the trip to Lanse

Another overdue post. Here is what I have so far. If you are an interested party represented in these pictures, I can send you more. - Jay

And then at the end of September, we took a long car ride to Lanse to visit some more of Mom's family. We stayed with my Great-Grandmother Johnson.



Just down the road a bit, was my Great-Great-Aunt Bea.



Later that night, my Mom's cousins Julian and Lily Kate (what does that make them to me?) came over for dessert. Pretty soon I'll be old enough to play with them!



It was good for them to hang out with me, because soon, Aunt Emily says they will have another little sister.



We also got to see an old barn that some of long-past members of the family built.



The next day, we went over to Julian and Lily Kate's house for brunch. Aunt Emily made a wonderful meal and Uncle Jamie helped keep all the dogs at bay while we played and ate.

We also got to meet Great-great-great Aunt Norma and Uncle Burt.

Such good people live in Lanse. We'll have to go back when I don't sleep all the time!

Let's Get Some Interaction

Ok, people. I know you're out there, but I'm just not hearing from you. (Well, I know there's about five of you out there that check this out regularly.) See, while we get to put up whatever we want on this here blog, you get to let us know what you think about. There are comment fields after every post, and you can put virtually anything there you like! But no one's doing that yet!

So, in an effort to encourage a little more interaction here, I hereby inaugurate a new type of post: the Write Your Own Caption. Every now and then, a picture will be posted with no commentary. Your job is to provide the context, real or imagined, for everyone's reading pleasure. It'll be fun. Let's try it with a picture from a recent post:

Now, your job is to create something about this picture! Here are some examples off the top of my head:
"Apple pickers of the world, unite!"
"If she's the apple of my eye, what are these things?"

Yeah, well, they're not that good. That's why you should come up with some of your own. Go for it!

A Trip to Longwood Gardens

As if all these adventures weren't enough, Mom and I visited Longwood Gardens with our friends Gretchen and Nat on Sep 28. Nat is a few months older than me, so he had a lot to tell me about during the car ride.



Check out these huge lily pads!



Oh, and here is a lovely flower (both me and the thing on the right).



Cactus, never seen cactus before!

We Are Family

Back on September 23, I got to hang out with more of my family. First, Grandmom Louise came to visit.


We went for a nice walk and had a spot of tea at the Green Line Cafe.


Also, that night, I got to go visit my Great-Uncle Carmen, Great-Aunt Joanne, and their three awesome daughters - Colleen, Lauren, and Gina. I got to hand out with lots of them, but unfortunately only got a picture with Uncle Carmen.



Oh, and they had this awesome round chair!

Thanks for letting us hang out that night! We'll come visit again.

Acony's First Trip to Linvilla

You may have already read about this over here, but back on September 16, we went to one of my folks' favorite places: Linvilla Orchards. Our good friends Luke, Bridget, and Bruce came along as well. Bruce got to hang out in a pretty cool backpack; I of course nestled into the sling.



There was a hay ride...



and apple picking.



I personally considered these apples to be less than appealing.



Later we had a fun dinner at my new friends' house. Such a fun day!



Let's do it again soon!

Random Cute Pictures

Cutsie pictures from the past several weeks....

The Wedding of My Aunt Bethany

So this post is way overdue. Over Labor Day weekend, we all traveled to sunny southern California to attend Aunt Bethany's wedding! My folks were pretty nervous about making such a big trip with me being so young, but I didn't mind one bit! I even enjoyed the plane ride by sleeping for most of it and checking out a bit of the Grand Canyon.



Poppy Lanford and Uncle Jon met us at the airport. Then we all drove to the hotel where I got to meetNana Lanford for the first time! I was so excited to meet everyone that I amazed them with my perfectly healthy excretory system. Here we are after getting cleaned up.


Most of the weekend for me was spent enjoying the sea breeze and watching the palm trees sway from the hotel.


There was an excellent rehearsal dinner, where I got some special time with Aunt Bethany before her big day.



My folks bought me that nice, ivory dress for the rehearsal. They also got me this super-cute brown-with-pink-satin number for the wedding!



Here's Aunt Bethany with my new Uncle Jon!


I also enjoyed meeting so many people from Dad's family. Awesome Great-Aunt Sharon.


Great-Aunt Donna, who is always good for a laugh.



The Steve Ginnings clan, being very affectionate with me.



My Great-Grandparents Ginnings! (oh, and my folks, dad's folks, Uncle Jon)



The indefatigable Cousin Kimberly (guess which one she is).



And if all that weren't enough, we also got to catch a glimpse of The Black Pearl sailing into the sunset.



We just had a lovely time. You would think a four-week old would be pretty drained after a coast-to-coast trip with multiple events crammed into three days, but I like to exceed people's expectations. Here I am at the airport in my home town; I'm so awake and alert, that I'm going to help dad carry all the bags to the car!