Nature? In Southern Michigan?

I am proud to announce that we have found a bit of nature in Southern Michigan! On Sunday the four of us drove out to the very cute town of Grand Ledge and spent a good portion of the day playing and hiking in the park there. It actually was quite beautiful. I guess over the years the river has worn away at the limestone in the area making these really beautiful ledges, hence Grand Ledge. The hike that we went on also passed by a steel bridge built in the late 1800's. Good stuff.

We have also come to the conclusion that our boy is definitely at his happiest when he is outdoors. He loves the sun, sand, dirt, pine cones, and trees more than his blankie I think. Well, maybe not that much! In less than a week we will be leaving for Northern California again so he will get his fill of the outdoors there. We can't wait to go!!!

Summer

Happy Summer everybody. After completing this last semester I was so excited to be entering into I time I thought would be relaxing and full of free time. Ha! The summer started off with a bang. To make some extra money I taught a two week class on Forensic Science as a part of this really neat summer program offered by our local public school district. I taught two classes a day to a wild group of 13 year olds who all were very interested in forensics but unfortunately were all a little too excited! I was surprised to learn that many of the parents of these 13 year-olds let them drink energy drinks in the morning. Now that's a great idea! Get them incredibly hyper for the three hours they are in class so they completely crash by the time the parents come pick them up. Anyway, we covered everything from fingerprints to forensic chemistry. We took a vote at the end of the class and forensic anthropology was unanimously voted coolest type of forensics.

I have also been working this summer on a project (that will hopefully get me published) and trying desperately to get my thesis off the ground. Several months ago I developed an interest in teeth and the many different ways in which teeth are useful in forensic investigations. One of the most useful techniques used to determine the age of a subadult is the growth and development of teeth. If the subadult has some sort of pathology or disease, however, the accuracy of the age estimate will be affected. This is what I plan to look at in my thesis. More specifically, I will be looking at the affects of cerebral palsy on the growth and development of teeth. Hopefully everything works out and I will be able to collect enough resources to get this thing off the ground.

Connor has been growing by leaps and bounds! He's 25 lbs now and climbs everything! He loves music and is already trying to sing along. His favorite song is "Old McDonald" and he loves to say tweet-tweet and meow-meow at the appropriate times. His vocabulary has expanded to include dog and well (his version of Noel, who is visiting right now by the way). He is also climbing stairs now. He's not quite tall enough yet to actually walk up the stairs but he is certainly a good climber.

Well that's probably enough for now. I will leave you with some pictures taken recently during our hot hot days and the Fourth of July. (These are for you Grandma!!! Noel told me you were waiting anxiously for some new pictures of Connor.)

She's alive!!!

Three semesters done...two to go! I can see the finish line and boy does it look good. This last semester was quite a challenge but I have emerged victoriously with a little help from my mother and mother-in-law. Oh! And Tom too! Although my classes were really tough this time around I sure have learned a lot. Sometime in the near future I will share with you all how anthropologists view the concept of "race." It's really interesting.

So much has happened in the last month and I have so many pictures to share (which is why most of you read my blog anyway). Here is kind of a hodge-podge of what we have been up to this last month including playing in the grass, picking "flowers," visiting the Detroit Zoo, and a tour of the Michigan State Capitol building.

A little slice of Seattle

Last night Tom and I were lucky enough to take a break from the craziness that is the end of the semester. Connor stayed with a babysitter while we went to a Death Cab for Cutie concert...can you believe it? They came here to East Lansing. It was like having our own little slice of Seattle. They are such a great band. There music is creative and smart, not to mention the fact that they are great performers. Some of their music makes me tear up though thinking about growing up in the Northwest. One of my fondest memories of their music is how the father of one of my best friends in the whole world used to call them Dead Cat for Katie....oh how we used to roll our eyes at our parents.

The concert took place in the basketball stadium so when we sat down we found ourselves sitting on bleachers amidst a huge group of 18 year old undergrads. Man did that make me feel old. There was absolutely no room so Tom and I went to the ticket counter to see if they could move us back up to the chairs. They told us no but they could place us in the handicapped seating. I guess we looked too old and decrepit to be sitting with all the "kids." So we had our seats changed and ended up sitting on a balcony with chairs that we could move anywhere we wanted and only had to share the place with two other people It was great. We are pulling the handicap card now every time we go see a show!

Happy Spring everybody.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody! We love you and miss you terribly!

Culinary Horizons

Over the last few weeks Tom and have tried to widen our culinary horizons by trying all sorts of new dinner and dessert recipes. I figured that as we went along I would share with all of you the recipes that really stood out. The first one that comes to mind is one that I found just recently in a wonderful cookbook by Nigella Lawson called Feast. The recipe itself is called Chocolate Guinness Cake and is pictured above and yes...it does contain some Guinness. Interestingly, however, the flavor that the alcohol leaves in the cake does not taste like alcohol at all. Instead the cake has a bit of a tangy flavor that is really appealing. It is a really dense and moist cake with a creamy whipped cream cheese frosting and if anybody is interested I can send you the recipe.

I leave you now with a picture of my little man who is now 15 months old and finally walking!!!

Home again...

Our short trip to beautiful Northern California has come to an end and we are back to the routines we left behind in Michigan. Spring is slow to arrive to this part of the country but we are enjoying our slightly above freezing weather and the return of the chirping birds. We have just contented ourselves with the warm and wonderful memories of our trip across the country this past week...


This is the view of Mt. Shasta that is visible from my parents deck. I can't even begin to express how beautiful this little corner of the world is.


This is another view of Mt. Shasta during the day and from a much higher vantage point.


During the fist few days of our visit Tom's mom joined us and we traveled to several wonderful little towns throughout the Siskiyous and beyond. Connor's favorite town was Jacksonville because it had a wonderful toy shop where his Oma bought him a rather noisy toy.


One of the little towns that we past through had a small motel that was made up of 20 or so old rail cars. It also sat at the bottom of another natural wonder of the area known as the Castle Craigs.


Here is another view of the Castle Craigs. The photo does not do it justice.


We took the long way back to Sacramento through tiny towns like Ferndale and Weaverville. Most of the time was spent peeking into adorable little shops and enjoying the scenery.


We stayed at a wonderful little Victorian Inn in Ferndale with period furniture and everything. I woke up in the middle of the night hoping to see a ghost of some sort but alas...no luck.


I was surprised to not see a ghost as we were right next to one of the oddest cemeteries I had ever seen. It stretched all the way up this little hill and was really quite old. Many of the graves belonged to individuals who died in the late 1800's. Too cool, but that's the forensic anthropologist in me speaking.


We also drove through a section of the Redwoods known as the Valley of the Giants which was absolutely amazing. It was so dark and peaceful beneath those gigantic trees.


What a wonderful adventure. And the best news of all...


Connor took his first steps on his own on Wednesday! Yay!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody...cheers!

California

My goodness...life never seems to slow down. Right now I am so grateful for Spring break and my parents as I am writing this post from their house at the base of Mt. Shasta in sunny and warm California. I absolutely refuse to go back to Michigan now! I can't even begin to describe the beauty that surrounds us in this little corner of the world. I will be sure to post some pictures as soon as possible. So far we have been all over Siskiyou and Shasta County and are planning a trip out to the coast this weekend.

In other news Connor is now standing on his own. He hasn't quite made any steps without our help but he teeters about the room quite quickly with Mommy or Daddy in hand. He is quite the little dancer now too and loves to dance to just about any kind of music. This morning it was Bach. What a character.

Our town

I miss the Northwest, where the changing seasons move subtly from warm to cool to warm again. Here in Michigan we endure 5 months of brutally cold winter that never seems to end. Connor and I have been watching snow flakes dance outside of our windows this morning while listening to Craig's music. It has been very peaceful but honestly, I am so tired of feeling cold! In honor of the spring that never seems to come I thought I'd share some pictures of the new town that we live in that were taken during the summer.



Here's to that elusive Spring...may it come quickly and warm our frozen bones!