What's In Your Tummy?

Lily's CareBear

So this morning Lily and I were talking about the baby that is in my tummy. Very shortly after Lily pointed to her belly and said, "I have a CareBear in my tummy."

Pros & Cons

Most everything in life has pros and cons (the philosophy of good and bad as we would say in Lifelines). We have now been away from home for 3 weeks- during which time we have experienced many pros and cons- I thought I would share a few with you now:

Con: We spent 43 hours driving in the truck to get here (that is hours on the road- not including overnight hours)!

Pro: Lily was AMAZING during all of the driving- barely fussing at all- incredible!

Con: Chicago traffic (see previous post)

Pro: We were able to stop and visit my family in Wisconsin for a week on our way out

Con: Lily was not able to sleep at night in the truck- so we had to get a couple of hotels along the way

Pro: We arrived safe and sound in Colordo

Con: We are paying lots of money to rent a sketchy little college student apartment in Colorado

Pro: At least we have somewhere to live- I realize many people don't right now

Con: Upon arriving at our sketchy little apartment it only took one hour for the nasty, dirty carpet to turn Lily's feet black (this is not an exageration)!

Pro: After steam cleaning the carpet I now feel mostly okay walking on the carpet without shoes

Con: Joe spent most of Father's Day steam cleaning the carpets (what a wonderful dad)!

Pro: If you look out our apartment windows to the left you can see the mountains

Con: If you look out our apartment windows to the right you can see the dumpsters- and apparently the truck comes to collect the trash at 5a.m.

Pro: The weather here in Fort Collins has been beautiful- sunny and warm -while back home in Maine it's been raining for weeks straight

Con: I think Lily is a little confused by all of the moving and traveling- and has thus become INCREDIBLY possesive of her belongings (as if they are the only structure she has)

Pro: Fort Collins has a ton to do for kids and we have been able to get outside nearly everyday to enjoy something fun

Con: Apparently even SPF 50 isn't enough to protect my fair, little, redhead from the Colorado sun

So there is just a taste of a few pros and cons from our travel- I'm sure we'll have plenty more to share! P.S.- I know that this picture has nothing to do with this post- I just thought it was a sweet soft-focus picture of Lily (and it just seems wrong to post something without a picture)!

First Real Haircut

The day before we left Wisconsin Lily got her first real haircut. My mom has trimmed her hair a few times for us (and has done a wonderful job)- but we decided while we were in Wisconsin that it was time for the real deal! Lily was so GOOD while she was getting her hair cut- which may be due in part to the fact that we let her eat gummie bears the entire time. This girl, let me tell you, can stuff gummie bears in her mouth like you wouldn't believe and she ate pretty much the whole bag in the few minutes it took to cut her hair! Now the hair on her sides is almost as long as the hair in the back and she has a cute little bob. The bonus is that now she no longer wakes up with a massive tangled mess in the back of her hair (which started happening when we switched her to a big girl bed and let her sleep with a pillow). I didn't get many pictures because my camera battery died, but you get the general before and after (the "after" was taken in Colorado- it just happened to show the side of her cute little bob).

The Slide!

My favorite part of Bay Beach Park was this wonderful slide! I had been down it years and years ago and I was so excited when I found out that Lily was old enough (barely) to go! So excited that I didn't really think about it until I was climbing to the top with her by myself (my mom and dad were too nervous to go and Joe was staying at the bottom to take pictures). Once at the top I have to admit that I did get a little nervous (more for Lily than me). But I plunged ahead anyway- and let me tell you- that first drop is pretty good! My nerves were released though the minute I heard her laughing (which she did pretty much the whole way down). Lily loved it- in fact as soon as we were down she asked to go again, and again... and I'm sure she would have gone down it over and over again for the next hour had we let her. So fun!

Bay Beach Park!

One day while we were in Wisconsin my dad suggested that we take Lily to Bay Beach Park in Green Bay. The last time I was there was for a field trip in middle school! Well, we had a wonderful time at the little amusement park- possibly my favorite day of our vacation with my family! The majority of the rides are meant for little ones- so not only did Lily have lots to do, but she had an absolute blast on the rides. And I might add that the rides are only $.25 each!!!! I'm already looking forward to the next time we can take her back- good idea Dad!

Old Friends

One of the best things about traveling for work is that it sometimes involves seeing family and freinds. Well, just last week I got to see an old friend of mine while visiting family in Wisconsin. Caryn was one of my closest friends in high school- but somewhere about our junior years in college we lost touch. Well, just a few months ago she found me and we have been emailing back and forth ever since. It has been such an encouragement for me to hear about where her life has taken her these last 11/12 years and how God has been at work in her life. And it was really fun to get to see her again- even if it was just for a short few hours. Caryn- I loved seeing you and look forward to the next time we can catch up in person!

Garden Time

Lily and my mom in the back garden

Watering the pinwheel

We planted this tree when my family built the house- this summer it just seemed shocking to me how big it has gotten in that time.

One of the things I love about Wisconsin (or at least my parent's neighborhood) is how beautiful everyone's yard and gardens are. I could be perfectly happy just walking around my parents yard and neighborhood taking in all the flowers and gardens and landscaping. Most of these pictures were taken in my parents yard- which Lily spent most mornings in just walking around watering flowers (and an ocassional pinwheel).

Telling Stories

Our little girl has become quite the little story teller. We can't always understand every part of her story, but she tells them with such excitement that it's fun to play along. Just a few minutes ago she was telling me all about the storm we watched last night- which was incredible (the storms in Colorado are amazing as they come over the mountains)! Here she is last week as she is sharing one of her stories with my mom. I hope that she'll always want to share her stories with us!

Rare Photos

Above: Umm...not so happy I was taking his picture

Below: I didn't take this, but it's from a canoe race that Joe and one of our students were in this Spring (they won their class by the way)!

Joe is very supportive of me learning more about photography. He helped me save the money to buy my camera. He even rearranged his schedule so that I could take a photography class in the winter. As supportive as he is he does not enjoy being the subject of my photography (let's just say he's not a fan of having his picture taken in general). Yes, he does make it into many of my pictures- often because he is with Lily. These, however, are very rare pictures I managed to capture of him all by himself!

Storm Chaser

A few weeks ago right around dinner time a big thunderstorm was moving through our neighborhood. As I was getting dinner ready Joe took Lily out onto our porch and the two of them watched for some time as the storm got closer and closer until it finally hit- heavy rain, thunder, lightning, and everything. Lily loved it and ever since she's been a bit fascinated by storms. The other day at my parents house Joe asked her if she wanted to go watch for the storm. There wasn't actually a storm coming (I think he just wanted to get her outside)- but she watched for that storm for the next couple of hours! She would start doing or playing with something else, but after a bit would quickly come back to the "storm." And then she started laying down (pictured above) to get a better look at the approaching storm. The best we could figure is that it was so bright and sunny out that to look into the woods right behind my parents house looked very dark- so she thought that the darkness in the woods was the storm that was coming! And in case you are wondering if you ask her what sound a storm makes she says in the cutest little voice possible, "Boom Boom." Oh man, she's just too adorable!

Riding The Train!

After the zoo yesterday we took a ride on the park train! My parents were telling me that the train was there even before I was born! I literally can't remember a summer growing up not taking a ride on the park train. It was just as classic and squeaky as I remember. Of course Lily loved it and talked for some time about the "choo choo."

Menominee Park Zoo!

Feeding the llamas was her favorite- they were very friendly!

Okay, eating popcorn was really her favorite, but after that it was the llamas!

The goats

Lily and Grammy watching the turkey vulture spread her wings

Joe and Lily watching the carp jump in the pond

Yesterday we visited the Menominee Park Zoo in Oshkosh! I grew up going to this little zoo so it was especially fun to be able to bring Lily there for the first time! The two things I remember most from the zoo, the turtle area and the incredible, colorful, roaming peacocks, were not there this time, but there were plenty of new attractions like the wolf exhibit. I'm sure this will be a place that we will visit many more times over the years as our family grows!

I hate Chicago and other tales from our trip!

Okay, I didn't actually take any pictures on our roadtrip (this time around I decided to tuck my camera safely away and concentrate on just getting there)! I did, however, steal this picture from my friend Sarah's blog- it just seemed too fitting! Because even though our truck didn't look quite like this it sure did feel like it (we were loaded)!

On Tuesday we left for our two month journey out West. For work we are required to attend a 4 week training and 2 week conference in Fort Collins, Colorado, Since it's a 36 hour drive to Colorado we decided to make the most of the opportunity and stop to visit my parents and family in Wisconsin along the way (which is where we are right now).

This was Lily's first big road trip (longer than 8 hours) and I just have to tell you that she was WONDERFUL!! After two days in the truck (27 hours of actual driving) Joe and I were spent, exhausted, and just a little crabby. Lily on the other hand was amazing- she fussed for maybe a few minutes the entire time (beyond amazing). In fact I would look back at her every now and then and wonder to myself how in the world she was still happy.

We had hoped she would be able to sleep at night in the car (so that we could drive through the night)- but after two hours of sleep she woke up and as tired as she was (and as hard as she tried to sleep) she just couldn't get comfortable (poor thing). We finally gave up and got a hotel room in Ohio (which was really the best for all of us). Since we drove 15 hours in the first day we really thought the second day would be a breeze. What we didn't really plan for was...Chicago. Normally (when it was just Joe and I) we would drive straight through the night and hit Chicago around 2a.m. Well, our handy GPS took us straight through the middle of the city at 3:30p.m. and we were stuck in stop and go traffic for HOURS. Lily did great the whole time while Joe and I were slowly loosing our minds to road rage. I hate Chicago was uttered more than a few times. But eventually we made it and somehow crossing the border into Wisconsin never felt so good! We are here now and feeling tired, but a little more rested. We are also feeling grateful that we have such a wonderful little girl who happens to thus far be a fabulous traveler!

Ballerina Baby

During our photo shoot last week Lily was much more interested in playing ballerina than in having her picture taken- so I caught some of these pictures in the moment (too bad I didn't have the black background up so you could see her better)! We bought the tutu for her cousin Brenna's ballerina birthday party. I can't help but think that Lily is just adorable as she spins around like a little ballerina! So even though these weren't my favorite pictures from our photo shoot I thought they would be fun to share anyway!