Welcome TeamBridges!

TeamBridges arrived today and we're having a great time. Here's some photos of this afternoon!




Harry, as usual, had a great time pouring water on himself that was supposed to be given to the plants!

Big Bad Bath Time

Harry has recently developed a strange dislike of his bath. He used to love having a bath, but now is very anti-bath, even if he's very pro-stinky. So today Mama Bear had the good idea for me to get in the tub, and you know what, he loved it! He was also very good about locating all my parts (without me asking!!!), which was a bit surprising...who knew he'd identify my knee, left clavicle, and shin bones at first opportunity!?

Here is a likely image-metaphor of around 6PM, EST, July 1, 2009...

July 1, 2009

Pictures of Harry and Daddy from the first day of July, 2009! Harry likes picking weeds/flowers in our garden! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Camwell for the stylin' Hawaii outfit for Harry!

TeamCamwell Races Past 8!!!

I'm sure all readers of this blog had June 30, 2009 circled on their calendars - it is our anniversary! We turned 8 years old as a married couple yesterday and celebrated in two parts. The first part wasn't exactly as I had planned, but ultimately, there was grass, sand, and water in some form, so I'm counting it a success. We had a pre-dinner meal with exotic, marinated cheeses, crackers, and red wine. We did have to sneak the wine, however...



Here are pictures of Jillian and myself. As you can see, the Arabian-inspired stream, live-dolphin show choreographed to Harp music, and clowns (which I've always found terrifying) on stilts offering us stilton cheese, didn't quite happen. I am never trusting google again. You have all been warned!





The second part was an awesome meal at Centro Restaurant in Des Moines. No pictures, but it was fabulous! I have been married to an amazing lady for eight years - I know what you all are (correctly) thinking - you are soooooo lucky!!!

Frogs and Birds

A sure sign it's summer in Iowa are the frogs and birds! Each night the cats get very excited when the frogs stick to our windows and have a buffet out of the many little flies that are attracted to the light in the house.



A first this year is a nest in one of our hanging baskets. I suppose I should have clued in that every time I watered one of the baskets, a little bird flew away. I actually just assumed the bird liked the view and the shade of the house! I suppose I should hand my doctorate back now...i do hope the three little eggs (that look quite a lot like Cadbury mini-eggs; full disclosure, yes I did briefly think of trying one, but that thought left me after about ten seconds...) appreciate being cooled off from the hot Iowa sun! I'll try to water around the nest in the future!







Here is another nest in our big tree in the front of the house.

Arts Festival and Dinner out

It was a beautiful day today. Some photos:

In Daddy's shoes...




After Harry's nap, we went to the Des Moines Arts Festival downtown. It was the last day of the festival, but there was still plenty to see and do! Harry was a little young for most of the crafts. He'll probably have more fun in a couple of years. Still, he enjoyed pointing out the colours of many paintings and $4000 vases to us (picture Jill assuring the artist in every booth that I will not let Harry touch or go near their art...then knocking over a pretty hideous (and over-priced) piece with my handbag. We are now the not-so-proud owners of a slightly damaged cartoon clown urinal. It's on our deck right now until we can find a better home for it. Presently, Harry is terrified of our deck. It may just be a coincidence).


Here's Dave and Harry admiring some glass mobile sculptures at the festival.




Afterwards we went to Court Avenue Brew Co. for dinner, and Harry was a champion. This was a relief after my last experience taking him to dinner at Old Spaghetti Works with Angela and her kids. He refused to eat anything at the restaurant that night. Tonight he behaved, so we're thinking we can safely bring him along to our wedding anniversary meal next week...ha!

Harry checking out the craft he made at the festival:


Discovering other uses for straws. (He hasn't figured out its proper use yet.)


Mommy a little weary of the direction this meal is turning...let's quit while we're ahead!

Joshua

Harry made a new friend today! Our friends Angela and Geoffrey with their almost-6-month-old son Josh are on their way back from Cedar Rapids, via Des Moines/Indianola, to Edmonton, Alberta!! What a drive!

We were very nervous that they may not meet Harry at all, because it was getting dangerously close to his nap time, but they made it in time and we even got one photo of the boys together before Harry had to go to bed.

One comment on these photos: I didn't deliberately exclude Geoffrey! We only had one photo with him, and it didn't turn out well--sorry, Geoff!

Harry meeting Josh for the first time.


Ange and Joshua. He was so social and loved the camera!


Old friends Jill and Ange with cutie pie Josh.


Thanks for going out of your way to come see us and meet Harry, you guys! Safe travels!