autumn glory.

don't you just love autumn? the smell of crisp, {relatively} clean air; the gorgeous fall foliage; the cool, just-right temperatures; and let's be real because this is me talking here, the breaking out of cute fall clothes and shoes after a summer of wearing nothing but loose-fitting clothes and flip flops? *sigh* it's one of my favorite times of year.

to celebrate the season, last weekend, we went on a weekend getaway to beautiful deep creek lake in garrett county, maryland for their autumn glory festival. we joined our friends, ben, gabe, and liam and much, much fun was had by all. (as you will soon see by the no less that gajillion pictures i will be posting over a few days. apologies in advance.)

i tell ya, i think all we were all a bit skeptical at first, because in most equations, 8 adults + 4 two-year old boys + 2 dogs + 1 small cottage = scary, scary disaster, but in reality, the weekend was a smashing success. :)

we were greeted by the cutest little goody bags, put together by the sweet sandra:

how cute is that ghost?!

and choi boy was beyond thrilled at the prospect of spending an entire weekend with his buddies:

okay, seriously, how cute is that hug?!

after the kiddos went to bed, the parents caught up with each other and got some laughs and major WTHs out of finding this book in the cabin's library:

still not sure what it was about, but it sure had us giggling (in a this-is-so-bizarre-and-actually-a-book?? kinda way)! ;)

the next morning, we headed to town for the festival and parade. as we were driving in, we got a sneek peak at some of the parade floats and attractions...and a certain two year-old may or may not have been shrieking at the top of his lungs upon seeing such coolness:




the town itself was, in a word, charming. these are terrible pictures, but here is a glimpse into the adorableness of oakland.


i felt like we were transported back in time...or at least to stars hollow (gilmore girls fans, holla!). :)

we got the boys nestled into their cozy strollers (as demonstrated by sweet liam),

and walked around to take everything in.

of course, one cannot take in the sights on an empty stomach, so we opted for some light (haha!) festival food snacks:


corn dogs, funnel cake, fried oreos? yes, please!

after loading up on fried carbs and sugar, we walked over to the local volunteer fire department where the firefighters were so kind and let our gang of 2 year-olds take over their fire truck.

they. were. in. heaven.



and there were no less than 5 cameras going off simultaneously.


even piper got in on the action and auditioned for the role of firehouse dog. she turned it down, though. something about having to run a lot and keep up with the action. ;)

we walked around some more and found a tiny little playground that was precariously placed at the edge of a creek/lake finger thingy (um, hello, time to break out the toddler leash...just kidding, i don't have one. yet. still not judging, though if you do!). the mommas and daddies were a wee bit nervous (or at least i was and now i'm projecting my nervousness on them, too), but the boys thought the park was totally rad. but, at that point, they had been sitting in their strollers for over an hour, and i'm pretty sure they would have thought anything that involved being set free was totally rad. ;)

they played,




the giant bumblebee was obviously a big hit!

and climbed,

and let out their energy until it was time for the main attraction...

the parade!!!



gabe and choi boy had such fun watching from their daddies' shoulders and hollered and cheered and screamed and danced for the entire duration of the parade.

the daddies might have cheered a little, too.

;)

meanwhile, piper made herself comfy on the ground and nearly fell asleep.

see? not good firehouse dog material. at all.

we saw everything from baton twirlers,


to fun floats,



(LOVE operation christmas child!)

to bands,


to horses,


and tractors,

and everything else in between, including too many pretty pageant title holders to count! ;)

but to the boys and their pure hearts, the prettiest girls there were their mommas.


ha! i couldn't even type that with a straight face! although, i will say, gabe's momma is quite lovely! :)

it was such good, old-fashioned hometown fun and there was so much thought and love and care put into the parade and the entire festival. we got to talk to a few locals and they were so proud of their town and thanked us for coming and insisted we come back again soon.

and i sure hope we do! :)

home.

last week, choi boy's adoption was finally finalized...yay! :)

our state does not have families come to court to finalize adoptions before a judge. instead, they send you a (not-very-fancy but so very-worth-it) letter which tells you that your child is officially and legally yours. !!! even though choi boy has been ours in our hearts from the moment we saw his adorable face, it was nice having the bigwigs sign and seal it and make it truly so. oh, happpy day!

since we don't have those cool pictures with a judge in his/her robes, i'll share this sweet cb snippet instead. almost as if on cue, cb started saying, "home!" last week. he recognizes when we are at the intersection before the turn to our house and cheers, "home! yay!" it's just the sweetest. and after waiting and waiting and waiting to have our boy home, it is literally music to our ears to hear cb talk about being home (even if he does still say his name all sorts of funky). :)


and just because i can, here are two more little videos of our sweet (official) son...

first some silly giggles and hat eating,


and then some chattin'.

please ignore the yucky gutteral sounds from cb's appa and cb's umma's annoying (and sick) voice.
:)

love that boy!

whatnot wednesday.

why, hello there, whatnot. it's been a while. and yet, you've just been building and building in my already cluttered brain, so it's time to get some of you out. enjoy your short time in the spotlight, because i'm pretty darn sure there's more of where you came from still stuck in there.

*so, i've somehow ended up being subscribed to a lot a lot a lot of those daily deal email things. and i rarely buy any of the deals, but for whatever reason, i can't bring myself to unsubscribe. perhaps it's from fear of missing out on a truly ahhhmahzing deal or something. anyway, i'm always baffled by the number botox deals there seems to be. i'm talking at least one a week. are that many people really looking for deals on botox? and when they see those emails, do they think, "score! now i can get my botox for 65% off!"? it's just weird to find so many botox deals sprinkled amidst deals for gutter cleanings, restaurants, and canvas prints, you know? does anyone else find this shady and bizarre? no? just me?

*you know that trust game you play at those cheesy team-building retreat thingies? you know, the one where you fall backwards into a crowd of people that are waiting to catch you? or when you play with a partner and lean all your body weight back so they can support you? choi boy would *rock* at that game. he has total and absolute trust when it comes letting other support his body weight. in fact, he is rarely allowed to hold two grown-ups' hands simultaneously. because when he does, this happens:


cb pretty much just makes the adults holding his hands drag him around. that is, when he's not using the grown-up arms as trapeze bars.

*a few weeks ago, i found out firsthand that boys are truly better at spacial awareness and depth perception. check out this awesome bruise:

you shouldda seen the other guy!
just kidding. because the other guy was a stair railing.
yep, you read that right. i was turning a corner to head to the staff bathroom at school (the school that i've worked at for the past TEN years -- and i'm pretty sure i know the layout pretty darn well) and i didn't clear the turn. i completely misjudged the space (apparently, i think i'm a lot skinnier than i really i am!) and ran straight into the railing. yup, just me and my body. not me and a shopping cart or me and a stroller or me and my car. just me. sad.

*remember that scene in HP and the deathly hallows where hermione throws a hex on harry so he is unrecognizable to the snatchers? we had a kinda sorta similar experience the other week. we went in to scoop choi boy up from his crib after he hollered for us to come get him (it's actually super cute -- he wakes up, chats and sings to himself for a bit and then calls us over when he's ready to get up). well, when we saw him, we gasped because this is what we saw:

crazy! so swollen and almost unrecognizeable...poor little guy. :( after checking things out with the doctor, it turns out it was not, in fact, a hex or spell gone wrong, but we're pretty sure it was a new brand of milk we tried. of course, in true cb form, the hives did not bother him one bit (aside from being a bit itchy), and he continued to scream and shout and run and jump just as he normally would. except with a crazy puffy face. can't get him down!

*choi boy has been chattin' up a storm and trying new words all the time. as with any two year-old, he sometimes gets confused with the new words he's learning. my favorite confusion? cb confuses the word "your" or "yours" with "my" or "mine". it's rather hilarious and makes him sound like the most giving and selfless child ever. for example, if i pull out something he wants to eat, cb will come grab it and say, "yours! your apple!" or, if he's playing with some buddies and "working on" sharing his toys, he'll walk over and tell them "your ball! your car! yours! yours!"
so giving, right? that's my boy. ;)

*i've had my iphone for about 8 months and i still cannot properly type on the keyboard. and i promise i don't have crazy large, yeti thumbs. really. but the typing? it's absurd. and the (ridiculous) auto-correct makes my emails/texts/anything i type on my phone look and sound crazy.
proof:



i mean, come on!


got some whatnot you need to clear out of your head? go forth and link up with elizabeth!

pickin' apples.

alternatively titled, "the obligatory fall outing wherein we pick fruit."


apple picking just oozes fall, doesn't it? i have such fond memories of going apple picking as a child. or rather, i have fond memories of the first hour or so of apple picking and then complaining about being tired and wanting to go home for the rest of the time. yes, sadly, i was *that* kid. ;)

a few weeks ago, we took choi boy on his inaugural apple picking trip and it did not disappoint. unlike his momma, cb could have picked apples all day long! we had such a blast picking apples and enjoying all the orchard had to offer...as you will soon see by the insane number of pictures i'll be posting. apologies in advance. ;)

we joined cb's ladyfriend's family for our outing, and you can bet there were many awesome photo ops of the two littles. right from the start, actually. :)


kate's baby brother showed us his own share of adorableness, too.

love him!

cb and kate enjoyed some play time before we headed out into the orchard.

the sandbox was a big hit!

as was this super cool airplane!


and unfortunately, so were these porta-potties.

cb saw them and excitedly shouted, "red house! red house!" not really, little dude.

after the porta-potty clarification, it was finally time to pick our apples. the hubs and i are not fans of warm or cooked fruit (sorry, pie lovers!), meaning our picked apples were going to be strictly for eating as is. so we opted for a small bag that cb insisted on carrying.

the excitement about that was (thankfully) greater than the porta-potty excitement.

as you can see, we wore our wellies to combat the wet and slightly muddy grass.

and also partially because they were super fun (and cute!) to stomp around in. ;)

and, we were off!


and once choi boy realized what we were doing, he was unstoppable!



cb and kate got into the groove together and even got some pickin' pointers from kate's pops.



and pretty soon, cb was giving his own pointers.



we tried to stop for some posed pictures, but our little guy was far too busy to stop.

"there are apples to be picked, appa!"


"that's right, appa, stay focused."

soon enough, cb realized that eating apples straight off the tree was much more fun than picking.

so he proceeded to eat apples.


a lot of apples.


so many apples we later paid for them in a stinky way.
sorry, that one was for beth. ;)

he couldn't even stop eating long enough to look at the camera for a family shot.


and then he was so busy eating, he photo bombed kate's family's (minus her daddy who was trying to find cell phone reception!) shot.


classy.

one might even say choi boy seemed a bit...intoxicated by them apples.


but i'll leave that up to you to decide.

after picking and eating, we headed back up to the market and play area and munched on some yummy apple donuts.


we also got to ride the cutest little barrel train that you ever did see!


cb wouldn't let me get in the car with him, but insisted that i also come, so i was the totally lame grown-up riding in a cow all by herself. i felt like tom hanks in that carnival scene in "you've got mail." complete with eyeroll from a child and all. ahem, cb. ;)

we had lots of fun riding around the farm and cb had a mild freak-out when he saw his latest obsession:

"coo bus!! coo bus!!!!!"

after a second ride, this time, sans lame umma,



we picked our pumpkin,


checked out some mums,


and called it a day.

a delicious day, actually.

:)




p.s. elizabeth asked about the instruments from this post. they are from the 'B' line at target, but i haven't seen them since the summer...they are fantastic, though, and i hope you find them!