Sheep Guarding Llama

It was a short night for us although the Miller family got more of a chance to sleep in than did most anyone else this morning.  We are the only family without children old enough to get up on their own and start their days without us.  So we got a little more sleep than most everyone else.

We got started decently early and headed on out to the family farm in Waverly by the river and got started on the party!  As expected, it was a big turnout for the fourth.  So many kids!

We had a really good time.  It is so nice to have a big family with so many people who are roughly the same age and have kids around the same age.  It’s something that I never had with my family.  With no siblings and no cousins close to my age and only one even relatively near my age and no second cousins that close to my age family functions to me are really about hanging out with people from other generations and much less about hanging out with friends that you grew up with.  So it is very cool when we get to do this stuff with Dominica’s family.

Liesl had a really good time getting to visit with everyone and especially loved getting to “play” with the older kids.  Her cousins and second cousins would routinely take her out to play and she just loved it.

All in all it was a really good time. It’s crappy that everyone lives so far apart so that we only get together like this once a year if we are lucky.

We partied till about ten or so.  Then it was back to James and Nikki’s house to get to bed which we didn’t really do until like one in the morning.  We have to be up early tomorrow because we need to get back to Peekskill so that I can work tomorrow.

I slept in this morning.  Slept in a lot.  I really needed a chance to just relax and do some catch up on my rest.

After sleeping in I came down and did some quick email checking and then it was time to go out and run some errands.

We had lunch at the diner then did some quick shopping.  We went to Walmart to get some necessary supplies.

Once we returned home I  started playing Oblivion a little.  I was really looking forward to just getting to do nothing for the first time in as long as I can remember – probably since the middle of last year – and zone out.

By three, our plans had changed and instead of going to Waverly tomorrow we are heading out tonight.  Dominica needed to cook for Oreo which takes many hours.  Liesl was not going to be left without her daddy and wanted to hang out with me all afternoon.  So Dominica set about cooking and packing as quickly as she could while Liesl hung out with me while I tried to play Oblivion.  I spent a few hours trying to entertain Liesl and play Oblivion on the PS3 but I really didn’t not manage to get much of any gameplay in.

It took Dominica until around six or seven before she was ready to go.  Then she was able to watch Liesl while I got ready to go.  We were out the door somewhere around eight thirty or so.  The relaxing day ended up being a panic to get out the door day.

The drive itself went pretty smoothly.  We grabbed McDonald’s on the road and ate in the car.  We entertained ourselves by listening to classic tunes on my iPod rather than listening to a book.

We arrived at James and Nikki’s house in Waverly, New York at just after eleven.  We hung out there till a little after one when Dominica’s cousin Diane had been missing for quite some time so Nikki and I went driving to find her and bring her back.  So we ended up all staying up until quite late.  Two or three in the morning.  Not really sure when.

It was quite a busy morning this morning.  I got up kinda early and worked very hard right through lunch.  No breaks at all.  At a quarter till one we had to run to get out the door with Liesl to take her to the doctor’s office for her seven month checkup.  We were right on time and did not have to weait more than a minute before we were in the appointment.

Liesl’s appointment went really well.  She continues to be way ahead of their expectations and has no signs about which they are worried.  She is really close to crawling now and we have been working with her almost every day to try to get her to crawl.  She is really good at “scootching” across the floor which is, apparently, a bit further along that she would be expected to be at just seven months so they are, again, very impressed with her progress.  The doctor was amazed by how strong, bright and interactive she was.  She is so totally engaged in the people around her.

Liesl’s stats are not eighteen pounds and twenty-two inches tall.  She is getting so big so fast! And she can almost stand on her own already too.  Her balance is really improving quickly.

So the whole doctor’s visit went really well.  They are completely thrilled with her development and that, obviously, makes us feel a lot better too.

After the appointment we went to Pastel’s for lunch since we were already out and about.  There hadn’t been time to get any food earlier in the day so this was pretty easy.

After lunch it was back to work.  Today was a pretty busy day because it is the last work day of the week.  So I was busy in the basement working until relatively late this evening.  Then it was time for a little Gilmore Girls and then off to bed.  Had some Lakeshore Semi-Dry Riesling this evening too.

Tomorrow I am off from work.  What an amazing concept!  I am very excited to have some real time to relax.  Planning on getting up late and playing Oblivion tomorrow!  We leave for Waverly first thing on Saturday morning for the fourth of July celebration out there and return home to Peekskill on Saturday night.

Today is our “recovery” day to do all of our re-establishing of the house.  Tomorrow is the end of the week and a long day for me as well as Liesl’s doctor’s appointment in the afternoon so today is our one day to really get things done around the house.

Very little to report today.  Quite the “normal” day.  House cleaning, putting stuff away, unpacking, work, etc.  Nothing to report.  See everyone tomorrow.

I worked this morning, as expected.  Yesterday I worked really late, until well after midnight, catching up on everything.  I was really far behind after being away for a week and I just needed to put in one really crazy day of doing nothing but playing catchup.  Today is much better.  I started the day on top of things which was a great change.

I thought that I was going to be working the early shift this week but that ended up not happening.  I only worked it yesterday and then ended up not needing to do that for the rest of the week.

I worked solid until lunch time so that I would be able to go out to lunch with everyone before the Grices leave to return back to Frankfort.  It was a little late for lunch when we were finally ready to leave the house to go get lunch.

We decided, as often seems to happen when someone is just about to leave after staying with us, to go to Grandma’s in Yorktown Heights for lunch.  Everyone had a really good lunch.  I am addicted to the bagel and lox platter there.  It is huge.  Tons of lox, big beefy tomatoes, capers, cream cheese, etc.  Rather a large meal which you do not really expect.  Then everyone had pie, of course, as well.

From the restaurant Francesca and the kids headed out on the Bear Mountain Parkway to head back north to Frankfort.  Unfortunately her GPS did not agree with the directions that we had given her and it took her through downtown and all of the construction there.  So her drive back did not start out well.  Then, once across the Hudson, the directions get increasingly confusing because of hard to see roads, missing road signs and roads that have moved since the GPS was last updated.

It ended up being an excessively long and stressful trip trying to get out of the Hudson Valley.  This part of the country is so old and is so encapsulated by its geographic diversity that roads are very confusing and hard to follow.  The Grices did eventually make it home safely.

I spent the rest of the day working.  Nothing too exciting to report.  We have tomorrow and Thursday to ourselves at home and then on Friday I actually have the day off and will have a chance to relax.  This weekend we are going to Waverly, New York to celebrate the fourth of July.