Thanksgiving in California

We spent Thanksgiving in California with my family. (Yes, I know that this post says that Ian is posting, but my account is too full to post very many pictures, so I'm going through Ian's account.) We were so tired from the long semester that we didn't take very many pictures, but here are some of our favorites from what we did take.

You can't see it, but Great Grandma Linda is reading Sophie a book here. Sophie was fascinated with her necklace:

Here she is with Great Grandpa Fine:

Giving Great Great Grams a kiss:

One of the highlights of her trip was to make cookies with Grandma Fine. On Nick Jr., her main source of cartoons, they played a segment (endlessly) of a man making turkey sugar cookies by using their hands as the base for the turkeys. Sophie was set on making these, and Grandma had the patience of a saint when she helped Sophie for over three hours with them!


Sneaking a taste:


Very proud of her creations: (There were more, but these were the main turkeys.)


Eating the turkey cookie that's almost as big as her head!

A Trip to Pittsburgh

A couple of weeks ago, while my parents were visiting, we took a trip to West Virginia/Pennsylvania to visit Uncle Kyle. We spent the full day we all had there in Pittsburgh, a city we all enjoyed. One of our first stops was a spice store called Penzey's Spices. It was probably one of my favorite places in the city and was full of every herb and spice imaginable!


We wandered around a little before lunch. Although Pittsburgh definitely isn't in the best shape, it's obvious it was a beautiful city at one time and is in the process of being returned (maybe?) to its former glory. There were some beautiful details in the not-so-new parts, though.


My dad had heard about this sandwich place called Primanti Bros., so since we were in the area, we decided to try it out. (That's my dad in the lower right-hand corner.)


The sandwiches were huge and contained all of the sides, including the french fries and coleslaw!


And Sophie decided to use her french fries as chopsticks...


After lunch, we headed over to the Monongahela Incline to see what the view beheld.


It was worth the ride in the un-air-conditioned funicular:


Grandma and Grandpa treated us to ice cream after a hot afternoon. Sophie enjoyed hers, as usual.


But I think she enjoyed playing with Grandpa more!

Fishing with Uncle Kyle

So, it's been a while since we've posted here, and I wanted the first post to be Sophie's first day at pre-school pictures, but since those pics are at work, I thought this post would be better than nothing! We visited Uncle Kyle in Pennsylvania (along with Grandma and Grandpa Fine) this last weekend, and Sophie would not let Uncle Kyle forget that he had promised that he'd take her fishing long ago. He ended up buying her the cutest little starter fishing kit with princesses all over it! She didn't catch anything, but if the amount of mud on her was any indication, she had a great time!

A Visit from Grandma Linda

One last post before we officially switch over to our Europe blog. Sophie's Great Grandma Linda came to visit us right before we left for Strasbourg, which Sophie thoroughly enjoyed (as did Ian and I). It was a very relaxed visit dedicated mostly to visiting, but we caught a few of those relaxing moments with the camera.

Grandma Linda spent some time on the floor with Sophie, who had rediscovered a ball toy just before we left:


Grandma also brought a felt Sesame Street book with pieces that you can place on it for Sophie. It was such a hit that we brought it with us to Europe!

The weekend Grandma visited was the weekend that Danville celebrated the Great American Brass Band Festival. It was pretty warm outside, but we ventured over for a little while to listen.


The heat wore Sophie out!

Louisville Zoo...the Finale

Toward the end of our day at the Louisville Zoo, Sophie was looking a little wilted and tired, but luckily at the bottom of the hill (and smack dab at the half-way point), there was a little water park. It was so hot by this time, we just let Sophie run around and get her self wet. As you can tell by the pictures, it sure perked her up!



The last thing we did before leaving was go on the little train that goes around the park. Sophie had been looking forward to this all day long, and it didn't disappoint.



Here she is pretending to be a giraffe again:

The trip had a couple of small tunnels, and the conductor told the kids to feel free to yell as we went through them. Sophie was a little scared and hesitant at first, but then really got into it. It so impressed her that to this day she yells quietly every time we go under a tunnel or even an overpass!


Here we all are on the train: