Home (sort of) for the Holiday's

This year we ventured west to St. Louis for Christmas so as to spend quality time with our friends and family. As is usual, we overbooked ourselves with commitments and before we knew it our 12-days away had come and gone. We had a wonderful time and it was so great to see everybody. Tatum also enjoyed being showered with hugs, kisses, and TONS of attention from her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Unfortunately however, Tatum learned that sometimes she has to share Mommy and Daddy while her cousin is around, which she did not seem to like too much! Also, as in usual fashion, the camera pretty much stayed packed in our suitcase so we only have a few snapshots to share but they are from some of our highlights of the trip, Tatum's first visit to the zoo, Zoo Lights (a night time display of holiday lights all through the zoo), and time with friends and family.

Tatum, Mike, cousin Roman, and Uncle Brad at the Petting Zoo

Zoo Lights

The Penguin House

With the Baker's (Dave and Kari)

Tatum with the Baker's (Gabrielle, Josie, Christian, and Sebastian)

Tatum and Aunt Melanie on Christmas Eve

Santa's Little Reindeer Helper

Tatum's First Snow

Today was the first snow of the 2008-2009 Winter Season in Maine and the first time that Tatum had the chance to play in the snow. The first hurdle was getting her dressed; this includes her snow-suit, boots, gloves, and hat. As you can imagine, this is not an easy undertaking! Next, Tatum had to practice walking in all of her gear. She did pretty good since she went out before there was any accumulation. Overall, Tatum enjoyed the snow and we are looking forward to a winter season full of quality time in the snow.

Tatum meets a Reindeer (kind of)

Lindsey and I were going to make this picture into a Christmas card, but unfortunately, Tatum will look at anything but a camera! We are definitely starting to get in the Christmas spirit around here as the weather has turned consistently cold and all of the various towns have their Christmas tree lightings. We are hoping for a white Christmas when we go to visit family in St. Louis for the holidays and maybe Tatum will even get the chance to sled at Art hill.

Tatum the "Dancing Queen"

While Tatum has yet to master her true dancing skills, she appears to be practicing some future moves...especially when the song is the alphabet song! However, she has not yet realized that spinning in circles will lead to dizziness as evidenced by this video. Looks like she has daddy's great knack for dancing...

Tatum and the Dogs

As Tatum continues to get older and more aware of her surroundings, she has become increasingly interested in the pets. Sadie seems to like Tatum the most and will let her do pretty much anything to her. Getting a picture of Tatum and Max would be a miracle as he tries to avoid her at all costs. Apparently cats don't like being pinched and slapped!

Fall in Maine

Although it has been 2 weeks since we snapped these pictures it has been our intention to post them as they provide a glimpse into the beauty of the fall here in Maine. Sadly, all of the leaves have fallen now and the trees are barren in preparation for the cold months to come. We enjoyed the foliage while it lasted and it was especially beautiful at nearby Bowdoin College where we took these pictures...

Tatum was fascinated by the acorns (one in each hand) and she tried to eat them too!

Tatum showing daddy her acorn (I love snapping pictures in the moment)

Trick or Treat!

Tatum was excited for her 2nd Halloween and wanted a little more freedom than last year. Lindsey found Tatum a perfect costume to match her personality...a clown. After trick-or-treating up at my squadron's hangar on base, we had our friends over for some Halloween festivities. Although it was cold, Tatum and Caroline hit the street with hundreds of other neighborhood children in search of candy. Tatum managed to only get one Kit-Kat because she ended up being more interested in exploring haunted graveyards than eating candy.

Tatum and Mom Getting Ready to Trick or Treat

Tatum Exploring a Spooky Graveyard!

Tatum Gives Tanya a Kiss

Tatum decided that since she was allowed to stay up late on Saturday night she was not going to go to bed on Sunday night before 9:30. After listening to her scream for an hour in her crib we decided that since it was Tanya and Kieran's last night in town we would not make her cry it out. Also too, we just could not listen to it any longer! Tatum enjoyed playing on the floor with Tanya and while doing so we captured some funny pictures of Tatum giving Tanya a kiss:

Scoping out the scene...

Going in for the kiss...

Smack! Tatum gives Tanya a kiss.

The "Spookiest Town in America"...

...is Salem, Massachusetts...and we ventured there this past weekend to take in the historic sights and to participate in the Halloween festivities with our friends Tanya and Kieran, who were visiting from Chicago, and Mike, Dana, and Caroline, friends of ours from Maine. Although the crowds were numerous, the parking sparse and expensive ($20/car for the day), and the wind quite strong, it was well worth the 2-hour journey to experience a piece of American history. Salem is a great little New England harbor town with lots of shops and restaurants. The majority of homes in town date back to the mid 18th century (some date back further) and it was neat to walk up and down the streets because many of the homes have a plaque out front with the date that it was built, who built the home, and the profession of the first homeowner. Additionally, it was very interesting to make note of the decor outside of the homes because most of the locals have their homes decorated very elaborately for the holiday. According to all the research that we did prior to heading down to Salem, the month of October is full of events that lead up to Halloween weekend.

Salem Harbor

Most people know of Salem as the infamous home of the "Salem Witch Trials of 1692." During these trials 20 people, both male and female, were put to death after being accused of, and found guilty of, practicing witchcraft over the course of 3 months during the summer of 1692. At the time witchcraft was seen as a crime by the court. Of the 20 people put to death, 19 were hung and the other person was crushed to death by stone. It was very interesting to walk around the town because the shops and businesses are largely based on marketing to tourists who are drawn to witches and the stories surrounding the witch trials. One of the things that we wanted to do while in town was to stop at the Salem Witch Trial Memorial built in 1992. The memorial is surrounded by three walls that bear stone benches with each of the names of the persons who were executed and the means by which they were executed. It was very sobering to walk around and look at each bench. Unfortunately we were not able to look at all of the stone benches because people were sitting on them eating food from the nearby food stands.


After walking around town and stopping at the memorial we did enjoy taking in some of the sights and sounds of the Halloween celebrations. One such stop was at the decorated pumpkin contest in which we had a chance to see "Hannah Montana" in person:


Overall the day was a lot of fun and we had chance to squeeze in more fall fun and New England tourism while the days are still warm enough to be outside. The day was topped off with a stop at the Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth, NH for some good dinner and great beer.

Tatum's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Tatum's 1st birthday with our friends. There was a great turnout and Tatum was excited to see all of her friends. Overall, it was a laid back affair with the two big events being singing "Happy Birthday" and opening presents. Tatum was a little freaked out by everyone singing to her, but she didn't cry fortunately. She also had no idea about what to do with the candle on her cake, but we helped her out. Tatum's friends were very excited for her to open their gifts and they also were very helpful with assisting Tatum in unwrapping them. We are very appreciative of everyone who was a part of Tatum's special weekend, both those here and far away.

Tatum's First Birthday!

Tatum celebrated her 1st birthday today and what a year it has been! Our lives have been transformed in ways that were previously unimaginable. This includes giving up our favorite past time of sleeping in...unless you consider 7:00 a.m. sleeping late. We can easily say that the trade has been well worth it. While Lindsey drove down to Portland in order to pick up Grandpa, Tatum and I went to Rocky Ridge Orchard in Bowdoin in order to pick up some miniature pumpkins for her birthday party on Saturday. Tatum didn't care much for the pumpkins, but she did love her wagon ride! Once Grandpa got up here, the birthday celebrations began. Tatum was not short on presents and she loved tearing the wrapping paper. In addition to this, she seems to be a natural at the xylophone. The evening wrapped up with the traditional first birthday cake. It turns out that Tatum is kind of a "neat freak" and didn't know what to do with free reign on a birthday cake, but she quickly figured it out. Finally, the evening was topped off with Tatum making a cameo in her silk pajamas that I purchased in Japan during deployment before meeting her. Stay tuned for more birthday weekend updates, as her 1st birthday party with all of her friends is on Saturday.

Tatum's Fall Fun

Now that Tatum has started walking, she has been exploring the surrounding world on a much more grand scale. What better place to start than in the front yard? The foliage has reached its peak color intensity in most areas of Maine and the leaves are just starting to fall. It did not take Tatum long to realize that leaves are not good snacks!

Here she comes...Miss Tatum is walking!

While we have been telling everyone that Tatum is now walking, very few of you have seen proof so here it is...Tatum is walking!

Good Times with Great Friends!

This weekend we were visited by our good friends Tim and Carlye who flew in to see us from the Twin Cities. They last saw Tatum when she was 2 1/2 months old at New Years; needless to say, they were amazed at how much she has grown and how vibrant her personality is.

Being that we had friends in town we (Lindsey and I) decided to do an adults night out in Portland, Maine with our friends Tim and Carlye as well as some local friends, Mike and Dana (a rarity for us these days). We started the night out at a neat Belgian Beer Garden that had an eclectic selection of draft beer. Following this, we headed to The Blue Spoon in Portland's East End neighborhood for a delicious dinner. Both places were well worth the trip from Brunswick!

Getting ready to head out!

On Saturday we drove an hour north to the harbor town of Camden and visited Camden Hills State Park. Here we hiked up Mount Megunticook, one of the highest points on the Atlantic seaboard. From a perch near the summit, we were treated to an amazing view of the park, Camden, and the harbor down below. The view was also quite spectacular because the leaves are starting to change colors which made for a very colorful view of the area. The leaves will be at their peak in a few weeks. After a downhill hike and a yummy lunch the remainder of the day/weekend was spent relaxing...well, almost everyone relaxed except for Tatum...who started walking this weekend! While we still have a ways to go, she is walking approximately 10 steps at a time which is very exciting!

There's a "Full Moon" in Brunswick, Maine!

One of Tatum's favorite times of day is bath time. It is easy to see why with her selection of bath robes to wear! While she is small, we finally have proof that Tatum is growing as illustrated by her old bath robe. After this small wardrobe malfunction, we were able to find a more appropriate outfit and we resumed business as usual. The after-bath routine typically involves some exciting reading (Farm Animal Sounds or Goodnight Gorrilla) followed by some relaxing music to get her ready to sleep through the night.

Walking: Take #2

While we still have a little time before Tatum is officially "walking" (as in, on her own) we were very excited to see that she has more and more interest in walking around the house with her push toy. Prior to Thursday night, she has shown little interest in walking with her toy since we made the last video. I was beginning to worry that she would take after me (Lindsey) and wait until she was 16 months to walk. I am not certain that I can stand too many more months of sweeping the floor 5x/day so as to keep her from looking like a shaggy dog due to all of Eli's black hair! Enjoy...

Tatum Goes To Beantown!

With the extended weekend here, we decided to join our friends for a weekend in Boston, which is only 2 hours south of us. This trip included many firsts for Tatum! It all started off with her "semi-first" train ride on Amtrak's Downeaster line. After arriving and getting settled in, everyone was hungry for lunch so we headed to the North End (a.k.a. "Little Italy"). We found a small restaurant where Tatum enjoyed the authentic rigatoni! Just outside of the restaurant on a neighboring street there was a festival of food and Italian music going on, so we stopped by that as well for some oh-so-good Italian dessert. After lunch it was nap-time for our friends' children so we decided to walk the Freedom trail with Tatum (thinking that she too would nap - but that did not happen!). We stopped by Quincy Market, the Granary Burial Ground (which has Sam Adams' tombstone), and ended at the Boston Common. By this point, Tatum was exhausted and passed out for about 15 minutes in her stroller while Lindsey and I walked around the commons. We enjoyed some of the famous sites including Frog Pond and the swan boats on the lake in the Boston Public Garden. After this we decided to take a walk down the trendy street of Newbury, which is home to many boutiques and outdoor cafes. As we circled back to start heading to the hotel we walked down Boylston Avenue where we saw the finish line to the Boston Marathon. This has special meaning to me as I ran the Boston Marathon in April 2003, roughly 2 months before we were married. After a 45 minute power-walk we made it back to our hotel in the Charlestown neighborhood where we met up with our friends for dinner at the Warren Tavern, Massachussetts oldest tavern. Former patrons include both Paul Revere and George Washington!


Day two was also a busy one as well. Before heading out into town, we stopped by a playground in order to enjoy the beautiful morning. We then took a water taxi from the boardwalk outside of the USS Constitution to Long Wharf, home to the Boston Aquarium. From there it was a short walk to the Boston Children's Museum. This is a great place and it is free to active duty military members and their family. Most of the exhibits are geared towards older children, but there is a toddler area reserved for crawlers only that Tatum enjoyed. One of the highlights included a waterbed-like depression that Tatum did not seem to enjoy too much! After the museum we headed back to Quincy Market where we shopped for some souvenirs for Tatum. Although it took a little while, we finally found what we were looking for....a Pink infants Boston Red Sox cap! Tatum has been wanting one since she is a part of "Red Sox nation." After all the walking, shopping, and playing, we were exhausted and it was time to get on the train back to Portland. Before this we did make time for one final stop in the North End in order to get some authentic Italian pastries. After a yummy chocolate dipped cannolli and [true] butter cream frosted cupcake the trip was complete and it was time to head back.

Learning to Walk, Part I

We were very excited to see that Tatum is trying to take her first steps with her walker toy. Obviously she still has a long way to go and that is good because we still have a lot of "babyproofing" left to do!

Back by popular demand!

Tatum has progressed from spitting food at Dad to throwing food when she is finished. Coincidentally, the dogs seem to be gaining weight recently....

Summer in Maine

After nearly 3 weeks of continuous rain, we finally had a nice weekend. With summer coming to an end soon we decided to take full advantage of it. We drove 30 minutes to the beach at Reid State Park. This park has one of Maine's rare sandy beaches and is located on Sheepscot Bay. After 2 hours of fun in the sun, nap time was fast approaching. We then drove over to Five Islands Lobster Company, which is the quintessential Maine lobster experience. Lindsey and I feasted on crab cake sandwiches, but were brief because the temperature on the water was chilly and Tatum was running out of steam.

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing at home and concluded with a bedtime book on the front porch before bed.