Family Gathering in Duck, NC

We had a wonderful week with the entire family on the Outer Banks in Duck, North Carolina from September 15 through the 22nd.

For a beautiful photo journal, see Laurel's blog at http://www.larslaurel.blogspot.com/2012/09/outer-banks-vacation.html.

I hope to write on this blog with more photos soon.

Siena Marie at 3 weeks

Siena and I had a few quiet moments, so I snapped a few pictures...She has a lovely little pink cradle to lie in during the day.

FIRSTS

Tuesday was Ella's first day at pre-school for a fun time of meeting the new kids in her class and her new teacher.  Grandma got to take her to this event and hang out with the older 3's and 4's for an hour or so. 

  

Then after naps in the late afternoon, baby Siena and Mommy and Daddy came home.

A sweet moment.

Welcome Siena Marie

Siena Marie was born August 12, 2012, at 3:46 p.m., Sunday afternoon. She was 20" long and weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. Grandma arrived the next evening in time to visit Sharon and Siena in the hospital with Ella and Leo.

One day old.

Each of the kids received a gift from Siena. Leo got a pillow pet...

And Ella got a new baby of her own!

First look.

Helping the photographer get Siena ready for her first photo shoot.

Short Vacation to New Jersey

Rich had a few days off the end of July, so we decided to spend some time visiting with his brother Bob and wife Janis. We arrived in Collingswood Saturday morning in time to visit the local farm market to get some things for dinner. Then Rich and Bob went in search of some meat and did some sight-seeing along the way. Janis and Susan spent some time catching up and chatting about a variety of things.  We enjoyed hearing about their house in Mexico and some of the places they have visited in their travels. We had liver wurst, olives, pita, crackers, and cheese for lunch. For dinner Janis made a scrumptious dish of clams from Clam Daddy at the market, chicken from the meat hunting trip, fresh bread, tomato salad, and pistachios.   

On Sunday morning we all went to the new Barnes Museum in Philadelphia, a wonderful collection of impressionist art - including the largest single collection of paintings by Renoir in the world.  We also saw works by Cézanne, Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh, Rousseau, and Matisse.  The displays also contained decorative items, furniture, and sculptures. It was possible to get pretty close to the paintings and objects and to take as long as one wanted in each room.  It would take several trips to the museum to really see everything on display there.

After the museum we went to lunch at Whole Foods, across the street. We dropped Bob and Janis back at their house and headed to Atlantic City to a hotel in Absecon, near the beaches.

Both Monday and Tuesday were spent primarily relaxing on the beach, soaking up the sun, and reading. We found an almost deserted stretch of beach just north of Sea Isle City where we could watch the waves and sand crabs without being sprayed by sand kicked up by people going by.

Back in Absecon we had a great Chinese meal at the China Seas Restaurant, and had a good lunch at the Black Cat, both a short distance from our hotel. We used the hotel pool and exercise room and generally just had a wonderful time.

Saw something at the shore I had never seen before - a boat billboard! The scene on the screen changed every few seconds. The boat was really too far out to actually read what was on the billboard, but the camera caught it on zoom...

Wednesday morning we went to the Atlantic City Boardwalk for breakfast, then headed home. Kat and the kids came over in the afternoon and Daniel rode his tractor while Rich mowed the lawn. Abby is really crawling now and had fun playing with a little piano we got for her.

It was very nice to reconnect with Bob and Janis. So glad we took the time to get together with them!  It's good to be with family.