Big Girl Shoes

The other night Ellie found my heels at the bottom of the stairs and decided to try them on. She got them on the right feet, but more impressively, she was capable of walking from the stairs to the front door and back without falling. She loved it!

A trip to North Dakota to see Great Grandma

At just over a year and a half, Ellie made the trek to see her Great Grandma Mary in Bismarck, ND for the first time. Great Grandma was sooo excited to get to see Ellie and sad that she couldn't make the trip to Washington herself to see her sooner. Flights to ND are hard because they aren't ever direct/non-stop. So on Wednesday last week, Nana, Ellie and I caught a flight to Minneapolis and then another to Bismarck. Ellie was a perfect traveling companion. She was great at the take offs and landings and slept through the entire 2.5 hour flight to Minneapolis. She was content for the second flight, although about 1/2 way through the 1 hour flight she signed and said "All Done, All Done".

When we got to Bismarck we were greeted by my Uncle Greg, Aunt Carol, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Merl and Grandma Mary. Later Cousin Camille and her husband Paul made a trip over from Fargo to see us and meet Ellie. We had a busy and fun week!

Four generations!


Kathy Nana and Papa Merl


Cousin Camille and Paul


A trip to Big Boy for Pizza Burgers flying style, frozen cokes, french fries with gravy. And because we can we went back another time for more flying style burgers, brown cows, and more french fries with gravy.


Papa Merl is the Director at the Heritage Museum at the North Dakota State Capitol. We are lucky enough to get a private tour when we visit and this time was no exception. Papa Merl even took us down to the basement to see the dinasour fossil...yes the one they found a few years back that still had the skin on it!! Sooo cool.








Saturday and Sunday at the Capitol Grounds they held the Capitol A'fair. A really fun arts and crafts fair. This year they had a stand where you could purchase a piece of ceramic and glaze it yourself. They fired it right there and it only took about 35-45 min. Kathy Nana and Nana made some really neat 'North Wind' pieces.


More food - a necessary trip to the walk up Dairy Queen for the Candy Brittle Crunch topping (think Peanut Brittle and Sprinkles). Delish.


Play time in the back yard with Nana.

Swimming Lessons

Yesterday we had our first swim lessons! It was a blast! Ellie love love loved it. She was absolutely a front runner for her age with comfort in the water. We first had her stand on the edge of the pool and jump to me while I was in the water. She was the first kid to jump! And she laughed the whole way!

We were even able to get her to kick while on her belly, blow bubbles in the water, and float a little on her back although that was her least favorite part.

We have 7 more lessons and Jared's taking her tonight!

Chocolate Face

Someone found and snuck a piece of chocolate.....and loved every minute of it.

Montana Vacation

Wow! Has it really been an entire month since I last posted? I honestly wouldn't have guessed it had been that long. The good and sad news is that there hasn't been much for us to post about until now.

For the 4th of July weekend we were so lucky to take a trip to Montana. This trip was to celebrate our friend Josh's 30th birthday back in May. The house we rented was absolutely beautiful just up the road from Flathead Lake.

Look who we ran into!!

Best Friends!

About 2/3 of the group went white water rafting, but Becky, Jillian, Gretch, Toby, Ellie and I (and Mack the dog) went to Glacier National Park for a quick tour.

Manito Park

We made our first trip today to Manito Park. It's another gorgeous day today - around 70 degrees at 11 am. The park is so beautiful and huge! We were able to see the gardens, the rose garden, the lilac garden and the japanese garden all in about an hour and a half. We will be making a trip back a little later this summer since the roses wern't in bloom yet.

Mary Lou's Milk Bottle

We finally have summer-like weather in Spokane. Yesterday, after a couple thundershowers earlier this week, we broke 70 degrees! It was beautiful. We had a super productive day washing the car (which proved yet again that Ellie is a little fish - loves water!), mowing the lawn, etc. But one thing we all enjoyed was a trip to Mary Lou's Milk Bottle on Garland. Ellie was all about 'her' ice cream, which we were supposed to share. She probably ate about 1/2 of the huge scoop and another 1/4 ended up on her shirt and face. :)