Cargo Nets

She may be small, but this girl is strong.

A few weeks ago, Rosemary started climbing this cargo net that leads into a 3-story playland, complete with twisty slides and plenty to climb on. I thought she might make it 3-4 feet up and then want me to pick her up and set her back on the ground. I was wrong. She climbed the entire way up the cargo net, which at the top of the picture has a small landing and then goes up again. I'll take a pic next week to show how far it actually is. So since she really can't go up alone, I got to climb up behind her. We get down via the slide, which is kind of steep for Rosemary to tackle alone so she sits in my lap as we head down.

The Beach

Before they headed back home, Jonathan, Rosemary and I went to visit Jason, Nikki, Charles, Schuyler, and Emma at the beach.

Rosemary enjoyed playing in the sand.

Here I think they were trying to salvage a hole that they had dug. As the tide came up all remnants of the hole disappeared.

We wanted to get a picture of all of the kids walking, but Rosemary was more interested in chasing the waves.

And here they are from the front.

Rosemary would run towards the waves this time. Every other time she's been to the beach (all 2 times, that is) she has not been a fan of the ocean. That was not the case this time and her little legs move faster than one would expect.

Rosemary actually let Jason hold her for a bit. He should feel honored. She's been fairly picky recently about who she will let touch her.

After a delicious dinner at Saltwater Cowboys we headed out the car. Jonathan walked with all the girls.

And here's a picture of all four cousins together. They're a cute bunch.

Father's Day and Downtown Disney

For Father's Day this year we went to church and then came home to some home cooked lasagna.

Here's Jonathan with his girl on Father's Day.

Mmm...brownies make the best snack!

My brother and his family headed down to Florida for vacation and we all went out to Downtown Disney for a day. Rosemary got to sit next to her cousin Schuyler on the way there.

Rosemary as Pluto.

The kids played in the water fountain area for a bit while we were there. I had forgotten Rosemary's swimsuit so she just played in her diaper. I guess that's one of the benefits of being a baby.

She loved the water.

Transitions

As many of you know, the Peine family is going through a time of transition. Last Friday, June 1, was my last day of working at Housing and June 4 was my first day working at the church.

It's a very exciting time because working at the church not only means working half the hours that I was working, but it means that Rosemary no longer needs to be in daycare because I can take her with me.

It is also sad though. I had worked with Housing for just over 5 years (8 if you count the 3 years I worked as a student assistant) so it was sad the last day. I did great up until the last half hour! I loved what I did in Learning and Development and loved the people.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the people that I had the pleasure to work with while at Housing. I made some incredible memories and more importantly, I made some wonderful friends.

One of the great parts of my job was getting to plan the department-wide annual ceremony. This past year we did a country/western theme and all dressed up in our western gear. This is group that I worked with most. From the right is Joella (my supervisor), me, Haidee, Stina, Sarah, and Jennifer.
For my going away party I had a cake. I also got a plaque that I don't know where to put.

Sarah and Stina made me a HRE scrapbook as a going away gift. It was great!

And here are a few pictures of Rosemary from throughout the week. She's pretty funny.

She likes to help me get dinner ready. Whenever I ask for a pot, she knows right where to go.

She also loves her purses. This is one from Taylor and Jennifer and she likes to walk around with it on her arm.

Unicoi State Park and Helen, Georgia

The weekend before Memorial Day, we packed the car (to the roof) and headed to North Georgia for three nights of camping. We stayed at Unicoi State Park and visited nearby Helen, Georgia. The Alpine Village of Helen was kitchy, but fun. We like kitch...a little. It's modeled after Bavaria and boasts the third largest tourist traffic in the state of Georgia (behind Atlanta and Savannah, in the event that guessing the top two towns should keep you up at night). We recommend it should you want to buy an old time photo, eat sauerbraten, and buy a t-shirt that may or may not have anything to do with Germany.

Rosemary was tuckered out from the loooong trip to get to Unicoi (we hit rush hour Atlanta traffic). She napped for a few hours in Jonathan's arms. I took advantage of this and napped too. It was quite relaxing. The first night was pretty chilly so it was nice to sleep while it wasn't so cold out.
Our first full day there we hiked up to Anna Ruby Falls. Well, Rosemary didn't hike. It was a bit steep for her. Plus, we would probably still be there if we went at her pace. She likes to stop and smell the mountain laurel...as well as anything else that strikes her fancy.
Once at the top, we looked around for a bit. We think that this reminded Rosemary a bit of the Butterfly Rainforest as she kept sticking her foot through the rails. Luckily for us, this time her shoes were on good and tight.
Hofer's. The best thing in Helen. By far. It's a quaint little German bakery and everything looked so good it was hard to choose what to buy. After some commiseration, we finally decided on a Bavarian filled donut, a glazed twisted donut, an apple turnover, and a Bavarian pretzel. We liked it so much we even stopped back in on our way home.

Rosemary enjoyed Hofer's too.

On the second full day, we hiked around Unicoi Lake. After some confusion about which way the trail went, we managed to make the full loop. There were some swimmers in the lake, but the water was cold! It had gotten down to 45 degrees the night before.
Jonathan and I took turns carrying Rosemary on the hike. Good thing she's still relatively light.
We ate our lunch in a grassy field near the campsite. I laid down in the grass which meant that Rosemary wanted to climb on me!

She climbed on Jonathan too!

Our camping family.

Rosemary climbed her first tree.

Since there were no bathtubs at the campsite, we had to improvise when it came time to give Rosemary a bath. We filled up our five gallon bucket with some warm water and bathed her during one of the warmest parts of the day at our campsite. She usually loves to get a bath, but this one just seemed too weird for her. At least she was clean.
Jonathan, aka Fire Master, got the fire started for us each day. We typically cooked at least one thing over the fire for most of the meals. This time I think we were going to be having hotdogs. Rosemary wasn't allowed to go past the railroad tie that Jonathan is sitting on in this picture. She did pretty well with that rule.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip.

Visitin'

Two weeks in a row we had company come visit. First, Ezekiel and Elizabeth came for a night. Rosemary and Ezekiel shared lunch at the little table.

And climbed on the chest together.

The next weekend, the Stiller's came to visit and we met them at the Watermelon Festival. It was a hot day, so the cool watermelon tasted pretty good.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

As things started to warm up, we decided to venture outside one Saturday in April for an outing. First, we went to a nearby park to take advantage of the windy day and fly Jonathan's kite.

On the way to the park, Rosemary decided to wear her shades.

Rosemary wonders what that thing is all about.
Oh...so that's what it does.
Later in the day, we headed over to Cedar Key for some seafood and a sunset.

Easter

Easter was pretty low-key for us this year. We've been a bit under the weather...again. It was wonderfully relaxing on Sunday though.

On Saturday, we had a pretty successful garage sale and managed to sell all of the large items so that was nice to help clean out the garage. My mom came up to help.


I had made purses for my mom and some of her friends who are going on vacation together. Six bags all in month. Whew!

Happy Easter!

It was cold here for Easter so he all had to wear long sleeves to stay warm.

Expressions of Rosemary, Part 2

About a year ago, we posted some of Rosemary's various expressions. Earlier this week, she started hamming it up for the camera again so I thought it would be fun to show you some of the funny faces she makes for us.

First, there's a picture from Campus House's Spring Fling. They did a Price Is Right theme and Jonathan made it to the Showcase Showdown. Rosemary wanted to be in on the action too. She would clap when everyone clapped and seemed to really enjoy the game.

Rosemary with her dad and Bob Barker and his Beauties.

It all started with Rosemary eating some goldfish and animal crackers...

Then she gave me, "the eyebrows." This look always makes me laugh...which is bad. Because she sometimes does it right after we've told her no. And we're not supposed to laugh at that.

When she's really happy, she'll squinch her eyes up.

But she's got big beautiful blues.

She's so funny!

Mmmmm...animal crackers!