Harvard Crimson article

There's an article about our family in Harvard's newspaper. I think it's great that Harvard is paying some attention to their married undergrads and this article is really very positive. Check us out!

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/15/mcginnis-married-westphal-nadler/

Babies

Several good friends of ours have either just had babies or are about to so we have been explaining pregnancy and babies to Sophie. No guys, not the birds and the bees stuff, just that some of our friends have babies in their tummies and now some of the babies are out. Sophie understands....most of the time. Case in point: after church she was being held by a college friend of ours. This female friend is beautiful and also, shall we say, well-endowed . Sophie points to her chest and says, "Baby in there."

Oops. At least our friend took it well and said that she "totally understood" why Sophie said that. Better luck next time, kiddo!

My Anniversary Surprise

Life has been ridiculously crazy since school started in September! I have had a relaxing weekend so far though, so I'm putting the extra time to use by finally writing my last post about the summer. L and I's anniversary is August 16 and he cooked up a big surprise for me! I was hoping that he was planning something fun, but really didn't have any ideas until the weekend before. I accidentally stumbled upon a packed duffle bag stuffed in one of the closets and knew something was up. Then, Loren's sister Sherilyn showed up at our apartment on Friday afternoon. She lives in New York, so this wasn't a casual visit. Loren finished working and then told me to get in the car. We said goodbye to Sherilyn and Sophie and started driving. I still had no idea what was going on. We drove and drove until we got to New Hampshire, finally arriving at Pawtuckaway State Park! We were going camping!
If you're not an outdoor type this probably doesn't sound fun to you, but let me explain. Loren and I had our first kiss on a ward camp out in Vermont and since we don't own camping gear, we don't ever have the chance to do it. Plus, Sophie was safe at home with Sherilyn so we got some time to ourselves under the stars. It turns out that Loren had rented a tent and bought sleeping bags and chairs for us to use. (He did this when I thought he was helping someone move! He's a convincing liar) We got everything set up and started a fire, made s'mores and sat back and relaxed. Loren even brought his laptop so we could finish watching Season 1 of Castle, one of my favorite tv shows.
The next day we had leftover pizza for breakfast, went on a beautiful hike and stopped by the lake. Then we drove back home to our beautiful daughter, who probably didn't miss us at all - thanks Sherilyn! I am so blessed to have a husband who would plan an adventure like this, just for me. Yes, we are busy and stressed out, but I wouldn't trade it in for something different. I'm so happy to be married to Loren and grateful that we have Sophie in our family too. I love you, Loren!
We didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few we did capture.

Some Kids Never Learn

August 12 - Mommy's lipstick

October 13 - Mommy's lip gloss

Boston Breakers Game

Yesterday we went to a college volleyball game. I played volleyball in high school and sometimes really miss playing, so it was kind of bittersweet to go to the game. Sophie had a great time though and was by far the cutest spectator. That was only the second sporting event she has been to. The first was a Boston Breakers game we went to in August. The Breakers are Boston's professional women's soccer team. They play in the giant Harvard football stadium. I'm not sure how much of the soccer game Sophie could see since we were sitting kind of high up, so she mostly amused herself by climbing around on the cement bleacher benches (thankfully she didn't ever fall and hurt herself). As a bonus to the nice weather and fun time we all had, Boston won the game, 2-0 against Atlanta (I think).

View of the Charles River, walking over to the game

We walked past the very fancy Harvard Business School and couldn't pass up a shot in front of the beautiful campus

I think Sophie should be a baby model

She loved cheering so whenever people clapped, regardless of for what team, Sophie would enthusiastically join in. We also taught her to say "Go!" and move her arms. We must have taught her well because she did the same thing at the volleyball game.

It was a fun family outing!

Summer Vacation

Clearly I am not good at coming up with catchy titles. This post is about our vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey and since my sister-in-law already claimed "Jersey Shore" as a title, I am left with only boring title options. Don't worry, for the most part our trip did not resemble the popular MTV reality show and mostly consisted of hanging out at the beach. This summer I have come to the realization that I'm actually not much of a beach person, as in going to the beach and hanging out isn't my idea of the best time ever. I say this not to rag on the trip in any way, because we all had a really fun time, thanks in large part to the planning of Loren's brother, Boyd, and his wife Emily. All of Loren's family was there except one brother (we missed you Seth!) I think Sophie had a good time hanging out with her cousins and she got plenty of attention from cousins, aunts and uncles alike. She is, however, soon to be replaced as the youngest grandchild on Loren's side of the family so I guess she should enjoy it while she can. Besides going to the beach, playing in the sand and swimming, we went on an ill-fated crabbing expedition, played games and strolled on the boardwalk. Here are the pictures!

Bekah made an amazing Humpty Dumpty pinata from scratch!

The cousins! My favorite features of this picture are Lincoln kissing Eli on the far left and sweet JJ holding Sophie on the right

Everyone got a swing at the pinata, even Sophie. I think she was a little too excited about the bat

The booty

It took Sophie a long time the first day to warm up to the water and the sand. She doesn't like to get stuff on her and as everyone knows, sand is the worst

The two youngest girls

Can you see why Loren is a popular uncle?

That's my girl, nice and ladylike

Independence Day

The Fourth of July was over a month ago, so I really shouldn't care about posting this, but I am determined to record important events chronologically on my blog, even when I'm very slow about updating it. It was really cool to be able to celebrate Independence Day in Boston, the city where the idea that became America began. We went to the celebration along the Charles River and stayed on the Cambridge side. The official party is on the Boston side, but they broadcast the musical program so it doesn't really matter. Sophie managed to stay up and not be too grumpy until the fireworks finally started. The show was really good and I was definitely happy we went. That happiness evaporated a little bit when it took us an hour to drive the two miles back to our apartment. Sometimes... it would be good to have bikes for the whole family.

Sophie's Fourth of July dress

Beautiful shots of the Boston skyline:

The tall building is the Prudential Center, known to us locals as the Pru

My happy, oh so photogenic family

I was proud of myself for using the fireworks setting on my camera

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I took Sophie to the zoo for the first time at the end of June. We went with our friends from playgroup to the Franklin Park Zoo, in the suburbs of Boston. I think it's a comparatively small zoo, but it still had all the main attractions: lion, tiger, giraffe, zebra, etc., but no chimpanzees :( Here are some cute pictures, thanks to my friend Brittany.

Sophie was the first kid in the pen to pet the goat. No fear!

The lion was sleepy

I love this one!

And I'll leave you with a little Sophie...

Sophie's Summer Activities

Hello devoted blog readers,

My husband recently complained that my blog is too much like a Flikr account, i.e. it's just a collection of pictures without any "deep thoughts." That point is well taken, but I have to catch all of you up on semi-recent happenings first and then I will spend more time pontificating. Since I'm not in school this summer, I have had a lot more time to spend with Sophie and we have been able to attend all the activities we had to miss during the school year. Here are some of the things we have been doing:

Strawberry Picking at a farm with our church playgroup

Spending a Saturday afternoon on the Boston Common, riding the Swan Boats

In case Sophie's face didn't give it away, she did not like the Swan Boats. That's mostly because she doesn't like sitting still, something that is obviously necessary while on a boat.

Playing in the water with the playgroup

Sophie had kind of a hard time with the fountains. As long as the water didn't shoot too high she was fine, but whenever it did she got trapped in the middle and ran out crying with her hands up.

The park had an awesome teeter-totter!

Let me know if you agree with Loren's opinion and if I need more thoughts to balance out all the pictures.

Castle Island

We took an afternoon trip to Castle Island and Fort Independence in June. It's great to live so close to the ocean and it was my first time going to a beach in Massachusetts. I guess I forgot where we were because I was fully anticipating getting in the water and playing in the waves. Wrong! The beach was kind of rocky and the water, of course, was freezing! Sophie was deterred at first, but gradually warmed up to splashing around and ended up having a great time. After our fun in the sun was over, we went to a family-run hamburger joint there and had a yummy, unhealthy dinner. It was a good outing!

Us with the fort in the background. We couldn't go in because they only give tours on Saturdays. John Adams christened it Fort Independence, changing the name from Castle William. This was where colonial governors came to hide out when condition in Boston were thought to be unfavorable or dangerous.

Sophie loved looking at the water. She would have tried to jump in if we had let her.

Logan Airport, practically in the ocean

After a while she got sand on herself, so I filled one of the cups up with water and washed her off. She then repeated that over and over, splashing cold water (and more sand) on herself :)