The most fun you can have at a ballpark...

This Saturday, the three of us participated in the Famous Racing Sausages 5k at Miller Park. It was the 13th annual running, but the first time any of us had been there. It was absolutely fantastic! All the racing sausages were there (hence the name of the race, I presume) and the race course takes you through Miller Park - you get to run (or walk!) by the dugouts!

Amita was amazing in her first ever 5k - she was content in the stroller from start to finish! Although the weather was a bit hot (over 80 degrees at 9am!), she was a champ and didn't fuss at all. Aaron and I took turns pushing the stroller and we definitely earned our free hot dogs, waters, and beers - complimentary with race entry. We had so much fun, we are already talking about doing it again next year!

One of the advantages of not running a race for time... you can stop and take all the photos you want!

All the Racing Sausages hanging out at the finish.

Amita and mom enjoying a short break in the ballpark during the 5k.

UP North

Last week, Amita became an inter-state traveller for the second time in her short life. The first was to visit her cousin Piper in Minnesota. The second was to visit her cousin Piper in Michigan! And of course, she got to see Grandpa and Grandma Morehouse, Aunt Sandra and Uncle Dave, and a whole bunch of UP and non-UP friends. It was a whirlwind weekend, but a blast to see everyone. And both girls seemed to travel very well, which made everything a lot easier for the parents. Trust me... a happy baby on the road makes for a much more enjoyable trip (remember the post about our MN trip... we weren't as fortunate on that one!).

Cousin Piper is very mobile - she is rolling everywhere and crawling around as much as she can too. As a result, Amita got to use one of Piper's "old" toys - a Bumbo - which allows her to sit up in a baby sized chair. After a few days using that and working her sitting muscles, Amita actually sat up on her own for the very first time!

How cool is this? I actually bought these because Amita really hates bright sunlight... but the stylish factor is also pretty fun.

We took the girls to the beach for the first time while we were in the UP. Normally, Lake Superior is not very swimmable, but it was quite warm given the recent heat wave. Neither Piper nor Amita felt like the water was warm enough, but we had fun anyway!

Amita's first time swimming!

The whole family at the lake.

There is a funny story about how we came upon this retro stroller - one that I will share another time - but we got to take Amita out for a little walk in this cool buggy. It is surprisingly advanced for being ~40 years old!

Amita hanging out with Grandma M.

The girls with Aunt Sandra and Grandpa Morehouse. I think Piper is going to be a gymnast or a cheerleader!! Meanwhile, Amita has shown a real talent for drooling!!!!!

Teeth, Trees, & Ear Infections

It has been an exciting several days at the Bubb house! Amita's second tooth came in... then receded... and has now returned again! I'm hoping that it will stay this time so that she can finally be done with that second pesky tooth. She has also hit another milestone... she got her first ear infection this weekend. Her only symptom was spooky eyes (yellow mucus like pinkeye). Fortunately, we've got her on antibiotics and she'll be fine for our big weekend with the family. Whew!

Baxter and Amita have become best friends. He is fine laying by her and lets her "pet" him. He has also claimed her bouncy chair and jumperoo as his own. It was a game of chicken to see who would give up control of the jumperoo first... Baxter blinked first and Amita emerged victorious. It might have had something to do with her stomping on him several times, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

Aaron managed to put up a ceiling fan in our bedroom - thanks much to the oversight and skill of Paul, who has installed over 10 fans now. He's a real pro! And this worked on the very first try... Impressive!

Our sidewalk is now complete - there is mortar in the joints around the stamped stones. It looks even better than we ever imagined!

These two cranes showed up at our house last week Thursday and have been hanging around every day since. Aaron has named them Niles and Frasier.

Baxter climbed into the tea cabinet while we were whipping up a batch of tea. Who would've guessed that big guy could even fit in there?!?!?!

The auger used to dig the holes for our trees. We have officially met all the subdivision requirements now!

We moved our sugar maple to the west side of our front yard.

We planted an autumn blaze maple in the back yard. It's nice to have a little greenery back there to look at.

The two river birch on both sides of our driveway. The sugar maple moved to accommodate these big fellas.

Drive In, Drive Out

As I mentioned in the last blog post, we've had a lot of action happening in our yard recently. We no longer have a gravel driveway... instead, it is a gloriously smooth, paved drive AND walk! This means that Amita is not jolted awake in the stroller going over our giant driveway bumps when we return from our walks anymore. How fantastic is that?!?!

Just in case you don't remember what it looked like... here are the before pictures of the driveway and path to our house.

The forms were put into the yard during a very heavy rain. It was the only work that could start on time - the weather delayed us by about 2 weeks! It was also very challenging to keep the mailman off of our forms while we waited for the concrete.

The freshly poured driveway and walk!

The very first car to ever drive on the new driveway!!

No giant bump up to get in the garage anymore - the MINI loves it!

Our walk has decorative stone stamped and stained into it. It turned out even better than we imagined!

First Fourth

It finally feels like summer - and not a moment too soon, since it's the 4th of July already! Amita was sporting her red, white, and blue today. The hope was that it would distract her from her second tooth (which has not quite yet poked through, but is making its presence known). It wasn't as much of a distraction as we would have hoped. But we (finally!) got her to take a nap this afternoon and when she awoke, she was all smiles and even a laugh. We all know what a joy sleep is now-a-days!!

We have been busy with our every day work and life, but also doing several projects in the yard (not to worry - those photos will be in an upcoming post!).

This was the first year we spent 4th of July at our house (we were in Minnesota last year) and we spent last night on our screen porch watching fireworks in our pajamas. We could see 6 different locations of fireworks from our vantage point, as well as fireflies all over the yard. It was a gorgeous and relaxing night. We'll see what the 3rd and 4th bring in terms of free entertainment!

And now what everyone is waiting for... a whole bunch of photos!!!

This is Amita in her fancy flip flop outfit from Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandra. The amazing thing is that Daddy was able to dress her up in this (fuzzy head all the way down to the cute cork flip flops) all by himself!

Amita chillaxin' in one of her summer ensembles. It has been VERY warm this week!

Our future engineer. This little number followed Grandpa Morehouse home from the gift shop at Tech.

Amita has discovered her feet and takes every chance she has to play with them. It's cute as shown below... but not as cute on the changing table...

After bath time in her froggy towel.

Baxter taking advantage of an open seat in the house.

Putting in some tummy time. Amita has started to sporadically roll over to get at toys. I have a feeling it won't be too much longer before she really gets moving!