Sunday, June 29, 2008

Another Year Older and Wiser Too (You Got That Right!)

I had a great birthday that lasted all weekend long! On Saturday, Ryan, Tess and I took a trip to Annapolis, MD.

Before

Ry had scoped out a fun crab house, Cantler's, where we managed to polish off a dozen crabs between the two of us. The crab was yummy, and cracking open those crabs made me feel like a kid again. Dad, remember my short-lived attempt at starting a crabbing business? Just me and a couple of turkey necks in a canoe--I couldn't keep up with demand!

I could just maybe live in Idaho if crabs weren't so hard to come by there. (When I was at Utah State, I had a neighbor from Maryland who brought a huge container of Old Bay seasoning out to school with him. I thought that was hilarious!)




Tess' favorite part was the brown paper they put down on the table. She was a good sport--it takes a good bit of time to work through that many crabs! The old men sitting next to us wanted us to dip her bottle in the Old Bay seasoning. We resisted the urge, but I do think she able to absorb some of the local color.


After--aka "the carnage"

After lunch we spent some time bumming around downtown Annapolis. It was SUPER hot, so we just kind of checked out things to do on a return trip. It's a beautiful city right on the water, and I didn't realize there was so much to there. We had a fun time together.


The Maryland State House, circa 1772
(It's the oldest state legislative building in the country.
It served as the U.S. capitol in the 1780's.)


I waited CLEAR until Sunday to open my birthday presents, when Wendy and Keith came over for lunch. Ry made us lunch (I showed him how to do crockpot barbecue) and W&K brought yummy cake for dessert.



Tessie getting in lots of loves.




Tess proved that she has warmed up to Nana & Papa, though we couldn't convince her to show off her butt scooting trick for the grandparents. I guess you just have to be in a certain mood for a butt scoot.



Thanks to everyone for the fun birthday presents. Ry's present was TOTAL surprise! He gave me a first edition copy of Memories and Musings, a book of poetry by Emmeline B. Wells (after whom we named our Tess Emmeline).

A while ago, we had read in her biography that she had published a small book of verse and I mentioned to Ry that it would be neat to see if we could track one down some day. Well, leave it up to Ry to surprise me with an amazing copy (it was actually owned and signed by Leonard Arrington!).



Anyway, I guess if you have to get older, this is the way to do it! Thanks to everyone for such a nice birthday!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

isn't a comment almost as good as a blog post? i really don't have anything to say so, you see, it's very difficult to post until something wonderful happens. perhaps you should think of mailing me, say, jewels? i would need to post then.

mer

Maureen said...

You're going to have wait CLEAR LONGER to open your present from me... we had guests come earlier than expected, and stay longer than expected... I haven't been able to escape yet! I'll send it on its merry way tomorrow...

Dipsy said...

The reason Tess wouldn't show off her butt scoots is cuz Grandpa Keith wouldn't let her out of his arms! And if I were there, I wouldn't either! Love, DIPSY

Leslie said...

Miriam, thanks for letting me peek in on your blog. You've made it so cute and I'm impressed with the skills. I still don't know how to do my own banner or put captions underneath the pics like you. I was just telling Maur the other day that you have that "first child syndrome" where you are good at everything! Darn it! :) Tess is ADORABLE. I love the pictures of her in her bumbo at the spray park.

Leslie said...

Oh, and I totally forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)

MichelleW said...

Happy Birthday!

It sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate. Tess is such a little love.

Best to you all!

Michelle