Big, exciting things I wrote to my grandparents about before computers and email...

I guess my mom came across a few postcards and this letter that I typed to my grandparents a REALLY long time ago and my mom just mailed it to me.  I love what I decided to write them about.

You can't really see the text because the typewriter font is so faint.  This is what it said:

Dear Grandma and Grandpa Scoville,

How are you?  I'm fine.  I had a super duper birthday.

Dad got a new type writer for our old  black one the one that the V didn't work.

What is new on Dads type writer: A paper insert lever, paper release lever, repeat key, auto function, index up/index down, automatic underscore, relocate. Erase, tabulator, auto Mr.

In the Friend I read a story about a little girl who met a boy and gave some presents to him.  It was called Completely Christmas.  It was in the Friend.

Love,
Amie

***By the way, the entire note was typed in caps.  So I was yelling at them. 

****Doesn't this make you wish I was your pen pal in the 4th or 5th grade?

Now that Brie is 1

I've noticed that Brie is more snuggly and cuddly than ever before.  (I don't know if that is because we are nursing less and less and so she needs that connection or what.  But it's fantastic now, because she'll also cuddle with Mat.)

Brie can now throw her bouncy ball in a definite direction.  (Towards Mat or I.)

Along that line, she knows what we are saying to her sometimes.

Brie enjoys tormenting Maddy.  She will roll her popper vacuum like thing in front of Maddy and get Maddy all worked up.  And then she giggles while Maddy is barking like a maniac at the popper.

Brie thinks it is hilarious when I sneeze.

If it's been awhile since she's seen Mat, she will point to the window out back and I'll lift her up to look out at the lake and she'll say "da da."  During the week he's not out there, he's at work.  But on the weekends, we do look out the window and watch Mat fishing off the dock in some windy, cold weather.

Brie says "ma ma", "da da", and she points to where we keep her food when she's hungry.

Brie is a strong crawler and furniture surfer/walker.  She's only taken a few steps and doesn't really seem to keen on continuing that trend right now.

Brie loves to empty out her toys and have them scattered throughout the house.  I'm very thankful our house is small, so I don't have even more areas I'd have to clean up while she's napping and/or asleep.

Awesome Autumn Day

We enjoyed a fantastic fall hike in the woods today.  The trailhead was only about 30 minutes from our house and we hear that it's great cross-country skiing in the winter time. Check out the pictures by clicking on the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amie/sets/72157627962889256/

**any flickr and blogger users:  do you know of a way to link the photos together so I don't have to load in flickr and picasa??

Cupboard Time

Brie has been playing with the pots and pans in the cupboard for months now and she just figured out she can climb into it. 

"Happy Birthday, Brie" from Dad

Happy Birthday to my sweet Brie! Some stats from your first year: You lived in 4 homes and 2 different states; You LOVE riding the dog; You went cross-country skiing in Utah (and North Carolina!); You swam in Lake Ontario; You hiked in the S. Appalachians, Wasatch Mtns, and Adirondacks; You can fall asleep in under 9 minutes when riding on a bike; You can beat me in an oatmeal eating contest (but I'm still the Cheerio king). I love your laugh, attitude and unwillingness to sit still. I love you. -Dad 

 **(I took this off of Mat's fb post, so we'll have it beyond fb. -amie_

Brie is 1 year's old

Sheesh!  This year went by fast...seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital.  It's been a year of momentous occasions.  Brie celebrated her birthday by taking two steps that only I witnessed.  She was standing at our fridge playing with the magnets on it when she turned around, steadied herself, and then walked two steps over to me.  When she let go of the fridge, I yelled and then realized that I didn't want to scare Brie into falling to the ground.  So I just started saying "Brie is standing, Brie is standing, now Brie is walking" in my normal voice to get Ron and Naomi to look over from the couches, but they just thought I was talking to Brie and weren't paying attention.

Brie loved her birthday cheesecake that Naomi made for her.  Can't wait to see what this next year brings for us.

Columbus Day Weekend

While Mat's parents were in town, we checked out the Burrville Cider Mill because I was sold on the walk to the waterfall people had told me about.  Apparently people don't really walk around here because the waterfall was located behind the gift shop about 20 feet away from the parking lot.  It was such a strenuous walk that we had to refresh ourselves with some apple cider and cider donuts before heading back home where Mat and Ron fished off the dock.

The Powerhouse for the main house.

The next day we went to The Boldt Castle in the Thousand Islands.  We took the Uncle Sam "2 Nation" Boat Tour around the Thousand Islands and then got off and wandered around Heart Island which is where Boldt Castle is located.  The Boat Tour was pretty cool to travel around and see all the islands and the houses that have been built on them.  Apparently there are over 1800 islands in the Thousand Island region and this is where the name for the salad dressing came from. The Boldt Castle estate was quite large.  They had the mansion, the powerhouse, the play house, the boat entry way and then parking for the boats.  It's amazing that even at the turn of the century there were that many people with LOTS of money who could build such estates as their second homes.  It's currently owned by teh state of NY and being restored.  You can find out more about the story behind this castle here.  You can also see pictures of the castle there, because apparently we didn't really take any of the actual castle.  :-)

Look how clear the water is!

If you look close, you can see the salmon flopping in the air.

Ron and Naomi watched Brie while we took a paddle down south Sandy Creek to Lake Ontario.  It was a beautiful fall day.  Hard to believe it wasn't the middle of summer and that winter is approaching.  Mat tried his hand at fishing on our way back from Lake Ontario.  As we approached to the take out location, we saw humongous pacific salmon jumping out of the water like crazy so we sat and watched for about 30 minutes.  It was so awesome, we made Mat's parents come back the next evening to see if they were jumping.  (They weren't as prolific as the previous evening but we saw a few.)

***UPDATE - I found a couple pics of the Boldt Castle/Estate.  They are below:

First solo slide

Ready to slide.

Yippee!!

Wow, that was fun!

Seriously. Fun.

I think I will do that again.

Brie loved the park!