My How You've Grown!

...Jedi and Zion's hair, that is. Scroll back to the very first post from 6 weeks ago to see the progress of both the puppy and the hair :-)

Belly Shot

Sam and I took the dogs for a 90-minute hike in the forest preserve today ( Zion was at a classmate's birthday party). We got some pix of the belly while we were out. Only about 10 weeks left to go--These walks are gonna turn into waddles before too long.

Mud Day

What's an unplanted garden good for? We sure did miss the tomatoes, cilantro, jalepenos, and onions in our salsa garden this year. Too bad we didn't plant 'cuz we had hoped to be outta Schaumburg by summer's end. Zion and his buddy, Ben, found good use for it, though.

The Dog Really DID Eat My Homework!

Zion's first-year teacher, Miss Schmitdke, will probably remember her first-ever "the dog ate my homework excuse." Zion was in tears after he discovered his month-long science project on the phases of the moon in tatters on the floor. Luckily, we were able to provide a note and the evidence. BAD DOG!!!

Pictures from Apple Picking

Apple Picking, September 22

It was a beautiful fall day...Cathy, Zion, Almaz and I trekked an hour west of the 'burbs looking for an orchard that hadn't been yet claimed by seas of town home communities. We hit the jackpot, finding 2 orchards within 5 miles of each other. We visited them both--Prairie Sky had an amazing country store, where Cathy stocked up on pies, apple butter, cider, cookies, donuts, and caramel apples--we filled up an entire red wagon full of autumn produce! However, we weren't done until we visited the farm down the road, with its offering of u-pick HONEY CRISP apples--nectar from the gods! We tortured Zion by taking our time filling our bag with the ripest, biggest, juiciest ones (while swarms of yellow jackets worked busily around us--Zion's phobia from his beehive experience earlier this summer). Finally, we visited the petting zoo, deserted at the end of the day. I decided I would have a little fun chasing and catching the chickens. I was derided at first, but even Zion and Cathy finally got into the game while Almaz documented the whole thing in pictures and on film. Zion experienced some chicken Karma when a frantic hen turned suddenly and ran straight for him, causing him to scream bloody murder and jump 3 feet into the air. You've never seen a chicken-chasing pregnant woman laugh so hard--I was on the ground, gasping for air...Anyway, as you can see from the evidence, Cathy turned into quite a proficient chicken wrangler herself by the end of the trip :-)