The DC Milnes

Saturday, August 9, 2008

1st trip to the Shenandoahs

We've been in DC for over a year and half now and this is the first time we've ventured to the mountains of Virginia ...I'm unclear on why we haven't, but yesterday was a perfect day and we had a great time.
We did the northern part of skyline drive stopping for a hike on the Pineybranch trail. Among the many highlights were 3 black bears! The first was a cub that crossed the road in front of us. The second we nearly ran into on our hike - the trail had a ton of blackberry bushes along it and we startled an adult bear's lunch and he crashed away (thankfully) through the woods and I didn't get a picture, but Al spotted him a few minutes later on our walk - see below.
Our friends Matt and Nicole would have loved it.

On the way we stopped at Sperryville, had lunch and played a little wiffle ball - Al was incredible! ...well, at hitting, not pitching so much. She connected on everything.

Our berry eating friend

Iris on the AT where her Grandpa Milne walked through about 20 years ago.

Beautiful vistas

The last bear we saw on our way out

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Upstate NY hiatus

For the past week we've been in Saratoga Springs NY visiting family - and off-line as I had no WiFi. It was a wonderful time to catch up and have friends and family meet Iris. My brother and his brood made the trip accross NY from Buffalo - with their newborn no less! My Mom flew back from London where she and my Dad are working with a World Harvest Misson team,my in-laws played wonderful hosts and we connected with a bunch of other folks who are dear to us...I tried my hardest to get pictures with people, but in a few cases we got caught up in the reunions and I forgot.

Of course, our primary character - look at that noggin!

Good friend from high school, Mike

Jay, Clara, Iris and the wayward bandana

4 of my nieces get to try the "fabled" mineral water of Saratoga

Aunt Susie and fiance Damian

Al, Lisa and matching outfits - thanks Lisa!

Great-gram Milne/Aldrich

Grandma Milne

My family has been close friends with the Whiteheads since I was born and Rae was my kindegarten teacher. They play host often to many get togethers and somehow we managed to have a good time sans silent movies from Dave's childhood.

We got a breath of fresh air visiting long-time friends Dave, Kristy, and Luke and their amazing garden! I know who to call when I have a yard someday.

We stopped by the Philly area on the way home and had a great time with Allison's grandparents, George and Pat Terrell.

If you are still looking at this huge post, it has ended, but as I have become an annoying digitalpicturetakingfather there are many more images I'll post in subsequent days.

Monday, July 28, 2008

No genius...yet

We decided to go with cloth diapers long before we thought about having Iris. Did you know that it takes over 200 years for a single disp - nevermind. I don't want landfills to detract from my focus on Iris.
We didn't start researching cloth until Al got pregnant however - and we were quite suprised at the plethora of options out there: comfybunny, fuzzibuns, gdiapers, etc. We went with the brand with the best name - "bumgenius" after talking with other cloth users, reading many blogs, and perusing consumer reports. Unfortunately we are still in disposables...apparently the 3.0 one-size isn't quite small enough for our 7 lb. 7 oz. Iris. I'll give another update once she puts on a couple more pounds.

Baggy around the legs

Friday, July 25, 2008

Buffalo Milne addition!

Since my brother won't create a blog I feel obligated to show them off... (the chair used for all the poses below looks familiar - the hospital "cot" for the father to sleep in, though yours looks bigger and more comfortable than the George Washington variety...)

The whole fam