Sitting Pretty

Well, we've been back in Ohio for a week and we've had a good time just hanging out together.

Wednesday, Creed and I got together with Reba and her girls and I'm so sad that a forgot to bring my camera because there's so much I wanted to share. The Pink Moon Cupcake Bakery recently opened in Powell and you know how I love cupcakes so we had to go check it out. The cupcakes were yummy so I decided to bring some home to the Zozes and Larry. Look how fun the takeout containers are! And as long as we were in cute downtown Powell, we had to stop by my favorite shop there, Bloomsbury Loft. Every time I stop there the store is totally different. I love stopping by to see the latest. We also stopped at the Spray park. The fountains are much too big for Creed, but he still had fun dipping his toes in the puddles.

And speaking of Creed, here's how he sat this morning, using his hands to prop himself up.

And here he is this evening. Look no hands!

Utah Highlights

Ok, I don't want to sound like I hate Utah; I LOVE it, it's just not quite home anymore. This trip actually reminded me that I have a lot of fun things to look forward to in Utah. I spent a whole day shopping with my mom and Candice and drooled over some amazing Halloween decorations. Who doesn't love Ikea, Gardener Village, and Dear Lizzie? Here's Creed in a cute shop in Gardener Village (sorry for the poor picture)

And speaking of Halloween decorations, my mom started decorating or Halloween since Candice's kids are really excited about Halloween and she is going all out this year. She only had the decorations that she bought this year up and it was incredible, but of course I forgot to take any pictures. Any chance you'll send me some mom? I do have pictures (that I did not take) of the two decorations that she bought me for my birthday so you can see what impeccable taste she has. I heart Lori C. Mitchell Halloween figures. Isn't she cute?

I also managed to make it to the BYU Bookstore with Mary Ann. What is it about the BYU Bookstore that I love so much? I went to pick up a BYU shirt for Creed (since once we move to the University of Utah he won't have many chances to wear BYU gear) but it's my favorite place to pick up cheap shoes that not everyone has (we're talking Payless prices here). I could have bought six pairs easily, but I limited myself to two.

I also got to eat at some of my places like Cafe Rio, Magelby's Fresh, and J Dawgs. And of course my parents beautiful back yard.

Creed and I were able to go to two of Grant's flag football games (Who knew there are first grade flag football teams?). They were awful, but that was one of the cutest things that I've ever seen. Here's Grant accidentally getting tackled.

And Creed and Cole on the sidelines.

Cole adores Creed and every time I turned around there was Cole watching Creed, eager for any chance to give him his binky or pat his fuzzy head.

The thing I looked forward to the most was Candice taking new portraits of Creed. I'm seriously so lucky to have her for my sister. Here's one of the pictures that we ended up with, which Candice posted on her blog. I can't wait to get the rest because believe it or not, there are a few I love even more than this one.
I really thing there are quirky fun things to do in every town, you just have to discover them so I'll just have to explore a lot when I get to Utah. For example, few people know about it, but I love Startup Candy Company. When I lived in Utah during elementary school, we had ballet lessons in downtown Provo and sometimes my mom would let us walk across the street to Startups Candy shop to pick out a sucker. They are big, old fashioned suckers on wooden sticks and they have the most amazing flavors. My mom used to sell them in her quilt shop too. The store has closed, but the factory still operates not far from there and you can still visit it to pick up your favorite flavor of suckers (it's the only place that always has all of them in stock) or you can buy cheap lolliflops that didn't turn out perfectly. They have odd hours (Mon - Thurs from noon to two). If it hadn't been for Larry's stepgrandma, I never even would have known about it and I love going there. They sell the same suckers at Sundance, and speaking of Sundance, we stopped there when were were up the canyon for Creed's photo shoot and did you know that this summer they have moonlit skilift rides during full moons? Wouldn't that be so romantic and fun (and cold, but that's a good excuse to cuddle up). None of my friends in town had even heard about these things and it makes me wonder what I might be missing around my own town. We only have one year left and we've already made a list of the things we still want to do here and we're working on crossing them out!

Creed goes to Utah

Creed met a lot of my favorite people while the two of us were in Utah, and while I neglected to take many pictures of the things we did, I did take a pictures of some of the people he met. So here they are in the order that I took them.

First, Mary Ann, my best friend since elementary school before we lived in Hawaii, and her adorable baby Malan. Malan is only two months older than Creed and these two really seemed to have fun together (although he was a little jealous of all that hair!) Keri & Jack were staying with Grandpa Ford (Creed's Great Grandpa Ford) and we visited everyday. Jack and Creed were endless entertainment to Grandpa Ford.

We had a Borup family get together on Sunday, but I didn't get a picture of the whole group. Here are my dad, Grandma, and Uncle Cory. Isn't she the cutest grandma ever? I would love to be as cool as she is one day.

And here is Grandpa Borup

Larry's mom's family, the Lewises, also got together on Sunday so they could all meet Jack and Creed and I didn't take a single picture!!!! I guess I was just to busy having fun and trying to figure out who all the cousins were without Larry's help. Larry's brother Scott couldn't make it, but Creed had a chance to meet him the next day. Thanks for coming so far to visit us Scott!

And Creed also got to meet one of my best friends from high school, Melinda, and her beautiful girls Laura and Sara.

And Last, but not least, three of my roommates from my freshman year of college, Em, Dayna, and Nikki. It's been way too long since I've seen them. So I have to admit that I was not as thrilled as Larry at the match for fellowship in Utah. This is our seventh year in Ohio, and the longest that I've ever lived anywhere so Ohio really feels like home. There was one night that I went on a walk with Creed and cried at the thought of moving there, but looking back at these pictures, I know it will be nice to be so near so many of our family and friends. I guess the rest of you will just have to move there!

Creed at Five Months

I'm posting these really late, but here are Creed's five month pictures. I can't believe how big this kid is getting. He's cuddly and chubby and cute. And awake right now even though he shouldn't be so I better go.

Keri & Jack

I'm a little behind in blogging. We had a great time with Keri and Jack, but I was suffering from camera frustration so I didn't take many photos. Keri has some great shots, but this is all I have from my camera for now.

Saturday we spent the day at the zoo. Creed enjoyed the hoards of kids more than the zoo, but he did take notice of a few animals. We wore him out so here he is sleeping with a sleeping manatee in the background.

Then we spent the evening at gallery hop. It was cool to see the arches changing colors. Sunday was spent at church and Inniswood checking out the bug sculptures with Jack. Then Monday we spent the day in Amish country. We ate lots of cheese, shopped, and saw lots of animals at Rolling Ridge Ranch. Here are Creed and Larry with a calf.

And Keri and Jack watching animals from the car.

Creed loved the emus, but Larry thinks they're terrifying so he said this picture made his heart stop when he saw it.

I think Larry's favorite part of the day was discovering an OSU gnome that he HAD to take home. You know how I feel about gnomes so let it be noted here that he ha agreed to keep thi in the backyard out of general view.

It's been so nice seeing these two cousins together. The best part was that Creed and I didn't have to say goodbye because two hours after Keri & Jack left for Utah, Creed and I headed out to Utah too. We miss Larry, but we're keeping busy. More about that soon.

Best Weekend Ever!

We are having so much fun with Jack and Keri. Keri picked the best weekend ever to visit because the weather is perfect, Larry actually has the whole weekend and Labor Day off (which is a miracle), and there are so many things going on around town this weekend. Larry was working on Thursday so the rest of us spent the afternoon at Homestead Park. Creed rode in a real swing for the first time. Doesn't he look comfortable and laid back? Jack had fun squirting Keri

And we spent the evening introducing them to Graeter's ice cream. Today, we started off exploring the Book Loft, one of my favorite places in town. We all found books that we couldn't resist. Then we stopped by the Topiary garden. It's Georges Seurat's, A Sunday On The Island Of La Grande Jatte laid out in bushes and who can visit Columbus without seeing that?

We lunched at the North Market where we picked up more yellow watermelon to share with Larry since it's his favorite and he was missing out on the fun.

Contrary to what this face might indicate, Jack did enjoy it.

After the boys napped we went to COSI, the children's science museum here. The last Friday of the month is Family Friday Night, when they stay open from 5 to 9 pm and admission is about half the price. Here's Larry on the high wire.

The ocean exhibit is one of my favorites and Creed was mesmerized by all of the water.

And Jack loved playing with the water table in kidspace

They even had a baby water table for Creed!

The weather has been perfect today. I wish it could be like this every day!

And right out on the Waterfront was the first Waterfire of the year. A few times during the year they have floating bonfires out on the river and they usually have a band playing, but once a year, BalletMet does a preview of their seasons during Waterfire and we happened to catch that tonight. It was so fun.

And to finish our perfect night we stopped for Jeni's Ice Cream!

Now we just have to plan the rest of our weekend. The Buckeyes are playing and Keri and Jack need to return to Texas with Buckeye Tees, and Gallery Hop is this Saturday and I'm told the arches will be multicolored this month, There's also the Greek Festival, but I have this thing about paying to go to a festival so I can pay for food, on the other hand, I'm told the Greek Festival s worth it. Shakespeare in the Park is still running. The Renaissance Festival is just beginning and where else can you come in contact with a crowd as "interesting" as a Renaissance Festival crowd? See what I mean about all of the things going on around here this weekend? on top of all that I think Keri and Jack might like to see Amish country, the Columbus Zoo, and the Airforce Museum in Dayton. Any of you have any favorite things to do with visitors?

Guess who is here . . .

We're so excited that Larry's sister, Keri, and her son Jack are in town! Many adventures are sure to follow! We can't wait!

Thewigglybridge

So you may remember my amazing friend Jessica Zozz who created all of these AMAZING things for Creed, which she gave to me at the baby shower that she was hosting? Well, months ago I showed her these knit baby pants that I am in love with. Then Saturday, Donny and Jessica treated me to a birthday dinner and Jessica handed me a little package with little knit pants inside for Creed! I love them and from the looks of it, I'd say Creed does too!

And they have stars on the bum! You know how I love stars!

And now for her next trick, the Amazing Jessica Zozz has opened her own etsy shop called Thewigglybridge and she's even making up her own patterns to sell there! Check it out if you have a chance!

A Good Deed Left Undone

I was cranky today. I went to bed around 2 a.m., but couldn't fall asleep until after 3 only to be woken up over and over again by Creed, who decided around 5 a.m. he was not to go back to sleep for another hour and a half. This afternoon I was on my way out to meet Katherine when I looked down and realized I was covered in spit-up. Then while I was at Katherine's someone sideswiped by car. The damage was minimal, mostly black stuff from their car that rubbed off and some scratches and a dent, but I was so annoyed. Who hits someone's car and just drives away?

Onto this evening, I been searching all over for a cute outfit for Creed because Candice is going to take new pictures of him while we're in Utah. I went to get this outfit with some gift certificates that I've been holding onto, but when I got there they had the hat in every size but Creed's, and they just started carrying it and the hat is the cutest part. I hurried over to Joann's to pick up some white paint for trim on fairy doors and they didn't have any. Seriously, they have zillions of colors of white paint, but not one single drop of plain old white paint. How is that possible? I decided that at least I could get some brown fleece to get started on Creed's Halloween costume and the woman at the cutting counter told me that every color of fleece BUT brown was on sale. Ummmmm, ok . . . It was just not my day.

I stopped at Panera before heading home because I was starving and wanted to pick up a bagel and you know what the girl at the counter told me when I went to pay for it? "Oh, don't worry about it." I asked if she was sure and she replied with a smile, "Yep. Have a good night!" Suddenly, that one tiny dose of kindness changed my day. It was only a little bagel, but I no longer felt like the world hated me and I drove home with a smile.

Does it ever occur to you to do something nice for someone, but you decided that you just can't afford to? That happens to me all the time. I keep finding myself wishing I could budget a hundred dollars a month just to do random nice things for other people. Someday, when Larry's a real doctor, right? (I know he's a REAL doctor, but he doesn't have a real doctor's salary) Here are a few of the things that I would love to do:

• Send someone dinner the day they get back from a big trip so they don’t have to go shopping (let them know you’re doing this ahead of time).
• Buy someone something on their Amazon wish list or etsy favorites and send it to them out of the blue.
• When you’re buying something for yourself that you are excited about like a new book and you know someone else who would like it, buy two and deliver the extra.
• Go delivering when you’re feeling down. By multiples of anything; pints of Ben & Jerry's on a hot day, your favorite new soda that you just discovered, fresh picked apples from an afternoon at the U-pick farm, sunflowers from the farmer’s market . . . then spend an afternoon sharing the love and delivering them to any friends that you catch at home.
• Pay for the person behind you when you’re picking up fast food or pulling into special event parking.
• Sends friends good mail just because.
• Your friend was just telling you about something that they want to learn to do? Sign them up for lessons or buy them supplies to begin.
• Download songs that remind you of a friend or a trip to burn a CD for those it reminds you of.
• Discover a new magazine? Surprise a friend with a subscription.

What are some fun things that you would do for others if you had a little extra money to spare?