Visiting Grammie and Poppop

Last week when Ryan was out of town (again!) Ollie and I went down to Florida to visit my grandparents. My mom came down from New York, too. It was so nice to see Grammie and Poppop again. We haven't seen them since last Easter, more than a year ago! Grammie has been having trouble with her heart again and is weighing the options of undergoing a risky second open-heart surgery. We are praying for her and her doctors that they will be guided to make the right decision.

Whe I returned from Florida I was so excited to download my pictures from the trip, only to discover to my dismay that I hadn't taken one picture of Grammie and Poppop. How could that be?!?!! We took lots of video but not one picture. I can't believe it. I have a serious problem with my camera being drawn almost exclusively to Oliver these days. Speaking of pictures, Ryan has just purchased a very nice digital SLR camera, so now we'll be able to take even better pictures of our favorite subject.

But, if they say a picture's worth a thousand words, here are some notable memories of our trip to visit Grammie and Poppop:

• the scent of gardenias from the garden


• eating Irish oatmeal for breakfast


• sitting next to Grammie and looking through old picture albums (Grammie was one cute baby!!)


• pouring over Gourmet and Cooking Light with Grammie, and then going out to dinner anyway


• picking cherry tomatoes with Poppop


• washing the garbage (don't ask)


• Grammie remarking about how lucky she is that her husband cuts her fresh flowers from his garden every day


• Poppop's roses in vases and bowls throughout the house


• Grammie reading paperbacks in her white chair while doing her nebulizer


• Ollie climbing up into Grammie's white chair when no one was looking


• Grammie's amazing gourmet meals (she's all about fresh, local, seasonal produce)


• trying to tempt Ollie with Grammie's cooking (unfortunately, he still really only wants to eat yogurt, applesauce, Cheerios and crackers) actually, he did finally eat some custard Grammie made for him


• getting manicures and pedicures with Mom and Grammie


• going to the beach with Mommy, and being nervous that even though the red flag was up she would want to go swimming


• swimming in the pool with Grammie and Mommy (Oliver being scared of Mommy in her gold bathing cap)


• looking at pictures of Aunt Nancy's girls (Connie and Katie are so big! Connie is about to go off to college...I remember attending Aunt Nancy's college graduation...I must be old!)


• chatting with Nancy about their upcoming vacation to Ireland


• the sound of their front door opening

Bless This Mess

One way we have gotten Ollie to eat more lately is by letting him feed himself. It is actually more of a means of distraction. He concentrates on "feeding himself" (holding the spoon, scooping the food, transferring the spoon to his mouth, wondering why there is nothing on the spoon and how all that yogurt ended up in his lap) while we steadily spoon food into his mouth. What he lacks in accuracy he makes up for in determination. And yes, those are mashed potatoes in his hair!

Animal Farm

Today I took Ollie to see the baby animals at NC State University's "Farm Days." It was a zoo, and not the exotic animal kind either. I think every preschool age child in the greater Raleigh area arrived to pet the lambs, hold chicks and sit on a tractor. Ollie seemed pretty non-plussed about the whole thing until a calf we were looking at started to moo. It opened its mouth really wide and let out a very loud MOOOOOOOO. Ollie burst into tears. I thought it was pretty funny (terrible mom!) but I guess I can see why he thought it was pretty scary. Here is a picture of the terrifying calf, Ollie with tears on his cheeks, and then happily eating NC State ice cream (probably from the calf's mom or aunties).

Aunt Abby

Abby came to visit this weekend. We went running, watched movies and went to dinner in Chapel Hill where we took her to our favorite food store, A Southern Season. She bought us some nice chocolate. We bought about a case of this really yummy Texan salsa. Abby is a great cook, so invariably she makes something delicious for us when she's in town...this time it was a Meyer Lemon-Buttermilk tart, sort of like key lime pie in consistency with an orange/lemon flavor. Yum! On Sunday there was a storm in NYC so her flight was canceled. It was nice to have some more time to hang out. She ended up taking the train back on Monday morning. Amtrak is the most reliably unreliable form of transportation known to man so inevitably the 10-hour trip ended up taking 15 hours. Curse you Amtrak!

Oliver has discovered a new trick...he thinks it is the most hilarious thing in the world to stick his finger up his nose. When we pull his hand away he laughs and laughs and laughs (and quickly reinserts his finger in his nostril). He is such a charmer!

Easter

This is the first Easter we haven't been with my family. That was pretty sad but we tried to think of some ways to make new traditions for our little family. We didn't do such a hot job because even though I boiled up the eggs we never got around to decorating them and we didn't quite make it up in time to go to a sunrise Easter service. I have actually never been to a sunrise service, but it sounds like a remarkable experience on Easter morning. I guess it would be more dramatic if we were at the beach...maybe next year if we go down to visit Grammie and Poppop.

We especially were sorry that we haven't seen Grammie and Poppop in such a long time. Last year we spent Easter with them down in Florida. We love them so much and hope that we'll be able to go see them soon.

Here are some pictures of Ollie in the cutest Easter outfit that my dear friend Molly Oakey made (as in sewed AND smocked herself) for her adorable son Knox.

Good Friday in Greenville (aka Grenvul)

Ryan had the day off on Friday so we drove out to see our old friends Matt and Julie in Greenville, NC. We didn't see much of Greenville but they assure us that there isn't too much to see. That's pretty much how I feel about Raleigh. Chapel Hill is cool, though. Tonight we hung out with Brad Wood, another old friend, who lives in Chapel Hill. It's so much fun (and so easy) to hang out with people we've known for longer than a few months. Making new friends is exciting but it's also totally exhausting.

Halverson Family 10K

Before we moved to Raleigh I had been planning to run Richmond's Monument Avenue 10K on March 30. In fact, even after we moved I found a running buddy and continued to train for the 10K. But, plans changed and I didn't end up driving back to Richmond this weekend for the race. Saturday came and it was just a gorgeous day. "Let's go for a run in Umstead Park," I suggested. Ryan agreed and we all headed off. "How far do you want to go?" I asked. "It's not about distance, it's about time," said Ryan. So we agreed to run for a half hour and then turn back. We followed a bridle trail that took us past a lake and through the forest where dogwoods and redbuds were in full bloom. At the 30 minute mark we looked at the map. It looked like we were already half-way around a loop that would bring us back to the car so we decided to forge ahead rather than retrace our steps. BIG MISTAKE!! In addition to having to take off our shoes and socks to ford a stream (with the baby-jogger no less!), it took us a full hour and forty minutes to get back to the parking lot. I have no idea how long the trail was that we found but it was way longer than the Monument Avenue 10K!!