Scribble and Scrabble

Category Archives: Adventures

It’s a good thing he’s cute

by Heather | 1 Comment

We went hiking this weekend and Ben wanted nothing to do with it. Normally he’s happy to sit in the baby backpack, but not this time. He was so ornery and whined and complained the whole time. When you let him down, he wanted to get back up. He just didn’t want to be there. Andy tried ditching him over the edge of a cliff at one point.

Ben retaliated by trying to steal Andy’s hat and put leaves down Andy’s shirt.

Andy tried his best to ignore the little bugger, so he switched tactics. Once he gets hold of a word, Ben repeats it again and again and again and again. This proved effective at annoying daddy.

Success! I have made the hiking trip miserable for mommy and daddy.

I shoot myself in the foot by posting these pictures because you’ll all croon over him and then nobody believes me that it was a miserable hiking trip. Seriously, no fun this time. At least there were really pretty views.

And yes, he’s really cute! It’s a good thing, or he may have gotten left on the trail to be raised by wolves. Kidding. Mostly ;-)

EIEIO

by Heather | 0 comments

We went to Springdale Farm with some friends this week. I was trying to think of how to describe it, but their website does a pretty good job. Springdale Farm is operated by Heritage Christian Services and owned by Monroe County. Springdale is a premiere agricultural education facility open to the public, and serves as a day program site for adults with developmental disabilities, who care for the plants and animals, maintain the beautiful farm grounds and welcome over 40,000 visitors each year.

Ben loved the petting zoo.

The goats and sheep pooped everywhere, but they were cute.

The petting zoo portion was only $1/kid and the rest of the activities we did were free.

There was a really cool tractor kids could sit on too.

I think the boys liked it more than the animals (even though David looks slightly concerned here).

Yee Haw.

After the petting zoo and tractor, we walked around the farm for a bit.

We saw pigs and horses. You could also go in the milking parlor to see cows, but we didn’t do that this time.

Finally, we headed to the duck pond to feed the birds.

Ben asking for more bread to throw to them, he really got into it.

We also played on the playground a bit before heading home. It was a really fun morning spent with friends!

We bid you a solemn farewell

by Heather | 1 Comment

Goodbye Stratus.

*salutes*

We bought a new car this week, a 2007 Ford Edge. We traded my 2000 Stratus in as part of the deal. While the Stratus wasn’t my first car (that honor goes to a white Pontiac, similar to this one). The Pontiac was called the “Gooley” because the “6000LE” on the side looked like a “Gooole.” I had that car from my junior year of highschool to junior year of college.

The Stratus has been with me since 2006, faithfully chugging along (with a little repair help from Andy). Towards the end of its life though, repairs were becoming a monthly expense and it was just getting to not be worth Andy’s time or our money to fix. The check engine light had been on for months too. Andy knew what the problem was (it wasn’t something too serious) but again wasn’t really worth the money to fix if we were going to get a new car. The Stratus had never been really good in winter, without fail I’d always end up in a ditch or sliding around even if I was going very slowly. It didn’t have anti lock breaks and the AC had died in the past few years. I didn’t so much mind the lack of AC, but I did feel pretty bad for Ben who was a hot sweaty mess every time we drove somewhere in the summer. In fact, for our memorable last ride to the dealership it was a balmy 96…so the Stratus definitely went off with a bang.

The Gooley was a hand-me-down from my dad (I think your first car should always be a clunker). I bought the Stratus from my stepdad for a few thousand. And the Edge, well, it cost a bit more than that but it’s the first “adult” vehicle I’ve picked out. It’s actually the Edge SEL Plus, meaning it comes with a bunch of extra features that I really don’t need…but the price and mileage were right. We were driving home from the dealership and Andy was pointing out all the features to me and showing me the knobs and buttons and I had to say “Andy, can I just drive home without killing us and THEN you can show me all the things it does.” In reply, he turned on the heated seats (remember, it was 96 out) and I couldn’t do a thing about it because I had no clue where the button was ;-)

I’d actually been looking on craigslist and fell in love with an orange Edge, but the guy sold it before we had a chance to look at it :( Guess it wasn’t meant to be. We bought our black Edge from Genesee Valley Ford in Lima if anyone’s interested. Pleasant experience (as far as car shopping goes). No pushy salesmen and very helpful with a few little hiccups we encountered along the way. Although I think our salesman found us a little awkward (he didn’t really get our jokes…)

I love Ford’s design on the vehicle, the bold lines and for a lack of a better word “edgy” body. I never really looked at it this way before, in the past I always just had a car to get me from point A to point B. I still can’t judge how big it is or where I am in space yet. Of course my lack of 3d vision doesn’t really help this, but I’ll get used to him soon. Yes, I’ve decided it is a gentleman SUV (or cross over I guess, CUV). I think his name is going to be Scotty. As in “Beam me up Scotty” because it’s so easy to accelerate and zoom along.

Dealer stock photos (because I haven’t gotten to it yet):

It’s Complicated

by Heather | 0 comments

I may have over simplified things in my last post when I said Andy’s parents took Ben for the weekend. In actuality, I headed to Lockport Friday with Ben and all his travel equipment. From here it gets a little complicated :) My friend Allison was back from Italy for the week so I spent the morning visiting with her. We heard that our highschool friend Sarah was having a garage sale, so we popped over to her house. Ben was the charmer as he met Sarah’s mom for the first time and smiled at all the garage salers. After the garage sale, Allison and I met Sarah’s twin sister Heather, at the church she works at. We chatted with her for a little bit before I dropped Allison back off at her house.

From here I headed out to visit my dad, Leslie and Christopher. They were in from Massachusetts, staying at a friend’s house while the friend was on vacation to Virginia. Justin and Kate joined us for lunch and a swim. You can read more about our afternoon and see pics in Leslie’s post. So much fun :)

After Ben woke up from his nap we had a little snack and then packed up all his gear. He headed off with Justin and Kate for Friday evening. First time spending the night with his Auntie and Uncle :) Saturday morning Kate dropped Ben off at Andy’s parents’ house (which is right across the street from Justin & Kate’s apartment).

Ben had a lovely weekend with grandma and grandpa. There was swing time, exploring the yard, splashing in the pool, church on Sunday and much more. Sunday evening we met Andy’s parents at a restaurant along the thruway to do the Benjamin swap.

All in all a crazy weekend for the little guy, but he seemed to have fun! He slept VERY well the next few days we were home :) Andy’s parents took some pics of Ben’s weekend and these were my favorite:

4th of July

by Heather | 0 comments

This year we went to my mom and Paul’s cottage on Lake Ontario to celebrate the 4th. We camped out Tuesday night and Ben slept in the guest cottage out back. It’s not that we didn’t want to introduce him to camping…it’s just that it was so much easier to have him sleep in the quiet cottage!

Andy setting up the tent. And yes, I took pictures instead of helping ;-)

He actually had to fix a problem with his truck when we arrived. It turned out a little stone had just gotten jammed somewhere it wasn’t supposed to be. Paul handed him a hammer as a joke, how helpful.

Tuesday night we hung out with my mom, Paul, Justin and Kate. We played darts in the garage and the girls won. I may have cheated…

Mom and Aubrey watching the game.

Paul has all these fun things hanging up in the garage. One of them is a t-shirt from a band he used to be in.

Beautiful sunset on Tuesday night.

Aubrey watching the sunset. She’s SO cute!

My mom and Paul had a party for their cottage neighbors and friends on the 4th. We didn’t really hang out with people much as we were baby wrangling ;-)

We ended up not staying for fireworks because Andy had to work the next day. We definitely had fun at the lake but a holiday with kids isn’t entirely relaxing ;-) Ben’s such a good boy, he’s just SO adventurous and there was the water, rocky cliff, steps, road, dogs, cars, people, oh my! I don’t know if next year at almost 3 will be easier than this year’s almost 2, but here’s hoping. Even though it was a lot of work, we really enjoyed the time with family!

Testing 1 2 3

by Heather | 0 comments

image

We biked a few miles of trails today, it was gorgeous out.

And I got a new phone! It takes nice pictures and it’s a smart phone so i can upload everything and blog right from it. I’d been contemplating one for a while since I always carried around my regular phone, ipod touch and camera. I used several apps on my ipod (calendar, shopping lists, meal planning, etc). My regular phone camera was terrible, so I toted the camera around. And then there was the gps to bring when I traveled places too. I really wanted to consolidate everything, so a smart phone was the way to go.

I’d always assumed I’d go with the iphone, a lot of my friends have it and rave about it. After a ton of research though, I decided to go with the Droid Razr Maxx. I stalked verizon for weeks waiting for the price to drop and it finally did. Features that sold me were the stellar battery life, 16gb onboard memory and 16gb removable microSD card, 8MP camera and front facing cam I could use for skype. Also, as much as I love apple products (I use one every day for design work) I didn’t want to be stuck with only apple apps. I really like that I can just click and drag music to the phone instead of dealing with iTunes.

If I have to rationalize with myself, sometimes mama needs fun things too. I don’t go out and get my nails done or have spa days. I don’t pay someone to dye my hair. I don’t really buy things for myself (save the occasional Iced Cap at Tim Horton’s or new camera lens). Speaking of camera, while the phone’s camera is pretty great for a cell phone it’s not going to replace my DSLR and love of photography. So those photos will definitely still be on the blog. I do really love the convenience of being able to grab my phone to get an in the moment picture and then being able to share it with you right away.

I’m still trying to figure the phone out and set everything up! Now, if it only cooked meals, cleaned the house and did laundry… :)

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