Lunchtime

I realized that having a camera is one of those things you don't realize how much you use it until you don't have one for a while... we got a new (inexpensive - or close thereto) point and shoot camera. I really want to get an SLR, but it will have to wait until after we get some things we need for our house, after we close. So it'll be a while. However, I'm loving having a camera... today was a perfect example.

I made a PB&J sandwich for Eric for lunch. I left the room for a minute and when I came back, this is what I found:

 Eric eating his sandwich...

 He has the strangest way of eating these!

Wait for it....

 Don't you just love his messy face?

 He's just so happy with himself (Okay so he was really posing for the camera!)

July AND August

Daniel started his job at the end of June, so we were still getting into a routine at the beginning of July. He had the 4th off and we decided to go birdwatching at the wildlife refuge where we went on our first date... However, the weather had other plans - we'd been getting so much rain and then the snow run-off from the mountains caused flooding...

In fact the normal place where we saw all the birds was blocked off due to the road flooding.

In fact one of the entrances is in the first picture (of the Ibis) - completely under water! We saw a few birds that day... Ibis, Horned Lark, Black-necked Stilt, and yellow headed black bird (are a few we got pictures of.)

 We also got to see this Pronghorn. It posed for a picture before it went running off.

 We wore long sleeves to help keep bugs away... this is a road that actually ends in a lake that is close to the refuge. We went to see more birds there (where we actually saw the Stilt and the yellow headed black bird.)

 July also brought our church congregation's waterslide activity: Eric loved it!

 This is us going down the slide...

at the end, trying to fight our way out of the currents...

and Eric was more interested in looking at the water than the camera.

This picture was actually taken in August... Eric LOVES eating popcorn. He was just super cute with it all over his tummy!

Back to the updates... our camera button broke on our adventure with the birdwatching and I'd been using a bobby pin to actually take pictures, which worked until just a few days ago, but wasn't too conducive for wanting to take them. We are actually going to be buying a small point and shoot tomorrow (Labor Day sales, here we come!) I wrote a post about our camera on my food blog if you want more details... and pictures.

Daniel was hired to replace a woman who is going to become a stay at home mom in October. She quit earlier than she thought she would so Daniel is now the GIS administrator (instead of technician) and is keeping super busy at work. He usually gets a few hours of overtime every week (luckily he's hourly and not salaried!)

Also in July and August we were looking for a place to live... for some reason we just want to be out of my parent's basement! We finally found a house and are just waiting for the loan to go through... hopefully we will be closing the week of the 12-16. So July and August were taken up by a lot of trips to the town we'll be living in (Daniel commutes the 30ish miles every day!) to meet with the bank, look at houses and meet with the Realtor for the offer/counter-counteroffer. We were really grateful that the sellers accepted our counter-counter offer as it was really the higher limit that we wanted to go with ($15,000 less than they listed but only $5,000 less than it appraised for).

We've started doing a food (produce) co-op (Bountiful Baskets) and have enjoyed getting lower cost produce lately. It has also shifted my menu planning to a focus on produce and it has been great for my diet! Speaking of which I've lost 17 lbs this year - my total goal is 15-25 more to lose, but I am loving the amount I've lost so far.

In Eric tales... he is now calling everything with stripes Alligator. I'm not sure if it has to do with a pair of pajamas he has (we call them his alligator pajamas) - the shirt has an alligator and the pants are striped. But all his striped shirts are now alligator shirts!

Eric has also decided he LOVES watching Lightening McQueen... his uncle loves it because he gets to watch Cars a lot more.

About mid-August Eric decided to play in his room after his nap (there are two rooms in my parents house that we let Eric spend his time, the rest just isn't toddler proofed), and so we let him, He was opening and closing his dresser drawers when I heard a crash and he started crying, so I ran down the half flight of stairs to see the dresser pulled over. He had caught his fingers (middle and ring on his right hand) in between two drawers. They had a good bit of skin scrapped off and after bandaging them, he didn't move his hand very much. I took him to urgent care the next day (he did it on Sunday) and they x-rayed it. He had a very tiny fracture in one finger. They also gave us some burn cream to help heal the gouge on his finger. Luckily we only had to bandage it to another finger for a week. 

I think that's pretty much our lives for the past two months! I combined the two because I thought it would be short... but there was more going on than I remembered...

Turning in the Thesis...

Finally, the reason we went to Madison in the first place: Daniel's Thesis. In his department, they required two copies of the thesis - one for the Geography Library:

 Here's him turning that copy in... and one for the main library. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go into the library as you have to be a student/faculty/staff to actually go in.

Giving a copy to his advisor.

and saying goodbye to Science Hall for the last time! (Isn't this such a gorgeous building?!)

Daniel turned his thesis in on the LAST day of their Spring Degree Window period (basically it was after the semester ended but they give a few weeks so you don't have to pay tuition for summer if you get it in by their deadline.) Congrats Honey!

The best part - 7 days after he turned in his thesis, he had a job offer. He's been working there for almost 2 months now. It's been a crazy two years, and we're glad they are over and the thesis is finished!

Ian's Pizza

There is a great little Pizza shop in Madison called Ian's Pizza. (I actually meant to post this with the Children's Museum Post...) This is one of the places on our 'eat' list. We stopped by after the Children's Museum... and shot these pictures of Eric eating the pizza:

 Look at those HUGE slices.

 HE enjoyed it, until it plopped over onto the floor.

 They also have some crazy pizza combinations... Our favorite of this visit: Smokey the Bandit (BBQ Chicken, Bacon, Ranch, BBQ Sauce and Cheddar Cheese - I loved the ranch and BBQ combo!)

Madison Trip: Zoo

Thursday we went to the Henry Vilas Zoo. Eric had been there once before... Luckily it had cooled off (after a tornado warning Wednesday night) and we actually took a jacket with us and he used it! Talk about crazy weather!

Eric looking down at the ground hogs...

Most of these photos I don't know exactly what he is looking at (I didn't do a great job of documenting them.)

This one was in the bird room. I love how he was leaning on Daniel's head.

These are some of the birds we saw. The third one over on the top has a crazy tail. I love the bird room at the zoo, it is amazing how little patience some people have. They just walk through expecting the birds to pop out and say, here I am, look at me! We spent about 20 minutes and saw most of the birds listed on their sign.

This one is Eric looking at some type of monkey...

Look at that wingspan -

compared to last time he went!

Eric looking at the otters.

Lion.

Camels

Animals I got pictures of... I'm actually quite impressed with the picture of the lion.

Carousel ride.

He loved riding it.

Eric fell asleep on the bus ride home and slept so well that afternoon. I would have to say it is nice having a toddler who naps because it makes you take a break!

Buying a house!

The other post about why it's taken me so long to get our Madison posts done (which I'm still not done with yet...) is that during the past month, I've been super busy due to driving an hour multiple times per week to look at houses to buy (and you can also add looking into lending places...)  The search is over, WHEW! and we are now waiting on the bank to appraise the house and then process a loan. 

So for those of you who want to know what the house we're hoping to be in sometime next month looks like, here it is: 

This is a photo taken from the real estate website (I did edit a bit though...). We're excited to finally be getting into a house in the next month or so (depending on how long it takes with the loan stuff.)

Madison Trip: Children's Museum

I'm finally getting around to posting about the rest of our Madison trip... why it's taken so long is another post ;). One of the places we wanted to visit was the Children's Museum. Eric was only 6 months old when we moved from Madison, so we never went to the museum (we learned that it is now a newer building and museum.) Eric LOVED playing there. He could have spent the whole day playing in this place.

 They have this really great car table, with holes in it so the children can access it from various points.

 Eric really loved the garbage truck on the right of this picture.

 and driving in this vehicle.

 Another fun point - they have a 'window' that they get to color on.

 He spent quite a bit of time here!

 Look at that concentration!

 A light table with color things.

 Here he is watching a train go around.

 Driving a cart. They have a place called the Wildernest, and they have various dwellings from older time periods.

 and a water room.

 Eric could have stayed in this room for a long time as well.

 These are reading cubbys, and I loved them. Eric was playing with a baby. He was super cute, being careful and then when he was done, threw the baby on the floor...

 Seriously, I want one of these in my house!

The hula-hoop. He didn't really get it.