Hi friends and family. The last month has been incredibly busy and here is a selection of photos from our recent travels in Washington, California, West Virginia, and Illinois. We'll be moving in a couple weeks and will fill you in on our new adventures once we're settled in California at the end of the month. Hope you are having a wonderful August. The photo above was taken on Bainbridge Island, WA where we were in July for Mark and Becca's wedding. The Olympic mountains are seen here rising above Hood Canal.
Lena - shellfish enthusiast!
Friends from Chicago converge in beautiful beautiful beautiful Washington.
Mark and Becca the day of their wonderful wedding. It was so great to celebrate the occasion with them and their friends and family.
Lena has had a blast the last month playing with kids here and yonder. Here she plays pine cones with Anna - she loved it and has been talking about it for weeks.
Fantastic Eritrean food made for the wedding by some of Becca's friends.
Delicious (and beautiful) cupcakes.
From Washington we flew to California to see our new digs and look at a preschool for Lena. The week was busy with dissertation formatting for Paul but really good nonetheless. Here is a photo of California Avenue in Palo Alto, a few blocks from where we'll be living in a few weeks.
Lena smelling the Jasmine.
Wahoo - California here we come.
The weekly Farmer's Market on California Avenue.
A photo of the front yard at our new place. It looks like it will be really great and we'd love to have visitors. Please plan a trip and/or come by if you're in the area.
The backyard at our new place. We can't wait to have a space where we can be outside, play, eat meals, grow veggies, etc.
Lena swinging at her friend Ezra's house. While in California we stayed with our friends Daniel, Marielle, and their son Ezra who is just about Lena's age. We met them through music friends we both know and they were incredibly generous and let us stay with them and made us feel at home. Lena was a huge fan and flipped her wig on a daily basis to hang out and swing in the backyard with Ezra and eat fresh fruit.
And fresh fruit, oh man. To live in a place where figs grow.
Here Lena is chomping down on fresh raspberries that Ezra alerted her to.
Ezra and Lena playing hula hoop in the backyard. Our visit to the preschool (Country Day Little School) was really great and Lena will be starting there in early October. Ezra is starting up there in September as well which will be really fun. They have chickens and rabbits, make wonderful meals, tend a garden, etc. We can't wait to all go to preschool.
From California it was back to Chicago for... more dissertation formatting. And while we were at that Morgan and Lena went and checked out very cool "tipis" made out of recycled materials at the Experimental Station nearby.
Lena and "tipi" in southside Chicago.
After a few days Paul submitted his dissertation and we took off for a trip to West Virginia to the Appalachian Stringband Music Festival at Babcock State Park where we visited with a lot of good friends, made new friends, hiked around, and didn't sleep a lot. Here Lena tickles a statue of a street performer in Dayton, OH during our drive down.
Lena and her new yellow ukulele en route to Clifftop singing the famed cheese blues.
Paul and Lena cruising on one of the trails in the park.
Morgan and Lena under a neat overhang on the trail.
Rhododendron and mountain laurel along the trail.
At Clifftop, Lena made another friend that she had a blast with. Here she and Rebecca hang out and read stories in our tent.
Then it was back to Chicago for more dissertation formatting (no, really) and to see friends and begin to pack. Here Sophia and Lena hang out at the Brickyard Community Garden. Sophia is a really good friend of Lena's; we will miss her and her mom Sarah a lot.
Lena in the flowers.
We've begun chalking up our "lasts" here in Chicago. One near the top of our list was a trip to Devon Avenue on the northside of Chicago for Indian food. Here are Morgan and Sara having some delicious dosas.
Morgan's highschool friend Marcella recently had a baby. Here she (Eppy) being bounced by her dad Rob while Lena bounces her bear "baby" in a carrier.
A picnic dinner with friends near the lake.
A box fort which has since turned into a pile of semi-filled boxes.
Last weekend we had brunch with Ramsey at her place. Here is Lena in Ramsey's front yard. Lena was mega-pumped to see her and to meet her dog Rover. Ramsey's garden is doing great and it was fun to get a tour and meet her roommate Ava.
This Wednesday we packed our truck and said goodbye to our apartment. Paul and the cats are driving the truck to CA and Lena and Morgan flew ahead and are staying with our good friends Becca and Mark eagerly awaiting Paul's arrival. Here are Lena and Morgan in our last moments in the empty living room. We've been talking a lot about "new house" and "old house" - Lena thought "empty house" was pretty cool.
Lena and Morgan stayed at our friend Sara's house the night before leaving Chicago. Lena found these sunglasses of Sara's when Morgan wasn't looking.
One of Chicago's finer points in our family's opinion is the animal seats in Midway airport. They have a special lane for families at the security checkpoint. Lena begins talking about animal seats as soon as we even mention going to an airport and is always extremely disappointed when other airports don't have them.
Lena is obsessed with Becca's Curious George anthology.
The connection is not always very good in the big western states Paul is driving through. Here Lena and Morgan try everything they can to get through!
Ah...the beach!
Pelicans at Natural Bridges State Beach
Morgan and Lena jumping in the waves.
Today we took a day trip up to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near Becca and Mark's old house. This is a little steam train that they run through the park. Lena thought the whistle was scarily loud but talked about them filling the water tank and the steam and the people riding the train the rest of the day.
Lena next to a tree ring display that dates this redwood back to the time of Jesus' birth. Whoa!
It's pretty hard to capture the grandeur of a redwood in a photo, but this is a nice one.
And you can catch people playing inside.
Lena "fishing" with a stick in a creek at Henry Cowell.
Showing off a special rock.
The special rock and Becca.
There was a pool in the creek that was really still. Becca caught these two shots of reflections.
Buddies sitting on a log at the end of a great day.
