Minnesota: The Rest of the Story

We began our trip to MN renting a car for the first time in our lives (we're really adult now, aren't we?). The girls explored the luxurious trunk.

Balo and Celia picked up right where they left off. Their current schtick was looking out the window and yelling "WHOA! A Big Motorhome!"

There were a lot of stories told to lots of children in pajamas both before and after bed times.


We took the obligatory trip to Mall of America. Basically, it was just a giant super crowded mall without any clearance sections. Totally tiring and overrated. However, the kids did get to play a bit at Legoland. Celia met Kanani, the American Girl of the year 2011 at American Girl World and Balo met Cha Cha the frog from Rainforest Cafe.

On Monday when I was at the office, Tom took the girls to the Como Park Gardens and Zoo.




This is Celia demonstrating her ability to stand like a flamingo. This is a skill she learned in her ballet class.



This is Celia pretending to be a Polar Bear. Sabrina thinks it's pretty hilarious.

On the way home, both girls had to prove they could fit in the overhead compartment on the plane.

We had a great time!

Minneapolis: Sculpture Garden

We were in Minneapolis for about 5 days on a business trip. I've been telecommuting to Minnesota for 16 months so it was nice to be in the office for a few days. We saw the sights over the weekend and then I spent Monday and Tuesday in the office and we flew home Wednesday. My favorite thing was the Sculpture Garden. It was a bit foggy and misty when we went, but it was still a fabulous place to romp around. Here are the pictures of us all interacting with the art (and each other):

Picture of the Week

We just got back from Minnesota. My sister's family drove up from Omaha to hang out with us. The kids had a blast. Obviously.

More on MN later...

Denali: In Pictures

At the end of August we took a trip up to Denali. We started our adventure cabin camping in Denali State Park. We stayed two nights facing Denali (Mt. McKinley). Here's where the mountain was supposed to be though we never actually saw it from the cabin:

Denali is notorious for being hidden in the clouds more often than not. They say in the summer it's hidden 2 days out of 3. But, we still enjoyed ourselves doing the usual campy things. Celia also spent a great deal of time having us introduce her in the "microphone" and then she would sing songs with really long names. She's destined to be a lounge singer. Her stage name is CeliaLoeyStock. And of course much of the time camping is spent eating and preparing to eat.

We all spent a lot of time looking for glimpses of the mountain to appear through the clouds. We got rather excited when we saw some peak or dark spot in the clouds that we hadn't seen before.

It was a little chilly in the mornings, but only a little.

We also enjoyed watching the beavers build their lodge and play in the water:

Here are some of the mountains we saw from our cabin. Though they weren't Denali, it was still a gorgeous view:

When the two nights were done, we packed our stuff back out the half mile trail to our car.

Then we continued to drive North to go to Denali National Park. You can hardly drive anywhere in Alaska without seeing a few glaciers along the way, and of course the drive is beautiful throughout.

Here are the girls checking out the pretend moose at the Denali National Park visitor's center, though we would later see plenty of live moose in the park:

We walked some beautiful trails by the visitor's center:

Then we drove into the National Park the 14 miles cars are allowed. (To drive the full 90 mile dirt road you have to take a 12 hour bus ride--we opted against that with the kids) It was gorgeous. Fall colors in all their glory. (Autumn happens in August in Denali, and September in Anchorage)

Celia spent her time in the car being silly:

And at long last...there she is! Denali! From the beginning of the park road Denali is actually pretty small off in the distance, as it is about 100 miles away, but you can still get a sense of its grandeur.

We even saw some moose in their natural habitat (rather than in our yard or crossing the highway).

On the way home we stopped to take a picture of the Alaska Highway landmark: the Igloo. It's for sale for only $500,000! Any entrepreneurs looking to move to Alaska?

Sabrina: Eleven Months

Sabrina. How do I put her into words this month? She's a climber. Here's a series of things she's capable of climbing up on. (Also featured is her new squinty-eyed smile she's been doing recently.)

Child-proofing for Celia was a one-day thing. For Sabrina, we're constantly having to move things and rearrange things. Sabrina knows she's silly. She'll do something and then look at us and laugh. She still doesn't communicate. She mostly just grunts and growls (as Celia says: "She's like a bear!"). She will sign "all done" SOMETIMES and it still means a lot of things. Mostly she just grunts until we figure out what she wants. So then she tricks me into thinking she doesn't understand us. But then anytime I say: "Let's go find your sister" or "Daddy's home" she gets really excited and crawls over to me to pick her up. Also, when she's tired, we'll lay out her SwaddleMe and she'll crawl over and lie down on it. (Not sure how we'll ever wean her from the swaddle or the binky.)

She still nurses 4 times a day and sleeps from about 9-8 with a feeding at 6. Still no teeth. But she can gum anything. She's still a big eater. Salmon and avocado seem to be her favorites. She can eat a whole avocado and a salmon fillet in one meal. She is a big meat-eater which is pretty funny. And she always wants whatever Celia has.

Sabrina is really into putting things in and out of things. Yesterday, I found a toy in the dish soap spot of the dishwasher, a bunch of the train tracks in the dress-up box, and several refrigerator magnets in one of the kitchen drawers. Everything still goes in her mouth.

Sabrina is a champion crawler. So fast. And she's fearless. She's pretty sure she can go and do anything Celia can do. She doesn't seem close to walking. She walks along things but when we try to get her to walk, she dives down to crawl. I don't mind.

Sometimes, Sabrina will just throw herself backwards and start kicking the floor and cackling. (Like right now at my feet.) She's still clingy but also plays well on her own if I'm close (or completely out of sight) and if she's fed, rested, and happy. When I turn on a movie for Celia, Sabrina pulls herself up right in front of the TV to wave at it. Then she usually ignores the rest of the movie.

Celia and Sabrina are still great friends. They love taking baths together and Sabrina loves bouncing to all of Celia's silly songs. Our days are full of singing, dancing, laughing, and two crazy girls.

Celia: Reverent Prayers PART 3

Celia's prayer before bed last night: "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and be reverent. And Sabrina is watching me be reverent. And mommy is being reverently and daddy is being reverently. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Then she quickly folded her arms and closed her eyes again like she forgot something and added "And I'm a pillow!"

** As a side note, arguing with me about how she's not a pillow is her new favorite thing. She will start the argument by saying something like: "Mommy, can you say 'You're totally a pillow?'"