Woods Hole Visit

Geek Girl and I went to Cape Cod to visit friends while Daddy Geek was in Japan.  These friends have a son who's 2 months older than Geek Girl.

Remember these cuties back in August of 2003?

Here they are almost ten years later:

There's also a little brother who has the same birthday as me!

If you want to see pictures of Geek Girl and Friend in 2004 and 2009, click here.

Geek Girl and I had a great time.  She learned how to play chess, participated in the extremely geeky Woods Hole 4th of July parade, and enjoyed looking for sea creatures when not playing in the sand and surf.

No more baby teeth...

Tooth number 20 came out tonight!

Mother's Day 2013

My Mother's Day Wish List:

1.  Have someone else make baked french toast for breakfast.  Done.

2.  Have someone else do the dishes.  Yep.

3.  Take some family pictures.  Here they are:

Kayaking with Daddy

On April 27th, Daddy and I went kayaking at Fletcher Boat House. We got two-person kayak that was a color that I called "mango". We had orange lifejackets. I sat in front. We couldn't go kayaking on the river, but we were able to do it on the  C&O Canal. Here is a picture of me in the front of the kayak:

We saw some turtles sitting on a log. Here is a picture:

          We went under a bridge. Here we are coming close to it:

And here are some cool reflections on the bottom of it:

We saw two vines that grew into a corkscrew shape. Here is a picture:

At one point Daddy randomly started going fast. After he did we coasted a little. We saw some ducks, but we couldn't get any good pictures. We were kayaking for about 90 minutes. We had lots of fun and thought about coming back with Mommy.

Pittsburgh Road Trip

At the end of March, we took a short trip out to visit Mama Geek's parents near Pittsburgh, PA.  It's about five hours' drive each way, which is a bit too long for an extended day trip, so we turn it into a mini-getaway and spend time in Pittsburgh itself.

First, we dropped by their business, where Geek Girl gave a brief concert for her grandfather:

Geek Girl plays clarinet for her grandfather

We visited for a while, and then headed off to the hotel and dinner in town.  The next day was sunny and beautiful, so we went to Schenley Park and the Oakland and Squirrel Hill districts for a sightseeing walk.  I had visited the area for a business trip to the University of Pittsburgh last fall, and thought Geek Girl and Mama Geek would enjoy it -- they did.

Our first stop was the Phipps Conservatory, where we spent a few hours wandering through the lovely gardens, stopping frequently for pictures

Geek Girl and Daddy Geek at the Phipps Conservatory

Pretty Geek Ladies with pretty flowers

This was yet another demonstration of the differences between how Mama Geek visits museums and how Geek Girl and I do.  As usual, Mama Geek was content to meander through, taking in all the lovely flowers

and other sights, while Geek Girl and I had a great time going slowly through the rooms, with Geek Girl reading all the scientific names for all the plants and trying to sound them out. She also liked connecting different kinds of flowers based on their scientific names, and was fascinated with being a botanist at the Tropical Forest India exhibit.  We all enjoyed the visit to the spice shop, which nearly triggered a visit to an Indian restaurant for lunch...

Instead, we did the touristy bit and headed off to Primanti Brothers on Forbes Ave, where we split a variety of sandwiches and chili.  Geek Girl even tackled an adult sandwich - grilled chicken - and ate most of it.  (She is definitely developing more of an appetite these days...)

We also dropped by the Heinz Chapel for a quick break, including a trip up into the choir loft.  It's quite pretty, and the stained glass windows have scenes and figures from American history, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

View from the choir loft

We ended the day with a trip to a playground in Schenley Park before heading off to dinner and dessert in the Strip District.  We picked the right day to visit, as the next day was grey and drizzly - sometimes we get lucky!

Skiing Day

This post is by me and Daddy Geek.

Yesterday Daddy and I went to Liberty Mountain Resort. At first, we tried snowboarding. Neither of us liked it very much. We were going to have a lesson, but I was getting tired and hungry and upset. We stopped for lunch. After lunch we switched to skiing. It took a little while and involved walking without shoes on, but eventually we got it done.

[DG: This was GG's first vertical snow sport day -- we have only sledded before this.  Liberty is a small resort only about 90 minutes' drive from here, and they were having a Spring Break deal, so it sounded like a good idea.  Of course, we had no fun at all - it was just work allll day long, Mama Geek.  No fun.  Really.  You can tell by the video and pictures.  Oh, and: hooty hooty hooty bananas, GG!]

Now for the details of us skiing...

I fell down a lot. Here is a picture:

Here we are on the ski lift [DG: I liked the first picture, but GG insisted on showing the second as well.]:

Me getting ready to ski:

Here are some videos of me skiing:

DG: Sorry for the wind noise and shaky iPhone video.  Also, these are the trimmed versions -- we took almost 800 MB of video yesterday!

Now I have a challenge for you: Say "Hooty hooty hooty bananas" without smiling or laughing even a little bit. Daddy made that up. And no, that isn't related to skiing. It's just funny.

[DG: Actually, it was my way of getting GG to actually smile for pictures -- come up with something nonsensical and fun to say, then use it over and over and over again.]

Spring?

It's the first day of spring break.  This is what we saw this morning:

I'm tired of being cold.