We are actually alive!

Greetings friends,

I realize that it has been several months since we last posted. Sorry about that. New Pictures will be posted shortly (I am told by the IT staff - Teresa). To get you caught up on things, well...

We went to Park City, UT for a Sheppard family reunion. My greatest concern about the trip was the 3 hour plane ride. The trip out went just fine, with minimal screaming and crying. The girls just loved watching their cousin Coleman, who is a year older. Addison had trouble adapting to the new time zone, in fact, refused to adapt to the new time zone. So a usual 6am wake up became a 4am wake up. Hooray, we are on vacation...yarg. We also think that she had trouble adapting to the altitude, new sleeping arrangements, etc. So, things could have gone better for her...and her parents...Lily, seemed to adapt much better to the change in environment. By the way, the trip back confirmed all my concerns, with two tired crying babies and two tired wanting-to-cry parents. We were a plane favorite.

Needless to say, after being thoroughly exhausted, the idea of putting the girls in the car for a 9 hour trip to Ocean City, Maryland, was less than appealing. So we cancelled that trip and tried to recover.

After a couple of weeks at home, we decided to visit the Columbus Zoo, home of Jack Hannah (the animal guy who is on Letterman and Leno). We rented a hotel room in Columbus so that we could spend two days at the zoo. We originally were going to spend one day at the zoo and another day at the aquarium, but the Columbus aquarium was just one fish tank. This zoo was great. Even though it was hot, almost all of the walkways around the exhibits were shaded. We have a great video of the girls looking at the otters, perhaps we can get that on-line soon.

We are happy to say that both girls are walking, though usually in opposite directions. Addison prefers to chase after Jack (our cocker spaniel) and Lily likes to run around our dining room table. Addison can say a host of words, especially Jack, ball, block, dog, cheese, dada, mama, and others that I cannot remember. Lily is less vocal with different fluctuations and versions of mama, though just recently she can moo like a cow and make some possessed growl with her mouth open. We are teaching them sign language and Lily is especially adept at telling us exactly what she does and does not want.

My mom and sister Bridget came to Athens to help me with the girls when Teresa went to her cousin's wedding in Atlanta, then stayed to work at Screamfree for a few days. The girls thought that Aunt Bridget was the best. They loved spending time with Grandma, but Aunt Bridget was lots of fun.

Hopefully we will get videos up so that you can see how funny and how much fun the girls are right now. Hardly a day goes by that we are not laughing at something that they are doing. It is great that they find burping funny, though I have not taught them the thumb-to-the-head thing yet. I have to consult the baby books, but I think you teach drinking games at age 2.