Grace and I went to file her passport paperwork yesterday so we stopped near the city park and fountains for a short photo shoot. I couldn't resist since she looked so pretty in this pink summer dress.
Always curious, Grace wandered around touching water in the fountain and then sucking her fingers,
She might be wearing a pink dress, but she is still a curious toddler with a little bit of tomboy in her!
You can't really tell from this picture, but this is a horizontal bar positioned parallel to the wall. She was holding the bar, facing the wall, and then she walked her feet up the wall. Grace is getting the idea that the next step is to kick her legs over to flip!
This weekend we reuinted with some of the families we met on our first visit trip to Guatemala. At the time (September 2007) the kids were 4-5 months old. There were seven children in our group and the families really hit it off. We have kept in touch via e-mail, sending each other pictures and updates periodically over the last 1 1/2 years. We were happy to be able to see three of the families again on Friday and Saturday and we took the opportunity to recreate this couch photo that we took back in Guatemala in 2007.
Grace has always been a great sleeper, but I was extra happy that she slept until almost 10:00 on Sunday and went in for an early afternoon nap that day that lasted three hours. I think all the playing and celebrating wore her out!
Grace and went to the Cleveland Zoo on Friday morning to visit the rainforest exhibit with some of our friends. They were delayed so Grace and I spent about 45 minutes outside the rainforest just hanging out and eating a snack.
The rainforest was fun,
and the baby monkeys! (or "mon-ka", as Grace calls them)
We need to go back again this summer to see the rest of the animals.
I had never done this before and it was amazing to watch the camera. It was on the tripod, close to the ground with the delay timer set. I pressed the shutter and the LCD screen was completely black for a second or two and then the image appeared after the fireworks in the sky were already gone.
Grace is different every time she goes to the pool this summer. Today, she mostly wanted to play in the shallow end and experiment with putting her face in the water. (Notice the Sha Na Na "Bowser" hairdo!) That resulted in swallowing a bunch of water and a losing a little bit of her lunch. Eeewww!
We have a picnic planned with some friends we met in Guatemala in September 2007 when we were all there for our first visit trip. You can see the photos of the kids here. It will be fun to have 5 of them in the same place again today. And then more fireworks tonight - this time professional ones - if Grace can stay up that late for a 3rd night in a row!
Last night included another "first" for us - Flicks on the Falls! There is a really nice pedestrian mall and amphitheater in the neighboring town and I found out that on Thursday nights in the summer, they host activities and outdoor movies for kids. We arrived early, ate a little dinner, played in the fountains, and walked along the river. Around 9:00 the Akron Zoo put on a demonstration with a porcupine, an owl, and a boa constrictor. The movie, Madagascar 2, started after that and Grace had a wonderful time, even though she was very tired. But, it was outside, there were lots of kids, and the movie captured her attention. She would have stayed until the very end, if we had let her!
Stan Hywet was built by F.A. Seiberling, founder of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. He named his company after Charles Goodyear, the inventor of the vulcanization process for rubber. It was1898, the turn of the twentieth century, and the Industrial Age was forming modern America where cities grew and industries flourished. Akron, Ohio was no exception.
Like many of his industrialist peers, F.A. Seiberling had architectural aspirations. Between 1912 and 1915, he and his wife, Gertrude, built their country estate and named it “Stan Hywet” (Old English for stone quarry), the property’s most prominent natural feature. While European country houses were based on generations of title and wealth, the American country estates were built by self-made financial giants (think Vanderbilt’s Biltmore, Rockefeller’s Kykuit, and Hearst’s San Simeon).
In 1957, the Seiberling family donated Stan Hywet to a non-profit organization so that the public could enjoy it. Above the Manor House entryway, the crest bearing the motto Non Nobis Solum (Not for Us Alone), welcomes guests as warmly today as it did a century ago.
Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens is Akron’s only National Historic Landmark. I have been to the manor house a few times, but this was the first time I have had the chance to walk (in a small part of) the gardens. 
Grace looks like such a big girl in this photo. 
Here Kyle was showing Grace a bumble bee.
On the grounds there is a temporary art exhibit called "Barkitecture" 
If Grace sees a slide she automatically thinks it is for her. 
Do you think they are going to accept it? She can't be the first stubborn toddler, who cried when she had to sit on a stool, in front of a white screen, with her mom holding her hand, for a split second, while the lady took the photo, could she?
