Ancho Chile Rémoulade" to start, and said it was quite good as well.  

For entrees, we did something we hardly EVER do --  we ordered the same thing: Oak-grilled Maine Diver Scallops - Pumpkin, Sage, Pecorino Romano and Mascarpone-laced Risotto di Carnarolli, with Proscuitto di Parma Cracklin'.  (When we were planning our meals, this was actually the dish on the menu that convinced me to give them another try.)

Oh my, oh my!  This was so, SO good.  The scallops were cooked perfectly -- they just seemed to melt in your mouth.  The risotto was amazing, and complemented the scallops perfectly.  And the cracklins!  Here's a bit of advice for you, my friends: if you ever have the chance to order a dish with ANY kind of "cracklin" listed as an ingredient -- DO IT.  If you don't, I might just hunt you down and smack you, because really, you've just done yourself a major disservice.  

L-R: Mozzarella Salad, Crab Cake, Scallops, Banana Napoleon

My dessert was the "Signature Flying Fish Café Caramelized Banana Napoleon - phyllo, banana mousse, creme caramel, exotic fruit coulis and bitter chocolate".  Very yummy, although I found it a little difficult to eat -- all the stuff in the phyllo keps squishing out, so it became kind of messy and hard to get a nice bite with everything on it.  I can't remember for the life of me what Jon had for his dessert -- I'll have to consult with him and get back with that one.  

We received personalized "Happy Anniversary" menus, which we got to keep, and a complimentary glass of champagne each -- both very nice touches that made the evening a little more special.



After a relaxing evening, and a delicious meal, we headed back to our resort.  The day of travelling had worn us down, and a good night's sleep was in order before we hit the parks the next day.

Girls' weekend

After several month of planning, this past weekend some of my oldest friends and I had a UNC mini-reunion!  My junior year roommate from Granville, Laura, was gracious enough to volunteer the use of her family's amazing beach house near Beaufort.  She, Sara, Erika, Shelly and I met up in Goldsboro and caravanned down for a long-overdue weekend of relaxation.

I think the dolphins we saw in the sound right after we arrived were a good omen for a wonderful weekend.  The weather was lovely, and the company could not have been better.  We all had such a great time -- reminiscing, laughing, and catching up.

The plan is for us to hopefully do this again semi-annually, if not annually.  Certainly not once a decade!  That's just far too long between visits, and as Laura said, we'd all be in menopause the next time we got together! 

23 months!

Ella took her first real road trip this past weekend -- she, Mom, and I headed down to Georgia to visit family.   It was E's first time staying in a hotel (or sleeping in the same room with other people since she was about 5 months old), and she acted like she'd been doing it all her life -- an old pro.  She met a lot of new people this weekend, too -- not one of her favorite things, but she was a trooper.  Like me, she just tends to stay away from the people she doesn't like ;)

She's still picking up new words all the time, which is both good and bad (the bad, in case you're wondering, would be when she chose to scream out "SHIT!" in the middle of the Mexican restaurant).  She's working on her numbers and alphabet, and shocked me to death the other day when I asked her to spell her name for me to write, and she actually DID it.   Amazing.  She picks out things on the TV or in the store that Jon and I don't even notice, and names them correctly.

Independence is definitely starting to be asserted.  She has no problem saying "No!" -- often and loudly.  Usually, though, she's just testing, and will wind up being cooperative.  We've had very few full-blown tantrums as of yet (knock on wood). 

We did have this little exchange the other day, as she was playing with her pots and pans.

Mommy:  Whatcha cookin', Ella?

Ella: Food.

*face-palm*  Yep, I've got a smartypants in the making.  She gets it natural, anyway.

DC trip report - part II

Thursday actually turned out to be the best day for us weather-wise, and if we'd known it at the time, I suspect we would have taken a bit more advantage of it.

Anyway, we slept super-late, which was lovely, and woke up with lunch in mind.  We headed over to Hank's Oyster Bar, but somehow, both of us had neglected to notice on their website that they aren't open for lunch.  So that left us a bit stumped, and wandering around for awhile.  This only led to us getting hungrier and grumpier, and every time I found a Wi-Fi network with my iPod touch, it wouldn't connect, and that made it really hard to know where we were and/or where we were going.

Finally, like a beacon in the night, we spotted the Washington Monument in the distance, and that gave us some idea of our bearings.  We headed that way, and figured if nothing else, we'd grab something at the National Museum of the American Indian, which was supposed to have a good food station area (not a buffet, exactly...one of those places where they cook the food for you at different stations...you know?). 

Soon enough, we ran into the White House.  I suppose I shouldn't have found the shooters on the roof alarming, but I did. 

We'd been to DC a couple of times since 9/11, but I'd never noticed the sharp-shooters before.  At least I assume they were sharp-shooters.  I don't think they were up there doing shingle work.

And of course, the nuclear protester were there.  They always are.

By this time, we were starving.  We knew there we a restaurant we wanted to eat at on Pennsylvania Ave SE (we were on NW), so we took off -- in the wrong direction.  But all was well soon enough, as we stumbled upon Central, where we actually had dinner reservations a couple of nights later.  So  I called an audible, and decided that we were going to eat lunch there.

We sat at the bar -- we figured we might be a little under-dressed, even for lunch, but the bar is always a safe bet in a situation like that.  Jon, having done all his restaurant homework, knew that Central was meant to have excellent burgers, and that's what we both went with.  Jon got his with just cheese, and I had cheese and bacon. 

Oh heavens.

What they brought out was perhaps the most delicious hunk of cow muscle between two buns that I'd ever had.  EVER.

The burger also had potato tuiles, which were like super-super-thin, crispy potato cakes.  I wasn't sure how they would work, since I don't usually eat potatoes ON my burger, but they were quite good.   The burger came with fries, which were good -- not great -- and I had a house-made grapefruit soda to drink, which was delicious.

Go ahead and drool.  It's okay.

We decided then that we probably weren't going to come back for dinner, since it would be really hard to top the meal that we were having then, and we didn't just want to have the same thing again.  To that end, to get the full Central experience, we ordered dessert -- Michel's Chocolate Bar (formerly known as the Kit-Kat Bar, until the Kit-Kat people had something to say about it).  I think it probably ruined Kit-Kats for me for the rest of my life :)

After lunch, we soldiered on to the Mall, and wandered around there for a bit.  We saw the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

We beat the Metro after-work rush back to the hotel, and were able to relax a little before dinner, which was at Obelisk, just around the corner from the hotel.  (I'd put a link in, but there's not one for me to put.)  Walking into the restaurant felt like walking into someone's home, since there wasn't a sign outside, and really, the dining room wasn't much bigger than the average living room.  There were about 12 tables in all, down both sides of the room, with a large table in the middle where the waitresses prepared a number of the dishes.

All in all, we had 6 courses, if I remember correctly.  We started with an amazing burrata cheese, which is a fresh cow's milk cheese that tastes like mozzarella, but has more the consistency of cottage cheese, although not quite.  This was followed by several more antipasti, including polenta fritters, pork belly tureen (which confirmed by dislike of the tureen), chicory with a creamy anchovy dressing (sort of like a Caesar salad), and Tuscan-style meatballs.  After all that, we finally got to the first course.  Jon had a lobster bean soup, while I had eggplant ravioli, which were so fresh and delicious.  For our entree (we had 3 to pick from), we shared a veal chop that came with perfect roasted potatoes and some kind of mishmash of olives and peppers that I avoided.

Are you feeling full?  'Cause we aren't done yet.

The 5th course was cheeses, served with a fig jam.  One was a goat's milk, one was a sheep and cow's milk, and one a sheep's milk (I can't remember the names -- I know that two were from Piedmont, though).  The cheeses were all excellent, although let's be honest -- I rarely have met a cheese that I didn't like. The fig jam didn't do much for me though.  Too raisin-y.

Finally, dessert!  The cocoa nib panna cotta I had was a great finish to my meal.  Jon had some sort of pineapple thing, I think -- I didn't try it, as I don't like pineapple.  

On the whole, a most excellent meal.  I thought all the surrounding courses were actually better than the main (that may partially be because veal's not really my thing), and it wasn't hard to see why Obelisk consistently receives rave reviews.  The service was also outstanding.

Thus concluded our second day in the District -- not a bad way to end!

Washington, DC trip report - part I

Jon and I had a rare long weekend away this past week as part of Christmas to us from my parents.  They kept Ella for us, and we took off up to Washington DC.

After dropping off Ella and taking the dogs to puppy camp, we hit the road late Wednesday morning.  We had our usual road-trip stop at Cracker Barrel, and picked up an audio book on Billy the Kid, which turned out to be a dud.  The rest of the drive up was uneventful, aside from going around in a few circles once we got into DC proper, which is pretty much standard operating procedure.  Our home base for the next few nights was to be The Fairfax at Embassy Row -- we used our Starwood Points to book it, and on the whole, it was super-nice.  (We did have some ongoing hot water issues, which were kind of a pain, but no major complaints other than that.)

After we got checked in and dumped our stuff in the room, the first stop for us was a Washington Capitals game, and they just happened to be playing the Hurricanes that night (yes, we planned the trip around the game).  We had originally planned to grab dinner before the game, but we ran short on time, and wound up going straight to the Verizon Center.  We knew which stop we needed off the Metro, but weren't sure where to go after that -- luckily, there were plenty of Caps fans heading the same way we were, so we just followed them.

Our seats were AMAZING -- 3rd row, right behind the goal where the Caps were shooting twice.  

The game was tons of fun, despite being two of the very, very few 'Canes fans in the building (which was sold out -- the Jumbotron told us it was their 48th sell-out in a row!).   No one harassed us for wearing our enemy jerseys -- except for Slapshot, the Caps mascot.  He came all the way down to where we were sitting, pointed at our jerseys, then at his, then shook his head at us. Ha!

Much to the surprise of both Jon and myself, the Canes gave Washington a run for their money.  Given the season that both teams are having (them: fantastic; us: not so much), we really hadn't expected a whole lot, but the game actually wound up going to overtime, which was completely nerve-wracking.   The Caps won in the end, though.

After the game, we headed over to Matchbox, where we had originally planned to go before the game.  We had some delicious mini-burgers (part of our whirlwind cheeseburger tour of DC...more on that later), and split one of their wood-fired pizzas.  Yuuuuuum.

On the way back to the hotel, while we were waiting for the Metro,  Jon poked me, nodded towards a group of very well-dressed gentlemen, and said, "Don't look now, but I think that's Ron Paul over there."  I took a glance, but wasn't really able to tell.  Once the train arrived, the man in question wound up on the same car with us, and sure enough -- it was Ron Paul!  He was chatting with another passenger about the hockey game.  Kind of neat.

A great start to our trip!

Woes of a chronic overpacker.

As I get older, I get worse at packing.  I used to be a great packer -- always took just what I needed, never too much.   Heck, I went to Europe for a month in college and carried everything I needed on my back. 

Now, somehow, I can't pack for a long weekend away without FIVE pairs of shoes? 

*blink*

Seriously.  I've TRIED to make it less.  But there's really no way around it.  

The thing is, I'm not some fashion maven or clotheshorse.  I don't change clothes 2 or 3 times a day when we travel. 


How did this happen?  Why can't I just pack for a trip like a normal person, with one outfit per day? 

....And don't even get me started on wrinkles.

Weekend getaway.

Jon and I had a little weekend away in Asheville, which is probably our favorite place to escape to if we get the chance. We went up for a concert, so we spent just one night, but it was nice to get away and relax for a bit. We stayed at a new place (literally -- it just opened this past April) called Brookstone Lodge. It was really nice! We were a little leery about staying somewhere so new, but our room was great, and the people were more than accommodating. Plus, as we found out once we got there, it's locally owned and operated, and we like to support places like that whenever we can.

We had a great dinner at Barley's, as is our tradition, followed by a cream cheese brownie and Boston creme cupcake that Jon and I split from The Sisters McMullen. We wandered around downtown a bit, and I got some adorable tie-dyed pajamas for Ella at one of the head shops.

Yesterday, we had some time to kill between checking out of the hotel and the show, so after a yummy lunch at Mayfel's, we headed out onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few hours. It was a great day for a drive...the leaves were just starting to turn (we saw more color the higher the altitude), and despite some spots of rain, and literally driving through clouds at some points, it was really beautiful out. A few pictures:





While on the Parkway, we went up Mt. Mitchell, which is the highest point east of the Mississippi. Since it was a pretty overcast day, the cloud cover was low in the sky, and by the time we up to the summit, we were actually walking through the clouds, which was pretty neat. Of course, the visibility was not the greatest...



...but it was still neat to be SO high up, and the blue sky even peeked out a little bit.



(If you want to see more pictures, click on my Flickr badge over to the right.)

All in all, a great weekend, but good to be home...aside from that whole work thing.

More beachy goodness.

"Emerald Isle '09"

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I haven't just been ususally lazy lately...

...we were on vacation! Hence, my lack of updates. Anyway, we just got back from a wonderfully relaxing week at Emerald Isle, NC, with Jay and Janet. We had a house on the sound side this year, which I wasn't sure if I would like...but it was *wonderful*. The best of both worlds, really. We had gorgeous views, lovely shade trees, and a dock to go crabbing from (we caught 3!), with the beach only 5 minutes away. Can't ask for much more than that.

Ella turned out to be a great little traveler. She did super on the drives down and back, and we kept her out past her bedtime almost every night with very little fuss. She tried all kinds of new foods -- shrimp, calamari, tomato, and more -- and loved it all. She didn't seem particularly impressed with the beach itself. She did eat some sand, but the rest of it didn't do much for her. We didn't take her into the water, though, since the riptides were so bad.

A great trip overall, aside from the fact that I was fairly certain on Tuesday that I had broken my ankle. We were heading to the aquarium, just leaving the house, and I rolled my ankle as I was walking down the stairs and fell (fortunately, I managed to fall on a landing about halfway down the staircase). It was bad -- I heard it pop. The pain got progressively worse throughout the day and evening, and I was sure I was going to be spending most of the next day at an urgent care center. When I woke up the next morning, though, I had almost no pain, and full range of motion! Crazy. I guess the 4 Aleve I'd taken and the ice I'd kept on it helped out.

More pictures tomorrow!

What's going on.

It's been weird lately...a lot has been happening, but time's been at a stand-still, at least to me.

We finally managed to get Ella's one-year photos done! We went to a different place, and the lady was really good. She didn't get a ton of shots, but I was happy with how they came out. They really captured her as she is right now. Here's a little sample:



She's also learning new tricks just about every day! She can find her nose, mouth, and ears (well, one ear, anyway), as well as mine or Jon's. She can also sign "more" and "all done"...we tend to get the former more than the latter :) She can stand by herself for a little bit as well...getting braver.

We've been working on using a spoon as well. For awhile, if I loaded the spoon up for her, I could give it to her, and she'd take it, shovel it in, and pull the spoon back out. She's not into that so much these days. If I try to give her the spoon, her tact is to either lean over, mouth agape, and try to eat directly off it with me still holding it, or she'll just scream. So what I've taken to doing lately is giving her her own spoon while I feed her with a separate one. She'll hold onto it, pass it back and forth between her hands, and even stick it in her mouth -- but won't eat off it yet. I can see her thinking about it, though.

I've started the list-making for our upcoming beach trip...probably should have started about a month ago, really. Better late than never, though, right?

This is how I know I'm old.

Jon and I had tickets to see Death Cab For Cutie in Davidson this past Thursday. We had decided awhile ago that we'd just stay the night down there and go to Ikea and the outlets the next day.

We left earlier than expected on Thursday, so we had a good deal of time to kill before the show. We decided to go ahead to the outlets then, and check into our hotel before driving up to Davidson.

We never made it past the hotel.

Sad, huh?

We talked about it, and decided that since we had an evening alone, we wanted to spend it together rather than jostling with a bunch of kids in a hot arena not being able to talk to each other.

So yeah, I'm old. Well, we both are.

On the upside, though, we got a lot of cute clothes for Ella for next winter and picked up some household stuff at Ikea (which was a MADHOUSE, even after being open for 2 months and going there on a weekday).

Niagara Falls in Winter

It was really amazing to see the Falls like this.

Sorry for the rather crummy quality...I had to take pics with my cell phone since my regular camera froze up.

Charleston

Jon and I took a few days and headed down to Charleston this week, while Ella spent some quality time with Grandma and Pop. Everyone involved had a good time. Jon and I didn't do anything in particular...slept late, ate lots of amazing seafood, wandered around downtown (Jon even humored me one afternoon by letting me poke around in a few cemeteries and take pictures).

Here are a few pics:

Charleston skyline, from the USS Yorktown


Bridge and sky


Baskets at the Market


Possibly the vaguest gravestone ever :)


Now that we're back, Ella and I are both sick. Jon actually had this particular crud before we left on our trip, and the baby and I have developed it in the meantime. I feel OK for the moment, but it's just starting to set in, I think. Poor Ella has a nasty rattly cough, runny nose, sneezing, the whole nine. Jon is taking her to the doctor this afternoon.

If you were a box with a Macbook user guide and iWork disc...

...where would you be?

I've looked all over for this thing, and I can't find it. We got the computer less than a month ago, so it's bound to be around here somewhere. I wouldn't have thrown it out, and Jon doesn't throw things out, so he wouldn't have done it either.

It's making me insane.

I don't so much care about the user guides, but I really need that iWork disc! We got the family pack so we could put it on the laptop and the desktop, and in my current state of affairs, I'm not putting it anywhere.

Grr.

I have done practically nothing to get ready for our trip on Monday (and Ella's trip over to Grandma and Pop's tomorrow). I have started laundry, but even that's not finished yet. I think I stuck some jammies in Ella's bag, and that's it. I should probably get on the stick.

Back home.

Jon and I had a great time in Asheville. We did a lot of relaxing, had some good meals, went to Biltmore (Jon had never been), went gem mining (woohoo!) and drove up to Grandfather Mountain also (neither of us had ever been). We missed the little girl, but we knew she was in good hands with Grandma and Pop...we did call to check on her a time or two, though :)

Here are a few photos from the trip. If you'd like to see more, check out my flickr.

Ella's 2 month stats

-Weight: 11 lb 12 oz (75th percentile)
-Length: 24" (90th percentile)
-Head circumference: 16 1/4" (90th percentile)

I was not looking forward to today's appointment, because today was Shot Day...3 needles and some oral medication as well. Honestly, though, she did great. She cried when the nurse stuck her, and for about 30 seconds afterward, and then she was fine...what a trooper. I think I took it worse than she did! The doc did say if she ran a little fever or seemed sore in her legs, we could give her some infant Tylenol, so we picked some of that up on the way home.

Jon went to the doctor himself this morning. He's been having terrible headaches lately, which I suspected were actually migraines, and the doc confirmed the same. He got a prescription for Imitrex, so I hope that gives him some relief. I hate seeing him feel so crummy.

Jon and I are off to Asheville tomorrow! It's the first trip we've been on since February...we've never gone that long between trips, but we had a good excuse :) We're really looking forward to it. Ella will be staying with Grandma and Pop, and they're really looking forward to that, so everyone's happy!