::for rachel::

My friend Rachel has been sick. She was in the hospital for while. While she was there I took some pictures of beautiful things to post here for her, since she was stuck inside. There wasn't much else I could do for her from so far away.
But I'm slow, and now she's home. I think she'll still enjoy this post though.
These photos were all taken on a walk around our neighborhood.
And yes, it is beautiful here.

I love the contrast of dark trunks and bright yellow leaves. So striking.


I asked Kris to model this sweet little valentine leaf for me.


Did King Midas walk this way today?


These are really more like spring flowers than most of the fall flowers that are around right now. They're such a delicate color.


This is a "magic wand" that Max found along the way.


More gold!


I love this photo. These hydrangeas are so beautiful. The blue color just makes me feel so happy.


Yeah. What can I say.


And my favorite leaves of the day. I love these that combine a vibrant color with some of their old green. They're just so beautiful.

So thanks for coming on a walk with us Rachel, I hope you feel better fast and soon! Love you!

::dog park=gross::

On saturday we all walked down the street to the "dog park." It's about half a mile away from our house, and the reason why put quotations around it is because it's not really a dog park. It's a field that belongs to the brown athletic complex. It's right next to the football stadium (which I think is very cute and quaint, I'll have to get a photo of it sometime) and across from the field where the Brown team plays rugby. There's like a shot put cage in the field and some long jump stuff I think.
They also use it as a parking lot during the football games, which is why there are a whole bunch of white lines painted all over it in these photos.

But anyway, everybody just brings their dogs there and lets them play off leash. I'm sure it's not officially supposed to happen, but we're happy about it! It's great to have someplace for Sultan to let loose once in a while and go crazy since he's stuck inside so much.


This is how it generally looks. A big tangle of slobbery dogs running around.

And don't forget the little boys making funny faces. They're always there too.

Anyway, we like to walk down there with the guys sometimes. Max likes to run around and chase the dogs, or play tag. We play catch sometimes (when the dogs don't grab our balls and run away with them.) We've also had him practice riding his bike without training wheels there. Unfortunately he ran over some poop. Gross.
But generally people do a pretty good job cleaning up after their dogs. And Max and Sultan love it. So we keep going.

See the enthusiasm here?

So anyway we went down there on saturday to let everybody get some energy out. It was kind of cold. Sultan was psyched to be there and was having tons of fun.
Kris and Max got ready to play a little baseball.

I was supposed to stand behind Max and grab the balls he missed before the other dogs grabbed them.

So there I was, standing right where I was supposed to, when suddenly I felt this warm sensation on the back of my leg. I looked down, and there was this dog. This horrible dog that was LIFTING IT'S LEG ON ME!!!! AUGH! It was not a good feeling. By the time I realized what was happening the dog was done and had trotted away. The owner had seen what happened and she felt terrible. She started apologizing. I said it was ok. I mean, what else can you say in a situation like that? I guess if you were a big jerk you could yell and swear at the owner or something, but that doesn't help anything.
For some reason Kris thought I hadn't realized what happened, and so from across the field he's like "Hey Ginna! You just got PEED ON!!" several times actually. That helped a lot. Especially because the owner kept apologizing, and all I wanted was for her to go away so that I could be miserable by myself.

The worst part was that I was wearing a pair of jeans I bought quite a while ago but have never been able to wear (they were too small) and I was really excited to get to wear them. And they're kind of nice.

Lame and gross, huh? I felt it on my sock and down my shoe too. Puke.
Here's the offender. Dumb dog didn't even feel bad at all. And now I have a complex about whether I look like a tree or a fire hydrant or a log or something.


And since the theme of this trip to the dog park was "gross" Sultan thought he'd join in by pooping in the grass. And since we never have a bag to clean it up with, Kris had to borrow one off of somebody else. Well, borrow isn't the right term.
Ewww.

Sultan didn't feel bad about it either. No remorse.

After that Kris and Max played football for a bit while I stood there with a wet pant leg. But Max really needed to burn off some more energy, so I tried my best to be patient.
Luckily Max doesn't last very long with football. He spends most of time like this.

Or falling down, or saying he's "SAFE" when he runs over to me.

Sultan doesn't last too long either. So luckily they all got worn out and we could go home.

And then on the way home we saw some guy puking into a trash can at the rugby game. So I think that completed the list of gross bodily functions for the day. Yuck. I think I'll wear Kris's waterproof pants on our next trip over there.

::beach picnic with grandma::

We took Kathy to the beach so that we could have a picnic. We had to make up for her missing out on the summer beach fun.

The weather was so gorgeous the week while she was here, we were in short sleeves and sandals, and the beach was just perfect.
We took Sultan with us, because after Labor day dogs are finally allowed on the beach. We hadn't brought him there yet, so we thought this was a good opportunity to try.

We laid out a blanket and told Max to stay out of the water. Well, we took his shoes off and told him he could dip his toes in.

Hah.

Luckily along with lunch we were also smart enough to bring some extra clothes and a towel for Max. But really I figured it was going to be too cold and uncomfortable for him to want to get all soaked. Boy was I wrong!

The boys went and played football for a bit.





That was pretty fun.

Then we went on a little walk down the beach. Sultan and Max found a gross little estuary left over from a higher tide, and of course they both basically wallowed in it.

It didn't smell that great.
Max made some sort of art installation. I like it.






Kris climbed out on some rocks in the surf, and it really worried Sultan. Can you see him trying to get out there? He was really relieved when Kris came back.

Sultan was afraid of the surf. It was a first for him, and he couldn't figure out why the water kept coming and going. He would jump away whenever it got close.


Sultan was fun to have along except that he kept getting sandy and muddy and then running all over our blanket. That did not make me happy.
And any time he thought there was another dog around (which was more often than you'd think) he'd run away up over the hill out of sight, which I hate.
Even that was ok, but one time he brought a dog back with him. The dog seemed friendly enough. But of course they ran straight onto the blanket, where I was sitting, and started running around. THEN the other dog decided it was all upset and started to growl and attack Sultan. Basically right on top of me. I had to scramble out of the way. It was pretty uncool, and after that we sent Sultan back to the car. I don't like dogfights happening on top of me for some reason.

There was old dead crusty seaweed all over the beach. I guess nobody cleans it up after Labor day. It was fine except that it really hurt our feet to walk on it. It was really spikey. But guess who it didn't bother? Max!
Check it out.

He walked all over that stuff and didn't even blink. This must be why he can walk all over his toys when they're all over the floor and not even notice. I should be so lucky.

We ate, we lay in the sun for a while, then we got Max all cleaned up and changed and we went home.
It was great. We were so glad we went. It couldn't have been nicer.
I love the beach out here. I think it's my favorite part of Rhode Island for sure. And I'm guessing Max probably feels the same way.
We're still working to convince Sultan.

::more color::

Just for fun.

::grandma came, and then she left::

Isn't that how visits always go?


We're so glad she came, but we were really sad that she had to go back home. Max didn't understand why he had to go actually. I had to explain to him that Grandpa Ken wanted her to come back and keep him company. Well he didn't really feel that was necessary. But I told him he was just going to have to deal with it.

The weather all week was so nice. The temperature was cool but not cold, and the sun shone the whole time. We were very lucky. And we got to enjoy it.

We went on a few drives and had some outdoors fun. I'll post about those separately. Otherwise we hung out with Max, ate good food and played games. It was great.

We did some sewing on fun projects too.



I don't love this picture, so just focus on the apron, ok?

I always love when Kathy comes and helps me sew. I learn a little more every time.

We lucked out with an early christmas present:

Our horrible loud lame vacuum decided to kick the bucket right when Kathy showed up. So she got us a new one. It's so wonderful. It's so nice to use. I love it! And so does my son. He's been walking around with it quite a bit.

We introduced Grandma to the deliciousness of the Seven Stars Bakery, which is just down the street from our house. We made a couple of visits there. It's absolutely delicious.

Here's Max looking on as the goodies are split up.

The brownies are incredible.

Max agrees.


The day she left we tried to take a few fun pictures of each other. The ones of Max and I didn't work out so hot:

He's made of jello.

But the ones of Max and Grandma turned out adorable.

Because they're both so adorable.


We had such a wonderful time with Kathy here. We're so happy she came. It was pretty lonely the day after she left, but Max and I will get used to it.
She's just got to come back soon!

::cute people::

I have my computer back! And not only is it back, but I actually was able to restore the system from my back-up. So somehow, miraculously, my computer is back just like it was before I so dumbly dropped it. But with a new hard drive. And that can't be bad, right?

When I was going through some of my photo files while my computer was dead, I came across some great shots from this summer. I promised myself that when all was back in order I'd work these up and post them. So they're from back in June when were in UT. I have more from back then too, and sometime in the next while I'll probably post them to. But without any further ado, here are some cute people. People that I like.






(how can I not include him?)


These photos are from a trip to the Taco Friend with my cousin Bryce and his family. Admittedly, these are only the people sitting right across from me. There were other cute people at the table that didn't get their portraits taken. But I guess that's how it goes.
Here are the rest of us. Kris is taking the picture, and I think Charlotte was off doing something else, but she was there with us too.

Good times.

Oh, and nice face Bryce!

::red::

One of the benefits of living in New England:


Wow, right? Hopefully I'll get to share some more incredible trees with you. I'll see what I can do. I just need to walk around with the camera welded to my face all the time. It's probably worth it!