davejenbarnes

I didn’t get any GREAT shots, or, really, any good ones either, but here are all of the cousins (minus the two still residing in wombs) from left to right: Kambry, Wendy, Lowell, Ransom (holding Lowell and sticking out his tongue), Tait, and James (with the “fake” smile).

James and Kambry discovered that they each LOVE “Ring Around the Rosey” and ended up playing it anytime the older kids were all in the pool out back. It was neat watching James really interact with his cousins because the last time they were all together, he was only 16 months old (same age Lowell was this trip) and not talking much.  We’ve decided that Tait and James favor each other more than any other two cousins in looks, though at some point in his babyhood, we thought James had a chance of becoming a little more of a red-head than he’s ended up.

Here are some pictures of the birthday girl (and birthday Dad!) from Thursday.  I can’t believe she’s five.

James got to celebrate a bit of a surprise birthday party and he loved telling everyone this week that his birthday is “comin’ up.”  I think watching Wendy and getting a candle himself has been great practice for his birthday party on the 19th.  He sang “Happy Birthday” to his cars on the drive back to Plano.

Besides the trampoline and pool, Dave’s brother and sister-in-law also had a great hammock in their back yard.  Grandma Barnes got a long nap in it but I didn’t dare take a picture of her sleeping, so here’s one of the kids all having some fun.  This was a great trip.  Thanks to Peter and Shelley, Philip and Kimberly for having us all up to Oklahoma for some good eats and good fun.  (It only gets better as the boys grow up!)

We’ve been here for three days now and I haven’t taken a single picture. Dave took some this morning with the MacBook. I guess I better crack out the big camera and start taking some pictures!

I finished knitting the latest project but it will take some time to block it since it looks like a blob and I don’t want to poke pins into my mother-in-law’s guest bed (plus, I don’t have pins here).

James loves being up here. I can’t believe how big he is and how much energy he has. I promise to take pictures. Promise.

I would say, judging by this picture Mark took, that Dave enjoyed himself up in the ‘burbs of Seattle. It is good to have him home, though, if I do say so myself.

Dave brought back some amazing jerky from Stewart’s Market, Inc. in Pike Place Market. A-maz-ing, I tell you. Too bad we don’t have a market like that here. Mmmmmm….

Someday I’ll make him blog about his trip on his own. Thanks, Dad, for the ticket for Dave to fly with you to Seattle and spend the time up there with his friends. Thanks, Millers, for giving Dave a place to stay and entertaining him and feeding him. Thanks, Flints, for driving down from Bellingham to visit.

So, about my trip… let me give a little background first. Babycenter.com has message boards as part of their site. In browsing the message boards as a pregnant first time mom-to-be, I found a thread (series of messages) for first time moms due in July 2005 and in November 2004, decided to keep up with this thread and particular group of ladies.

Babycenter’s set-up is very come-and-go so not all the same ladies were leaving messages all the time right at first. By the time the babies were born, though, there was a very active core group of probably 60 women or so. Shortly after the babies all arrived (some early, some late), Babycenter re-designed their bulletin boards and we decided to move our group off-site to ensure privacy as we were beginning to post pictures of our little people. This led us to buy our own domain and set up our own bulletin board. So, since November 2004, most of us have been in communication with each other on an almost daily basis.

Fast forward two and a half years and we’re beginning to plan meetups! Chicago was our first meetup and seven women were able to make it. We had a blast and I think most of us felt like we’d known each other (and the kids) for years even though it was our first time meeting. I don’t know how many years it may be before I am able to take a trip to meet them again so I wanted to hop on the opportunity to meet some of these ladies this summer before the chance was gone.

I’ve added a collage of everyone’s pictures. All the toddlers are within a week or two of James in age. I had an amazing time despite the food poisoning from last week and am so glad I was able to meet these wonderful online friends of mine and their families.

These women have been my support system and I cannot say I would have been able to make it this far without their encouragement and humor. I love my online mommy friends. :-)

I’ll post more about the trip, but let it be known that not everyone you meet on the internet is a deceptive pervert.  These are some of my dearest, closest friends and I met them for the first time this weekend in Chicago.

IMG_1927, uploaded by davejenbarnes.

I got a lot of stares in DC. Not the good kind that make you feel pretty or attractive or even complimented in a way - though it’s rare that someone would admit that they like those kind of stares. Nope. I got the stares of confusion. Where man, woman, and child alike staring are puzzled, and you can feel their curiosity.

David experienced it while trying to find an ATM in the Department of Commerce Building when a security guard was brave enough to question him. Of course, it didn’t help his explination when “the big camera” was not with him at the time. You know. The big camera that looks like it fits on the end of the one leg. So David proceeded to explain that this was, indeed, not a weapon and was instead a single leg of a tripod - named appropriately - a monopod. He then attached the little canon elph powershot s200 to the end of it and extended the leg to its full height to show the security guard how it worked. I can’t imagine how silly it must have felt to hold the little elph camera up on the end of the monopod for a security guard in the entrance to the Department of Commerce building in Washington DC that tiring day in June.

Cape Charles Panorama, uploaded by davejenbarnes.

My first attempt at a panorama is up on our flickr site! I had photoshop do an automatic version and it didn’t … blend … so well from one pic to another, so I did this one by hand. I’m much happier with the results!

There are six pictures in this panorama. David was the photographer.
-Jen

UPDATE: I uploaded a viewable larger version on our gallery… and changed the link (the thumbnail above) to the gallery on our site where David can view it from work, as opposed to flickr which is blocked by Bess.