2 new baby girls in the world!

Congratulations to Anne and Seth on the birth of their baby girl, Allison

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Congratulations to Bisrat and Julie on the birth of their daughter, Hannah.

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Best wishes to them all!

Niagara Falls

Finally, the last stop we made on our trip before heading home was to Niagara Falls.  We had been there more than 2 years ago and really wanted to go back.  We even took Fazal on the Maid of the Mist boat ride - in this first picture you can see him all decked out in his very own poncho.  

And that's it!!  It was a great trip, and we got home just before the national gas price average hit $4.00 per gallon.  Thanks to all our friends and family we met along the way...

Dinner with the Oak Park Wilders

Next stop on our roadtrip was Oak Park, Illinois, to see Christina's aunt Lydia, and uncle Jonathan and his family, Patty, Emmet and Luke. When we first arrived we hung out with Lydia for a while and Fazal didn't even hesitate to play with her. And she knew all the fun games!! (Empty the laundry basket was the best.)   Then we had a nice outdoor dinner with everyone. It was  a brief, but very nice, visit, with these relatives we certainly wish we could see more often. 

Fazal with Emmet and Luke and their neighbor friend on the picnic blanket

Patty, Jafred, Fazal and Luke

With his big cousins

Our lovely dinner, complete with watermelon

Visit to the Bahai House of Worship

This set of photos goes back to our roadtrip....these are from our visit to the Bahai House of Worship just outside of Chicago, Illinois.   It was a very warm Spring day and the tulips were blooming.  It was Fazal's first visit to this special place. 

Congratulations, Dr. Emily!

My sister, Emily, recently earned her PhD and we are so proud that we can now call her "Dr. Heaphy" after all of her hard work!! So, to add to her list of wonderful qualities, like terrific sister, sister-in-law, aunt, daughter, wife, professor, musician, and friend, she is now officially a doctor. Hooray!!! We are so proud of you!!! We were serious when we said we wanted to read your final disseration, so don't hide it from us! For those who don't know, her degree is from the University of Michigan Business School in Organizational Behavior, and she'll be teaching at Boston University starting this Fall. And she's MY sister, and nobody, but nobody else can claim that honor. We love you Em!

Fazal's most recent typing

VV1`1321921-opp1321921-opp/’/’4/’/’4,2 7888867345u58”=000000901902.lo0221—p```````````````3=0—00-[-0 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`2 p-[5415`23290-32`0;lp010-10-`0-09000000`[]’
900``

[By banging on the keyboard he comes up with funtions we would be really interested in knowing how to do, but don't. He has also learned how to turn the computer OFF, being attracted to the glowing blue light - not such a good thing.]

Next Vacation Stop:: Madison WI

After a wonderful couple of days in Iowa, we drove to Madison, Wisconsin, only about 2.5 hours away. There we stayed with our dear friends from Haifa, Lua and Hadi and their baby daughter, Layli, and were also able to see some other friends we have met before that are also living in Madison. It is a great city, like a huge college town, with lots for families to do. We had a BBQ, attended the huge, annual "Brat-Fest" where Wisconsonians outdo themselves eating bratwurst, as well as a trip to the local zoo, and lots of hanging out with their friends. It was a really nice time. Below are a bunch of photos, in no particular order, so you can take a little trip to Madison too.

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Hadi, his daughter Layli born in January, and Jafred and Fazal

At the zoo
Lua and Layli, me and Fazal at the zoo. Holding hands, ahhhhh....
Layli and Fazal
Hanging out at their home

Cuteness at the zoo
Jafred and Layli getting to know one another

Jafred and Rumi, Layli's cousin. She was too cute, and being a few months older than Fazal, she taught him all about sharing and playing.
Rumi and Fazal, sharing food no doubt
Taking a rest at the Madison Farmer's Market, which is set up around the beautiful Capitol building. It was a beautiful day and a nice place to relax and see the city in action. I had heard sometime ago in a story, I think it might have been Garrison Keillor, that one particular uniqueness to Midwestern farmer's markets is that everyone moves in the same direction! And sure enough, the hundreds of people there were all walking slowly, quietly counter-clockwise, nobody in a rush, no pushing - a study in culture (Dude, I used to live near the farmer's market in Boston, and it was just loud, organized chaos). Only mishap here was that I left my purse, that contained both of our wallets, my phone AND all three of our passports in the Capitol building!!!! I had a total panic attack and raced into the building, only to find that someone had brought it to the reception desk and nothing was missing. Thank you, mystery person.

Rumi and Fazal seemed to agree that there's nothing better than chewing.

Rumi's mom, Khadijah, with the girls
Check out that identical profile
Rumi's dad Gino, a friend Michael, and Lua
Standing up at the coffee table
Enjoying the swings at the park down the street

Layli taking it all in
Dads and Kids
More sharing!
WAY too much cuteness
BIG BIG thanks to Lua and Hadi and everyone there for such a good time!

The Best $5.99 We've Ever Spent

The splash pool was bought just in time for the grueling heat we are getting this weekend!! This was Fazal's first time in water aside from his bathtub, and he LOVED it!!! You can't really tell from these photos because it was hard to capture, but he was shrieking with delight at the cold water, smiling, laughing, and most amusing to watch, spinning himself around on the slippery plastic bottom of the pool. He'd spin and spin, and then splash his hands in the water and it would go all over himself and the deck (and when I was lucky, me. I didn't fit.) And then he figured out that he could climb in and out of the pool (with some help).

If you don't believe me when I say it's hot, remember I lived in Israel for 3.5 years, and this my friends, is worse, because of the humidity. Thanks to the splash pool, good times could still be had despite the horrible heat.

9 Months Old

Guess who turned 9 months old yesterday!?

Learning about Gardening

Fazal had his introduction to gardening last weekend as we, his dad mainly, planted the vegetables and seeds in the garden in our backyard. We decided that sooner or later he'd want to explore the dirt (and help us next summer!) so why not let him get dirty and discover....as you can see, he crawled around in the dirt plenty and had a mouthful to taste.

More vacation photos next time...

Next Stop: Iowa!

Next on our vacation, we travelled to Iowa, a state that none of us had been to before!

We had several friends to visit, so on we went...

Fazal meets Bahia!

Jafred and I served with Leila and Nuri in Haifa at the Baha'i World Centre and it was so nice to see them again. Bahia is only 6 days older than Fazal so we were really excited to see them together. These two photos is from when we first arrived. Leila is holding Bahia while Jafred introduces Fazal.

So cute!!!

Here we are with Nuri, too, as the babies get acquainted.

The dads on a walk around the neighborhood.

Bahia is such a smiling little bubble of joy, so at first, shy Fazal had to be encouraged a lot to interact with her.
And in the same town in Iowa we got to see Susan and Elijah, who are expecting their own little bundle of joy this summer. We sadly don't have a photo of Elijah, but we really were so happy to see you both!!!! We know you are going to be awesome parents.

A happy Kenyan reunion. By the day we left, they were good buddies. You can see from these photos that they are very close in their development - they both wanted nothing more than to chew on these blocks and practice sitting and crawling. They were similar in so many ways.

Thanks Iowan friends for having us, we can't wait to see you again!