Clean & Smiley

The Boys with Omi & Opu

Civic Duy

We had a run-off election today, and Charlie & Owen came along. For some reason, Charlie loves to vote, and the folks at the poll couldn't get enough of him.

Tummy Time

Camp Miracle

Last weekend, Charlie went on his first official camping trip. I say official because we once did a camping test-drive in the backyard . . . for about 30 minutes. Charlie couldn't fall asleep and drove Evan so nuts that he put an end to the mini adventure. But this weekend, Charlie, Evan and Grandpa headed out to Raven Rock State Park for the real deal.

The menfolk make their way towards camp






Home sweet home


Off on a hike





Rustling up some grub






Packing out

Ag Expo

The Saturday after my work trip, during which Evan had a lot of "togetherness" with the boys, I took them to the Ag Expo. It was a scaled-down version of the State Fair . . . antique tractors, funnel cakes and rides of dubious safety. We started out in the kids' play area while waiting for an indigo dye demonstration.







All smiles after homemade strawberry ice cream


The dyed fibers come out of the vat green . . .


. . . but turn blue once the air hits them


Feeding goats at the petting zoo


I'm pretty sure kangaroos aren't indigenous to NC, so I think this one blackmailed the organizers to get center stage

Back at Work

I've been back at work for a month now, and so far, so good. Everyone has been great, and things are really busy which makes the days fly by. However, the past few weeks have not been without some working mommy comic misadventures:

• Day 1, 8:07 am: I have no idea what my Novell password is and have to get one of our admin assistants to call IT for me. Not a very auspicious start.
• More than once, I have tried to turn my breast pump off by turning the volume dial on my computer speakers. Needless to say, this did not achieve the desired result.
• On two different occasions, I was emailing and pumping, got distracted, and overflowed my pump bottles. You'd think that I would have learned my lesson after the first deluge, no? But apparently I needed the reinforcement of the second spill. I now have a stain on my desk chair that makes it look like I peed my pants. I can't decide if the fact that it's breastmilk is better or worse.

My first week back I had an out-of-town conference, and the boys all came along. While I was immersed in all things teen pregnancy prevention, Evan, Owen & Charlie hit the zoo and children's museum.



Flying the zoo-copter






The children's museum had a real firetruck!






Happy camper along for the ride


Back at the hotel and ready for stories