Homecoming and Busy Weekend

I was away all last week for work, and coming home I noticed that Jake's vocabulary had grown, that he'd become more skilled with his pronouns, and that he just seemed older than when I left him. Sadie seemed more than a week older, too. She's doing this shy smile thing where she smiles and turns away when you say her name or coo at her. And physically, she's crawling around like a pro and pulling herself up onto whatever she can get a grip on. Leaving for a week reminds me how quickly they're both growing up. When you see them every day, you notice little things, but when a week goes by, you see the growth.

Here's a shot from their week down at Smith Mountain Lake. Mike and Pat's neighbor, Wes, volunteers at the local fire department, so the kids got to play around on the vehicles
On Saturday, we went out to the Homestead Farm in Poolesville, MD to pick apples. This farm was interesting, because to get to it, you passed mansion after mansion, after gigantic mansion after gigantic mansion. There were so many country clubs, it seemed like they must have all decided that 180 holes of golf in a 5 mile radius was enough, and that one farm would be allowed to survive. Once we were on the farm, we heard all kinds of foreign languages and I'm sure it was the most international "farm" outside of Luxembourg. Jake loved it, but when we went on the hayride, he was more interested in the tractor's tires than the pumpkins. Here he is, checking out the tires:On Sunday, we drove out to Leonardtown, Maryland for the U.S. National Championship Oyster Shucking contest and festival. This was our second trip, and we thought Jake was ready to try his first oyster. I was holding him up as we watched several Oyster Shucking hopefuls practice their craft when one of them saw Jake and offered up a freshly shucked oyster to him. Jake opened his mouth wide and chewed while we all waited for his reaction. "It's good," he finally said, so we got a dozen and sidled up to the plywood tables to enjoy our "special treat." Jake somehow knew just what to do - he held the halfshell, and slurped the oyster right out. He had a little pile of empty oyster shells in front of him before he asked for his apple juice and declared, "we LIKE oysters!!"


More pictures over there (--->) under the Photos section...