Introducing Beatrix..

Here she is - our new kitten!

We've decided to name her Beatrix, but we call her Little Bea for short.. We also call her Sweet Bea or Queen Bea or just Bea.... you get the idea.

Here are the million pictures I have taken since we got her:

I promise we aren't becoming crazy cat people. She is just really really cute :)

*More posts not about kittens to come!

Our little friend :)

Presenting.......

The newest member of our family!

We are picking her up on Monday. What should we name her?

Rites of Passage

There are very special moments in every girl's life. The day you get your ears pierced... your first date... your first kiss... your high school prom... your wedding...

And it all starts here:

The day you get your fingernails painted for the first time.

This week I painted Suriya's fingernails and toenails for the first time. She got to pick out the polish (orange with sparkles, her favorite). And yes, I did cover her and the whole house with paper towels.. I am just the nanny after all. I don't think her parents would be pleased to have their nice carpet covered with orange fingernail polish..

She was so happy! Look at her little celebration:

We actually went camping!

Kenneth and I have never been camping together on our own. During our first few years in Boston a lot of our friends here loved camping, so we would go in big groups. Our contributions would be things like bringing the table cloth and oranges to go with lunch. They would take care of all of the actual camping.

We are definitely not that hard core...

Now that all of our camping friends have moved away we have been missing the trips. So, this weekend we decided to take a little "practice" trip to Camp Joseph - a church run camp site near the Joseph Smith Birthplace.

We thought it would be a safe place to test out our camping skills, with nice missionary couples in charge and cabins to fall back on, just in case. We were right! It was great! They even provide the wood for your camp fire and handcarts for you to haul it from the woodpile to the campsite or to carry things to and from your car.

Our trip was a success!!! We had so much fun camping just the two of us! All of my training from being a girls camp counselor came back. I got our fire started (with 1 match!) while Kenneth put together our tent.

We made tin foil dinners and roasted corn on the cob.

We hiked around the area, and checked out a great little swimming lake they have on the property.

Our campsite was in this little well-shaded grove of trees. We were never too hot, even though it was 90 degrees out. Plus, all of the trees acted like a great cover when it started to rain.

Here are some more pictures of the cute cabins or the big lodge you can stay in if you aren't into tenting:

The best part was just spending time together talking and laughing. Its not hard to be happy spending time with someone you love.

It was so much fun!!

In addition to our camping fun, we stopped at Dartmouth College on the way to Vermont to see murals painted by Jose Celemente Orozco. Kenneth teaches them in his Arts in America class this summer, so he brushed up by giving me a personal tour.

Dartmouth college is great. We walked around campus and had lunch at a great little bakery / cafe called Umpleby's. The Bertie Wooster sandwich and a chicken mushroom and leak pie really hit the spot.

On our way home we decided that since we had the time we would stop at anything that looked interesting on our way.

We ended up touring the Shaker museum and gift shop in Enfield New Hampshire. We also saw Mascoma lake, which is beautiful.

It's hard to believe that we were only gone for 2 days! We still have an entire day off left to relax and spend time together! I am so grateful for America - both for the freedom and the 3 day weekend :)

Next stop, here:

The White Mountains in New Hampshire... Don't they look amazing?