Emily & Nakoa come for a visit

Our friends Emily and Nakoa came up for a visit the first weekend of February.  Emily's been up a few times, and this was Nakoa's first trip.  They rented a little cabin out in Treman Park, which was nice.  We could hang as long as we wanted, but then they could retire to a place that didn't sound like Bedlam all night.

One evening we went to Atlas for some food and to roll.  We all had a good time.  Emmett loved watching the bowling balls roll back up the line.

As you can see, we had chilly beautiful weather.  The sun was out and blinding off the snow.  It was perfect for bird watching, so we headed to the Ornithology Lab for a little bit.  These chairs always give me a hankering for mint juleps.

Brrrr.... "Maybe we should have headed south with the rest of the gang!"

This is the cabin that E and N rented.  I would totally live in it.  There were tracks from some kind of a wild cat in the side yard!  Probably a bobcat.  The inside is very cabiny with lots of knotty pine and a loft bed.  It's small, but totally functional for a couple or even a couple with a kid.

One really cool thing about the cabin is that you can walk right out the door and into Treman park!  Which we did.  The waterfalls were all icey and impressive.

We're getting more and more use out of the pack.  Despite the look on his face here, most of the time is spent babbling and cooing and oohing at the trees.  He has started to pat me on the back of the head, which may develop into an annoyance, but for now is pretty cute and lets me know that he is still breathing.

Spontaneous shot

Posed shot.

Family shot.

Lucifer Falls.

We worked up a hunger from all the hiking and retired to the cabin where Nakoa prepared a pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon and roasted local Brussels sprouts and carrots.  We ate and had a little bourbon and chatted into the evening.  It was a very good time and we look forward to seeing them again soon.

Sarah and I both got some new kicks.  Sarah got some hiking shoes and I finally gave in and bought new hiking boots.  I like them alright for modern materials, but there is still something I love about the heavy, leaky, creaky, leather boots.  I appreciated the new ones, though, when my foot went through the ice and my foot stayed warm and dry.

Then, we said goodbye to our friends, the week got under way, and Emmett went back to school.  Dude did a little Yoga.... I guess.

Chilly weather coming....

It's fall all of a sudden.  Last week we had a couple days in the 80s, and then suddenly it broke and the temps dropped fast.  This weekend we had a couple days in the low 60s with nights in the 30s.  Very comfortable flannel and sweater weather.  We've been trying to keep up with the Chopper's growth spurts and it seems like Sarah is constantly sorting clothes.  We already have  a bag ready to be passed onto the next newborn.

The leaves are changing already, too.  We talk a bit about how the drought may affect the leaves.  The consensus seems to be that we'll have a bit of a weak showing this year.  Regardless, we've spent a lot of time outside in the last couple weeks.  My job is keeping me pretty busy between 7 and 7, so we pretty much chill in the evenings during the week.  I'm getting better, with Sarah's support and Emmett's adorableness, at turning off work on the weekends, so we have been pretty pleasantly busy for the last couple.

Emmett lent his critical eye to Sarah's work a couple weeks ago.  The sweet alligator was an early gift from Zach's girls, Nora and Charlotte.

Two weeks ago Zhora, Jenn, and Bob went glamping at a local spot.  We dropped by for an evening.  It's nothing I'd want for myself, what with other people talking and hanging around and tents and fires set up by staff, but the fully stocked bar in the "lobby tent" was pretty sweet.  As far as bars go, it's pretty sweet.

There's no story with this one that I remember.  Emmett loves his jingly elephant.

Last weekend we had our first campfire of the season!  Unbelievable.  Between the new kid, the drought, and the heat, we just haven't gotten out.  Everyone was happy with this fire, including Jonas.

We got out for a walk on the Waterfront Trail and got really excited about doing more of it.  Looking forward to Mom and Dad H coming up soon!

The garden is totally overgrown and past its prime, but Sarah dug out 15 gallons of  potatoes and we got plenty of other produce throughout the season.  I'd say we did pretty well this year.

One of our favorite events is the Migration Celebration at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology.  There's lots of cool stuff, especially for kids, but our favorite thing is the live raptors that are on show.  

This is Sarah's favorite.  I think she's blind in one eye or something (the owl, not Sarah).  All of the birds are injured and living out very comfortable lives at one of the rehab centers on campus.

The new mural at the Lab is incredible.  We looked at it for quite awhile, and could have easily stayed for quite a while longer.

On that same weekend (I think), we went to the farm to table market at Caroline Elementary.  Zhora was selling veggies and flowers there.  We had some great food and juice.  Emmett is now big enough to face forward in his carrier.  I like to have him grab onto my fingers and pretend like he's driving me around.  He likes to chew and drool on the Bjorn.  Bob likes to make weird faces in the background of pictures.  He reminds me a lot of that one ventriloquist dummy from the comedy skit.

The Dude has been doing a lot of reading.  If he ever finds himself on the plains of Africa or in the Andes, he'll have words to describe the animals he sees.

This weekend Sarah got a new bike as an early birthday present from Moms H and B and Dad H and me and Emmett.  Emmett wanted mama to have a new bike so that she can tow him around and get some fresh air.

Our friend Anne surprised us with a gift of a hand knit sweater this weekend!  It is so cool.  It's soft and fits him pretty well, with a little room to grow.  He will definitely fill it out by the end of the winter.

I just can;'t believe that someone can knit a sweater!  We went into town Saturday morning to go to a winter gear sale at Mama Goose, where we scored a couple cool snow suits and some gloves and hats, all for Emmett.  Purity makes a great breakfast that we indulged in, too.  After that, we went over to Anne's to say thank you and hung out for a bit.  Then it was back home to unload, hang out for a bit, and then over to Willa, Sebastian, Erik, and Margaret's for dinner and fun.

Becky knows babies.  This is one of his favorite books.  He looks at the pages for a really long time.

So, the reason we surprised the mama with her new bike early is because there are several biking opportunities in the near future (and recent past).  On Saturday morning I was searching Craigslist, and lo and behold, someone in B-dale was selling a bike trailer for cheap!  I went and picked it up so we could hit the downtown for Streets Alive on Sunday.  It's a cool event where they close off some of the streets in Ithaca and only allow pedestrians and bikers.  We saw a few people we knew, and had a nice time, but in the end, we wanted more.

So we headed over to the Children's Garden and went for our first ride on the Waterfront trail as a family!

It was great.

Finally, we came home and made another campfire.

The days are just packed.