cora and i hopped across the country for a few days to celebrate ali’s shower last weekend. here are some photos i took while there. it was a super short trip and i didn’t take nearly enough photos.
napping with auntie rachel
dinner at otani’s
cora & papaw
cora napping at nana and gramps’ house
getting ready for ali’s shower
cora with nana & great grandma
and a bunch from ali’s shower:
the centerpieces (inspired by pinterest)
because she does!
the candy bar
lemon macarons
the treat bags
we ended our trip with a picnic at yet another play ground in independence park. i am not sure how the sheer number of play grounds in the SAME PARK doesn’t blow people’s minds.
henry played and played and played.
then we said good bye.
photos 9.18.11
another super cool thing about going home is there is an overabundance of farms to visit in the fall time for the apple picking and pumpkin gathering. so we visited maple side on 9.17 for the johnny apple seed festival.
we hung out near the tractors.
we played at the tiny (free) play ground.
and took a hay ride.
my parents had this cute little play structure right near their place in the development where they live. henry loved it and visited multiple times a day.
the best thing about cleveland for kids/families (in my opinion) is the giant number of spacious, beautiful and FREE places you can take your kids. There is a play structure like this in like every city. they were so commonplace when we lived here, i never thought about it. now that we live in a city with fewer playgrounds, i realize how good y’all have it. so if you live in a suburb of cleveland, GO TO THE PARK! LIKE ALL THE TIME!
i love taking pictures of henry walking. i love the scale of him compared to people he walks with and capturing that movement.
this is my chair from when i was a toddler. it is one of the few things that survived the trip my family made from la to cleveland when i was four. and i thought it was so cool we had it and henry could fit in it.
9.11.11
after dropping rachel off at the airport, we headed north to stinson beach for the afternoon. it was a little grey, but still an okay day. and henry really enjoyed the beach. which means we were running after him the whole time 
the only other day i took pictures while we were there was a day we went to the riverfront walk (i think that is what it is called). it was a pretty warm day, but sunny and beautiful. the babies and their dads rode the carousel, played on the playground and ran around outside.
henry didn’t LOVE the carousel. but he didn’t hate it either. he seemed mostly un-phased. he did really love running around outside though.
p.s. did you know henry turns 18 months today? can you believe how time flies? he has his 18 month doctor’s appt next week, where we will get the official weigh in and measurement stats. and i will have a long, beautifully written tribute to my amazing little guy. well, it will probably be long anyways…..
