A Trip to the Fire Department

This morning we participated in an trip to the Culpeper County Volunteer Fire Department that was organized by the wonderful mom's group that I belong to. We were given a tour of the department and trucks and a demonstration on how a firefighter gets into his gear. It was a lot of fun and Philip had a great time!

On our way to the fire department 

 Posing on the front of one of the engines

 Not very interested in smiling for mommy!

Gear demonstration

The inside of one of the fire engines

Painted alongside one of the ladders on top of the fire engine

"Jaws of life"

Gear and equipment

Axes and other instruments stowed inside of the fire engine

Various gauges on the truck

Daddy came too even though he was nervous about attending a mom's group get together!

Sitting inside of the fire truck

Philip was so small compared to the big fire truck!

Sitting in the passenger seat of the fire truck



Philip is always more comfortable trying new things if his buddy Elijah tries them too!



Taking a turn at the wheel of the antique fire engine!

On their way to an imaginary fire maybe?

"Don't worry, Elijah, we got this!"

Fire Chief Philip

One last photo op before we left!



Andrew: Two Months Old!

Andrew turned two months old on Sunday! Another month with our sweet boy has brought even more changes.

Milestones and developments from this past month:

• Smiling! Andrew began smiling around 6 weeks old. He does the cutest wide-mouthed, crooked smile. I call it his South Park smile!
• He's becoming more vocal. He's begun cooing a lot more and making less of his signature "baby elephant" grunting noises. 
• Tummy time. He's getting lots of practice with holding his head up and pushing up with his arms while laying on his belly. I can tell he's just itching to be mobile like his big brother!
• He's found his hands! A favorite pasttime is getting his fist to his mouth and trying to suck on it.
• Sleeping: Andrew is still waking up every two hours at night to eat. He will frequently do a three or sometimes even a four hour stretch of sleep at the beginning of the night, but for most part he is still up every two hours. He goes to bed around 9:30 and wakes up around 7:30.

Skyline Drive

On Sunday we made our annual trip to Skyline Drive for a picnic and some scenic views. Friday happened to be my sister Natalie's 26th birthday so we celebrated with KFC and "birthday pie." Natalie and I have fond memories of spending her birthday picnicking in the mountains, climbing trees, and posing for pictures at overlooks, and Phil and I have decided to recreate those special trips for our own children. Last year was Philip's first trip to the mountains. He had just recently begun walking and it was so fun watching him toddle around and inspect all of the leaves around him.

October 2009

There was more fun to be had this year, this time with baby brother in tow!

 

Same hat from last year!

Relaxing in the mountain air with Daddy!

Cheeeeeeese

Mommy and Philip

Aunt Nat and Andrew

Rough housing with Daddy

Favorite pic from the day!

We are so lucky to be so close to such a fabulous destination. Looking forward to many more years of picnicking in the moutains with our boys and hopefully camping and hiking in the near future, too!

A Trip to Hartland Orchard

It's Phil's weekend off and the weather was fabulous today so we decided this morning that today would be a good day to make our annual trip to Hartland Orchard in Markham, Virginia to pick apples. We've done this every year with the exception of one since 2004 and we look forward to it each fall. So we packed up the kids and made the 45 minute drive out to the orchard.

When we got there it was packed! We expected this as it was Saturday and positively beautiful outside so we weren't put off by the crowd. However, while making our way down the long winding driveway, we saw signs along the road stating that due to the long, hot summer, there were very few apples in the trees this fall and we might be better off selecting from their bins of already-picked apples instead of venturing into the orchard. Bummer! One last blow from the longest hottest summer of my life!

Oh well. We decided to get a bag of apples from the bins per their suggestion and we also partook in hamburgers and caramel apples while there. On our way in we noticed that their pumpkin patch was in full swing so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and take the opportunity to pick out our pumpkins as well.

We got two ginormous pumpkins, one for each of the boys, which we plan to carve using a Sesame Street carving kit we picked up at Target the other week. Philip is going to go crazy!

So it was a shorter outing than expected but a good one nonetheless. Andrew slept through most of the ride and our time at the orchard and Philip was in good spirits and excited to try his hand at lifting each pumpkin he saw.

Tomorrow I will put those apples to good use and bake a couple of the Barefoot Contessa's declicious apple crisps. Fall is finally here!

Big Brother and Little Brother, ready to hit the road!

Posing with his pumpkin

He made a bee line for this pile of toddler-sized pumpkins!

Just right!

Mommy and Andrew

Searching for the Great Pumpkin

Trying to pick up a pumpkin that probably outweighs him!

He loves sitting next to the pumpkins on the step. He likes to give them hugs!