Friday night...in the park...I think it was the third of July

Since Daniel and I are new in town, we decided we would have the quintessential Chicago Independence Day (or the quentessential Chicago July 3rd, anyway). We rode the train into downtown Chicago and joined the masses at Grant Park for Taste of Chicago and a free outdoor concert with fireworks afterward. We had a great time hanging out with the other hundreds of thousands of people (not joking). Daniel almost died trying to get us food. Really.

The river that runs through downtown.

Us picnicking and laughing at Ava's antics.

The show. Pretty spectacular.

Funny Moments

So, we've settled in a bit (unpacked all the suitcases, at least)--I thought I might share a few funny tidbits from the our last couple of days in the hotel room:

• Ava put a pair of underwear over her head, pulling it down over her eyes. She walked into a wall.
• She grabbed the toilet paper, threw it over her shoulder and walked away, it unrolling as she went.
• While I was on the phone with Public Storage, she pulled a blue, hairy chocolate out from underneath the couch and took a big bite out of it. I was able to pull it out before she swallowed, but man, was that thing disgusting.

Where We Are: Missouri

We arrived in Missouri late Thursday night--we woke up Friday morning to find it beautiful and green. Daniel and I went on a four-wheeler ride across his parents' farm. We walked around in the corn and the soybeans, and went all the way down the Missouri River. That afternoon, we went to Daniel's favorite ice cream shop, Central Dairy, and had the biggest ice cream sundae you've ever seen. Ava screamed for more between bites. In the late afternoon, Brian shot off some bottle rockets, and we lots of fun on the hay bales. Ava even got to go on a (very slow) 4-wheeler ride with Grandpa. Here are the pictures:

The farm from the porch

Ava's first Central Dairy


Playing on the porch swing

Maggie--pretty and pregnant :)

Hay bale rolling (more on this later)

Riding the 4 wheeler with Grandpa

Where We've Been: Texas

We left Albuquerque Tuesday and made the LONG drive to Mesquite. My brother's family came over on Wednesday morning and Daniel's sisters, Jen and Amy, joined us that afternoon. We all went together out to Ham's Orchard, where we ate fresh, juicy, ripened on the tree, honest-to-goodness Texas peaches. Ava also got her first experience picking blackberries. She discovered that she really liked them, and began picking them off the bush and putting them directly in her mouth. Here's some pictures of our time in Dallas:

Hamming it up in the car

With Dad at Ham's Orchard

Yum...
Aubrie picking blackberries

Ava squishing blackberries

Walking with Poppy

With Aunt Jen
Addy with her peach ice cream

And because I can't resist a naked baby picture...

Where We've Been: Albuquerque

We spent an extra day in the Grand Canyon for reasons that shall be explained later (Daniel is too tired to post it tonight, and, as he rightly points out, I don't remember most of it. How's that for a teaser?). After a long Father's Day, we arrived in Albuquerque Monday evening, where we got to hang out with an old friend Kri-C (said "Krissy"), who we worked with the summer we met, her husband, Paul, and her daughter, Lillian. Kri-C and I found that we were kindred spirits at Horn Creek that summer, and discovered that our daughters are also heart twins. They have the same bubbly, energetic personality. So fun. Here are some pics of everyone.

Beautiful Lillian

Heart Twins

Good Friends

Where We've Been: LA to Yuma to the Grand Canyon

So it's a been a while between posts. Mostly, we haven't had internet access. After our night in Cambria, we headed down to see the Peters in La Mirada. It took a long time to get to them (LA traffic), but we had a great time catching up with them.


That morning we bought Ava's forward facing carseat, which she seems to like. She wasn't as completely enamored with it as we thought she would be. The benefit to her seems to be that she can now make demands face to face. She does seem to like looking out the window though.


That night we went on to visit Mike and Beth in Yuma. Ava and their little girl Natalie had a great time playing together. From there, we headed to the Grand Canyon by way of Sedona. We enjoyed the beautiful red rock formations, and got to the Grand Canyon just in time for sunset.

Right up to the edge. She's a Popp alright.

Fonda Odyssey

To kick off our road trip, we purposed to buy a car in an unfamiliar town, buy a new car seat for Ava, and end the day two hours south of said unfamiliar town. So we hopped out of bed at the crack of nine, and were on the road well before noon (stop laughing, those of you without babies and jet lag). Our first stop was the lovely town of Dublin, CA, at Dublin Honda. There we met Roberto, the car salesman and father of eight, obviously desperate for a sale. His boss, however, was that man that they have at every dealership I've done business with, whose job posting must read something like:

Help wanted to discuss money issues with potential car buyers. Must have Italian surname; Gambino or Hoffa name a plus. Must be humorless, dour, and scare small children and first time buyers. Greasy hair required. Mafia nickname optional.

Vince (his real name) was not interested in giving us a good deal on any car, and we weren't excited about the former rental cars that littered the lot. So we excused ourselves for lunch and did not return.

Early afternoon found us at Honda of Oakland, where the used car we were most interested in had been sold days earlier. They were much more interested in making us a deal, and gave us an offer on a brand-new Odyssey that was too good to pass up. So, after only a few hours of deliberation and input from everyone I could think to call, we had agreed to buy a new car, the base model at a sub-bargain-basement price.

Then the real fun began. We drove up the street to Chase Bank, where I had deposited some money several weeks earlier in anticipation of this transaction. I walked past the Chase sign into the bank, spoke with the teller wearing the Chase shirt, and asked to withdraw money from my Chase account. "I'm sorry," he said, "but we are not a Chase Bank." It so happens that this was a former WaMu bank, as are all Chase locations in California, and as such does not yet have access to Chase accounts that were never at WaMu.

After the branch manager spoke on the phone with someone at the corporate office for half an hour or so, they figured out how to give me the money, and gave me a cashier's check made out to Fonda of Oakland. The teller did not find it as funny as I did, but did correct it.

So an hour after we left the dealership, we strolled back in and talked their finance guy, who I'm sure was related to Vinny from Dublin -- equally humorless, intimidating, and downright mean. Even Ava could not coax a smile out of this man. But he did the job, and the salesman handed us the keys, and away we drove in an Ocean Mist blue van with 53 miles on the odometer.

Our economic stimulus package was not tapped out, though -- we then proceeded to buy a camera from a seller on Craigslist, whom we met in a Wal-Mart parking lot south of Oakland. After picking up some supplies and grabbing dinner, we rushed back to the airport to return the rental van, sliding in a few minutes shy of 24 hours. We left for Monterey a few minutes before eleven and arrived after an uneventful drive at 12:30 am with a wide-awake baby (video to come).

Alas, the car seat had to wait...

We Are Here: Pacific Coast Highway

After spending the greater part of Monday looking for a car (post forthcoming) and running other errands in San Francisco, we headed south to spend the night in Monterey. We went to the aquarium this morning (which was amazing--Ava loved the jellyfish and sea horses), and headed south on the PCH this afternoon. We came through Big Sur and landed in Cambria for the night. Here are some pics of our odyssey.

Big Sur

The Odyssey

Daddy's girl

The pilgrims

For Brian

Ava See...

Ava do:

Beach Day

Sorry for the long silence. My trip to the Philippines and subsequent move have kept me rather occupied the last 4 weeks or so. We did have time to go to the beach, though, so I figured I would post some pictures.

Daniel started by burying her in the sand, then took her in the water to play. She loves the surf. Daniel would lift her up out of the waves when a big one would come and she would enthusiastically point at the water again. Even when she fell off the boogie board into the water (no kidding), she still wanted to get in. It makes me sad to see how much she loves the beach now. She's going to hate us when she's older.