Austin trip - August 2008, Part 3
On Friday, Corwin and I went out to Leander to visit my very good friend from high school, sunflowerkwm and her daughters. I remembered my camera this time (unlike when we visited them last time I was in Austin at the end of May), so I have lots of pictures for your viewing pleasure.
These first few are of Corwin and the McKays' friendly lab, Linus. Corwin's reaction to most animals (unless he is scared of them) is to point and bounce and squeal enthusiastically at them for a few seconds, and then run toward them to try to grab and/or pet them, probably while still squealing. Most animals (read: all cats Corwin has so far encountered) respond to this by running away and hiding. Well, Linus -- whether it was because he's not a cat, or because he's used to small children, or something else entirely -- didn't seem in the least bothered by this little squealing machine, and was quite happy to let Corwin play with him. Corwin now LOVES dogs. For the rest of our trip, all my parents had to do to entertain him (while I was in the shower or such) was take him outside and let him see the dogs belonging to either of their neighbors. He even learned to say "dog" -- it comes out as "ga" (rhymes with "duh"), but it definitely means "dog." He says this nowadays every time he hears a dog bark.
This first pic is of Corwin pointing and squealing at an off-camera Linus:
Here they are together:
And one more shot of the two of them:
While Kristen and I were sitting on the porch swing watching the kids play, I tried to take a picture of the two of us. It actually turned out pretty well:
The McKays have a small playscape in their backyard as well. Corwin wasn't particularly enamoured of the swing, but he saw the slide and went right to trying to climb it. He also climbed up the steps into the little "treehouse" (I put that in quotes as it wasn't in a tree) when I wasn't paying attention and surprised the heck out of me. I had climbed up there to see something that Maddie, Kristen's 5-year-old daughter, had and was standing on the second-from-top step talking to Maddie when I glanced down to see Corwin zooming past me into the treehouse as well. His climbing skills have definitely exploded recently, and I think it started during this trip.
After Corwin and Maddie finished playing outside (Corwin also got to go for a ride in Maddie's Barbie Jeep, which he thought was darn near as much fun as riding in the golf cart at the beach), we headed inside for lunch and then Corwin's nap. Before we left for the day, I snapped a few more pictures of the McKays:
Here's Madelyn wearing one of her new dresses for school (she just started kindergarten):
Here are Kristen and Meghan together. Meghan was about 5 months old:
Here are all the McKay women together:
I tried to take a picture of the three of them and Corwin, but Corwin had no intention of sitting still for such a thing. The pictures I took all came out like this:
...or like this:
Friday evening I got to meet my sister's boyfriend, Filippo. After Corwin went to bed, Rebecca and Filippo came by the house and picked me up, and we met our brother, Andrew, at the bowling alley. Andrew, since he goes bowling almost weekly with some friends of his, of course kicked all of our behinds at the game. But that's okay -- it was fun! Only downside is that we three siblings don't spend very much time together without our parents around, so we kept running off on tangents discussing things that Filippo was totally clueless about (Andrew and I were particularly guilty of this). I felt kind of guilty about that, but it really wasn't done on purpose. Hopefully he will forgive us and not hold our boorish behavior against Rebecca! :)
After bowling we headed over to Dolce Vita for dessert and more chatting. And I actually took a few more pictures.
Here are Filippo and Rebecca, looking cute:
And here's my brother looking grumpy at me for taking his picture:
I think I included most, if not all, of my pictures in these three posts, but if you want to see the full gallery you can find it at: http://pics.livejournal.com/cifarelli/gallery/0007kqp5
Corwin and I spent Saturday with my parents at home, and Andrew and Rebecca came over again as well. I didn't take any more pictures, though, so you're out of luck. My dad grilled steaks for dinner on Saturday. :) Sunday, Corwin and I drove back to Houston.
These first few are of Corwin and the McKays' friendly lab, Linus. Corwin's reaction to most animals (unless he is scared of them) is to point and bounce and squeal enthusiastically at them for a few seconds, and then run toward them to try to grab and/or pet them, probably while still squealing. Most animals (read: all cats Corwin has so far encountered) respond to this by running away and hiding. Well, Linus -- whether it was because he's not a cat, or because he's used to small children, or something else entirely -- didn't seem in the least bothered by this little squealing machine, and was quite happy to let Corwin play with him. Corwin now LOVES dogs. For the rest of our trip, all my parents had to do to entertain him (while I was in the shower or such) was take him outside and let him see the dogs belonging to either of their neighbors. He even learned to say "dog" -- it comes out as "ga" (rhymes with "duh"), but it definitely means "dog." He says this nowadays every time he hears a dog bark.
This first pic is of Corwin pointing and squealing at an off-camera Linus:
Here they are together:
And one more shot of the two of them:
While Kristen and I were sitting on the porch swing watching the kids play, I tried to take a picture of the two of us. It actually turned out pretty well:
The McKays have a small playscape in their backyard as well. Corwin wasn't particularly enamoured of the swing, but he saw the slide and went right to trying to climb it. He also climbed up the steps into the little "treehouse" (I put that in quotes as it wasn't in a tree) when I wasn't paying attention and surprised the heck out of me. I had climbed up there to see something that Maddie, Kristen's 5-year-old daughter, had and was standing on the second-from-top step talking to Maddie when I glanced down to see Corwin zooming past me into the treehouse as well. His climbing skills have definitely exploded recently, and I think it started during this trip.
After Corwin and Maddie finished playing outside (Corwin also got to go for a ride in Maddie's Barbie Jeep, which he thought was darn near as much fun as riding in the golf cart at the beach), we headed inside for lunch and then Corwin's nap. Before we left for the day, I snapped a few more pictures of the McKays:
Here's Madelyn wearing one of her new dresses for school (she just started kindergarten):
Here are Kristen and Meghan together. Meghan was about 5 months old:
Here are all the McKay women together:
I tried to take a picture of the three of them and Corwin, but Corwin had no intention of sitting still for such a thing. The pictures I took all came out like this:
...or like this:
Friday evening I got to meet my sister's boyfriend, Filippo. After Corwin went to bed, Rebecca and Filippo came by the house and picked me up, and we met our brother, Andrew, at the bowling alley. Andrew, since he goes bowling almost weekly with some friends of his, of course kicked all of our behinds at the game. But that's okay -- it was fun! Only downside is that we three siblings don't spend very much time together without our parents around, so we kept running off on tangents discussing things that Filippo was totally clueless about (Andrew and I were particularly guilty of this). I felt kind of guilty about that, but it really wasn't done on purpose. Hopefully he will forgive us and not hold our boorish behavior against Rebecca! :)
After bowling we headed over to Dolce Vita for dessert and more chatting. And I actually took a few more pictures.
Here are Filippo and Rebecca, looking cute:
And here's my brother looking grumpy at me for taking his picture:
I think I included most, if not all, of my pictures in these three posts, but if you want to see the full gallery you can find it at: http://pics.livejournal.com/cifarelli/gallery/0007kqp5
Corwin and I spent Saturday with my parents at home, and Andrew and Rebecca came over again as well. I didn't take any more pictures, though, so you're out of luck. My dad grilled steaks for dinner on Saturday. :) Sunday, Corwin and I drove back to Houston.