It's a...

GIRL!!!

Pictures to come :-)

Cape Vacation

Well, it turns out that Scaredy-Dog Riesling isn't so afraid of the water when she can touch the bottom! She and Pippi had quite the adventure on the beach. Pippi had never been in the water at all before. Look at her up to her shoulders in the bay! Riesling wanted to go deeper, but Pippi protested, since her head was barely above the water. Alas, poor Pippi's adventure ended with a bath (after a dunk in the pool). Nate also had a chance to play in the water. The waves off the Outer Beach were spectacular, thank you to Hurricane Bill! Some of the waves were over 10 feet high, absolutely amazing for our area. You can see a little bit of Nate getting pummeled by the surf in this picture:

What is even crazier than the waves is the amount of beach that has eroded. The Outer used to be a long stretch of beach separating Pleasant Bay from the Atlantic. Now, (and not just from Bill) there is a large break in the beach, allowing the ocean waters (and waves!) into the opening of the bay. Some of the waves that got through during Hurricane Bill were so large, they were breaking all the way across the bay on Minister's Point!

If it hadn't been so foggy, you could probably see the waves breaking over the Outer Beach past those boats behind Nate and me in this picture:

Obviously, no family vacation is complete without a portrait session by my mom. She had all her kids in one house at one time, so she forced us onto the little beach, kicking and screaming, for a family photo.

Here's what else we did:

• Went to the Band Concert
  Took a midnight swim in the pool with the whole family Sunday night. (About as much fun as we've ever had together!)
• Played mini golf
• Ate ice cream (lots)
• Took boats out of the water
• Put boats back in the water
• Took boats out of the water one more time
• Laughed at four silly dogs playing very nicely with each other

Baby Showers and Phish Shows

Fun for all this weekend! Nate and I had a relaxing night on Friday, with Mexican for dinner at La Palapa. It's nice being able to eat yummy food again!

On Saturday, Nate and I had split plans. Nate went to the Phish concert with a few friends while I was at a baby shower in Pennsylvania. The baby shower was very sweet, and it was so nice to see our friends, Mark & Alaine, who are expecting their first at the end of September!
After the shower, I drove back to Maryland to pick the boys up from the show. They had a blast - I hear it was a great concert!

St. Nate

Nate is the best! He spent all weekend going through all our stuff in the office and bookshelves. He was able to completely organize the office desk, which is something we have wanted to do since we got it three years ago! And most importantly, he went through ALL the books on all the bookshelves and completely moved everything around in preparation for the baby.

The reason for all this? We have two extra rooms: an office and a guest room. One of these, the guest room, will become the baby's room. The other room will double as office and guest room. We weren't sure how it would all work, but after some measuring and Nate's heroic efforts this weekend, we have a plan!

All that's left is some organizing of clothing, and the furniture moving!

Nate and Cait's East Coast Tour

What a weekend!

Nate and I started a whirlwind tour of the East Coast on Thursday. We drove up to Philly for the "Face2Face" concert - with Elton John and Billy Joel! It was a fantastic concert. They opened the show playing together (on pianos facing each other)! Elton John played a solo set for over an hour, then Billy Joel played over an hour on his own. Billy had the flu, so there was speculation that he might not play at all. Well, he played his heart out! Elton came back on the stage to finish the show with Billy. Between the four sections of the concert, I'm pretty sure they played all the best numbers. Elton's best: Crocodile Rock. Billy's: I can't pick. We Didn't Start the Fire was fantastic, and so was Uptown Girl. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant gave me chills. And the ending I could have imagined was Billy and Elton playing Piano Man together. A week later, and I am still so excited about the awesomeness of this concert!

After the concert, Nate and I hopped on the road again, heading north. We spent Friday on Cape Cod for a quick visit with my family. Riesling enjoyed playing with Pippi, and it was great to see my parents. We hadn't seen them since before we were pregnant, so I had really looked forward to this visit - even if it was just an overnight!

On Saturday, we headed West. My friend, San, is moving to Seattle and we wanted to see her off. We had dinner at Kelly's and got to see a bunch of friends.
It was so much fun catching up with Courtney, San, Sharon and Kelly. I hadn't seen Courtney in eight years! It was a lot of driving (even Ries was sick of the car by Sunday), but I'm really glad I got to see so many people. However, for our next visit north, I think we will leave out some of the stops!