The Joel and Emily Family

Zoo Lights and Train Museum

2012-01-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

Brinly loves trains, so when we had the opportunity to visit a special model train exhibit in an old train station, we were pretty excited. There were dozens of different model train landscapes featuring different kinds of trains, some of them incredibly detailed.
Below is the front of the museum, it is a gorgeous building. On the far right you can just barely see one of the openings where the trains would enter, loop around, and then exit the far side of the building that is on the left (out of the photo) when it was still a train station.
The pictures below are from our trip to see the zoo lights in early January. The lights were really neat, but it was soooo cold. I think Jane was the only one who did not freeze because she was wrapped up in the car seat the whole time.
Below we are in the elephant room, unfortunately the elephant moved so you can't see its head. Brinly was able to witness the power of nature first hand here-- one of the elephants relieved its bowels and it honestly created a small river on the floor for several minutes. I don't know if Brin quite understood what had happened, but she was impressed (as were we) by the volume.

Christmas and Blessing

2012-01-20T09:35:00.001-08:00

We spent Christmas with Joel's side of the family in Maryland. It was fun for Brinly to spend time with a lot of her cousins, she loved having so many kids to play with!
Below is Brinly's Christmas morning reaction. Yes, she is crying and trying to run back upstairs. She was not a fan of being woken so early to so much noise but she got over it as soon as she understood that she got to open presents. Thanks everyone for a great Christmas!!
Jane was a big hit with all the cousins.
Grandma Miriam did a gingerbread house with a few of the kids.
Jane enjoying some time with Aunt Debbie.
The cousins all looked cute in their Christmas outfits. Brinly found a cool stick to pose with as well.
The whole group we had for Christmas day.
Jane and Grandma Miriam.
My dad traveled all the way out to see us on Christmas morning to be at church for Jane's blessing, and flew out that night. The visit was short, but we were so happy he was there! As you can imagine, he was pretty tired and snuck a nap in with Jane before church.

Janet Helen decked out, she was considerate to maintain this quiet demeanor for the whole blessing.

Visitors

2011-11-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

We were very lucky to have a couple helpful visitors after Jane was born. Above is Grandma Miriam. Below, Brinly is styling Joel's hair.
I love this picture of Jane with Grandma Miriam because it is our first picture that looks like she is smiling.

We also had Grandma Kathy come to visit.

Uncle Dave and Aunt Marianne stopped by for a few days and took Brinly to the Airforce Museum in Dayton, hence the airplane she is holding (and did not put down for a few days).

Thanks for helping, everyone!

Jane, the first few days

2011-11-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

Brinly with Jane just a few hours after she was born. Brinly is a great big sister, she loves Jane very much. She always wants to see her, hold her, and tries to make her smile. She also likes to try and share her food and toys and has a hard time understanding why that is not a good thing yet.
Below is right after Jane was born. It was a fairly routine labor and delivery. I had inconsistent but severe contractions starting at 9pm on the 9th that continued to the morning. We went to the hospital around 9am where the contractions stopped. They were about to send us home when they discovered I was dilated to 6cm so I was admitted. Infrequent contractions continued through the morning with no further progression until they broke my water at 3pm. From there progression was rapid and Jane was born at 4:20pm, although we had to delay pushing for 15-20 min while they tried to locate a doctor. The doctor and nurses all said Jane was the cleanest baby they had ever seen, so that was interesting.

Below is Joel doing "the smolder"

Janet Helen Lund

2011-11-14T15:42:00.000-08:00

Meet Janet Helen Lund. Born 11/10/11 at 4:20pm, 6 pds 11 ounces, 20 inches long. Why did we name her so? Emily liked the idea of Helen, name of her paternal grandmother, for a middle name. One day she asked me how I felt about the name Jane, I replied that we should go all the way and name her Janet, the name of my paternal grandmother, for a full fledged family name.

Mom and Jane, what we call her, were home Friday night and everyone is well. Future pictures forthcoming.

Pregnant with Jane

2011-11-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry, these loaded out of order. In the top picture I am 7-8 months, middle is 9 months, and bottom is around 4 months.

Halloween

2011-11-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

For Halloween this year Grandma Miriam made Brinly a cool train outfit. Subsequently, Brinly got really excited about a cartoon called "Dinosaur Train." We decided to combine costumes, making what Brinly called a "dinosaur train!" She was so excited about her costume that she wore at least some part of it every day for about a week leading up to Halloween, and the days afterwards.
After church on Sunday she requested to wear her hat, tail and feet. She then started dancing and chanting "dinosaur dance."

Sometimes wearing the hat interfered with playing, but she found a way around it.
We did not go trick or treating on Halloween, but we did go to the church trunk or treat activity.
The picture below is a bit out of order, but this is Brinly trying on one of her toys from the Halloween party.
Brinly is standing next to her good friend (the red dragon) for the costume parade.

Brinly liked putting candy in her bag, but only put up with trunk or treating for about ten minutes before telling Joel and I that it was time to "go home go to bed please!"
Brinly enjoyed carving pumpkins this year. When we carved them she requested a cat pumpkin and really liked it. She cried when I eventually cut it up and cooked it. However, she did enjoy helping me clean out the insides. She called it "scooping the goop."

Shoe Art

2011-11-05T07:37:00.001-07:00

Brinly does not take naps, but she has a "rest time" where she spends an hour or so in her room. Usually I come in at the end to find she has created chaos, but today she actually did some organizing. She took all the shoes out of her big shoe box and put them in pairs.

Bike Ride

2011-11-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

The other day Brinly and I took a really neat bike ride. There is a 70+ mile bike trail near our house and we traveled a segment of it. We did take a break from riding so Brinly could do some walking. She spent a lot of time collecting leaves and "crunching" them, as seen below.

One of the highlights of the ride was finding this turtle. Brinly particularly enjoyed poking it with her finger. I think she would have gladly picked it up and taken it home if I had let her.

New city, new house

2011-11-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

Joel got a job in Cincinnati, so all of a sudden we find ourselves in a new city and renting a house. It is quite a change from our apartment and Brinly loves running around inside and in the yard outside. Also, in the background below you can see the new van.

I have not gotten around to taking pictures of the house yet, so you can just see peeks of it from these pictures. Below is Brinly showing off her incredible balancing skills in our dining room.
Brinly now has her own toy room, and as you can see, she played particularly hard this day.
We have a park just a few minutes walk from our house, so one morning we headed over and Brinly decided to play in some puddles-- as in I found her lying down and rolling in the puddles. She did this for almost an hour and was filthy and soaking wet, but had a really good time.
You can see a little bit of our kitchen in the picture below.
Brinly entertaining herself outside in our lawn area. I am not quite sure what she was doing, but she did it for a really long time so it must have been fun.

Summer Trip

2011-11-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

While Joel studied for the bar this summer my mom flew in for a visit and Brinly and I traveled with her to see Jesse and Jamie in Washington, we then drove down the coast back to California. It was quite a trip :) These pictures are all out of order, but I will try to clarify somewhat. Above is Brinly on a big projection screen. We were at a really neat glassblowing museum in Washington watching a live demonstration and they put Brinly up on the screen for a while. Brinly loved the glassblowing, she thought they were blowing bubbles.
Above is Jamie, Kade, me and Brinly enjoying dinner outside Jesse and Jamie's house.
Back to the glass museum, above you can just see the top of the museum-- it is the metal peak you see to the right of the middle. The whole museum was shaped like an inverted funnel. Along the walkway to the museum there were a lot of incredible glass displays which you can see some of in the pictures above and below.
Below you can see a sample of Brinly's fascination with buckles. She has a hard time seeing a buckle without stopping to buckle it. Sometimes at the zoo Brinly gets more entertained with buckling all the empty strollers rather than looking at the animals.
The next few pictures are from Flaming Geyser National Park in Washington. It sounds exciting, but was a little anticlimactic on the geyser front. However, it was still gorgeous and we had a wonderful time. Below is one of my favorite pictures of the trip, my dad taking Kade on a walk to see the river.
Below was the highlight of the day for Brinly and Kade. I think they could have spent hours throwing rocks into the river, and I had to keep Brinly from just jumping in several times.
The trees at the park were incredible. If you look carefully below you can see my dad taking a nap on one of the picnic tables :)
Below is the park's namesake, the flaming geyser. It was created in the early 1900s by deep drill mining. At its peek it was quite spectacular, approximately 6 feet in diameter and shooting up to 20 feet or so into the air. Now it resembles more the size of a Bunsen burner.
Below are some of my Dad's family in their gorgeous garden. It was one of the most incredible home gardens I have ever been in, and they had a little fish pond that Brinly enjoyed getting soaking wet in.
Below is another picture from a short hike we took at Flaming Geyser National Park.
Below is Brinly and Kade after they soaked themselves playing in these water pillars outside the glass museum. We did not realize at first that they were getting so wet, and then it was just too late to stop them.
Back to Flaming Geyser, my dad (aka "Papa Charlie") showed Brinly how to hit these bells with a stick and Brinly thought it was pretty neat.

Above, Brinly is channeling her inner musician at our friend's house. Below, we finally reached San Luis and enjoyed a gorgeous morning at Montana de Oro with my sister Kerry.
Kerry was kind enough to let Brinly hitch a ride on her shoulders for a while.

Back to Flaming Geyser, we enjoyed a picnic and I love the expression on Brinly's face as she looks at her cousin chowing down.
Back to the beginning of the trip in Columbus, we took my mom to the Columbus Zoo. Brinly loved this reptile sculpture.
Brinly also loved riding this train, in fact, she was pretty upset when we had to get off at the end. Note her awesome sunglasses from Grandma Miriam and Grandpa Jim.
Brushing the goats was a highlight of the trip. I think she brushed every goat in the enclosure, and there were a lot of them.

Also in Columbus, we took Grandma Kathy to the Bunny Park-- a park with water fountains Brinly likes to play in.
We did a lot of swimming over the summer, and Brinly loved this flotation vest we got her because she can swim by herself. Before the vest she would just sit on the steps and play because she did not like being held the whole time.

Visiting Maryland

2011-10-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Above is Brinly after helping Grandpa Jim in the garden-- that's right, her mouth is covered with dirt, not cookies.
Brinly sharing a snack with one of her cousins.

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. While the exhibit was beautiful, Brinly's favorite part was this cool waterfall.
Brinly's first time on a slip and slide.
She liked sliding, but even better was just playing in the water at the end.

Brinly turns two!

2011-10-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Above is Brinly's birthday cake. It was supposed to be a train, but the cake stuck to the pan and made it look funny, so we turned it into a jello cake that somewhat resembled a train. It still tasted good :)
Brinly and her good friend Brianna are just over a year apart, so they shared a little birthday celebration.

Below is a tent from Grandma Kathy. You know Joel is a good dad because Brinly wanted him to come in her tent to read books with her and he actually did it.

Brinly opening a present from Grandma Miriam and Grandpa Jim.

Note the hairband in Ni-night's "hair" (aka ear). Now that we put ponytails in Brinly's hair she likes to accessorize her bear as well.

Garden and Joel's B-day

2011-10-16T17:44:00.001-07:00

Above, Joel's birthday key lime pie. I took this picture, then the camera ran out of battery, so you will have to trust me that Joel was there and we had a nice birthday celebration :)

Below are many pictures of our garden. As these were taken at the beginning of July, you will just have to trust me that everything grew to about twice the size it is here by the end of July. It was pretty incredible. We harvested lots of squash, tomatoes, basil, sugar-snap peas, and bell peppers. Special thanks to Jim and Miriam for getting us the most amazing cherry tomato plant, it is still producing tons of tomatoes in mid October.
Cherry tomatoes above, yellow squash below
Zucchini
Sugar-snap peas

Below you can see our cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and another tomato variety.
Below there are two bell pepper plants on the left, on the right is a volunteer yellow squash plant-- it just sprouted up one day out of nowhere and pretty much took over this spot of ground.
From left to right: sugar-snap peas, zucchini (3 of them), and a poor little cucumber plant that is trying not to be overwhelmed by all the zucchini.
Below is a frog picture I painted for Brinly's room. I have not painted in a very long time, so I felt quite rusty, but Brinly seemed pretty pleased with it so that is okay :)

Fourth of July

2011-10-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

Brinly's first sparkler-- she was pretty tired so not as impressed as she could have been. We dragged her out way past her bed time to watch fireworks. She seemed to enjoy the fireworks but did not like how loud they were (or how late it was).
We went to a BBQ at a friend's house and took some festive Jello to share.
Brinly looking patriotic at church on the third of July.
Brinly demonstrates her rocking skills in the first video-- it is a long video so feel free to just watch the first few seconds to get the gist of the whole thing, the second is sharing her first sparkler with Dad before the fireworks show started.

More May/June

2011-10-14T16:35:00.001-07:00

For Father's Day we went to the Park of Roses to take some pictures. (Sorry, can't get the underline to go away). I tried to take a picture of Brinly and her friend but they wouldn't look at the camera.

When we arrived at the park all the sprinklers were on. Not great for pictures, but Brinly thought we had just entered a water park, which is why she got very wet.
Below, a waterfall we like going to in Columbus.
Brinly went through a phase where she liked to fit herself into this cooler, usually getting stuck inside.

May/June

2011-10-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Brinly in her "running shoes!!" Every time she wears her running shoes she feels she must "run so fast!" Below is probably the best cheesecake we have made yet-- a lemon raspberry.
Brinly fell asleep after church. Apparently it was too bright because she put her "ni-night bear" on her face.

One day I was working in the kitchen and Brinly came and asked me for a towel. I gave it to her and she ran off and was very busy for a while. I went to check on her and she had found a bed for her bear and was tucking him in and singing him songs. Below she is telling me "shhhh, quiet, ni-night sleeping."

Brinly pretty much stopped taking naps at 18 months, so when she randomly took one this day I couldn't resist documenting it :)
Brinly's first time eating Top Ramen-- not really something to celebrate, but she did look cute...

It's a girl!

2011-07-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

We found out the gender the other day-- they said it looks like a girl. We are excited because we figure we can handle girl pretty well (and we don't have to buy any new clothes :)
Sorry the pictures are small, but the top is two feet, middle is a profile, bottom is one foot.

Graduated!!

2011-06-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Joel for graduating from law school (last month)!! He spent his week off hanging out with Brinly and I. One of our outings was to a local waterfall where we had the opportunity to see a girl in the middle of a photo-shoot (see above right side). It had rained a lot, making it pretty painful to be standing in a waterfall so I hope those pictures were worth it :)
Out of order, but see below for what Joel enjoyed doing that he had not done in three years: read a book for fun. His graduation present was a book about basketball. Unfortunately he only got about half way through before he had to get back to the law books to study for the bar.
Back to the waterfall, Brinly really enjoyed playing in the water.
She did not even mind falling in a few times...

Below is her favorite thing to do in the water (splash), and above is how she reacted when we tried to take her out of the water.

Easter Part II

2011-06-14T08:13:00.001-07:00

Brinly had her first Easter egg hunt in the backyard of Grandma and Grandpa Lund. At first she had a hard time letting go of the eggs to put them in the basket, but pretty soon she got the hang of it. Also notice the Thomas the Train figurine in her hand, she did not let that go the whole trip.
Brinly in her Easter dress from Grandma Lund. No matter how hard I tried she would not smile for the camera, but she did look pretty cute.
This is actually from the weekend in May Grandma and Grandpa Lund spent in Columbus with us. Brinly decided she likes grandparents-- they tend to be nicer than parents and read her as many books as she wanted before bed :)
Out of order, but the other picture from the hunt-- Brinly's eggs were shaped like Elmo and filled with blueberries so she was pretty crazy about them.

Catch-up/Easter Part 1

2011-05-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

We did not do very many blog-worthy things this long and cold winter, but one day when it was unusually warm we did go to the zoo. However, this is the only picture I took and there aren't even any animals in it :)

Below begins Brinly and I's trip to Maryland/DC to visit Joel's family, while Joel had to stay home and study for finals. We stayed with Jon and Mac for a few days and Brinly loved spending time with her cousins, Jake and Emily. Featured below is a depression-era farm where we saw lots of different animals. Brinly's favorite part of the farm though was this nasty puddle. I should have known what was coming when I saw her looking at it like this...
...but I was too late. It made her so happy and she was already wet that I just let her play to her heart's content. It was so gross.
Brinly's second favorite attraction was the rabbit, she stood here and would not move for at least five minutes.
Below is actually from before Easter, but my pictures went out of order. On a walk one day Brinly found this pinecone, but when we got inside she lost it somewhere and could not find it for the longest time... :) No, Joel and I did not put it here to be mean, I think she was trying to throw it and it went backward instead of forward.

Block stacking skills

2011-03-15T17:23:00.000-07:00

We discovered today that Brinly has amazing block stacking skills. In the first video below she stacks eight blocks high on the carpet-- after repeated attempts I could only stack nine. Second below she stacks thirteen all by herself-- after another several attempts I finally got to eighteen, so she has a little room for improvement in the next 25 years :)

Snow Video

2011-03-13T19:57:00.001-07:00

Brinly in the snow. She thought it was pretty neat, but did not like snow sticking to her gloves.

Also, at Brinly's 18 month check-up we found that she had jumped up from the 50th to the 95th percentile in height-- she grew over 3.5 inches in just three months!

The last few months...

2011-03-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Above, I think Brinly looks like she is doing a circus performance. She got on top of this basket all by herself and was really proud of it.
Below, it was cold and snowy in Columbus, but we got out a few times to play. Brinly decked out in all her winter gear.

Brinly was trying to get my attention one night while I was making dinner, so she pulled out Joel's shoes and thought it was hilarious to put them on and distract me. She was successful :)

Brinly in her fancy dress from Grandma Miriam, and tights from Grandma Kathy.
A giant pastry.
We have been swimming lately and Brinly thought she should try on my goggles for size.
Some of the leftovers I brought home from my recipe group, the theme was chocolate.
Sorting the laundry-- Brinly is always a big help.
This is Brinly's box. Every day Brinly sits in her box to read books. If she is lucky, Joel and I might invest in a real chair for her some day :)
Brinly has lately become obsessed with trains, more particularly Thomas the Train. If we ever want to reward Brinly we let her read a Thomas book.
Another use for her box (hiding)
Brinly loves to feed herself using utensils, and it was even better that she was feeding herself pudding.
I tried to get her hair out of her face with this look. Joel said it looked funny and I'm afraid I have to agree... :)
This is taken a few minutes after I took the hair band out of her hair-- there was so much food in it (she is always rubbing food into her hair when she is done eating) that it kept it's form.
We are working on using the toilet. I found Brinly one day helping her baby go "peepee."

California, videos

2011-01-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

One of Brinly's new favorite things is rocks. We went to a beach at Montana de Oro that was mostly rocks, so she had an especially good time.

Brinly and her cousin, Davin, dancing. Davin is barking because he is pretending he is a dog.

California, part 3

2011-01-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

When the weather was good we did a lot of hiking. These first few pictures are from our hike up Bishop's Peak.

We spent one beautiful morning hiking along the coast at Montana de Oro. Check out this cool spot for a picnic table:

Brinly decided she loves rocks, especially throwing them, so she loved this beach.

We spent another morning walking around downtown San Luis. These pictures are taken in front of the fountain by historic Mission San Luis.
I love how in these pictures Brinly looks like she is mimicking the bear. She did almost manage to take a head-dive into the water eventually.

California, part 2

2011-01-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Above, reading a book with Grandma Kathy.
Brinly found this magnifying glass and thought it was pretty neat.
Below is a picture from a hike we took at Pirate's Cove. It is a gorgeous place, but not great for pictures on a warm day (it is a nude beach).
Brinly had ketchup for the first time and decided she really liked it.
One of the cool things we did in California was to tour Hearst Castle, one of the residences of William Randolph Hearst. It is a sprawling residence on what is now a state park on the coast. Below you can see Joel and I in front of one of the guest houses. The main house is much grander-- designed to look like a cathedral in the middle of a Mediterranean village.

This is a picture of my sister, Megan, and I in front of the Neptune pool, which I have always wanted to swim in. Our faces look funny because we were staring straight into the sun.
Joel took this amazing picture of himself in front of the pool. It was supposed to be a party picture with me in it as well, but I think it turned out better this way ;)

California, part 1

2011-01-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

My sister, Megan, crocheted this cool hat for Brinly-- it is a frog and Brinly loves to wear it.
Brinly just being silly:
Eating treats with Grandpa Charlie while he ices her arm (she sprained it diving off a bed).
Playing the piano with her cousins, Davin and Alec. They live in Sweden, so she does not get to see them very often.
Swinging at the beach with her cousin, Alec.
At the beach.
In this picture you can see all of Brinly's footprints-- she was running around everywhere because she was so excited about the water.
She was trying to run away from this wave, but did not get away quite fast enough.

Reading a story with Grandma Kathy, cousins, and Aunt Jenny. Brinly decided to sit on Davin's lap, and as you can see, he is not too happy about it.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-08T14:11:00.001-08:00

This was right before Thanksgiving, but Brinly spent twenty minutes one day looking out our window. I think there might have been a cement truck for a part of it, but the rest of the time she was just people-watching.
I failed to take pictures during our wonderful Thanksgiving with the Lunds, but I did get a few pictures of Brinly after Uncle Jon gave her pretty much a whole bowl of whipped cream.
We decided she is a big fan of whipped cream.
Brinly with her cousins, Emily and Jake.

Brinly makes me laugh

2011-01-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Brinly does a lot of things that make me laugh. This blog has just a few examples. One day I found her in the kitchen inside her drawer (above). Another day, I had brought home treats from a baby shower and accidentally left a chocolate-dipped-Oreo in my bag. Brinly found it for me...
She liked it.
Brinly is also an Elmo fanatic. She has two Elmo dolls that she loves to cuddle with.
We also enjoy building things with toilet paper rolls-- mostly she likes knocking down the giant towers I build, but she also really enjoyed sitting in this TP throne and reading books.

Halloween cont...

2011-01-08T13:48:00.001-08:00

We carved a pumpkin for our ward Halloween party and it won first place. We should mention that most of the other pumpkins were entered by people under the age of ten :)
Before we carved the pumpkin we had painted this face on it:
We took Brinly trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and it was freezing but we did get some pretty good candy...

Halloween

2010-11-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

I will post more pictures later, but these are some pics a lady at church took. It was past Brinly's bed time so she would not smile for anything. If you can't tell, she is dressed as a dog and she loved it so much she wore it several times before Halloween.

Outside

2010-10-16T20:10:00.001-07:00

Brinly loves going outside. Every morning she brings me her shoes and socks to put on so she can be ready to go outside at any time. Above is a waterfall we often visit, but this time it was dried-up. Below is a farm preserved and run as it would have been in the 1800s. Brinly liked the animals, but this hammock was pretty neat too.
Now that Brinly is walking she loves the park. One of her favorite features is this tube you can peek out of.

Besides the swings, Brinly's favorite park activity is the slide.

Basket video

2010-10-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

Brinly loves sitting in her basket, but she is always getting stuck :)

Places Brinly likes to sit

2010-10-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Brinly likes to find different places to sit. This post is dedicated to a few of the places I have found her sitting. Below is her box, for a couple of weeks this was her favorite place to hang out.
Sometimes when I am working in the kitchen Brinly will drag this basket in so she can sit and keep an eye on me.

You would not think it is very comfortable to lounge on a basket full of blocks, but she makes it look pretty relaxing
She often brings books into the basket so she has something to read while sitting.

The one problem with sitting in baskets is that sometimes she has a hard time getting out:

Projects

2010-10-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

I refinished Joel's old rocking horse. I did not take a before picture, but above you can see the edge of it and get a general idea of what it looked like. I removed the old paint, stained, painted, finished, and then replaced the mane and tail. Brinly thinks it is pretty neat.
I also canned a lot of applesauce. Brinly was really helpful-- she sorted jar lids for me.
When she was not sorting lids she was going through her drawer. This drawer used to have storage containers in it, but now holds all of Brinly's "kitchen stuff." This includes anything from toys to cookie cutters, random kitchen gadgets, and anything Brinly finds around the house and deems appropriate for her drawer.

Hair

2010-10-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Lately Brinly's hair has grown into her eyes. Eventually we just cut her bangs off, but we went through a lot of unsuccessful looks before that. Above we have the clip-- which Brinly loves to take out as quickly as possible. Below we have some examples of hair ties.

It turns out Brinly looks pretty funny in hair ties, and is really good at pulling them out. However, she did like the style below...

Florida video

2010-08-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

Brinly's favorite activity was being thrown off the dock. We tried to take a video, but a fish started biting on one of the lines and it got a little hectic.

Trip to Florida

2010-08-30T17:49:00.001-07:00

Joel's grandma has an amazing house on the bay in Florida. It was wonderful so see her and spend the days swimming and fishing. Brinly loved spending time with her great-grandma, the best part was when she taught Brinly to dance-- unfortunately there are no pictures because I ran out of memory on my camera...
Brinly loved swimming twice a day, she even had her own beach to play on.

Swimming with Dad
Joel showing off a catfish he caught. We caught mostly catfish, but every now and then we'd get something different. Joel caught a flounder that we ate and it was actually really good.
Brinly and Joel at the big beach.
Brinly likes the sand
Attacked by an alligator
Trying out Dad's hat
Joel and I had to play a game of Goofy Golf at this place he has been going to since he was a kid. It was pretty exciting because for the first time I actually tied with Joel (I think I only cheated once...)

Video of Birthday Cake

2010-08-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

Happy First Birthday!

2010-08-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

I made Brinly a birthday cake using a train cake pan. Brinly has the engine filled with pudding, covered with bananas, chocolate, Cool Whip and a blackberry.

Grandma and Grandpa Lund visited for Brinly's birthday and showered her with all kinds of gifts, including this fancy outfit below:
She did not really understand the whole unwrapping process, but she liked playing with the paper afterwards :)
Above are Brinly's new blocks, which she loves. She especially loves to knock down block towers and say "wow!"

North Carolina

2010-07-20T07:35:00.001-07:00

A week or two ago Brinly and I visited my brother and his family in North Carolina for the blessing of their baby, Kade. All pictures displayed were taken by my ever so talented sister-in-law Jamie :-)
,Brinly looks like she is being sweet and gentle in the picture above, but I promise if you gave her long enough she would be pulling his hair or poking his eyes (in the most loving way possible...)
Reading a funny book with Grandma Kathy
Tickling
Just looking cute
Trying to catch bubbles
Just being cute again
Giving up on catching bubbles and eating the bubble wand instead.
Family picture at Mott Lake
Brinly wading at Mott Lake-- she wanted to go in further than this but I was not willing to take her :-)

Army museum
My brother has chickens and they provided some pretty good entertainment.

Caption Contest

2010-07-12T18:31:00.001-07:00

Our sister in law Jamie took this great picture of Brinly last week and it captures a current facial expression Brin makes to make us laugh, however, you cannot look at this picture without thinking of all the possible "Bubble Quotes" that should accompany it. Therefore, we challenge all onlookers to submit a funny expression that should accompany this picture. Joel already said: "I think Dad had Mexican food."

The Bunny Park

2010-06-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

It is pretty hot here so the other week Brinly and her friend were able to enjoy some really cool fountains at a local park.
Even cooler than the fountains was this rubber duck Brinly is stealing, but she liked the water too :-)

Birthdays and things

2010-06-01T10:50:00.001-07:00

My birthday trifle. It was delicious. Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes and gifts!!
Brinly is shown here eating the first sugar-snap pea from our garden. She was not quite sure what to think of it. She is sure that she enjoys popsicles. Grandma Lund got her a popsicle maker and Brinly loves it.
Brinly sharing her popsicle with Joel
Video of Brinly sharing popsicle

Baby Fitness and Career Training

2010-06-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

We like to make sure Brinly has a good start in life, which is why we emphasize physical and mental fitness. Push-ups and other physical activities are part of her daily regime.
We are also helping her to set high career standards. We are pretty sure chewing on that gavel provides some sort of subliminal messaging...
Crawling is still coming along, meaning she can only go backwards and sideways. This is a slight problem at times; as you can see below, she is wedged under a couch under a table. However, she is very good at backwards and sideways.

Looking Good

2010-06-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

Bath

2010-06-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

California Trip

2010-05-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

Brinly really enjoyed the beach in California. She especially liked playing in the sand, but did not enjoy having rocks and sand cleaned out of her mouth...
Brinly spending some time with Aunt Kerry
The water was pretty cold, but Brinly enjoyed putting her feet in the waves when they washed up.

A way to pass time while in the car...
Brinly was not sure what to think about this swing-- half the time she was scared and would hold her breath and the rest of the time she had fun.
On this trip Brinly discovered she really enjoyed playing with yarn. I think it looks like she is eating green spaghetti.
Brinly spending some time with one of her great-grandmothers.
Brinly also had fun with her cousin(?) Tyler. Yes, she is trying to catch his foot and he probably was trying to get away. It turns out Brinly is quite the toy thief and tended to steal and hide all the good toys from Tyler.

First Easter

2010-05-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is Brinly on Easter morning when we gave her her basket. Below you can see what she has done with it in just a few short minutes.
Brinly having fun with her Easter eggs in her awesome rabbit coat from Aunt Jen. She especially enjoyed the ones with candy inside because they rattled. Little did she know that Joel and I cleaned out the candy pretty quickly and replaced them with dried beans so she never knew the difference... :-)

Easter Basket

2010-04-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

This is Brinly getting into her Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa Lund. You don't see it all in this video, but she was trying to get that rabbit out of the basket for a very long time and was pretty pleased that she finally succeeded.

Playing

2010-03-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

As mentioned previously, Brinly loves playing with this toy. We always sit it next to her upright, but invariably she will pull it down sideways so she can reach the top better.

New Things

2010-03-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Brinly has started getting into things. She scoots on her back to get where she wants to go, in this case, to get into Dad's papers...
Brinly now loves paper. Reading the ads with her dad is a big highlight of her day-- until she starts to eat it and we take it away.
She now loves eating solid food through this mesh bag.
Brinly even loves prune juice (below), which is a good thing because she has to drink a lot of it these days...

The most exciting new thing is that Brinly now sits up by herself, and she is pretty happy about it.
This is Brinly eating one of her first "Toasty-O's" which she did not like at first, but now she loves them.
Brinly has a new favorite toy-- this wooden toy below. It keeps her entertained for a long time, which means I like it too :)

Photo Shoot

2010-03-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

We had the chance at a free 8x10 so we took a few pictures of Brinly so we could finally put her up on the wall. It was night time, so a little dark, but they turned out alright in the end.

Joel and I each had our own favorite, but which do you think won??

DC Trip

2010-03-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Brinly and I met up with Jenny and her kids at Jim and Miriam's in DC. Among the activities most enjoyed by Brinly was her first McDonald's ice cream cone.
The first night in DC Brinly and her cousin Alec had a hard time going to sleep. This picture is taken around midnight...
Brinly and Alec having their first fight over this cool piece of rope.
Alec won, but I think Brinly gave-up on purpose...
They finally found something they could both enjoy at the same time-- foam letters.

Happy Half-Birthday!

2010-03-17T20:16:00.001-07:00

Brinly celebrated her first half-birthday with apple and blueberry puree. After a while she decided she could probably feed herself :)

Update

2010-03-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day. As you can see, Brinly has lately become a fan of sticking her tongue out.
Getting ready to play in the snow
Hanging out with Dad
Eating is pretty messy these days...

Brinly-Kisses and Feet

2010-02-04T15:35:00.001-08:00

In case you can't figure out the picture above it is what we call a "Brinly-kiss." Sometimes, especially when she is tired, she nuzzles her face into your cheek and blows air out her nose. She then pulls away to see how you react. Despite the sometimes slobbery results we find it endearing :)

Brinly's favorite new occupation is playing with her feet, especially after her bath before she has socks put on.

She also loves to play with the ribbon on this bear. We tie it in a bow and then she gradually pulls it off. Repeat. It keeps her busy for a long time.

Laugh Attack

2010-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

The other night I was getting Brinly ready for bed when she burst into a conniption of laughter. It took me a while to realize what she was laughing at, but eventually it dawned on me that every time I hiccuped she would laugh. I could not get rid of my hiccups so she kept laughing and laughing for about five minutes straight. Eventually I got her calmed down for bed, but even as I was tucking her in she was still chuckling every time I hiccuped.

New Toy

2010-02-04T15:05:00.000-08:00

Brinly really likes this toy I made for her by stringing up various toys on her rings. She will lay there for forever and just rattle them around.

First time eating rice cereal

2010-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

First Foods

2010-02-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

Now that Brinly is almost six months old we have started feeding her a few things and letting her drink from a sippy cup. She loves using her sippy cup by herself. As you can see above, she is using her feet to try and pick up her cup after it fell.
Brinly was not so sure about rice cereal at first, but now she loves eating it and getting it all over her hands, face and hair.

We gave Brinly her first taste of ice cream the other day, afterward she grabbed my spoon and shoved it in her mouth so we think she liked it.

California Trip

2010-02-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

Brinly and I actually went to California before Christmas to visit my family, I just forgot to take any pictures so there aren't very many :) Among our activities we visited friends, family, and the beach. As you can see, San Luis is much more pleasant in December than Columbus.
Brinly got to meet her cousin (aka, my cousin's baby...) Tyler and Aunt Jen.
Brinly was not sure what to think about Tyler, but he thought she had some pretty cool socks.

December

2010-01-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

Brinly loves to chew on as many fingers as possible Joel did the decorating for Christmas while Brinly and I were in California. I thought he did pretty well :)

Our tree

Brinly opening her first Christmas presents

She thought it was pretty fun...

We spent Christmas in Florida with Joel's family. One of the highlights of the trip was watching this bird catch and attempt to consume an eel.

Christmas Eve at Bill and Mae's house.

Christmas morning: Brinly was the first one up at 6am and she decided it was time for everyone else to be up too

Brinly was a little overwhelmed by all her presents, but Joel and I enjoyed opening and playing with them, thanks everyone!!

Brinly also received some cute frog slippers from one of Bill's relatives.

We spent some time at the beach, but it was a little cold and very very bright with the white sand.

We spent one morning at the Air Force Armament Museum that Joel's grandpa was the executive director of before and after its construction--his name is next to Brinly on the plaque.

Brinly and I checking out one of the cockpits. We had to fight off several other kids for a chance to take this picture.

Outside the museum

Brinly in Grandpa Lund's chair, you can see the bay in the background.

Our shoes (guess which pair belongs to who...)

Brinly being devoured by a shark on the beach.

We saw this pelican while walking on the beach, we also found a shark tooth.

Brinly and Grandma Lund

Brinly received so many presents we had to take a whole other suitcase to get them all home. Thanks everyone for a great vacation!!

Calvin Klein Jeans

2009-12-16T13:48:00.001-08:00

Emily and I have begun training Brin for the career for which she is destined, modeling. This is Brinly wearing some jeans and a sweater saying "Hey, I'm too cool for this." You can't teach talent like this people.

Talking

2009-12-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

3 - 3 1/2 Months

2009-12-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

Brinly loves to chew on her fingers...

On Thanksgiving morning we all went to the church Turkey Bowl. It was very cold so Brinly got to try out her snow suit. We had to loosen the straps on her car seat just so she could fit :)
One of Brinly's turkey hands:

Brinly's first time swimming (indoor pool). She was a little hesitant at first, but seemed to like it in the end.
Brinly likes her Johnny-Jump-Up but she does not really jump yet. She usually spins in circles or chews on the edge.

For church we had to take a family picture for the bulletin. It took ten tries to get Brinly to finally look at the camera. I like the picture above because you can tell how Brinly felt about the whole thing.

Three Months!

2009-11-16T18:26:00.001-08:00

Above is Brinly in her second week, below is at three months-- she weighs about twice as much now!!

The only thing better than one hand in your mouth is two. As much as she tries, Brinly can never manage to fit both in at once, but she tries really hard anyway.

For our cooking group we were doing holiday recipes, so I made a fruit pizza in the shape of a Christmas tree :)

First Toys

2009-11-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago Brinly started grabbing things. Her first toy was the dragonfly below, but she also thought the red wrapping paper above was pretty cool.

Halloween

2009-11-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

Brinly was a duck for Halloween-- complements of our neighbor's old duck bathrobe, orange felt, and a corn flakes box

Laundry

2009-10-27T20:43:00.001-07:00

Today Brinly helped me with laundry (which is only reasonable because she creates the most dirty laundry...). Because our washing machine is two floors down I had to find a way to carry both Brinly and the clothes. I think she even decided she liked it

a lot...

*Just to put your minds to rest, the clothes in that basket are clean :)

More talking

2009-10-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

Brinly loves to talk to her animals

Weeks 10-11

2009-10-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

The doctor told me "tummy-time" is really important so babies can develop neck, arm and shoulder strength. However, every time I put Brinly on her stomach she does not seem very interested in getting a work-out... (see video below)

Weeks 7-8

2009-10-27T20:06:00.001-07:00

Brinly always loves talking with Joel

Brinly always sleeps with her arms straight over her head

Talking

2009-10-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

Brinly talks all the time but tends to be camera shy, but finally we were able to be sneaky and record her a bit before she realized what we were doing :)

6 Weeks

2009-10-05T08:21:00.001-07:00

Another one of our cheesecakes...

In the pictures below I was finally able to catch Brinly smiling. The first photo is before a large bowel movement, the second is during, and the third is right after. As you can see, she is quite expressive :)

5 Weeks

2009-10-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Brinly is enjoying some Eric Clapton, one of her favorite CDs to listen to.
This is the face Brinly makes when she is not happy about something.
Brinly loves her baths. She always squirms sideways like this and tries to drink the water.
Meditating.
Showing off her Sunday outfit.

Family

2009-10-05T07:14:00.001-07:00

During the baby blessing weekend we had a ton of fun with family... Well, we did when everyone was not napping to get over the many many hours they traveled at obscure hours of the day/night to get here.
Jesse and Brinly
My dad and Brinly-- we think she looks like a sloth in this position :)
Meg and Brinly
Brinly in her duck robe.

Baby Blessing

2009-10-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

We had Joel's parents, my dad, Jesse, Jamie and Megan all in Columbus for the weekend of the baby blessing. Brinly was good enough to wait until after the blessing to have a huge poopy diaper and did not even manage to leak onto her dress :)

Weeks 3-4

2009-09-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

Around this time she started stretching out a lot more, making her look much longer. She also grew a ton-- she gained two pounds in the first month!
This is Brinly right after eating-- she is wrapped in a pillow case because she flails around so much when we try to feed her. Joel came up with this method to keep her a little more contained.
Just hanging out.
Cuddling with Dad-- another one of her favorite places to sleep.

More Brinly-- Weeks 1 and 2

2009-09-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Brinly's first bath at home-- she liked everything except when we put clothes back on her (she enjoys her naked time)
One of Brinly's favorite places to sleep is our giant bean bag.
Spending time with Dad.

Introducing: Brinly Fier Lund

2009-09-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

Brinly weighed 6 lbs 3 oz at birth and measured 20.5 inches long. She was born at 8:12pm on Monday August 10th after an 11 hour induced labor. For those of you that are wondering, Fier is an Albanian city where Joel served a part of his mission. It is said like Pierre but with an F
Joel calls the picture above "Brinly the Champ." She loves to stretch and always sleeps with her arms above her head.
In the hospital all the babies look like little burritoes.
Putting Brinly in the carseat for the first time-- she was a little small for it at first.
Brinly is wearing a premie shirt here and it is a little big for her, however, after a week or two of serious eating she grew out of it.

34 Weeks, etc.

2009-07-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Me at 34 weeks. The doctor says the baby is about five pounds so far, so doing pretty well.

This was our latest cooking experiment: soda-pop chicken. There is a little metal stand and you open a can of soda and put it in the holder and then you just put the chicken on top of it and either cook it in the oven or on the BBQ. I stuffed ours with some garlic and onion too and it was really delicious, but a little funny looking.

We finally set-up our crib, so here it is...

Garden

2009-07-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Our garden has finally started producing stuff. Above are little yellow squash and below are cucumbers.

This zucchini and yellow squash are the first things we have picked. Since then we've had lots more squash, cucumber, and sugar peas.

These are tomato and bell pepper plants.
Peppers, tomatoes, peppers, and basil
Zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber
Sugar peas-- they are over six feet tall now. If you remember from before, they were supported by a cute little tepee like construction, but I had to build a whole new support system around it as they grew taller.
Green beans, zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash

Food and other things

2009-06-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

We made another cheesecake, we think it was one of our best so far

Joel surprised me with quite the dinner the other day- 9 porkchops for just the two of us! I had to take a picture just to document the enormous amount of food. This doesn't even include the other things he had cooking on the stove.

This is me at 30 wks (about 7 months)

I took this photo to illustrate how Joel is the very best husband in the world :)

Garden Update

2009-06-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

Our garden has been growing rapidly, and so far we have even kept most of the plants alive :) Below you can see our snap/sugar pea teepee. It might end up being too small, but we had a neighber who made one and we thought it looked pretty cool. We have zuccini, summer squash and pumpkins in the cups below that we have not found a place for yet.

These are bell peppers that have not been transplanted yet.

We finally planted our tomato plants! They are looking a little bent out of shape right now after a wind storm, but hopefully will get better.

These are our strawberries. We have only managed to get to one of the berries because something else keeps eating them before we can. At least they look good...

Teepee again

Green beans, zuccini, cucumber, and summer squash.

Miscellaneous...

2009-05-03T14:08:00.001-07:00

We forgot to post earlier what we are having: it's a girl! The picture below is actually from the 12 week ultrasound, but we don't have the 20 week ones on the computer yet...

My neighbor and I have decided to try gardening this year, so this is the beginnings of our great experiment. We started everything from seeds a week ago, so the fact that we have live plants growing already is pretty exciting :)

The tall ones in the back of the photo below are the green beans. Some of them are already a foot tall! From seed to now that means an average growth rate of about two inches per day. My sister, the plant expert, was kind enough to inform me that the light green coloring and height are probably due to lack of sun (not amazing gardening, like I thought). Joel and I quickly triaged the situation and after a few hours outside they are already looking more healthy. Phew! Joel says this experience is a good precursor to parenthood. This makes me a little worried because I am already stressing over each sprout and feel sure they just might end up dead at any moment...

Featured below is our lunch today. We made some pretty amazing apple dumplings. Joel and I figure that once we have kids we won't be able to eat quite the same kinds of meals that we sometimes do now, so we are enjoying it while we can.

Finally, this is the 26 or 27 week (6 month) photo. Joel and I think it looks a bit like a mug shot, but you can get the general idea. We are excited/apprehensive as we go into the third trimester--August seems to be coming very soon(!!)

New Baby Stuff

2009-04-26T17:41:00.001-07:00

The last week or two have been very productive for acquiring baby stuff. Joel and I found the above crib on Craig's List for a fantastic deal. It even came with the mattress. We have not assembled it yet, but you can get an idea of what it looks like. Below is a bumper set that our wonderful friends gave us.

The same people who gave us the bumper set were incredibly generous to also give us one of their car-seat stroller sets, featured below. With all the new stuff our apartment is feeling much smaller, but at least we are a little more prepared... :)

Weeks 20 and 22

2009-04-06T17:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently when you are pregnant people like to see "belly pictures," so here they are:

WEEK 20

WEEK 22

Award Winning Chocolate Cheesecake

2009-03-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Our local church congregation held its annual Chile-Chocolate Cook-off recently, so Joel and I entered a chocolate cheesecake, which ended up winning first prize in the chocolate category.We based our cheesecake on this recipe I found online: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/DEEP-DARK-CHOCOLATE-CHEESECAKE-236209
Some changes: Oreo instead of chocolate wafer crust, a different kind of cocoa, and a hodgepodge of chocolate instead of the brand named in the recipe. Also, instead of the topping listed I made a chocolate ganache that we poured over the entire cheesecake. There might have been other alterations that we can't remember at the moment... The overall product was definitely helped by some of the incredible chocolate Jake and Rachel sent us from England.

Our prize for winning was a cool apron that Joel is modeling below. When I first asked him to model he seemed a little timid and unwilling...

But gradually he warmed up to the camera...

And then things got a little crazy...

**Joel's black eye is the result of one of his law school league basketball games, not an abusive home life or any other story he might tell

Apples and Pumpkins

2009-03-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

So, these pictures are a bit old, but I am just finally getting around to posting them on the blog. One of our favorite activities in Columbus so far was the chance we had to go apple picking in a beautiful orchard back in October. The trees were so loaded that before we knew it we had picked 60 pounds of apples!!

With all of these apples, plus another 100 pounds from my coworker, and about 40 more pounds we poached from a local tree we made all kinds of apple things. Below is some of the apple sauce we canned-- my first time canning :)

With the rest of the apples we made apple dumplings and lots of apple pies...

Joel is shown here showing off his first ever apple pie made (almost) entirely by himself. The finished product was pretty amazing.

Another one of our culinary adventures included making pumpkin pie completely from scratch-- as in from a pumpkin to a pie. This little pie was our test run to see how it turned out.

Sunny California!!

2009-02-02T09:01:00.001-08:00

Joel and I took a week off from the snow in Columbus to enjoy a perfect sunny Christmas in San Luis Obispo, California with my family (pictured below)The above photo is our most accurate family picture because it includes the newest member of the Pearson Family-- Jamie, who married my brother Jesse just a few days after Christmas in the LA Temple. Jesse a Jamie are featured below, and if you look close enough you can probably see how cold Jamie is after hours of picture-taking... :)

Below: Joel, our nephew Davin, and I lounge in a chair on Christmas morning.

No trip to CA would be complete without some hiking, so all the "kids" took ourselves on a grueling hike in the hills/mountains behind our house. It was only grueling because Joel and Andy decided the best way to conquer the mountain was by going straight up... It made for quite a trip. It was also extremely windy of there, which you can tell by my amazing hair-do.

Rock climbing was another of our ventures, you can see Joel conquering the rock face below. He did amazingly well, despite his claims that he is "too big" for rock climbing.
I am taking my turn on the rocks here, doing some fancy moves that I'm pretty sure did not even work in the end :) Davin enjoyed his rock climbing experience too...

We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset on the coast, followed by a BBQ on the beach-- another California tradition.

Versailles and Paris

2008-12-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Versailles...

This is the incredible view from the front steps of Versailles.

One of the many fountains found throughout the massive grounds of Versailles.

Throughout the grounds there are beautifully manicured and shaped hedges and trees, in this picture we learned the tricks of the trade as some of the gardeners us a pattern to trim a bush.

A view of the impressive orangery (spelling??) and part of the main house above.

Paris!

Joel and I in front of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. The front has a pink hue because the sun is just setting-- very romantic :)

A party picture at the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was a lot of stairs and an exhilarating elevator ride to get there, but the view was definitely worth it.

Napoleon's Arc de Triumph

For all of you DaVinci Code fans, can you guess the location of these pictures...

And yes, that is finally the end to our great European adventure!!

ALBANIA

2008-09-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

Albania is a small country (about the size of Maryland) north of Greece and south of Croatia and Kosavo. It is a beautiful country that is quickly working on becoming more modern, but is still in many ways a struggling third world nation. Albania was communist until 1992, but is now democratic. Joel and I were among the only tourists and we stuck out like sore thumbs. Luckily Joel speaks Albanian, because almost no one there speaks English. Because Albania is not really a touristy place we felt a little awkward about taking pictures, so we only have a few. In the center of this picture is the remains of an ancient colosseum in the coastal city of Durres, left from when the Romans controlled Albania. People have converted the old walls of the colosseum and incorporated them into their homes.

Another view of Durres. As you can see, Albania is a fascinating mixture of old and very new buildings. The building material of choice was concrete.

Albania has beautiful beaches normally, but these pictures were taken right after a big rainstorm and all the garbage from the streets flows to the ocean. However, Joel and I were not dissuaded and thoroughly enjoyed our swim in the Adriatic.

Besides the beaches and beautiful countryside, my favorite thing about Albania was the incredible fruits and vegetables. There were fresh f & v stands on practically every street and on the sides of the roads outside the cities. In this picture Joel and I made a Greek salad using the local produce. The things that look like red peppers are actually delicious tomatoes and the yellow-green vegetable in the middle is a pepper they always put in the Greek salads.

Some generous members let us stay in one of their amazing condos on the beach in Durres, the one catch was that there was no running water... The trash can in the shower is actually full of water that we would pour into the toilet to make it flush.

The every-stylish Suella, our Albanian hostess, next to the coast of the gorgeous resort-like town of Vlore. Suella and her husband Idi treated us to three amazing meals on the water at fancy Albanian restaurants. The food in Albania was definitely some of the best, and cheapest, of our whole European trip. Near where this picture was taken is a fresh water spring purported to have healing powers. Albanians come flocking there with empty containers to take the water home. We tasted it and it was very tasty, but we are still unsure of the healing powers...

ROME

2008-09-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest attractions in Rome: the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica, which was way too big to fit into one picture. Below is just one half of Bernini's pillars, symbolizing the Catholic Church welcoming back those who have left Catholicism.

A shot of the ceiling inside St Peter's. This was definitely the largest cathedral we viewed in our European trip and no picture can really do justice to how huge the building is.

A statue of St. Peter. There was a long line of people who wanted to walk by and touch the statue. If you look closely you can see that the definition of his toes has been completely worn away by the thousands of people touching his feet. Another famous statue in St. Peter's is a copy of Michelangelo's Pieta, which is secured behind glass.

Just down the street from St. Peter's is the Angel Castle, which was used as a fort at one point in time.
An interesting thing Joel and I noticed in Rome is that everything seems to have a cross on top of it, which is actually how many of the old pagan structures were saved as Christianity took over the city.

A pond in a park where Joel and I went to a little museum with all of the sculptor Bernini's best works.

A view of the Forum. The structure in the back left is the remnants of Palatine Hill, where the Roman emperors built their palaces. The fascinating thing is that the ground level of Rome has risen about 20 feet as people have just kept building on top of existing city structures, forming a multi-layered city.

Joel and I in front of a famous arch (I forget which...) and the Colosseum.

The inside of the Pantheon. The front of the Pantheon (note the crosses).

Bernini's Fontana de Trevi, which was pretty impressive lit-up at night.

Davin was supposed to be napping here, but apparently he decided a night in Rome was way more exciting than sleep.

Our last day with the the George family.

HIKING ON THE ITALIAN COAST

2008-09-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

We arrived a little late at our camping site the night before and were too tired to figure out how to put up our tent, so we improvised...

Before a long day of hiking we stocked-up on food. Davin already knew exactly what he wanted to eat. The hike illustrated below was a gorgeous path along the Italian coast that went through five Italian villages.

Jenny and I trying to dry off after taking a dip in the Mediterranean.

It was interesting to see how they developed a tier system to grow crops on the steep hills.

Davin enjoying the view from Joel's shoulders.

Jenny and I enjoyed our first swim in the Mediterranean, which was actually very warm and crystal clear. (I am standing on the right of the picture and Jenny is getting out of the water on the left)

This was one of my favorite villages where we enjoyed some incredible homemade gelato and Davin took his first swim in the ocean. The tower at the tip of the peninsula (left side of picture) is actually a castle.

It was fun to see all the laundry hung between the buildings. This is one of the main streets, but many of the side streets were only a few feet wide, giving the towns a very cozy (some might say claustrophobic...) feel.