May 6, 2008 - Caught in the Act

People who know Labs know that they're notoriously lazy, and Molly's certainly no exception to that rule. I swear, the dog spends at least 80% of her time either sleeping or at least curled up trying to sleep. She's never been restricted to only hard floors to sleep on, either (in other words, she's always had access to carpeted areas), so it's hardly a rough life. But one day in 2008, I came home to find that she'd made herself quite at home on the guest room bed. Not only was she on the bed, but because Jim's gym bag had had the gall to take up residence at the food of the bed, she figured she'd just curl right up on the pillows. Well, for heaven's sake, people do it, right?  (That was, I'm sure, her thinking at the time.) Needless to say, from that point on, we made sure to at least cover the bed with a sheet to keep the dog hair from getting in the pillows. After all, we certainly wouldn't want to not let Molly up there, right?  ;)

July 7, 2007 - Traveling in Style

In 2007, we took a cruise that left out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. When it came time to book our airfare, we were surprised to see that flying first class wasn't much more than flying coach, and decided (in a "what the heck!" kind of moment) to treat ourselves. Erin was beside herself with giddiness as we boarded the plane and took our seats right up front. To say she had room to spare would be a huge understatement - you could have fit two of her in that seat side by side! But it sure made for a comfortable and relaxing (and well-fed!) trip to San Juan, and got our trip off in style!

June 2, 2002 - Great Swamp

I got my first digital camera almost a year before Erin was born, so pretty much all of the pictures I've taken of her were digital. I can literally count on one hand the number of rolls of film I've shot of her. This day was one of them, though. We'd gone for a walk with my Mom in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge which was near our house in New Jersey, and for whatever reason, I'd decided to lug out my big SLR and load it up with film. Although the scans of the pictures are grainy, the photos themselves were wonderful - vibrant colors and great depth of field. It reminded me how much I liked using that camera. Not enough to give up my little digi-cam quite yet, though. That still took a few years (and one D-SLR later). But I do love looking at the pictures and remembering the day, with Erin looking for birds and other creatures. Fun times!

December 11, 2004 - Spinning Lies

Beware of conversations that go something like this:

Erin: Mommy, pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasePLEASE come on the Teacup ride with me and Daddy!
Me: Um, Sweetie, I really don't like rides that spin around. They make me throw up.
Erin: PLEASE! You've never been on it with us, and I PROMISE we won't spin the cup. I PROMISE! Right, Daddy?
Jim: Sure!
Me: (Reluctantly) OK.

Bad decision. As soon as the ride started, they started spinning the stupid cup around until I thought I would die. Or lose my dinner. Thankfully, I just focused on taking pictures of Erin the whole time and wound up neither dying or puking. But I will NEVER, EVER either get on a ride like that again or listen to the two of them when they promise a non-spinning adventure. NEVER.

February 28, 2009 - California Girl

Erin's always been proud to have been born and raised in New Jersey, but her conversion to a "California girl" was pretty quick once we arrived here. Her sense of style got a shot in the arm, and every weekend she'd ask to go to the beach. Honestly, in February, the water temperature here can still be fairly frigid (well, not by Jersey standards, but still), but that didn't stop her (and Jim, I might add) from braving the waves on those first few trips. By the end of the summer, Erin was boogie-boarding like a champ and was braving bigger and bigger waves each trip to the beach. The conversion was complete. A California girl she is!

December 9, 2008 - Sing Out Loud

December 2008 was a tough month for us. Jim had started his new job in California on December 1st, but Erin and I were still in New Jersey so she could finish up the semester in school and we could get everything ready for the big move. For the most part, things went fine (except for the water heater dying the day Jim left, but that's a whole other story!). But there were a few days that were harder than others. One was this day, the day of Erin's winter concert at school. She was quite upset that Jim wasn't there for it, and that morning was really sad when I dropped her off at school. I was able to go to the concert, though, and made sure that I took a lot of pictures to send to Jim so he could "see" it. Erin sang her heart out, and seemed to enjoy herself during the show. As she left the stage, she gave me a big wave, and I like to think she was waving for her Daddy.

November 24, 2005 - Ringing the Bell

In my parents old house (still sounds strange to say that!), they had a brass bell on the wall near the stairs. It was solely for decoration, but like most children, Erin just loved ringing it. When she was a baby, we'd hold her and let her swing the chain back and forth, marveling in the sound it made. As she got older, she was able to reach it herself, and would ring in Thanksgiving dinners or any other occasion that she felt warranted it. I have quite a few pictures of her ringing this bell. The first few have her standing on her very tip-toes to reach it. And in this one, she barely has to reach up to ring it. It's just another measuring tape we have to see how big Erin's gotten!