The Last First Day of School

This past Wednesday was my last first day of school. The student life has been good, and we'll make the most out of this coming year, but we're also looking forward to getting out into the "real world." It'll certainly be an eventful year, as we await the arrival of Luke's little brother.

Luke likes bath time

The picture says it all...

Luke the Musician

Lately, Luke has really been into wanting to climb up on the piano bench so he can "play" the piano.

Gettysburg

This past week was quite a momentous one. It was the first time Courtney and I left Luke with someone else overnight. Of course, I've been away from him when I had job interviews, etc., but this was the first time that Courtney has ever done this. We drove up to Altoona on Tuesday and then left Luke there with Courtney's parents on Wednesday and Thursday while we took a trip to Gettysburg. We had a great time, and we were happy to hear that Luke had a great time, too! So it was a win-win situation for everyone.

Gettysburg was quite the experience. Spending time there really gets you thinking about the sacrifices that so many made so this country could be united and strong as it is today. We got there after lunch on Wednesday and spent the afternoon at the new visitor center and museum, which included a film and a cyclorama, apparently the largest painting in America. On Thursday, we toured the battlefield park itself in our car. It was a 24 mile long route with periodic stops where we got out and could learn about what happened at that particular spot. We also went on two park ranger-guided talks, including one which was probably our favorite part of the trip. A ranger led a tour and talked about Pickett's Charge, showing us all the intricacies of what happened. We also saw where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

But anyway, we're now back in C'ville getting settled in before school starts up again in a week and a half. It's been a good summer.

...And since the main attraction of this family blog is Luke, here are a couple recent pictures of him. The first is with his cousins, and the second shows him in his daddy's hat (he loves putting on this hat).

"The boys..."

...That's what we'll be calling our kids when the second one comes along, because we just found out yesterday that Luke is going to have a little brother! Since we were gone all summer, we put off having the detailed ultrasound until now, so there's actually less than 3 months to go. And the baby is measuring about 9 days ahead of his due date (Nov. 3), so who knows. After Luke came 4 weeks early, we don't know what to expect!

Heading Back Home

Our (very short) time in Cleveland has come to an end. Courtney and Luke are leaving tomorrow to spend a couple days in Altoona before coming home. I'll be leaving in the rental car Tuesday morning for C'ville. It's been a fun summer and things went well with my internships, but we're ready to get home.

Yesterday, we went to the "Farm Park." It's basically a mini-zoo with a bunch of farm animals (sheep, goats, cows, pigs, chickens, etc.) all over the place. All in all, Luke liked it, though he was sometimes a bit wary of getting too close to the loud sheep.


Here is Luke with "Tonya" the turkey. They became pretty good friends:

And then here's a totally random picture of Luke enjoying a particularly messy dinner: