Wedding on the Mountain

Here we are at the top of the mountain in Aspen. You took the gondola up, which my mom was less than happy about, she couldn't believe that you had to get on while it was moving! The ceremony was outside and it was beautiful. We were so happy to be there and share in the event with Kara and Dov.

I can't share any pictures of Katie at the wedding because she stayed down the mountain with a babysitter, but I will put a whole bunch of assorted other pictures in a file at the end of the trip blog entries so you can see more. In the meantime, here I am with my girl cousins who were at the wedding (minus the bride and her sisters). Lisa, Holly, Danielle, Auri, me, and Rachel.

An amazing hike in Aspen

Doesn't this look like a postcard?!?

On Sunday morning we took a hike at the Maroon Bells. It was an unbelievable hike - breathtakingly gorgeous. There is little parking by the Bells, so unless you go really early, you need to take a bus. But the nice concierge at our hotel told us of a convenient little loophole. If you take a baby or small child in a carseat, you can go anytime! So we took Katie and cousin Susan and cousins Bernie and Rachel took Ariel in her carseat and Kara's aunt Miriam and we had a wonderful morning together in the spectacular scenery. Katie was in her backpack and Ariel was in her's and they were both so cute. There were wild raspberries on the trail which we all enjoyed.

We hiked up to a little lake where we had a snack and then it started raining. We had raingear and Katie's backpack has a cute little rain shield. She was so content, she even fell asleep on the way down!

Here's the view on the way down

And a grove of aspens. In case you don't know, aspens reproduce asexually so that a grove of trees is actually one huge organism - acres of roots underneath the soil and each tree trunk is a genetic clone of one another in the organism. Hmm - interesting stuff even if I never thought I'd write about plant biology in a blog...

Katie and the cousins

Saturday night there was a party for Kara and Dov and Katie got to come. It was so much fun to see her with my cousins. Here's Katie with cousin Danielle. Danielle is one of those sweethearts you just have to adore. Katie clearly did. And here's a picture of Danielle and Katie last June. We had been in Dallas and Dani stayed an extra night in NYC just so she could meet Katie early the next morning. Katie was 11 weeks old in this picture.

Katie also got to see a whole bunch of other cousins. Here she is with Auri, Holly, and Ariel.

Aspen!

Peter and I took a hike with our cousins Linda, David, and Danielle on Saturday in Aspen. Katie stayed behind very happily with her Grandma/Dima and Grandpa/Dipa. It was a beautiful hike we walked to right from the town. It was Danielle's idea to take this neat picture of us walking down the trail. The groves of Aspens were so amazing.

I have to say that the highlight of Aspen was hanging out with our cousins. More pictures of them to follow.

Here's a picture of Peter in front of the fountain he played in when he was 10!

We're back!

We had a wonderful vacation in Colorado and Chicago. We have some great pictures to share and stories to tell - but not tonight, way too tired from our travels and our late night at cousin Missy's wedding last night. Enjoy this picture of us at the Maroon Bells in Aspen in the mean time. 

Happy Birthday Grandma Dima

Here are the 4 generations of women in my family.

My sisters and I had a small ladies' luncheon for my mom's 65th birthday on Friday. It was a beautiful day and we chose a restaurant along the Hudson, overlooking the city with a terrific view. Although my mom had been adamant that she didn't want any celebration, I think she was pleasantly surprised and loved having all of us together. Katie and Robin played really nicely together. Robin very proudly says "I share with Katie" and I think Katie already looks up to her big cousin. She even shared her kix and cheerios with Robin - that's love in Katie's world.

We had to leave the lunch a little early because we were on our way to Montreal. Peter will have to report back on that - he took some cute pictures. 

Like Father, Like Daughter

Well they don't look alike, they can at least dress alike!

This pic is from 2 weeks ago already, but I had to include it. It's so cute, especially with Meadow trying to get in on the action. Katie had gotten her shirt dirty during lunch and I changed it so she would, not coincidentally, be dressed like her daddy. Mommy and Daddy are her favorite words this past 2 weeks. She's really non-stop with them. This morning, she woke up after sleeping for over 12 hours (!) and said "Mommy? Daddy?" and babbling in her cute little voice. It's so much fun to see her vocabulary increase. "Meh-oh" is another common one, for Meadow. "Nana" for banana and "booberr" for blueberry, 2 of her favorite foods this month. Food is a big impetus for language in Katie's world. Milk once referred to all beverages and all cups, but in the past day or 2, she's started to differentiate. She will say both water and watie. She knew the pool was full of water too.

A final visit to Aunt Rachel's pool

Rachel invited us swimming and we jumped at the offer. A final visit because we're busy the rest of the weekends this summer. Katie was a fish and loved the water. And it was nice to cool off in an almost empty pool.

Katie is becoming more bold. It's very interesting to see. I took her to her favorite playground on Friday (Hippo) and she walked around as if she owned the place. She walked to whatever equipment she wanted to play on and make herself at home. For example, there's a large slide. She walked over to it and started climbing, not even looking if I was behind her. She even did this with a sippy cup in hand. Now it is a large slide, so I had to follow her up it and go down with her. She did this 3 times before I said enough. You have to be careful at the playgrounds for so many reasons, but with no fear of the bigger kids, they are likely to trample her.

Saturday in the park

I'm a little behind in the blogging, so here's a picture from 2 Saturdays ago (the 29th). We went to Central Park and met Katie's friend Eli - it was his dad's birthday. Eli's mom is a friend of Peter's from Dallas. We met other Dallas people too. Katie was very taken with a really nice woman named Susan, another former Dallas resident/Greenhill grad. Susan and Katie played and played and Katie couldn't have been happier. Had Katie known Susan is a pediatrician, she may not have been so friendly.

This shows another difference between our daughters. Meadow is scared of anyone who smells of vet, such as a nice guy in our old building who was a vet. Meadow wouldn't go near him.