Massanutten, For Nothin'

Last week we had a bit of a family adventure together in the Shenandoah Valley. Short story: We lucked out big time in getting a free week-long stay in a really nice condo at a resort in the mountains.

Long story: A few weeks ago, a friend from our ward was visiting her father, who is a mission president in Canada. She met a member up there who had reserved this condo outside of DC (ok, 3 hours outside of DC) for a week, and then couldn't use it. She wanted to know if anyone in our ward could use it. I said "me, me, me", and we got it! Woo hoo!

Anyway, the resort is about 2 1/2 hours from us, and it is a neat place. The condo was huge--2 bedrooms, full kitchen, 2 baths. (And the biggest jet tub I've EVER seen--it seats 4! Really, it was like a small swimming pool in the bathroom. Tessie LOVED it!). Boy, is that the way to vacation! (It's so nice to have a separate, quiet place to baby down to sleep!)

Massanutten is a ski resort during the winter--and we really were out in the Virginia countryside. We frequented many a farmer's market in Mennonite territory (fresh tomatoes and corn--yum!); scoped out the Green Valley Book Fair (think 50,000 books in the middle of a corn field); searched out used bookstores (with some disappointment); hunted (and found!) treasures in antique stores; read a lot; watched some good movies; ate good food; and got to know the town of Harrisonburg, VA intimately.

Ry & Tess cross one more VA campus off their tour list: James Madison University.
We never did get to see Eastern Mennonite University.

Mainly we got to spend lots of time together--Tess hasn't seen this much of her dad since she was born! Ry and I took turns sleeping in and taking naps. Wendy and Keith came up for a couple days, too, so it was a full family affair!

Ry & Keith at the elusive JMU Arboretum. Nope, no trolls under the bridge.

The time-share people were persistent in their efforts to get us stuck on one of their two-hour long tours, but we managed to evade them. About half-way through the week I saw this local news report on vacation scams, and I started to wonder if I'd end up with some $1500 charge on my credit card. But no, it truly seems to be a case of good will! Any ideas of how I can thank the people who let us use the condo?

I wasn't particularly picture-happy this trip. But Tess did make some progress on her army low-crawl this week, which Ry managed to capture on film.

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub, Tess in the Tub

A bit of fun from this morning's happenings:
a few shots of before, during and after Tessie's bath.

Before:
Reen requested a picture of Tess in a hat.
This is the best I can do--unlike Meredith,
I do not have an unlimited supply of hats for my baby!
The only way I could get her to keep this one
on for a few minutes was to let her watch Sesame Street.



During

And After:
She was really wound up after that bath!
I think she was pretty much exhausted.
She conked out quickly for her nap.

We've Got an 8-Monther!

Yesterday Tessie turned 8 months old! I can't believe we have such a big baby girl. She has changed so much and she's getting to be so grown up!

We measured her yesterday and she's now 17 lbs. 6 oz. and a full 29 inches long! She's getting so tall! Since 29 inches is the limit for her infant carseat, she's graduated to a big girl carseat.

This is going to take some adjustment on my part, since Tess can't sit up very well yet and I've grown dependent on using her baby carseat as a carrier to take her places. She can sit up in the grocery cart basket seat, but only with a considerable lean to one side! So, that's going to take some practice!

Tess' peach fuzz hair is also starting to come in more. She now has enough fuzz to hold a clip on top of her head--at least for a little while. The clip is no match for the back arch, however.

She has a sparkly personality and a funny sense of humor. There are all sorts of things she thinks are just hilarious: Dad, Elmo, fake coughing, playing "puppy" and "kitty" with Mom, back arching, running in the air, screeching, doing anything upside down, and blowing raspberries.

What a little nut!

Favorite Quote of the Day

"There's nothing as great as lying on the floor
with Tess at the end of the day."

~Ryan