Weekend of Firsts

Ellen did so many new things this weekend. On Friday, she started saying "Bye." She waves and says "bye" over and over. She thinks she is so big because she can speak our language now.

Ellen also got a new toy to practice walking with. On Saturday, we stood her up to grab onto it and she stood by herself (without holding onto anything) for the first time.

Sunday, we stood her up next to the new toy and she took off walking with it across the screened porch area. Her first time walking! She discovered that she can push it while on her knees or while crawling also, so she changes routines. She also learned to crawl up and down a stair (into the house and out to the screened porch.) What a busy girl! She's growing up so fast!

Playground

We had a nice cool spring day yesterday (about 70 degrees) so we walked Ellen over to the park to play. She laughed so hard on the swing. I wish I could figure out how to send video so everyone could see how much fun she was having.

She kept trying to climb up the slide and couldn't figure out why she wasn't getting anywhere.

She made it to the top (with mommy and daddy's help) and was the queen of the jungle gym!

Mowing the Lawn

Ellen helped Daddy mow the lawn today. I guess it was too much work for her though because she fell asleep while they were driving around the yard! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that though.

Montana 3/28-4/2

My grampa died on March 25th so Ellen and I made a quick and unexpected trip to Montana for the funeral. Thanks to some good friends, Peter and Betsy, we were able to get last minute tickets. This picture was taken at the Detroit airport on our way to Montana. Ellen was so happy, if only she'd known we had a 6 1/2 hour layover ahead at the Minneapolis airport and a 3 hour delay getting into Missoula because of bad weather, she might not have been so happy. Actually, she was excellent the entire 23 hour day of travelling.


It snowed more in Montana this time than when we were there at Christmas. Ellen got to feel her first snow and she wasn't very happy about it.

Standing in the snow was definitely better than touching the snow.

This is how Ellen spent a majority of her time on the airplane rides to and from Montana.

Regional Track Meet

On March 26th, Ellen attended the Regional Track Meet with me. She had so much fun with all of the kids. They all thought she was so cute. It was a pretty cold evening and we were out late so Ellen had to be bundled up.

Easter Weekend in St. Augustine

Korey and Ellen in front of the huge cross at Mission of Nombre De Dios.


Ellen and Tammi in front of the Old City Gates that lead into St. George Street.


Entering Castillo de San Marcos (construction of the fortress began in 1672)

Ellen sitting on one of the many cannons at Castillo de San Marcos (we got yelled at for doing this although there were no signs saying we couldn't)

The cannons being fired at Castillo de San Marcos.

Some tourists were dressed up as pirates and everyone wanted pictures taken with them. Ellen stole the little girl's hat.

This was taken by the St. Augustine lighthouse. We weren't allowed to take Ellen up the stairs in the lighthouse.

At St. Augustine beach.

At St. Augustine beach.

We attended church for Easter at Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. It is the oldest Catholic church in the United States--built in 1793.

I know I'm a bit behind but had some unforeseen circumstances arise. Easter weekend, we went to St. Augustine, FL. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, founded in 1565. The weather was beautiful (about 70 degrees) and we had a great time. Korey had a 4 day weekend and I had a 3 day weekend so we figured it was time for a road trip. St. Augustine is 300 miles north of where we live. Ellen was so good. She slept almost all the way there and almost all the way home (a 5 hour drive each way).