living the linville life

The Helms family (Charlie, Katie & Sweet Arlo) invited us up to Linville for Memorial Day Weekend.  At first, I wasn't sure a trip was a good idea, since traveling with 2 kiddos can sometimes be more trouble than it's worth (especially if said kiddos refuse to sleep!).  Plus, transitioning to my new job has been stressful and I've been craving some relaxation time, which for me typically equates with lounging on the couch and reading. Thankfully, a weekend in the mountains with good friends proved to be the perfect remedy.  The weather was gorgeous and the kids were fantastic (the 3 dogs were good too!).  Luci and Arlo were the best of pals (I even possess some fabulous bath photos which I'll be sure to dredge up to embarrass them when they are older) and Ruby was as sweet as pie.  We enjoyed hanging lakeside, riverside and mountainside! The Helms are such wonderful hosts and incredible friends, we feel very lucky to have them in our lives and look forward to the next trip to Linville.

mother's day 2012

my mother's day went something like this:  breakfast in bed (after getting to sleep in until 9:30!), where i got to lounge and read while i drank my coffee, followed by a picnic at the same small park we ventured to last year (we've arbitrarily decided to make this a tradition), where we feasted on yummy cheeses, sopressata, crackers, raspberries, ciabatta bread,and grilled artichokes.  then we played on the playground - ruby had a blast in the swing - she was maniacally waving her arms around and screaming, but only when luci was watching her.  later in the day we took a nice stroll around the neighborhood and had delicious homemade sushi with smoked salmon. can you tell how much i value food? i ate all day! i'm so incredibly grateful for such a loving husband and such beautiful, happy, well behaved (at least most of the time!) daughters.

.66666667 repeating....

happy 8 months to the sweetest thing, miss ruby alexandra monast! here are 8 recent photos of the little gal:

some folks like to get away...

 Luci & Ruby with the fabulous Bassetts - Amy (SLA), Tyler & Ken

 making Easter cookies

 chilling with their parallel live counterparts -the children of my dear friend Diana and her husband Jack.  Jane is only 12 days older than Ruby and Lily is 1 month older than Luci

 two of my favorites - Luci baby and Lucey dog

 Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesha and me and my bro - Looch sneaks up in the background

 Luci received a science kit from the Easter Bunny - she loves it! she was very intent on carrying out the food coloring experiment and insisted on wearing the goggles.  She kept proudly saying 'I'm a scientist' and the next morning, she again put on the goggles, grabbed her tweezers and a beaker and went outside to find bugs to study

 my GREAT aunt emma - we had a fantastic time visiting with her

 on Easter Sunday we walked along the boardwalk on Jones Beach and Ruby saw the ocean and put her feet in the sand for the 1st time

we spent a week in NY.  i loved every second of it.  no matter where i go in life, 80 wilson will always feel like 'home'.  and it is so wonderful to spend time with my parents and my brother who luckily happened to be stateside while we were up North.  we also got to visit with dear friends and family.  we didn't bring our camera's battery so the above is a random assortment of photos we took before our battery died and photos from my brother and my mother's cameras.

sister shoot

my good friend Tami gave us a generous gift certificate for a photo shoot at Portrait Innovations. these are some of my favorite shots - though I thought all were good (I'm biased). Luci was a total ham - and was a great help in getting Ruby to smile. I'm happy to have new prints to display and to give to the grandparents.