Whale Watch!

We (Grammy & Grampy T, my parents, Nick, Dianna, Angie, and the three of us) celebrated Grampy T's 86th birthday, by going whale-watching. When I realized a couple days before the trip that the boat ride was four hours long, I got a little nervous about how Emily would do on a boat for that long. When we arrived at the boat, we were told that the whales had moved further away, and it would be a 6 hour cruise. We took a deep breath and decided to consider it an adventure. After a long three hours (I've developed a bit of a motion sickness problem in my old age, so I was feeling not-so-great most of the time), we arrived at the spot the captain had promised us. The whales have been uncharacteristically social this summer - staying together in a large group... so we were treated to an amazing display. We saw dozens of whales, often in groups of 3-4 surfacing and diving right alongside the boat. From a bit more of a distance, one whale breached (came completely out of the water to flip) over and over. Another came up right next to the boat to slap his tail down on the water, splashing us as we watched from the railing, and then rolling over on his back & side and waving & slapping his flippers. Incredible, and worth the 7 hours asea! (Unfortunately, we managed not to get a group picture.)

Westport Week

We spent the first week of August at the lake with my parents. Emily enjoyed everything much better without the 103 degree fever she had during the July trip! She played in the kiddie pool and the lake, but her favorite was the Sandy Beach.

Emily and Caitlyn, 2nd cousins once removed

(technically Caitlyn is my generation)

Another highlight of the week was the first Lee Family entry in the Westport Quadrathlon. Lilly & Nayeli paddled (the only all-female canoe!), I swam, we found a friend to run (ok, so not quite all-family), and Alasdair biked. We may not have won (ok we finished 8th out of 8... or we would have if Alasdair's bike hadn't had a flat tire at about mile 22 of 25), but we had a great time!

Settling In

I started this post a long time ago, and just now got around to adding pictures. Since we are moving again in a week and a half, it's time to get this posted. :)

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We have now spent a week straight in one place, and it feels wonderful. We are thankful to have survived (almost) the month of July. In the 1st three weeks we lived in 5 places, and Emily had 2 high viral fevers (in addition to the one she had the week before we moved) and cut four teeth. All of the above made for a lot of mid-night wakings, and a very tired family. Luckily, we were well taken care of. We had Uncle Alden (or Uncle "All-Done" or "Dada" to Emily) with us for the first week or so, lived with my family for awhile, and had a houseful of friends to help while we were in NY for a wedding. Once we got "home" to Newport last week, my cousin Dianna came for a few days to help with Emily (and babysit so we didn't have to bring her to a board meeting, hooray!) and then Mom Groves & Aunt Becky came for the weekend. I'm not sure what we're going to do with ourselves now that we are on our own again!

A few glimpses of life in rural New Hampshire. Our next-door neighbors are

Sunshine Baptist Church (the owner of our house, kindly allowing us to live here!) and

the Fabulous Fifties Car-Hop Drive In.

Across the street is a river. The town is so small that when I asked for directions to the post office, they were "Drive into town and turn right. It's next to the church." Newport is also the home of the Lil Red Baron mexican restaurant... complete with outdoor seating on plastic tables, next to the campfire. We do have high speed internet and much better cell phone reception than we ever did in Philly. (Two things we had none of last time we lived in NH, so times are changing!)

Large sign in front of the Fabulous Fifties. Emily felt very welcome (look close to see her sweet Harley Davidson tshirt), as do many many motorcyle-riders.
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Stay tuned for pictures of our next (and last...for a year or two) house!

Annabel & Tim!

We spent the weekend before last in the Hamptons celebrating Annabel and Tim's wedding! Aside from Emily having a high fever and being generally miserable the whole time... it was wonderful. :) Really, it was so good to catch up with friends, get to know Tim a little, and see Annabel in person after many months of being an ocean apart. Here are some pictures I stole from Juanita's facebook page.

Bachelorette time

My best matchmaking endeavor: getting my dear cousin & dear friend to be friends!

The happiest Emily was all weekend - playing with Juanita's cat purse. Thanks Jua!

Daddy's girl

Brought to you by the letter "B"

Emily is "talking" more and more these days. She really only has two consonants though, which limits her! She loves the letter B, and is pretty good with D. T& M make an occasional appearances.

Bow-bow (what a doggie says)

Boo! (peekaboo)

Boom! (something hitting the ground, or "I am about to throw this on the ground")

Booo (what a cow says)

Ba (ball)

[Yes, these are 5 distinct words! She also occassionally says "bu" for book and "baba" for bottle]

Daddy, Dada (Daddy, or any other person she knows)

Mum-mum (yum, or 'feed me that')

Aahh-du (all done)

Tiddy (kitty)

Baby (baby doll, or any young child she sees)

Bebe (belly button)

This last one is going to get me in trouble. She likes to pull up my shirt and point to my belly button, and say 'belly button'. Unfortunately, to the untrained ear (ok, any ear), her word for belly button sounds just like "baby". Someone is definitely going to get the wrong idea!

Update:

I can't believe I forgot her favorite word of all... "Hi!" Once she has your attention, she will say this over and over. Lately she will hold up an object to her ear (nail clippers, thermometer, spoon) and say "hi" as if it were a phone. She also says "bye-bye" any time she sees someone holding a bag and looking like might be going out the door.

Steps!

Emily took 4 steps last night, twice. Today she is back to crawling, but the line has been crossed. :)

We move into our NH house tonight.

June Pics

A few pics from June, most of which other people took, are here.