My Trip to Wisconsin

I had a great trip to Wisconsin to see The Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Wisconsin Badgers!!! It was a great trip, flying into Milwaukee and driving to Madison. Pop and I highly recommed Madison. It was a great town, with wonderful food and atmosphere. We really enjoyed the farmers market around the state capitol on Saturday morning and enjoyed the lakeviews from our great room in the Hilton! Unfortunately the outcome was not the best, but it was a great game live from a pretty nice stadium. It definitely reminded me of old Tiger Stadium in Detroit before it was remolded into Comerica Park. We had great seats and sat next to Dan "Boom" Herron's family and Devier Posey's family. All in all it was a great break from Trinidad and a great trip with Pop!





Terrelle Pryor!!!!!

Camp Randall Gate

Third Quarter

The student Section was rowdy

Pop and I down by the field

Warm Ups

The Senator, Coach Jim Tressel

Devier Posey warming up

Run On

The Scoreboard

Pregame on the field!!!

Madison at Night

Hilarious!!!

Maracas Falls

We decided not to go to Tobago this weekend, and although that would have been a lot of fun, too, we had a great weekend. It was very productive--we painted an accent wall in the nursery, got the fall decorations out, did all the laundry, and Christy made zucchini bread. In addition, since we had Monday off, Alicia watched Nicholas while we got to enjoy a hike to Maracas Falls, and still made it back in time to catch a movie--The Social Network. Bonus, Nicholas slept until 7:15 both Saturday and Sunday. He's taking about 6 steps at a time now. It's so cool to see his brain developing--how he can put his toys in something--the green tupperware bowl in the bathtub or his smaller toys in his crocodile toy. He also has learned to give something to us, as he and David "share" the pacifier.





the first waterfall on the hike, which isn't even Maracas Falls

Maracas Falls--the picture doesn't do it justice, but it's a huge beautiful waterfall off the top of the mountain through the jungle

at the foot of the falls

So we found directions on the internet and drove to the foot of the trail, where the web guides said there would be "security" and a "carpark". Sure enough, there was a house and a sign that said "security carpark" with room for about one car to park in the lawn. Which we did. Then we met Jerome who proceded to offer to be our guide on the hike. Which we accepted. We are glad we did because we probably would have gotten lost plus he knew a lot of cool things about the surrounding wild life. And he knew this cool trail off the main trail, that we followed for about five minutes bringing us to another smaller waterfall with pools where we went swimming.

it was pretty deep!

We made it back in time for a quick shower and a movie matinee-- The Social Network. Then back home for quality time with our baby boy before it was time for bed.

Since Nicholas is a year old now I figured it was time to post pictures of the nursery. We've already passed the cute bumper and mobile stage.

Our accent wall. We would have painted the whole thing but on the other three walls the cathedral ceilings are too high. Hopefully we'll get the border up soon and the room will be complete.

Fall decorations! Need to make some pumpking baked goods now!

Good eats, Christy's birthday, Bavarian boy, and other adventures

Wow I didn't realize there was so much to blog about in the last week. We are behind! Nicholas is making huge developmental leaps. We have begun the weaning process and he's doing well with cow's milk. He has no problem drinking from a sippy cup and occassionally a real cup. The night weaning/sleeping through the night will be the real challenge.



He is taking a few steps at a time and we're sure he'll be walking soon. He's also started to exercise his opinion when it comes to food and almost anything else. Our little baby is turning into a toddler!


In other happenings we just made a series of meals from our Rachel Ray cookbooks. Rachel's version of 30 minutes seems to be about an hour and a half in the real world. And recipes involving the grating of carrots should not be included in the "meals for the exhausted." But we did eat well, thanks to David who pulled off all of the recipes Christy picked ambitiously picked out.


We enjoyed the rest of Grandma and Grandpa Machak's visit and even went to the beach one day. This weekend was Christy's birthday--last time turning 20-something! We used the same candles in Nicholas' cake, David's pie, and Christy's brownies. The "birthday trifecta" was lots of fun! Now Christy just has to find the time to relax and enjoy her new foot spa!












a Rachel Ray concoction

Spinach one, mommy zero

I love my Grandma!

Yay! Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Machak!

at the beach

so before Nicholas came along, I swore I would never become one of those mom's who let their kid's toys take over the whole house....

we pulled out the wedding china for the first time and enjoyed turkey dinner in September! Nicholas loves finger food now and enjoyed some turkey and butternut squash.

hanging out at Jeff's pool one last time... they came back to Trinidad this weekend with their sweet newborn baby!

Nicholas loves his wagon!

first wagon ride

out to eat at Cruise Inn

We have to be careful because Nicholas loves to climb the stairs.

Christy's new foot spa. Moe thinks it's pretty cool too.

So it's the last weekend of Oktoberfest and we were missing Berlin a little bit, so we decided to celebrate German-style with brats, potato salad, and some Reisling..... we dressed for the occasion, Christy in her dirndle and Nicholas in his Bavarian boy outfit.

Moe obviously feels comfortable at home

Go Bucks. Big win over Illinois today!

Christy got a beautiful flower arrangement from "her guys" for her birthday.

Moe likes Nicholas's toys too.

Another Rachel Ray concoction, this one involving tofu. The strangest part about this spinach-chickpea-rice-curry-tofu dish, is that we had all the ingredients on hand, to include mango chutney. Only in Trinidad....