Sick of being behind on our posts

OK, so I'm just throwing all of September into one post so that we'll be up to date. It was a busy month. Here are the pictures to go along with the commentary.

At the beginning of the month our friends offered to share their Monday Night Football tickets with us. We left Finn with a baby sitter, which was the first time he stayed with a non-relative. The Bengals won the game, their last win so far this year.

We also went to Indiana with Jeff, Angela and Rowan. We all went out to eat and Finn thought dropping his pieces of bagel on the floor would be real funny. It was. Until we had to pick them up.

We also all went up to visit my work. Emilee brought Lola down from the day care and they spent time playing together. Finn noticed Joe's mistuning model and thought it was colorful.

We've been going on bike rides each weekend. I got bikes for us for Sarah's birthday and Grandma Jill got a bike seat for Finn for us. Finn looks cute with his ducky helmet and car next to us at red lights always smile.

Oktoberfest Cincinnati was last weekend. It down a few blocks from us and we brought Finn down to retaste his German days. It actually isn't dissimilar to real German fests and had the best Strudel we've ever had.

Our friend Kyle came up for the weekend too. We haven't seen him in a long time so it was good to catch up. Finn to a natural liking to him right away.

So that just leaves what we did this weekend. I think I'll leave that for another post.

Strangers Aquire New Technology

Our blog recognized the visitor stats presented by The Daily Squink as an awesome capability that we did not have. Last night I added similar capability to our own blog.

I noticed that there are a few additional capabilities that are very neat. I can see what web page people came from (thanks Katie Lemaire!) and where they are coming from. Since yesterday we have have visitors from the locations in the map at right. Hello!

We think we have settled on a new blog name. I need to work on a new layout before unveiling the new since the blue and orange is very Deutschland.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys...

Our decision to not get cable means we need to find alternate forms of entertainment. Tonight we had a real-life Grand Theft Auto event to watch from the safety of our home 60 feet in the air.

First a note on the local crime. The most recent and less recent crime statistics show that the downtown crime rate are consistently declining. We are very safe in our place and these events are VERY infrequent and are geographically close simply because we live on a major road in the heart of a city.

The city is also loud. When we heard some shouting and police sirens we ignored them for a while. When I finally got up and went to the window I heard the police say, "what I want you to do is get your hands out on the car door!" The "gentleman" complied and eventually got out of the car and backed over to the curb where he knelt down. Twelve cop cars and as many police with their guns trained on you can help get the unwilling to comply.

After they searched the car, a woman got out of a police car, got into the red car and drove away. I did note that she drove away still talking on her cell phone (without a hands-free set). She's lucky that it isn't illegal here, yet. The police would have nabbed her too.

They are very, very good police here. We have one of the lowest response times in the country and a high quality police force despite some publicized controversy. Thanks guys.

North Carolina

I had thought that maybe our traveling would not be as much as it was back in Germany. It turns ot we haven't had many weekends when we haven't had a guest or traveled ourselves.

This week (back a few weeks) we went to the outer banks of North Carolina. I caught Finn a new friend. They had so much fun together. Crabby and he would go swinging, crawl sideways, and even rip apart dead fish together. In this picture Crabby almost fell out of the swing, but Finn caught him. He was quite upset when we boiled and ate Crabby. Well, actually I guess they both were.

We saw the last wild horses in the East on the beach just after the guide told us that we wouldn't see any. He said if we had come five minutes sooner or later we wouldn't have seen them. Right before we left Finn wan't a five minute sip of milk. That put us right on track to see the horses, thanks Finn!

Finn built sand castles and blocked the ocean from hitting our tent as the tide rose. Hanging out with Jill and Rich was a ton of fun, and if we have a vacation next year, they'll have a babyof their own by then. It's a baby-bonanza!

Here's the pics.

Visiting Wisconsin

Our visit to Wisconsin was the first trip back since this spring. Needless to say, Finn's changed quite a bunch since he was 3 months old. Still it is fun to compare him to everyday objects, like a bottle of ketchup (see pictures).

We drove more in the daylight and less at night than our previous drives. That reinforced the need to drive overnight. Our 8 hour dive became 12 hour odyssey.

The weather was nice if rainy. The cool air was appreciated and we even got to put Finn's cool jean jacket on.

There was the requisite game of scrabble, which Finn decided to join in on. There was also a lot of playing on the floor. It seems when a baby plays on the floor, everyone else joins in from uncles to great grandparents.

It was a short visit, but we'll be back in October when cousins Chuck and Andi come out.

Back in the 'Nati

So back in Cincinnati, a bunch of things happened. We went out to the hose track where Finn got to see the horses and start a gambling addiction. He won big betting on a horse called "A Fin Gets You Ten".

He spent his winnings on the smallest bike helmet we could find. I got Sarah and I bikes for her birthday and the Wisconsin grandparents sent a bike seat, though we wouldn't let him ride until he got a helmet. He liked the one with ducks on it.

Memé visited for a while before she had to start this year's teaching. It was quite a nice visit and gave us free baby sitting for a night out on the town.

We also went to the outlet mall where I got new pants and a couple shirts. I was done in 10 minutes and the ladies still wanted to shop. Finn and I decided to kill some time together and he showed me how much of a boy he was. He disliked shopping so much he'd rather gnaw his foot off and gave it a good try. Good thing this was before his first tooth popped thrugh.

That's right, he has a tooth now! He now has as many as most people we met driving through West Virginia.

These photos take us through August 17th, so we're less than a month behind now. We're slowly making our way back to current time.

The photos are here.

From Virginny to Massachusetts and finally home

Continuing the effort to archive the complete adventure, here is the section of our trip from the end of our stay in Williamsburg, visiting Massachusetts, and the drive back home. The photos can be seen here.

Sarah left Virginia a couple days earlier than I did to give her extra time with the boy to visit friends and family. She flew up to the Berkshires (actually Albany because the Berkshires don't have an airport) and had the mandatory meal at the Golden Eagle with its amazing view.

I flew into Boston and Sarah drove out to pick me up. She showed Finn off to our friends Liz and Jeff, Jill and Rich, and brother Josh. Josh lives up on the north shore, which gave an excellent chance to introduce Finn to fried clams at the Woodman's.

Once back in Adams, we had a big cookout with the family and enjoyed the much cooler New England summer as compared to the Dixie Heat of Virginia. Finn watched the fun corn shucking and saw all the flowers of Nancy's Garten.

The drive back home was a long overnight affair. We left at 5 in the afternoon and arrived in Cincinnati at 7am. Finn was packed tightly in the back seat with the two kitties and there was very little drama, especially when compared to the rainy, poop-filled drive to MA when dropping the cats off a year ago.

We introduced Finn to the Mighty Ohio and got him a new exersaucer to feed his new love of assisted standing. He seemed to enjoy the new surroundings and his new room. Of course, having lived for a week or more in three places in the last two months, he is rather adaptable to change.