Father’s Day

It is so fun watching Gary with Ellie. He is so good with her and love fills the room. I can see his pride in what a beautiful child she is and he beams when people comment on her big eyes or he gets a chance to talk about her latest milestones. I love this chapter of our life. Although parenthood has its challenges like sleepless nights I feel very blessed to have a wonderful husband who works very hard and is so full of love and silliness. I have more pictures than word for our weekend hopefully they express what a good time we had and show what a good man we have.

A New Toy

A toy arrived in the mail today for Ellie. Something I thought might be fun for her. It has lights and music and goes along with our Elli-phant theme.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGy_W9CPS_U[/youtube]

Then we put the batteries in and showed her what it does and this is her reaction…

Lazy Weekend

We had a slow and lazy weekend. Lounged around and enjoyed the sunshine. Sarah and I worked on some projects. While Gary got to enjoy his favorite fishing spot with our friend Jonny B. I love this picture of Sarah and Ellie. Ellie was pretty fascinated with the guitar. Hopefully this little introduction to the acoustic guitar will spark an interest in the future for Ellie.

She has officially grown her first tooth by the way. It broke through last week and she has been pulling some funny faces trying to figure it out. My favorite is the the lizard tongue. She is also full on crawling on her hands and knees and has made it across the room a couple of times. She also has some lizard type moves where she rocks a few times on her hands and knees before taking off. Like a Cameleon.

Many Things

So, due to my lack of organization and highly developed ability to procrastinate I have a plethora of subjects to blab or blog about.

First up, I have to gush a little over our wee one who is growing like a weed. Seems we blinked our eyes and she hit some milestones. She is now enjoying feeding herself Cheerios. Gary and I are so entertained by this as we watch her study it then pinch it and bring it up to her mouth and get it in there every three or four tries. Chip and Adah are grateful for the new source of crumbs to mop up. This has also brought on a new daily ritual of vacuuming the house sometimes twice a day as she does not discern a piece of dirt carried in by the dogs from a Cheerio. Oh those dogs… She is now pointing at things too, which is nice to get clued in on some of her wants and makes Daddy’s heart melt when she points at him and then gives a big hug and tries to leap into his arms. She has finally overcome the challenge of sleeping through the night. Let me say this was the hardest obstacle I have ever delt with. Many many middle of the night melt downs by all three of us. We as first time parents made a few mistakes or created some habits, but Ellie is proving that she can adjust and we are learning that consistency is the key. Ellie is proving to be very strong as well she is pulling her self up to her feet and getting around the house very quickly thus keeping us on our toes. We’ve had a few incidents with a plant and the screen door but (knock on wood) were lucky and came through with no harm minus a beat up plant. She is also enjoying her bedtime routine of reading a book and is turning the pages of her favorite board book with a lot of enthusiasm and gusto. Finally she has picked up on giving things “hugs and loves” this mostly applies to her collection of stuffed animal and every once in a while she will lavish mom and dad with some “loves” as well. Whew, I am a gushing Mommy.

Next up… June has officially been deemed the month of Sarah. Gary’s youngest sister is full filling her adventurous spirit and drove across the country from NY to come stay with us for awhile. She arrived on Saturday and will be staying until the end of the month after Grandma Marcoccia comes out for a visit and they continue the adventure on back to NY. We are thrilled to have Sarah stay with us. She brings a much welcomed break to our daily routine. Ellie and I now have a cohort for our shopping, hiking, and playing adventures and Gary has another person to tease and pick on. Gary and Sarah also have this long running thing about coming up with the nastiest collections like scab cereal or farts in jars. Some kind of a sibling ritual I don’t know. Anyway, things are working out well for her. She has already managed to get a temporary job helping out a friend with her landscaping business and we are working up some ideas for different projects here in Timberlakes. I’m thrilled to have Sarah here in fact this morning I spied her guitar and can’t wait to sit out on the porch in the evening and listen to her share her talent. Sarah has a very creative spirit that seems to be contagious when she is around.

Finally… We had another visitor the other morning. He was cruising through the neighborhood seeing who had the best trees to nibble on. He noted the real estate sign at the top of the driveway. That’s the most interest we’ve seen on our house so far. Sigh…

Antelope Island

I have been wanting to check out Antelope Island for a while now. I thought it’s silly to have lived in Utah all my life and not have ever stood on the shores of the GSL for a day. So we asked our friends Jodi and KC to join us for a one day vacation if you will and that is exactly what it felt like. Antelope Island was a pleasant surprise with a beautiful sandy beach, wildlife, and a historic ranch. We ate lunch at the beach then walked down to the waters where we checked out the beach rocks. Gary even splashed around a bit in the salty water. After sometime at the beach we ventured out to try to find some Buffalo. We were able to see two beauties lounging in the grass near the northeast shore. We traveled a few more miles down the road to a historic Fielding Garr Ranch where they were hosting some cowboy poets and singers. We listened to a few poems and wandered about the property stopping to say hello to the horses and take a break in the grass. On our way back to the “mainland” across the causeway the lake, mountains, and sky decided to come together for some beautiful views. The mountains and clouds were mirrored in the lake and we stopped a couple of times to take in the view. Our parting thoughts were what a crazy thing to have so close to us and never explored before. It was a nice little escape for a day.

You can checkout more of our photos here…

Herd of ’em?

More from me (Gary)…

Donna the Buffalo sounds like: “Ralph Stanley sitting in with Bob Marley’s Reggae/Zydeco All Stars, and that’s beyond nice…”

So I’ve recently discovered that there are a ton of killer Donna the Buffalo YouTube clips… Watching them reminds me that Jeb has about the best stage presence I’ve ever seen in a musician. You can see him in true form in the first clip below from 2006. In the second clip, check out the gathering herd and band at the Barton Hall in Ithaca ten years earlier in 1996…classic. And the third vid is a nice, mellow and rainy version of Way Back When from Grassroots 2007, last summer. Enjoy the sounds of central NY…

Buffalo, NY 2006 – Blue Sky
[youtube]AeuCl7LKLzw[/youtube]

Barton Hall Ithaca, NY 1996 – If You Only Could
[youtube]sG4tP3Chagk[/youtube]

Grassroots 2007 – Trumansburg, NY – Way Back When
[youtube]h7LKI87oFU8[/youtube]

Note: The Herd is a growing family of people who enjoy the music and atmosphere surrounding Donna the Buffalo.