The Garden

Last year we had some issues with blight, so this year Zach put together some raised beds. The veggies are doing really well this year except for our tomato plants, which have some kind of blight again, all four plants have been hit with it. We also did green bell peppers, bush beans, corn, cucumber, pumpkin, eggplant, several lettuces, swiss chard, yellow squash and zucchini. Here's the gang back in May planting all our 'crops'. Everyone had a great time, including Sabine.

When we got back from our trip last month Jacob was super stoked to harvest some of his veggies. He had me take a picture with the what he picked, and then wanted close-ups of each. This first batch was the best Swiss chard ever, and a zucchini.

We've been getting a lot of zucchini, and many, many cucumbers. There were four pumpkins to start, then two bit the dust, but just recently we noticed one more sprout, so there's three total as of now. We're thinking that last one will be timed just right for Halloween. You can see the garden full with life behind Jacob. Since this photo it's gotten so much bigger, with the vines taking over everything. And the corn is probably ten feet tall. Here's Jacob with his first harvest of green beans. Each time he picks something for the first time, a photo is requested. On this day he also got a zucchini.



This last photo is one that we'll have to frame. I don't think I've ever seen a kid so excited about his garden. This was late one night when we'd just gotten home from Camp. Jacob picked the first of his cucumbers, AND there was a tomato. A teeny, tiny tomato. Maybe the only one we'll get. It actually sat around for a few days before I did anything with it, then when I picked it up we saw that one side was rotted. I cut out the rot and it yielded one bite for Jacob. There are some other tomatoes out there but I'm not sure if they're going to turn red before the plants completely rot from the blight.

Sabine in the Garden

I haven't blogged much about our garden, but it is something that's been occupying a lot of our time this summer. Everybody enjoys spending time in the vegetable garden, and on this day Sabine especially enjoyed being left to her own devices there. She was very good and didn't dig everything apart, just sat there eating beans, just as natural as could be.

Lewes-Cape May Ferry

The last night of our trip we stayed in Delaware. In the morning we got up and drove to the Lewes-Cape May Ferry. I wasn't crazy about the ferry, but it was nothing compared to the tunnels we had to go under (which we're not going to talk about). I did get really freaked out when we went up to the very top deck because the motion up there was more than on lower decks. I was also really freaked out at all the people standing so close to the edge. One little shove and they could go right over. It took two pre-noon 'sedatives' from the bar to get to me actually enjoy the ferry ride. I don't know what's wrong with me, it seems like since I've become a mother EVERYTHING freaks me out.

(notice my mother holding my margarita so that I can
take the photo)

Behind Sabine in the left of the photo is the vendor who
charged three dollars for Jacob's ice cream sandwich.
We wouldn't have gotten it except he already had it in
his hand when we found out the price. So don't go there
if you're at the Cape May lighthouse.

Getting ready to dive into the sand.

A preview of next summer. We'll be there
next August with Zach's family.

Beach: Day 3

Just outside our room. I wish we'd just done this to begin with. It would have been awesome to have this room for two or three nights and pay a little more. But I'm glad we at least had it for the one night.
Wearing our matching t-shirts. These were originally purchased for me and my mother when I was a baby and had my first trip to Virginia Beach.


We called this the Beach Baby-Sitter. When we found out the kids really couldn't get out we decided to take advantage of the situation and grab a drink at the bar. Don't worry we gave them an umbrella for shade and a drink with a straw. We just had to be careful to make it back before the tide came in.

Beach: Day 2

The second day at the beach was much nicer and not very crowded. We did all the normal beachy things and had a blast. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

My mom will not be happy to see a picture of her on her,
especially in the bathing suit, but I think she looks adorable
with the kids so I'm posting it.

The biggest kid of all.

The Beach Pictures!

Zach and I are not huge beach fans, but when we were there with the kids it made all the difference in our level of enjoyment. It was so much fun being there with the kids. We loved it so much that we ended up spending a third day at the beach, trading in our tiny Norfolk hotel for a beach-front room on the last day. Ordinarily it would have been too expensive to do that, but everywhere we went you could tell places weren't at full capacity because of the economy, so there were many deals to be had.

The first day was overcast, but that was just fine with me because when it was sunny, the heat was hard to bear.

(Sabine enjoyed doing her Baby Yoga on the beach and
reveled in the attention it brought from onlookers)

Virginia

After DC we went straight to the hotel we stayed in for the wedding. We had two big rooms and stayed there three nights, the most nights in one place on our whole trip. We stayed mostly at Hampton Inns, as we're partial to them.

And here you have proof that we did attend a wedding, the reason for our trip. We didn't really get a good picture of the two of us, which I was a little bummed about because it's not very often I get to buy new shoes and dress up. We have been to almost 20 weddings together in the past 10 years.

There was much entertaining to be done on the many car rides. Here Sabine is practicing her Hollywood look:

"Please, no more photos. You're giving me a headache!"

At a pit stop at Cracker Barrel we found the perfect shirt for Jacob:

And here is the miniature arm chair that Zach and I each spent one night sleeping in. This was in Norfolk, VA. We kept the cost low by sharing rooms with my mom and Jamie. We asked for a room with two queen beds, as we did in each place because we know we can fit the two of us and both kids in a queen, but apparently not in a double because when we got to the room it was clear the beds weren't even full size, much less queens. They were doubles. We set Jacob up in the chair and made it like a cozy little bed but he didn't spend more than a couple hours there before migrating over to our bed, so either Zach or I had to go sleep in the chair. What memories.