so we went on some trips.

I'm so glad I already wrote about our San Diego trip. I couldn't find the files on our new computer of the photos I took on the trip, and I can't even remember back that far at this point!!! AHH!!!

So the past month, the whole summer infact, has been a whirlwind. I don't even remember half of the things that we've been up to.

I know we went to Houston to visit my brother, his wife Katie, and his kids, Matt, Kenzie and baby girl (coming in September/October).



I remember it being a really fun, relaxing and rainy (there was a hurricane nearby) trip. We stayed indoors and played a really fun game called Word Thief. Its like poker and scrabble, except that its not like either of those games at all. We bought fireworks and set them off in the street after a fun BBQ. Clark slept right through them and was a really good boy.
Matt and Kenzie are totally awesome kids and had fun playing with Clark.


Clark enjoyed them, the dog, Toby, their baby piano and playing in the backyard's sandbox. Clark is crazy about outside and neither the Texas sun, nor rain, thwarted his efforts. What else did we do? We went to the mall one day when it wouldn't stop raining, and when it did stop raining and get to over 110 degrees we decided to go for a little hike in the arboretum and then have a picnic. It was hot, I saw a red tailed hawk, and then Clark got attacked by fire ants. It was very eventful.

At some point we flew from Houston to New Orleans, and the flight was great because Tom took Clark on HIS flight, so I had an hour by myself on the airplane with no baby and I finished a book. It was AWESOME!

In Louisiana I'm sure we did some things. I'll remember some of them here for you.

We met up with my Aunt Cindi, and my cousins, and their kids. My cousin Courtney had a new addition since last year, Chloe, and I'm glad we got to meet her.
Here is Clark with Chloe. (great shot of Chloe, right? I know, next time I'll do a better job!)

Me and my cousin, Courtney!

Courtney's first big girl, Annazelle.

Aunt Cindi with my cousins Naomi and Marissa.

We drove out to Bunkie for a wedding. I took about 4 pictures of the whole thing because I was having too much fun to think about caputring the memories for old times sakes. Here is one of the photos I took. Its Liz Singreen, Clark and Tom outside of the Church.



The story of how we got home from the airport and how Louisiana has too much water. We really love Louisiana cause its so beautiful and relaxing. Tom was complaining because there was too much water. I said, "how can you complain about too much water??!?! you are from San Diego, the desert, with no water!!!" and he said, "remember when we flew in and your mom said we couldn't get home because the street was flooded, and we had to park the car down the street, change cars to the truck, move our luggage and take the truck through the flood waters home?" and I said, "yeah, ok, maybe we have a lot of water, but its not always flooded!" but a lot of the time, it is.

We went into New Orleans two nights. One was for Taylor's Bachelorette party. We ate at Mothers and Cafe Du Monde, then Tom and I, had to go home since Clark didn't know we were at a party and he would be waking up bright and early like always, and my mom was going to work, so we had to look after him.

The other night we had dinner with Steve and Tracy at La Madeleine on the Riverbend. Maybe if we ever move back to NOLA (which we never will), we can live in the Riverbend... or Madisionville (less flooding, not a bowl...)

The rest of our time (that I can remember) we spent relaxing on the porch, in the pool on mom and dad's deck, or eating snowballs. It was a supremly excellent trip. I could move back almost anytime (hint, hint).

I'm glad I got to see my whole Averill family this summer, it might be a while before we travel again.

Ready to come home.

Our flight out of Nashville was delayed until the next day due to crazy bad weather along the Eastern seaboard. We spent the night relaxing at Maria's house. Now we are hanging out at the airport. They have an awesome playground here- it should be a requirement that all airports have them. We are looking forward to coming home and staying home for the rest of the summer.
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Sleeping like...

A Tom! I don't know how they survive it, but both cover their heads to fall asleep. Its pretty cute to see Clark following in his dad's foot steps!
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We just met a fireman and truck outside of Home Depot!

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How we know that Clark is a Greenwell.

He's got his foot in his mouth!

We've been traveling for the past few weeks and are getting home soon, I'll so a good update later this week.
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San Diego.

We are spending so much of this summer traveling. We have some important events to attend, and important people to visit. We also are taking advantage of Clark's free flying status, and my empty lap to see family and friends around our country.

Clark and I were in San Diego last week visiting Greenwells and Grillots while Tom was in Long Beach going to a conference, he came down the coast on the last few days of our trip to do some government work in San Diego, mentor some post-docs at Scripps and visit with his family.

We stayed with Nana Greenwell. She has a delicious little ball of puffy fur named Allie. Clark really loved Allie. He loved petting her, following her around, getting her to lick him, grabbing her tail and even pretending to be her. He spent most of his time going "oof, oof, oof," his version of a bark.


Clark loved climbing in and out of her dog box, bed, and splashing in her water. He and his cousin, Sophia, had a blast pretending to be doggies!
He loved being able to play with Sophia so much! I think it was good for her to have Clark, as she just got a baby brother that week, and things always change with a new baby. Clark was someone from her past who she may have slightly remembered, but definitely thought was fun.

They try out the dog box and doggie bed. We also got to go to a park to play. All of the fun and sunlight helped Clark adjust to the Western time zone. He had fun playing with Sophia's sand toys and eating sand. He walked around a bunch and gained the affections of everyone there. Sophia is especially talented linguistically, cousin Ruby is especially talented physically, but Clark's super power is certifiably his charm.

Nana/Janet and I had a really fun time going to the Viejas Outlet mall and doing some shopping for the new baby. Since Andrea and Jake don't like to know what gender of baby they are having in advance, everyone scrambles once the baby is born to bestow upon it gender appropriate gifts, and we did. We bought a good amount of boy clothes at the mall and were happy to bring them to the wee babe, like Jesus in the manger. We the wise ladies with animal, sports and blue themed outfits. So, I know you are dying to see this baby already. Here you go. I present to you the proud parents!

And the wee little babe.
And the babe again.

And the babe and the baby.

And the newest addition in jungle animal themed jammies.

It was very nice to be in town the first week of his life, yet probably hectic for everyone in SD as I was an extra body and had my own little boy to plan around. It was nice that Sophia had us to play with and get to visit with her. Her birth was such a big deal in my life and I have really missed watching her grow since they moved back to SD. Its a bummer that I won't get to see this new one grow up - at least not in person, but that's the reality of our big country. I hope that since we are gone, their family is getting some rest, things are settling down, and that the baby is getting used to being outside Andrea now.

When Tom finished up in Long Beach and came down to San Diego, we were able to spend some time together as a family. We went down to Ocean Beach one morning and had breakfast at Margarita's Mexican Food and American Breakfast, better know to us as "Mexican American Food!" we had an awesome breakfast while Clark ate Jelly at the table.

We walked around our old neighborhood and noticed its changes. Most notably are two marijuana shops. I can't say that I wish I lived there anymore. We always said it was not a good place to raise kids, and now I'm even more glad that we left.

One afternoon, while Clark and I were waiting for Tom to do some mentoring at Scripps, we went to the mall and found these awesome dolphin fountains. Clark loved them and had fun splashing in the water. He was a little afraid at first, thinking there was some kind of giant animal in the water, but then he realized they weren't going to hurt him. =)

This is the fountain where he got so soaked,
had to take all of his clothes off and bring him home naked!

We also took a nice hike up Cowl's mountain with our good friend Julie. It took us a lot longer than we thought because we had never really hiked with Clark before. He wasn't a big fan of being in the Ergo carrier and wanted to get down and play. When we finally got up to the top, we freed the boy and he got really dirty. I feel bad for San Diego mothers with crawlers and toddlers - cause it is a dirty place.

dirty, dirty, dirtyThe views from the top were very pretty and it was a lovely hike overall. We had considered hiking Iron Mountain (where we got engaged!), which takes about 4 hours if you are not stopping for a baby - so we're glad we didn't do that mountain!

Julie and Clark going up, up and away!

Everyone but me.

Everyone but Tom. Julie helps Clark practice good sun habits! When we got up there, he was done wearing his hat. None of us were wearing sunscreen either - what idiots!

Tom didn't mind wearing Clark's hat though!

All in all it was a very nice trip and we had a great time visiting with family, seeing friends, and exploring our old territory. It was relaxing for me in many ways because I didn't have to worry about cleaning or laundry or what bed needed to be changed and vacuumed under next. I read a few books, magazines and took lots of naps. It's the last time I'll be going West for a while. In January, we'll have the new baby, Clark will cost money in March and we'll probably use all of our vacation on maternity leave. I'm glad we got to be there together as a family before all of our next big changes!

Zoo trip

Hey!
I've been taking photos all this month and not really posting anything. Once again, I'm sorry I'm a slacker. Here are some photos from our most recent zoo trip. Clark really loves the small mammal house because he can see the animals up close at the windows and they run around so he definitely notices them.I also like the farm part of the zoo, because we have lots of books that talk about farm animals. I encouraged Clark to say, "mooooo" and he said back in a high note "ooooooooo" our little opera singer. =)