E-I-E-I-O

Sunday we went to Rockport, MA and Halibut State Park with Tye, Andrea, Jared, and Leah. It was beautiful! Rockport is a small, artsy town on the coast with lots of shops, cafes, and art studios. Halibut State Park, just up the road, has an old rock quarry turned lake that overlooks the ocean. The shoreline is made up of these HUGE boulders the we climbed around. The wind was blowing off the ocean, the waves were crashing against the rocks, and the sun was setting through the clouds. Here are a few pics as well as a video of Daniel, Tye, Andrea, and Hudson singing "Old McDonald" on the car ride home.

The VonAllmen's Come to Town

Tye and Andrea are here this weekend. So far we've kinda just been hanging out. They played a show last night at Front Street Coffeehouse in Salem. Today I think we might head to the Farmers Market here in Marblehead and then to downtown Boston for some Boston Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. mmmmm.


Here we are--the Cincinnati crowd representin' all up in Salem M.A.


After being shocked when he slide down the plastic slide at the park, Hudson was a bit unsettled. Andrea and Tye try to comfort him.

Fun with Mary Kay

Hudson gave us both a makeover. Don't we look pretty? I feel he was going for a more subtle, natural look for me with just the light purple eyeshadow on my cheeks. But for himself he wanted something that said "Hey, I'm here and I'm beautiful."


Hudson loves bikes so much that we finally decided to get him one. After getting it out of the box we realized his feet didn't reach the pedals. But he doesn't seem to mind. He's quite proud.


What a ham! He calls cameras "cheese" and loves to have his picture taken.

Jumpin, on the blog bandwagon!

Hey family and friends-
I've decided to start a blog for several reasons: 1. so that whenever you find yourself up at 4:00am wondering, "Hmm, wonder what those crazy Armstrongs are up to these days?" you can log on and find out! 2. to have a kind of family journal that we can keep and refer back to for years to come, 3. to hopefully share more frequently and more deeply what's going on in our lives than I usually do in my occasional mass e-mails, and 4. Lisa Whechel, former 80's tv star from "The Facts of Life" told me to...in a book someone gave me....not in real life or just in my head.

So, just to catch you all up to speed, we're doing great! Daniel is still enjoying Tool and is always working on a wide range of projects from helmets to chair mats. And he's busy in the evenings working on illustrations for books he and his brother are working on. Hopefully you'll be able to see them in a bookstore near you someday in the not too distant future.

Hudson is awesome. I put him to bed about a half hour ago and since then he's been quietly talking and singing to his stuffed animals in his crib. He learns new words every day. I can't even count how many he knows now. All day long he points and labels everything he sees--"i" (ice cream), "moor" (mower), "chuak" (truck), "muk"(milk), "cha" (chocolate), "trailer" (trailer)...he loves watching movie trailers so he says that one perfectly.

He loves all things "boy" like trucks, construction equipment, motorcycles, and tools....and scratching himself. He's got so much of Daniel's personality in him--he's super expressive, excitable, and a bit crazy.

I'm doing great too. I've got more freelance work than I can handle right now which is a good problem to have. Check out my portfolio at http://www.arianarmstrong.com if you'd like. Hopefully I'll have the "website design" page updated in the next couple weeks. I'm also working with Marblehead Little Theatre designing the set for their December children's play so it's good to see my tuition dollars are paying off : )

I miss all of you who are scattered all over the world now. I hope that we can come your way or you can come ours soon. Our futon is always available for any of you who can make your way to the Boston area. Til then, please keep checking back here and give us call or an e-mail to let us know what's up with you too.