The Hunt for Gollum

Last night we watched an independent film based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings called the Hunt for Gollum. We are big LOTR fans, and this movie (only online) is based on some of the information that Tolkien wrote about in the appendices of his novel. This particular story takes place partway through the Fellowship of the Ring.



Its running time is just over 30 minutes and many of the actors look a LOT like their New Line Cinema counterparts. I was really impressed with the feel of the movie. The music and effects were so much like the blockbuster movies - it was really cool for us Tolkien junkies :-)

The Hunt for Gollum website is here.

The direct link to watch the film is here.

6 month check-up!

We went to the doctor today for Emma's 6th month visit (which included shots). Emma is now 14 pounds 11 oz and 25 inches tall! So from her last visit she has gained nearly 3 pounds and just 1 inch :-) The doctor was very pleased with her and said that she was very healthy and doing great.

Emma has been doing a LOT of new things the last few weeks.

She's been quite a babbler for some time now, but her new favorite sound is "ooooooo". It looks something like this:

She also makes a noise that sounds like "hi" sometimes.

She's started doing a "fake" cough for us. It sounds like "aheh aheh aheh aheh"...but she smiles the whole time she does it. What a ham.

And there's this cute "thoughtful" look, with her bottom lip tucked under (I think it makes her look more like me finally!):

And Emma is on the move! She's not quite crawling yet, but its definitely a scooch. She can pull herself around in a 360 in no time, especially if there's paper anywhere near her. She also has started flipping from her back to her tummy to sleep now - it is very sweet.

Here she is reaching for her monkey in her preferred method of transportation -- rolling:

And I just couldn't resist the cuteness in this picture. Can you believe it!?!

Tomato harvest!

When we got back from vacation, our tomatoes looked like this:

Success!

They are so yummy, right off the vine!

Pictures

We got some really nice pictures the day we went to Burlington:

Emma really enjoyed pulling at the grass:

What a sweet pea!

With Mommy:

And with Daddy:

Church Street

We ended up with a day to ourselves because the family had to take a quick trip to Maine. Laura, Martin's sister, qualified for a sailing regatta on Friday morning, so we spent most of the day in Burlington.

Church Street is in the heart of the city and is a pedestrian street filled with shops, vendors, and restaurants. Its full of color and music (street musicians)




At one end is Burlington's City Hall.




And the church steeple at the other end of Church Street:

Last time in Vermont we visited the Ben & Jerry's factory, but this time we just got a picture!






We visited this store, Second Time Around, an upscale consignment store. They had a ton of clothes (some priced over $100 because it was designer!)



We did some exploring, just driving around Burlington. This is a view of the University of Vermont campus, where Martin almost went to college.

We passed this motor trike. It was HUGE!

Burlington is right on Lake Champlain, and there is a nice walking path along the water.

Down by the water there was a gigantic adirondack chair that made for some fun pictures!

Family:

itty bitty munchkin:

On the Porch Swing

Here's some cute pictures of Emma enjoying the swings in Vermont.

She had so much fun, she had to taste it!

Pool time!

Emma finally enjoyed herself (mostly) in the pool while in Vermont! We had a pretty warm day, but the pool was also heated, which she really enjoyed. Emma was still a little unsure at first still, but did get more comfortable.



She also liked her new pool raft:

By this time (10-15 minutes in), Emma was done:

We did go swimming in Middletown at our friend's pool yesterday and Emma really really enjoyed it. She loved being in her raft, especially chewing on it, and she kicked around while she was floating in it. It was super cute!

Berry Picking

We finally arrived home from Vermont tonight! It is so good to be back after a really nice trip - home can be sweeter after being away. In between catching up on the laundry and going through everything, we have a lot of pictures to get up on the blog.

On Wednesday, we went berry picking for our favorite - raspberries! We enjoyed them the rest of the week, on cereal, in pancakes, and just by themselves.

Emma really, really wanted to get her hands on them - maybe next year!!

In Vermont

We arrived in Vermont Saturday afternoon for vacation and visiting with the Vermont Dunphys. We've had a good time so far, but the weather has been cold and wet! Sunday was cold and cloudy, yesterday was pretty nice, but today is in the low 60's and drizzling.



Shelburne Farms was beautiful yesterday. Emma loves being outside, especially in the Baby Bjorn, and she got to see and touch some animals.
Like this lamb

And of course we've been sailing. Emma's life jacket is actually Martin's from when he was little!

Its a little big for her, but she seems to enjoy being out on the water.

Will post more pictures later in the week when I have more time.

The tomato plants

From the ashes of disaster grow the roses (tomatoes) of success!



Remember how my tomato plants were ravaged during our crazy hail storm? Well I am pleased to say that they have really come back to life! I had four plants, all with blooms on them when the hail hit, and only one retained any blooms after the storm.

A few weeks ago they looked like this:
(three plants in the long planter and one in the large one)


All the plants had flowers, only one showing tomatoes so far though

NOW:

I can't believe how much they've grown! I'm really glad I took that picture a few weeks ago to compare.

I don't think that I've ever really seen a plant grow the way it looks on the package, except for these tomatoes. They look really close to the picture:

Now we're just waiting for them to ripen!

ps...bonus points if you know the movie referenced in the first line of this post!

Finally! - an update

There is a very good reason that we have not been keeping up on the blog, especially in the picture department - we misplaced the camera TWO WEEKS in a row! After traveling two weekends ago, we couldn't find the camera all week. Finally, when packing on Friday to go away for the weekend again, we discovered the camera in the bottom of one of our bags. In order to prevent losing it for the week. All weekend, no camera, so we were hoping it just got left at home. Monday night we searched all our bags to no avail. One last desperate re-search of the car and TA-DA...it was under the front seat...

so all that to say, we will be stealing some pictures from the weekend from my sisters sometime soon. Here are a few that were hiding on the camera from several weeks ago:

trying on a new hat

and then a fun photo op one afternoon:

from Father's Day

I took this on Father's Day and forgot to put it up. I was getting ready in the morning and Daddy and Emma bonded -- don't they look so much alike when they are sleeping!?!

Play date

Emma really loves playing with people her own size now. Last night we had our pastor and family over for dinner and Emma loved watching (and sort of playing with) their 4 boys.

This morning we were supposed to go over to friend's house to play with their 2 year old boy and Emma's little buddy Madison, born just a few weeks after her. But our builder decided to pave our driveway yesterday without telling us and the car is in the garage, so they came to our house to play! And our neighbor and her son came over to play which made it all the more fun. We really enjoyed it and will have to do more of these play dates!