Peek-a-boo!

I feel like I play peek-a-boo with my blog because I'm in and out about once a month now! Life is GREAT! Tanner is changing so fast and doing new things everyday! He talks a lot ("dada" most of the time with other high pitched vowel sounds), army crawls everywhere and very speedily (he's close to real crawling), bangs toys together, feeds himself gerber puffs, hollers at us when we eat in front of him, bounces his body a lot, tries to sit up on his own, pulls himself to standing, cuddles into me when he's scared, loves bananas and won't eat anything unless it includes bananas, and laughs A LOT! I LOVE this age! He turned 7 months last week and he looks so much older than that sometimes. We tell each other about a million times a day how cute he is! Here are some pictures of mostly just him from the past month (click on the link): http://picasaweb.google.com/saramorey13/Photoshoots# (click on Slideshow in the supper left to see a large version of the pictures).

We have also been busy enjoying the East Coast! Here are the pictures from our adventures: http://picasaweb.google.com/saramorey13/PennsylvaniaJuly4thPhotoshoots# (click on Slideshow in the upper left to see a large version of the pictures.)

• We spent a day in Philadelphia visiting the sights in the Independence Mall area. We both really liked that historical trip, especially because we saw the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. There was such a good feeling in that room, I just knew it was sacred. We also loved Valley Forge (see video below about Philadelphia).
  
• We spent some time in Hershey, Pennsylvania where Eli's friend from California attends medical school. We went on a free ride that models the chocolate making process and ends up in a huge room filled with chocolate for sale. Can you say HEAVEN??!! My wallet didn't think so but my stomach was in 7th heaven.
  
• We drove through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, aka Amish Country. The best way to sum up that area of the country is BEAUTIFUL and PEACEFUL. Picture large corn fields, farms and silos, red covered bridges surrounded by large and lush trees, cute houses, flowers filling the yards, farm animals galore! And your occasional Amish man driving his horse-drawn carriage, Amish teenagers riding their scooters through small back-country towns, and Amish children walking barefoot through the town.
  
• We took Tanner to a small lake with a beach. He LOVED the sand and didn't even mind when he face-planted into it. He wasn't sure about the green water, but got used to it when he started splashing and zooming around in it.
  
• We spent the 4th of July in Baltimore visiting historical sights around the city, including the Star-Spangled Banner flaghouse which is the house of the lady who sewed the flag that the Star-Spangled banner is about. (The actual flag is in the Smithonsian in Washington D.C.) We ended the day by walking around the Inner Harbor, sitting at a park and listening to a doowop concert, and watching fireworks over the Harbor (Tanner slept through the whole thing - yay! He hates loud noises and would have screamed the whole time.)
• I have spent a few days downtown with Tanner visiting places around the city. We loved eating breakfast with Eli at a French pastry shop next door to where he works. DEEElish! He works in the cutest area of Baltimore with nice shops and restaurants right on the bay.
  
• We got on weekly walks through the woods. It is SO green here! I'm going to miss this the most when we move back to Utah. Tanner loves grabbing tree branches and watching the leaves move when he tugs on it. During one walk, we had a deer follow us along the path from about 30 feet away. Tanner started hollering with boredom and scared the deer away.
  
• When we're not exploring, Tan and I go to the pool (or he plays in his pool, aka dish tub, on our porch), go to the library, go on walks, Skype with family members, and sit on a blanket in the grass.

And last but not least, mostly for the fam, here are some videos!!

Philadelphia


Swinging and Crawling


Downtown Baltimore


Celery and Cup fun