Minnesota Trip Part 2

While we were in Minnesota, we spent a few days traveling in the state so that we could see some of Todd's side of the family. His Mom has several relatives that live there, including her Mom. The first day we drove to the Morris to pick up Grandma Beaty on our way to Todd's Aunt Kris's house. It was great to be able to see Grandma Beaty's lovely apartment. At Kris and Phil's that evening we had a nice dinner and we were introduced to several family members. It was so nice to meet everyone in person besides just seeing pictures of Rita's side of the family. That evening I met two of Todd's aunts, four cousins and a fiance, and three second cousins. The next day we checked out the farm and had a nice day visiting before we ventured on to New London to see some more of the Fermoyle side. Meadow did a great job of napping between all of our locations.

After arriving in New London at Todd's Aunt Karen and Uncle Sig's, I was introduced to more cousins. We had another wonderful dinner and enjoyed the company of five of Todd's cousins, and I believe 8 of his second cousins came and went throughout the evening. It was amazing being able to meet so many family members in such a short time. Thanks to the Kloos and Holme families for hosting us.

These pictures are a little bit out of order, so it starts out with the New London part of the trip first. I also regret that we were not able to get a cousin picture with the Holme family while we had everybody there. We were too busy socializing.

Meadow fell asleep on the gator ride Sig Jr took us on. This was a pretty amazing feat because it was really bumpy.

Ben,Mallory and Amy in the background
On the gator ride around sig's property. For those who don't know what a gator(sp?)is, it is a 4x4 all terrain vehicle that is like a pick up truck, but the size of a golf cart. I hope that explanation gives it justice.
Beautiful hills that remind me of central NY
Sig and Todd in the front seat

Family Pic by all the corn on the Kloos farm. They farm over a 1,000 acres.

I love this picture. The farm equipment is just enormous and Meadow is still pretty tiny.
Uncle Phil showing Meadow the atv.
Aunt Kris giving Meadow a ride
Cousin Dani, Toni's fiance Jon, and Meadow snuggling in for a nap.

Meadow's great grandma Beatrice
Little country girl
She was waving to grandma Beaty on our walk. It was so precious

Grandma Beaty is way off in the distanceCousin Toni sharing her bunny that she won at a fair years ago.

Dani, Todd, Toni, and Holly
The whole crew. Toni and Jon are getting married next summer so we may be out there again for the big event.

Trip to Minneapolis Part 1

We recently spent a week visiting family and friends in Minnesota. The first and last part of the trip we spent in Minneapolis with our good friend's Jerri and Mark, and their new baby girl Zoe. Jerri is a childhood friend and Mark and Jerri were my roomies in Chicago. It was an interesting trip traveling with a busy toddler. We never have had so much fun on the moving walkway in an airport. We arrived safely in Minnesota and our seatmates were entertained with Meadow playing peekaboo and waving to many of the folks on board. I do have to say, Thank God for the two hour nap on the second leg of the flight.

During the first part of our trip we spent a lot of time ooohing and ahhhing with baby Zoe and catching up with our friends. Here are some of the pics from the trip. More installments are on their way.

Jerri and her baby girl Zoe. Don't they both look so cute?

Meadow loves to swing. Mark in the background with Zoe in the snuggly.

Playground by Lake of the Isles
Taking a walk around the Lake

We visited with Todd's school friend Katie for an afternoon. Meadow loved her little girl, Annalise.

Visiting the Guthrie Theatre. When we walked out into this room filled with windows overlooking the city, Meadow said wooooowwwww. The views were awesome and it was a perfect rainy day activity.

Meadow thought this was kind of scary. You can see all the way to the ground from several stories up.

Wearing her University of Oregon shirt in honor of the football game. She is also brushing her teeth.

We went and hung out at a cafe for the afternoon and walked home in the pouring rain. Meadow thought it was a lot of fun and didn't want to wear her rain jacket.
Wearing fun Harry Potter glasses
Sitting in Zoe's swing. My mom got Meadow this cute outfit recently.
The girls out to breakfast

Our first rain hike of the season

After getting back from our trip to Minnesota we wanted to get rid of some of our jet lag so we went on one of our favorite hikes by the Salmon River. It was kind of misty raining at times so we were able to try out Meadow's new REI rain gear. She loved it and was so comfortable she fell asleep for part of the hike. She was a bit groggy because she had just woken up from a nap.

The Best Tomato Ever!!!!!

I just had to share a picture of me eating the very first red tomato from my garden. Yes, you read that right. September 20th, 2008 is the date of the first ripe tomato in my garden. We had just gotten back from a trip to Minnesota visiting friends and family and this was literally one of the first things I did when I got home. I have worked hard tending to these plants and now there are plenty of green tomatoes. I hope that we get some sunshine this week because this truly was one of the most delicious tomatoes I have ever had and I would love to have more. I think that all the watering and doting was worth it.

First Hair Cut

We got Meaodow's hair trimmed today. Her bangs kept getting in her eyes and she will just not tolerate any bows or clips in her hair. I never really liked anything in my hair either, so I guess I can't blame her. She did a great job with her first hair cut. No tears or tantrums or anything. The hairstylist was very impressed with the quality of her hair and didn't feel like she needed to trim anything off the back. So, after one snip she was done with her cut. I have her first little lock of hair saved for the baby book that I hope to work on at some point in my free time. Also, Meadow's first cut was free of charge. She was a real charmer at the salon. I think everyone wanted to take her home.

The pics are out of order. This is a picture of her after the cut. Isn't she getting so big?
She did a great job being patient

Also, wish us luck on our first plane ride with Meadow as an official toddler! On our last flight she was not walking yet, so it was a little easier to entertain her for the flight. We are off to see our good friend's Jerri and Mark and their new baby, Zoe. We are also introducing Meadow to Todd's Mom's side of the family. It will be so nice to see everyone and hopefully all of the traveling will go smoothly. Any advice or entertainment ideas are highly appreciated. Todd's folks gave us a portable dvd player for a really early Christmas present. Meadow loves her signing time videos, so that should entertain her for a bit. Also, for those who don't know, Meadow can sign for milk, more, eat, all done, baby, nightime, and some other interesting hand gestures that we are not quite sure if they mean anything. No, she is not flipping us off. It is exciting to see her communicating more and she is also becoming more verbal and saying pieces of words. Her favorite expression is "uh oh" and her favorite word besides mom and dad is dog.

Livin it up in the Outdoors

We have been busy enjoying the end of summer so I thought I should catch up with Blogging. Last weekend I headed up to Vancouver, B.C. for a field hockey tournament with the Portland field hockey club. It was my first weekend away from both Todd and Meadow. I was sad to leave them behind, but I knew Todd would have a nice bonding weekend with Meadow. The tournament went really well. We had great weather and our team really clicked and performed pretty well. We ended up tying one game, winning two and only losing one. I scored two goals which was pretty exciting. It felt so good to play competitive hockey again. I am sorry to say I don't have any pics from the weekend. I thought Todd might take pics from his weekend. He did take one and here it is. We also bought a camper last week. We had been going back and forth about the purchase for awhile but we found a great deal on craigslist that we couldn't pass up. It has definitely made the camping experience with a toddler much easier. We went camping this past weekend near Mt. Adams in Washington. As well as testing out the new camper we met some friends to run the White Salmon river. Todd kayaked and I hitched a ride in the raft. Meadow hung out with my friend Sara so I could do the second run. We had a great weekend and enjoyed the wonderful weather. It was in the mid 80's. We had a nice group camp with us on Saturday night and then went on a beautiful hike to see a rock formation called Sleeping Beauty and we also saw beautiful views of Mt. Adams. Too bad we forgot the camera.

The new camper!


Meadow and Daddy

Meadow loved playing in the dirt

Fine Dining

Trout Lake Creek. This was right behind our campsite.

Sara copying Meadow
Giving Sara a high five
Meadow was having a blast playing peekaboo in one of the tents