may. i'm hurrying...

Though everyone is clamoring for pictures of Asher, I have to do the blog stuff in order or I'll never go back and do earlier months and we did some really neat stuff so Asher's pics will come after I get this stuff done.

In May we went down to Philadelphia with my parents to see my brother Brian graduate from medical school, the smarty pants. I've never been to Philadelphia before though two of my brothers and sister-in-law lived there for many years so it was neat to see it. And Kate is becoming quite well-traveled though she may not remember anything later. We saw a lot of neat stuff in Philly. I'll explain as I go.
First, Brian's graduation. As far as graduations go, it was quite a good one. There was a man that gave quite an interesting speech on health care and where it's heading. Though Kate was bored I really found it interesting. I was pretty cranky - being quite large with pregnancy, the heat was not happy, and my hip was killing me - and not the best company but it was neat to see my little brother celebrate such a huge achievement.

Neath and crazy pants

Brian and my parents

We went to the most beautiful place on earth, located near Philly, called Longwood Gardens. If I had my own private Eden to create, it'd look something like this place. The most beautiful gardens of all kinds - forest-inspired, lakes, Italian cultured, herb, native plants, incredible architecture, greenhouses of exotics, children's gardens, and the greatest gift shop ever. I could get lost in there and happily never find my way out.

Kate and Jon rolling down a hillGrandma and Kate in front of one of my favorite gardens
Me and pants in front of a painted mural in the childrens' garden

The children's garden had a neat fountain like a dragon's mouth with little paintbrushes and a black tile wall. The kids could "paint" on the walls with the water. It was pretty neat.

There were gardens outside for kids too with little adirondack chairs, fountains to play in, and neat little mazes just for kids.

The coolest part, in my opinion, of the garden. This is a beautiful bell tower with a waterfall and a pond at the bottom. Just stunning, the pictures could never do it justice.

Kate loves maps...

Two lovely ladies...

We went around various sites of Philadelphia under the guide of Ninj and the parents. Though it's one of the highest crime rates in the world, the city of brotherly love has some cool stuff, like the LOVE sign.

Jon and Kate

Me and Brian

Love this statue of Ben. Kate was terrified of the statue at first and never really would touch it. She really loved Ben Franklin and talked about him through the whole trip. "Where's Ben Franklin's house? Are we going to see Ben Franklin?"

Kate and I chatting with Ben

Grandpa and Kate

Ninj having words with Ben

So Kate had my camera and shot some pictures. She does that a lot, but I thought it was just interesting to see what Kate was seeing...

How Kate see's mommy

How Kate sees Philly...

Kate being showered with attention

The Liberty Bell

Brian and Kate looking at the Liberty Bell

Meeting Ben Franklin. Kate wouldn't smile and Ben said she was just being authentic for the time. People never smiled in pictures.

We went to the Philadelphia zoo on our way out of town. It was a huge zoo and took most of the day. Kate got pretty cranky at the end of the day but she had a great day. They had little stations around the zoo to collect cards and she loved collecting all of the zoo cards.

Kate really wanted her picture taken with this polar bear. It was the only picture she asked to be taken of her. On the trolley back to the car. Just a funny picture.

The Philly zoo had a petting zoo and Kate groomed their goats.

Kate adores carousels!

Kate and daddy taking a ride on a swan boat

Kate and I with one hunk of a statue.

These are Galapagos turtles. Having studied biology for a long time I've heard all about these turtles and it was pretty thrilling to see them. They're huge. HUGE. It was neat to see the animals that led to such a big scientific theory.

Back in Liverpool we went to a picnic with the Lentzs and some other friends of theirs. It was a beautiful area and we took a little walk with Jamie and her friend. Kate loved the little bridge.

Jamie and Cayleigh

Pants

We went to the zoo again. I have to say it was pretty miserable for me - very pregnant, very hot and humid and very sticky. But nothing could keep Kate and I off the tiger, not even a huge belly.

Tiger riding

April part 2. I'm so proud.

So this half of April includes Watkins Glen Gorge, a beautiful hike about an hour and a half away from Syracuse. The hike is actually only about 1.5 miles but it took forever since Kate walked the whole way and I waddled the whole way. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day. There are tons of waterfalls all the way up the path. There are a lot of stairs and despite the shortness of the hike we were puffing when we got to the top. The light made the water beautiful and I also took massive quantities of time taking pictures. To get to the hike we traveled through a bunch of vineyards (beautiful) and the town of Watkins Glen (quaint). My favorite was a vineyard called "Pompous Jackass" with a picture of a donkey. Tell me how you really feel. :) If you can, I recommend clicking on the pictures to view them larger. It's worth it.

Light on the water

Although you can kind of tell the height, not even a picture can give the impression that being there in person does. It's quite deep and narrow.
Pants waiting for her very slow mother.

One of the prettier falls

I just love how the water carves these beautiful lines in the rock over so much time.

There were a few little caves as well along the path.

Mommy and Kate

I include this one because you can tell the vastness of the view. Note the tiny people in the center.

Crazy pants with her tiger binoculars.

Kate with her daddy

There were a lot of bridges as well.

Nathan had a birthday celebration while we were in Utah. Kate is always excited to see her cousins and I'm always excited to see my Provo-ite family. :)

Nathan's flaming cake

The kids "helping" take the candles out (and testing the cake)

Handsome Grant

LaRisse and the girls in their beautiful Easter dresses

The Lentz family had a whole bunch of local families to their house for a huge egg hunt. Kate had a wonderful time (as always when she's with the Lentz fam) and did pretty well with the egg hunt. Her hair is getting very long in these pictures. It's right before I cut it. She's a beauty with any style. :)

On the hunt

Kate's haul

april part 1.

So I'm not as far behind as I thought I was, mostly because I didn't take any pictures in March. I'm doing April in two parts because I have a lot for this month and we went on a hike to a beautiful place called Watkins Glen Gorge that I will be posting lots of pictures, so rather than make the longest post in history, I decided to break it up a bit.

Kate and I went to Utah for a week just to visit everyone. We had a little picnic with Jon's family and Kate had fun with her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandpa, and grandma.

Little Sam, always happy. :)

Hudson on his leash. This just cracks me up. :)
Aunt Melissa playing croquet with Kate.

We had a little egg hunt with her other cousins as well. Kim and Nathan's kids came, Leslie and Ryan's little girl, Josh and Summer's little girls, Loni's kids, Lisa's kids, and Nickie's kids came. It was fun to see everyone again and to see the excitement in finding the eggs and prizes. Kate helped us hide the eggs for the little kids before everyone came and she did them a favor by showing them where the eggs were...

Reese, Ainsley, Meghan and Kim. Love the pretty dresses!

Kate checking out her jelly shoes. They were quite popular.

Getting instructions before the hunt began...

Easter morning was fun for us. Kate is old enough now to search for eggs and understand more what it's all about. She searched for her basket which contained a magnifying glass and she used the magnifying glass to search for eggs. :) Her painted eggs were outside (the weather was beautiful) and the plastic eggs were inside. She found every last one and hid them herself after she found them all.

Braving the bushes for that blue egg.

Looking for eggs inside. Go Sherlock, go!

Dismantling her basket.

This month I got my ultrasound to tell us the gender of the baby and to make sure everything was healthy. It's a boy!

I had a few requests for belly pictures and therefore took these. People promptly told me they were FAR bigger than that, don't worry. Then I have to remind them that this is only at five months. I'm substantially larger now and still have a couple of months to go... poor belly skin.

Jon's school had a fund-raiser 5k for their PA program. The day was HORRIBLY cold. The wind was so bitter and being right by the lake was just nightmarish. But the runners did a great job and Kate and I had fun staring at the lake. We also won a bunch of prizes in the raffle.

A view taken by the lake while we waited for the runners.

This picture is just for you, Melissa. Melissa requested to see more pictures of Jon and I but as I'm always on the other end of the camera, this will have to do. Jon finished in good time.

I still can't resist taking loads of pictures of my beautiful little girl!!

These pictures are out of order. Anyway, this is in Utah. Kate liked watering the flowers in her "pink twirly dress". I like watching that grin. :)

I paid a visit to my friend Lisa who was due within a couple weeks of this picture. She looks as lovely as ever and gave birth to a very healthy little girl named Saige.