Six Years Later

Loran and I celebrated our six year anniversary this weekend. We were back in Connecticut for Katy and Chad's wedding and spent an additional day bumming around our old haunts in and around Norwalk.

It wouldn't be a trip to Connecticut if we weren't stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of the day.

The wedding was at the Hill-Stead Museum which was beautiful. A perfect outdoor wedding with an amazing view. Every detail was perfect, including the food! We danced the night away, and were hardly bothered when the rain started to fall around nightfall.

And they're married!

Great view!

The cocktail reception

The first course - I got scolded for eating a piece of bread before dinner and was told not to start eating the soup when they put it down... :) Bearclaw made me do it!

Loran and the happy couple - Katy and Chad

Princetonians

On Sunday, after the wedding brunch, we made our way down to Norwalk. We made a stop at Loran's favorite grocery store, Stew Leonard's - which is an epileptic seizure just waiting to happen. But, they have good food. And how can you dispute a grocery store that's been on Ripley's Believe It or Not - yes, grocery store.

Loran in front of our first house! (the shrubs need a trimming, but we noticed some baby toys in the porch! Awwww....)

I had to dip my toes in, even though I was reminded why I hate the Norwalk beaches - too rocky!

Loran's first apartment - it was just the level above the garage on the left, not the entire house!

Our first apartment - once again, just the first floor, all 485 sq. ft of it! The front door opened into our bedroom (front and right side window) which flowed into the living room (middle windows) and then to the kitchen (left windows). Small, but we made it work, even while listening to a moody 13 year old girl stomp around upstairs.

We went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant. Fat Cat Pie Company. They make simple, delicious pizzas with only a few topping selections, have amazing cheese and meat plates and hundreds of obscure wines, and in my case, some sparkling juices. Loran and I started going the first week it opened, and we were hooked. If you visited us, you went to Fat Cat. We had our going-away party there. The owners knew us, and there was some recognition when we walked in on Sunday night.

Sunday, we spent the late morning in South Norwalk. We visited the SoNo library, where I worked prior to its renovation. It's quite nice now, definitely a HUGE improvement! We spent some time by the harbor and eventually made our way to Waveny Park in New Caanan for a walk and a picnic lunch (our pizza leftovers from Fat Cat!) It was a nice, relaxing end to our vacation before we had to start our commute home.

We had two easy flights home, no problems and when we arrived at my parent's house to pick up Ella. Mom and Ella were waiting on the corner to surprise us. I'm pretty sure Ella snarled at me when she saw me. She was actually not very happy to see us and kept running to Grandma's arms - I think she was mad we'd left. It took her a few minutes to warm up to us, but eventually, she came around! Ella showed us her new tricks she'd learned while we were gone, including pointing to her head, tummy and toes. She's also a speedy crawler now. Loran admitted that by Saturday afternoon, he was really really missing Ella. More than he'd expected. He even wrote her a little letter at the wedding, on Post-Its.

Ella seemed pretty happy to be in her own bed. It took her awhile to settle down, but was definitely sacked out this morning! We're back to the grind. Ella had a better PT session with her new therapist today and we've been cleaning, unpacking, doing laundry and playing. I got the lowdown on Ella's MRI, seems like it'll be pretty smooth (hopefully I can keep my hormonal self together). I can't believe it's next week already. And the following week is my first prenatal appointment - finally!