Ellie just wanted to tell you (if you didn't know already)...

Her little brother or sister will be here around the very end of December!

A Wonderful Birthday

This week Monday I turned 27 and Rob sure went all out to make me feel blessed. I had no clue he had such a stellar gift up his sleeve. So he put the memory card for the camera you see above in my birthday card, and I (being slightly technologically retarded) thought it was something to store our thousands of pictures of Ellie on. Not a particularly MOVING gift, but I was satisfied, nonetheless. Then Rob said, "That doesn't work in our old camera. Go look on the bed downstairs." And there, on our bed, was this beautiful shiny piece of wonderful. Made me cry. I've been taking pictures ever since. (Not that that's anything new.) Then we went to the zoo for the day and had a picnic and everything about it was PERFECT...perfect weather, perfect amount of people there, Ellie was great...it was just awesome. After we came home we brought Ellie to her cousin's house to play and went out for dinner on our own. Put Ellie to bed and watched a rented movie and VOILA, a perfect day had just occured. Thanks, Hun!! Anyhow, below are some memories from our trip to the zoo.

Rob meditating on the wonderful weather.

Mowing down on cukes.

Cukes.

Ellie spots a polar bear.

This is the polar bear.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but Ellie was completely taken by the peacocks. Birds, especially big ones, are her favorite creatures. Have I mentioned she does a really mean bird impression? Quite screechy and loud.

There's the peacock.

A raccoon.

My word, Ellie's almost half my height! Slow down, child!

I think they call this hideous beast a camel.

Ellie practicing her walking skills. Stairs bring her a lot of pleasure."I LOVE GOPHERS!"A gopher.

Ellie trying to figure out how to get through the cage to get her hands on some more screechy birds.

A sleeping cow.

Some flamingos.

This one had his eye on us.

A really great dad.

A few more pictures of me in Vernon

Me and Auntie Nikki at White Spot.
(I especially loved when Auntie Nikki let me play with her water.)

Me riding a huge purple dinosaur at Polson Park.
I'd rather be playing with those kids over there.

I was crazy about this 'duck'.

I could have watched ducks all day long.

My new favorite shoes from Grandma! I especially love taking them off in the car when mama can't do anything about it. It makes me scream and laugh.

Me and 'Bapa'.

Papa quickly became a pro at giving me evening bottles....
...and used the opportunity to introduce me to hockey (I still prefer Blue's Clues).

Me and Grandma

Me and Grandma are really having a blast together.

I think that even though I don't see her very often she must be someone very very special.(Mama especially likes it when Grandma gets up with me at 5:30 in the morning.)
p.s. please ignore mama's comment the other day about not posting while we're in Vernon. She forgot how much Dada would want to see what I was doing out here.

Fun In Vernon

"Look at all these GREAT toys Grandma got me!"

"I just love dogs."

"I wish Rosie would come inside so I could chase her. *sigh*"

"So much space, so little time to explore it all!"

"Oh Dada, I miss you! *kiss kiss*"

A Taste of Summer

Hi All! Ellie and I are off to Vernon tomorrow to visit Rob's parents for mother's day, so I won't be posting for a while. Thought I'd leave you with a few photos that, to me, scream 'SUMMER IS HERE!! YAHOOOOOO!"

Soaking up some Vitamin D (and gulping water)

Walking to Mama (have I mentioned yet that Ellie can walk? When she chooses to, that is. She looks a bit like Frankenstein when she walks, however.)

Dropping things and picking them up again: a favorite past time.

"Night-night baby!"