Flashback Friday - Father's Day Edition

I have such wonderful Dads, Uncles, Brothers, Inlaws... here are some samples of the amazing fathers closest to me!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO:

Jon
Summer 2001 @ Beth's



Suman
August 2004 @ Niagara Falls



Brad
Christmastime 1998



Cam
Panguitch 2006



D
Bryce Canyon, Fall 2008



My Very Own Dad!!!
My wedding, October 2002



Much love to you all - have a great weekend!

Happy Father's Day to anyone I left out!

June Is...

When tan lines begin



You see things like hydrangeas growing in people's yards! (for you Mom!)



Birthday pedicures



Patio lights inspection time



Races (irace for MLD - my friend Nikki's daughter Eliza - go to www.elizaswish.org) Christina and I ran our first ever 5k!



Water Parks



Jumbotron kisses



BBQs w/ friends



I don't think we've ever used the fireplace in June. It had to happen on a recent stormy dark day...



We caught this rainbow on a walk the other week... I thought it was a promise but hey we love the rain anyway



PS D taught me the guitar riff that I am in love with from the song on my playlist "Through Her Eyes" (about the 50-second mark)... I have practiced it over and over the last 3 nights straight and then when I get fast at it I am going to turn the amp on full blast and D and I will play it in the pitch dark with the windows open this summer... such a tiny little goal but I'm so excited!

Kindred Spirits

I feel like I am kind of a Woody Allen. I need to watch more of his movies. I think it's a shame that I've only seen four! D and I watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona last night and we were roped into the drama. Quite the love triangle, er, trapezoid or whatever. I liked the ending. I LOVED the setting of Barcelona and hearing Juan speak Catalonian. So beautiful! Bonus because they showed so much of Gaudi's work, oh I was almost in tears. Having stood in front of the Sagrada Familia myself: his work astounds me, ah I want to go back now and see what I never got to see when there!



I was partly annoyed/partly entertained by the fact that the main characters in the movie talk JUST like Woody Allen. So disconnected yet somehow managing to string their stuttering thoughts and sentences together coherently. I love it! I love watching Woody Allen. Really I developed this fascination with him a long while ago when I watched "Manhattan," but then it fizzled for a bit and now it's back! I see a part of myself in him in some weird way and it is... well, like I said: entertaining and annoying.

Anyone have suggestions... your favorite Woody Allen movie?

Cute Kids & Bangladesh

If these kids were any more energized, I don't know what we would've done with ourselves! Codi and I had been at the zoo maybe 15 minutes at this point.



Poor Croz is this perpetual teether and has had his hands in his mouth for days now. He didn't like the merry-go-round at first but once it started moving he was smiling.



Taking a breather



Gazing at small animal exhibits



Hallie and C coloring at Old Navy



They splashed around in the fountains at Gateway (actually Hallie did in her little orange bikini while Crosby observed the older kids screaming) and then making mischief in the car



So I have roped myself into doing Bikram yoga until November! It will be good discipline. I am excited to be doing this. If any of you are still interested, there's always the 10 days for $20 deal going and we can go to a class or two together!



Here are some more pictures from our time in Bangladesh back in January. I've had our slideshow done for quite a while now but Blogger does not like iphoto. So I will put what I have created on a DVD sometime soon and at least have it frozen in time that way.

We were beyond blessed to have had the opportunity to visit Bangladesh; I normally can articulate my feelings and experiences pretty well but when it comes to our time in Bangladesh it feels like a blockage. It's as if that time was a dream and that dream will only allow itself to stay preserved in pictures still. It is so bazar. I am having writer's block with it and since February I have been desperately wondering why. I have what I wrote in my journal while we were there. It might be that words won't do the trick until time has marinated some of my memories. It was a very special journey for both of us! Yet it wasn't all la vie en rose. There were challenges and complications, questions and sadness along with joy and fulfillment and humor. It must be that our experience there feels like years and years trapped within one month's time. So on I go with the pictures until I feel otherwise!

Here is D's mom Sabita with her only two surviving siblings, Amal Kanti and Puspa. This is a morning when we had stayed in the village and they had just had something to eat and it was so hard to get a picture of just these three, but we persisted:



When we were staying in Dhaka at D's cousins' home, his daughter Susmita turned 13 on New Year's Eve. He bought her this cake and we celebrated. If anyone knows me, they know that if cake is anywhere within my range, it will be gone within seconds unfortunately. I dug into this ravenously only to quickly notice an oily flour substance in my mouth... I don't believe there was a smidgeon of sugar in the frosting OR the cake. Yikes!



D with his cousin Anup's two kids, Plabon & Susmita. They were with us 24/7!



When we visited the southernmost tip of the country at Cox's Bazar, we got to see the most gorgeous scenery



In the village of Shakpura visiting D's cousin Sushanta (far right), his wife Ruma, and their son Dabashis (2 yrs). D's cousin took us one morning on a walk that lasted around two hours. He spoke fairly good English and expressed how badly he wants to make it to America:



Their little two-year-old boy jingled when he walked/ran around. I finally asked what that sound was and D's mom said they tie these bells around the waists of their children in order to keep track of them!



This spider was just in our room in Dhaka (the main city!) and does not compare to the size of the one D spotted on his way to the toilet in Chittagong. I wasn't even close to the state of mind to think of a camera; I could barely swallow and breathe let alone think of taking a picture. Anyway, there are some bigguns'.



Rickshaws are a major mode of transportation all over Bangladesh, and some of them were loaded up like you wouldn't believe! Whether it be people, papers, food, wares... they will find a way to get it from Point A to Point B.



When we were at a market shopping, D's cousin took us to this store to get a drink and here's what was on the menu... when I asked him, "What is pasta ice cream?" he said, "mixed food." MMmkay.



In Chittagong we stayed in this apartment place with D's aunt and the neighborhood was chock full of kids. We'd be walking back home and would be followed by streams of kids and people. I loved it at first and I would try to talk to them but it soon got overwhelming because they would try to follow us up the stairs home and there were TOO MANY! At one point I bet 100 kids.

One time we had been up visiting with the family and I decided I needed to go downstairs and take a video of some of these kids. So I came down and within about 30 seconds lots of people came out of nowhere! I wanted so much to spend more time with them... the problem was there were way too many and it just wasn't possible, so it made me so sad. But here's a short video of some of these beautiful people until my battery ran out ):



Speaking of people following you... it was weird. When in Bangladesh, I was looked at with VERY curious eyes every single place I stepped. Very truly when I thought about it I realized that these people... who some of them have NEVER seen a white-skinned person in their entire life... had a right to look at me like I was a true alien. I can see where they're coming from, but I can't believe how tough it is to have no privacy! I'm kind of getting used to that concept now that I have a child though. Anyway, from my journal: "I'm trying to be patient with the thousands of staredowns I get hourly, but of course it has already gotten pretty old! It's just so unavoidable though but I get to wanting a paper bag over my head quite a bit." Here I am checking things out in a jewelry shop and I didn't know D took a picture:



In Shakpura when we went out to look around at the market, we were taken with the way this man spread these leaves. Aren't they beautiful?



Surupi asked me one day to go with her to pick up her daughter from school. Walking home I spotted these Bengali school busses!



D's family, in the various places we visited, always took us to a Buddhist temple. This one was in Dhaka and it was so pretty to be there at night. At this particular one we lit candles at the base of the Bodhi tree. These trees were at the sites of most of the temples; under the Bodhi tree is where Buddha achieved enlightenment.

Toddlerhood

Crosby is a bona fide toddler. No mistaking!

Last night it was cool on the patio. I can't believe how fulfilling it is to sit and watch my child. He must make 8,000 different faces. He has times where he needs 10 different things to occupy him during any given hour, and he has times when he will be so happy to devote himself to one thing for a long span of time. For instance, his "new" hand-me-down mower from his cousins.



Though the bum wheel makes it probably four times as hard to push, I think he considers it a challenge. And why not develop those baby guns sooner? It is so funny. Croz loves to work hard. He really does: when I do laundry, he wants to push the basket around, when he gets out of the stroller he has GOT to bend down to the little basket below and push it himself. He now hands me food off of the floor (that he's thrown various places during meals) and gives it to me to throw away. Or once in a while he'll just eat it and take care of things himself.

It was already an hour past C's bedtime when he started mowing and so when it was time to take it away, I got a series of these:



When he is tired - before he hits his inconsolable exhausted cry stage - he becomes extremely involved and focused. It's like his tired before really tired stage. It is really cute, he acts like he has a very important project to complete and will not tolerate being interrupted or bothered.

We took a walk last night too and were drawn to a gorgeous blossom tree, so I let him get out of the stroller and look around. He heard a car start up and made this face:



I'm told I just have to accept the bumps and bruises of toddlerhood, sad as it is. Croz is a toughie, I can't even believe it! He will get his mini fingers stuck, smashed, caught... but then he doesn't yell out or anything. It is kind of a curse because I want to help him but many moments will pass sometimes and I turn around and he is standing with his whole set of fingers smooshed in a drawer and stands there with his nose scrunched and mouth wide open like a silent "Aouch," but just... stands there!

Monday he fell down our porch stairs and got two head scrapes (which are already gone), Tuesday we walked to the library and on the way back he was running so fast and tripped over D's shoe and scraped his arm, Wednesday he was trying out that bum wheel lawnmower for the first time on flat ground and fell straight down on his little baby knees...



Poor baby guy! I truly don't think any of these were avoidable. It just makes me so sad to see him hurt and to see that perfect baby skin get scuffed for the first time, dangit. And bandaids are a lost cause so... oh well I guess I better get used to it. We went to the park with Amy and Sam on Thursday and in this picture I noticed a little bruise next to his eye which wasn't from the stair incident so I don't even know where that came from. He loves sandboxes. Oh how we love you so baby guy.

Cover Contest

Happy Birthday Claire!

This is my adorable niece Claire and she turns 4 today!



We called her this morning to sing happy birthday and she was at Toys R Us picking out a new bike, lucky girl. Her mom let her choose any dinner for tonight and she said she's having pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. I've always thought we were kindred spirits...

Claire is unique. We have the BEST time with her... D and I and Croz have been so lucky to spend time with my brother's kids when we visited Cleveland recently for his dental school graduation. Here is when we were at Cuyahoga Park walking a trail back to the car. Claire was walking with D and me, but then stopped and said, "I want to walk with Grandpa." She absolutely loves the guys of the family, it's funny.



Well this Cleveland trip Crosby took his first plane ride. He enjoys window seats the most.



Me, Pat, and Steve all flew out to cheer for our bro



Whoever coined the phrase "Cleveland: the armpit of America" was mistaken. D and I felt like we would move there if we could. We've visited in Winter and now in Spring and truly we think the area is BEAUTIFUL. It is so lush and green right now. There are large houses with acres of yardage, woods, really neat places to take your family, awesome grocery stores... we love it in Cleveland! This is Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Park:



Generations



Cuyahoga Valley National Park



Ice Box Cave



Ledges @ the park



Cam and Brig



Almost all of Cam's fam (Grant was @ school)



The kids hanging out together



D and I watched all of the kids while everyone went to Kirtland on Saturday and we made this clubhouse



Then we made cinnamon rolls... Grant and I had so much fun making the dough



Can't tell ya how nice it is to have my whole family in one spot



Cam's graduation from Case was in this gorgeous church



Here he is at the end of it all! The organ music was surround-sound in that church and it sent chills right through to watch them walk to the music; such a happy day.



Anyone spot Cam?



Proud parents



Proud Beth!



Cam and his family



Us!



The whole group



Did I mention I'm proud of my brother? Lots of sacrifice to get to this point



Speaking of sacrifice... it was cute, after many pictures were taken and we were standing around basking in the (extremely bright) sun, Cam took his robe off and started to decorate Audrey, saying, "She is the one who deserves this!"



Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum (make sure you have a FULL day if you ever go)



Browns please don't let us down



Lake Erie



D and I checked out Lake View Cemetery. This place is so large and spacious... some of the most beautiful vegetation I've ever seen. At the cemetery they have the James Garfield memorial building, which I found to be so beautiful as well:



The juxtaposition of bright and rusty



The ceiling inside, I thought I was in the Vatican for a second



President Garfield



He rests here alongside his wife



D, me, and Cleveland skyline atop the James Garfield building



Loved this door!



West syyyyyde



More shots of this pretty building



Loved it



My mom and dad and their FOUR GRANDKIDS!



This was (one) of the big moving days. My dad had worked so hard all day organizing things in the moving truck, so he was on the floor resting and the kids started climbing on him. He pretended to be a monster who for some reason only would eat kids who are sweet, otherwise he'd spit them out. So here they are waiting to be eaten:



Claire would have done this all night if they let her... she kept going up to my dad saying, "I'm sweet, I'm sweet!"



Crosby fit in with the kids so well it scared me. Scary because it makes me realize how much he needs a brother or sister! Honestly I find such joy in watching these kids together. Grant has the role of big brother DOWN... he was a jewel with Croz and would look at him with adoring looks I only thought adults knew how to make. Here Grant let C use his little Transformer ball and Grant kept saying, "I can't believe he knows how to figure that thing out!"



Crosby and Claire were two peas in a pod. Despite the fact that she wants to be his mother, they play really well together and they are the most fun to watch. She says, "Come here Croz," and when she says his name it sounds like "Croth" with her little lisp. She was pushing him all around the yard in this monster truck:



Brig's a little different story... he is still warming up to his cousin. I wonder if he thinks Crosby's moving into his family and so he's protective of his role as baby of the family. Brig likes to tattle tale on Croz!



The way back home these happened to be C's only clean clothes left, and of course the women of Delta were swooning at the little airplanes on his shirt



SO HAPPY TO HAVE CAM, AUDS, GRANT, CLAIRE, AND BRIG BACK IN THE SAME CITY!!!!!!!