Get around, get around, she gets around...

Emma is *super* close to crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks, but doesn't quite get anywhere on her knees. However, she scoots all around, pivots, and sort of slides around on the hardwood floor. Here are some pictures of places she's gotten into lately:


Hiding behind the exersaucer.


Under the table, remote control in tow.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great day today. Emma had a wonderful time playing with her dad and showing off her new tricks. As you can see in the picture above, she has been getting on all fours. She rocks a little bit, but can't seem to quite figure out how to move forward. She had on a cute patriotic onesie, but she managed to spit up orange carrot all over it before I got a good picture. We celebrated with a nice dinner with our friends the Burrs. The fireworks will probably be rained out, but as it is not quite 8 pm and Emma is out, we were not planning on going anyway.

Happy Birthday, America. Though you've got problems, you're still the best out of all the rest. And happy birthday, Dad! 39 again, eh? :)

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

I finished this gem of a book a couple of weeks ago and immediately put the rest of Stegner's works on my wishlist at Barnes & Noble. I love his style: it is simple yet lyrical, and he draws you into the lives of seemingly ordinary characters. (His style reminds me of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake.) I suppose that's why I loved the book so much; I could totally relate to the characters. The book follows the lives of 2 couples who meet as young professors at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. Their wives, who are both pregnant, instantly connect, and they form a wonderful friendship. Stegner explores the evolution of relationships, highlighting both the beautiful vistas and the dark corners of marriage and friendship. I learned a lot about myself by reading it. I must admit that I had never heard of Stegner before a friend in my book club suggested him, but I am definitely a fan. Read it!

Random Saturday

We had a pretty mellow weekend. We've had a few guests lately so we spent Saturday at home being lazy, and Sunday we went to church and then Emma went crazy. We restorted to taking her swimming to calm her down (she likes to splash and tries to drink the water like a dog). She was WAAAY overtired after staying up late Saturday night, waking up early on Sunday and missing naps during church.

The pictures are from Saturday night. We made applesauce for Emma (Dave so kindly cut the apples for me) and Emma and I danced around the kitchen, one of her new favorite activities.

Day At the Museum

Last Wednesday when Matt was in town we spent the day at the Museum of Natural History. I hadn't been in a while so it was really fun. We saw all of the classic exhibits (dinosaurs, African mammals, the blue whale) and also took in an IMAX movie about excavating dinosaurs. Emma wasn't a fan of it, but Matt liked it and I liked the few minutes that I saw. :)

Here are some pics:

It's a little dark, but here's Matt and Emma with the blue whale. Emma is obviously extremely interested.


Emma woke up for the dinosaurs and did a little roaring of her own.


Emma with the baby clothes in the Native American exhibit.

Fun at the Zoo

Dave's brother Matt has been in town this week so we've been doing all sorts of fun things. Today we went to the Bronx Zoo, which we've been to but not in a couple of years. It's a beautiful zoo with some great exhibits. My favorites were the Jungle Monorail (which takes you on a ride above Asian animals) and the Gorilla exhibit. Emma was a trooper. She took maybe a 20 minute snooze in her stroller but was up and looking the entire time, though I think she found the people more interesting than the animals. Here are some pictures from our day:


How do we compare to a tiger? Me, Emma, tiger, Matt


Me, Emma, and the red pandas


Some sort of kangaroo with a baby in the pouch


Dave with a baby in a pouch


Baby gorilla!


Big gorilla


Emma and me riding a komodo dragon


Emma riding a turtle while Matt and I look on

PS. For those of you locals, I became a member of the zoo and can bring up to two guests, so let me know if you want to go! (Ditto for the Central Park Zoo and the Aquarium).

Jen's Wedding

My dear friend Jen married David Hatch on Saturday. Jen and I met in fall of 2000 during out junior year at BYU. We were both Writing Fellows (Writing Fellows were assigned to specific classes to improve writing across the disciplines--we had to attend class once a week and tutor 10-15 students at least twice during the semester). We bonded immediately and Jen was one of the first close friends I had in my major. We became running buddies and hung out a lot. Jen was arranging the perfect apartment for our senior year, and I was lucky enough to earn a spot in it. We both went to London that summer, though at different times--but she borrowed my raincoat so it got to go twice! Ah, how I miss Jen's closet. :) We were roommates for our senior year (along with Oertel and Laura) where we made countless fabulous memories and threw some great parties. We all went on to earn master's degrees and live in different parts of the country but continue to keep in touch, and Jen, Oertel, and I were even able to meet up in Chicago for a long weekend in 2005.

Jen gave us a great excuse to get together this summer. She met David two years ago while she was working as a librarian in the suburbs north of Chicago (David is getting his PhD in plasma physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison). From the time she first told us about him we knew he was perfect for her and we couldn't be more thrilled about this match. There was an open house at her parents' home in Draper, Utah the night before where we got some great roommate pictures. Jen and David had to see all of their guests, of course, but Oertel, Laura, Laura's husband Tyler and I all had a great time catching up. (Tyler and my Dave were our 5th and 6th roommates). We tried to arrange a marriage between Emma and Laura and Tyler's son, Talmage, but neither of them seemed too interested. The ceremony was on Saturday at the Logan Temple. I drove up from Salt Lake to attend the luncheon beforehand and the ceremony, but I missed the reception that night (I'm sure that Chris and Kallee, who were watching Emma for me, thought 8 hours was MORE than enough). It was a delightful weekend and I'm really excited for Jen and David.



From left, Emma, me, Oertel, Jen, and David.



Emma and Talmage hang out at the open house.



From left, Tyler, Laura holding Talmage, me holding Emma, Oertel, Jen, David.



Laura and Talmage, Oertel, Jen, me holding Emma. Four roommates plus kids being silly.



It was a pleasant but windy day, and Jen lost her veil!



The happy couple reunited with the veil.



Oertel and I showing off the new dresses we got when we were supposed to be taking Jen out on Thursday.



Me, Jen, and Oertel.