slow night at our house (slow day, actually)

Today started out hard, got better, then got hard again...

Daddy's had a hard few weeks at work and has been pretty down, not like him at all. He gets a half day at work every other friday, so he hoped to go golfing today. Well, we're going out of town tomorrow so I needed to get my long run in today, not tomorrow. The hard morning was due to a 10 mile run that needed to end by 7:30am. Actually, it was nice getting out before it hit 90+ degrees today, but it was early. AND, he wasn't even out of bed by 7:30 when I stumbled in!!! "You mean I could have slept in for another half hour before running?!!!"... agh.

A friend of mine, Amanda, started a mom's bible study which actually started today. There are 4 women right now and a lot of kids. The coolest part is that the study started at 9:30 and we had a baby sitter!!! I got away from sweet pea, during the day, and talked un-interrupted with other women for an entire hour!!! Amanda also made the most amazing iced coffee! We put coconut creamer in it, whipped cream on top, and toasted coconut sprinkles! As a super treat, she also made amazing cranberry scones! It was like we were all at Caribou for the morning. What a great morning!

Then, it got hard again. Yes, we have an amazingly easy baby but when you're tired, you're tired. I just want to sleep... instead, I ran errands, fixed dinner for the two of us (frozen pizza - yeah!), then walked to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Uncle Mike gave sweet pea her first taste of ice cream when we were in Ohio in the spring and she still LOVES it. You should have seen her smile. She was signing "MORE, MORE" with such enthusiasm I just had to laugh. She's sound asleep now... wonderful little girl.

Now, to the important stuff... camping trip to northern Illinois. We are meeting three other families at Chain of Lakes state park in Illinois for four nights and five days. That's right, folks, 8 adults and 6 kids - ages 1 (2 count), 1.5 (1 count), 2 (1 count), 2.5 (1 count), and 7.5 (1 count). This should be quite interesting!!! We've been praying for sun... if it rains I don't know what we'll do. Luckily, Jake is staying at my uncle's house... he LOVES camping but we didn't think it would be too smart to bring him with so many people and kids.

On that note, I should get back to packing. Need to do one more load of laundry and get the stuff together.

Hey - tomorrow's sweet pea's first birthday!!! Oh my gosh... I was at a pizza place/local bar with my mom/dad and hubby this time last year having my last supper!!! I was supposed to be induced the next morning but went into labor around 1am on my own. Sweet pea was born around 9:30pm and the fun began!!! This has truly been the FASTEST year of my life!!!

zoo pics :)

We have the cutest kid in the world... sorry to all of my friends who think that their kids are the cutest in the world :) we win (b/c it's a contest, ya know - re-read 'ya know' with a minnesota accent, please).



Here are the zoo pics I promised. Both pictures above are sweet pea and me at the baby goats (remember, the zoo had a farm section!!).

I think this is the Tarkin I talked about in the previous post... now you all know what a tarkin looks like. Yes, my silly husband had to take a picture of the tarkin, not sure why... I mean, really, what are we going to do with a picture of a tarkin?!!!

OK, new contest, the first person that posts a reply and tells us what a tarkin is, wins!!! What do you win? I don't know... I'll think of something though!!!

Of course, the zoo had to have a prairie dog town... and of course, it's right next to the buffalo. We love watching prairie dogs...

When we went backpacking in the badlands, North Dakota, there was an actual prairie dog town... so much fun to watch it actually took my mind off of my blistered feet, the sun, and the horrible hike into the park w/ our packs the day before (another story for another time).

Here's sweet pea again at the fountain at the exit of the zoo.

All in all, a good day. It'll be fun to go back when sweet pea knows more of what's going on!!!

A few hours at the zoo...

So, we got home from church, had lunch, mowed the lawn, etc. Sweet pea woke up from her nap, and I was instantly bored. Something about afternoons, I just need to get out of the house. Poor daddy, doesn't understand my need to get out of the house :) Soooo, I talked him into going to the Zoo! It's free (we have a pass), we just grabbed some water, a sippy cup, some graham crackers and we were on our way.

(pics to follow... sorry, not downloaded from the camera yet)

It's a really nice zoo, not as nice as other's we've been to, but nice enough. I'm not sure how you compare to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. or even the Toledo Zoo (really, the zoo in Toledo is top notch!!!). It was a nice day though. We saw buffalo, a prairie dog town, zebra, giraffes, and a real live FARM!!! Ha!!! We actually watched a cow get milked! I assume the milking is really cool for the kids that live no where near a corn field! The questions the kids asked were hilarious... "does the milk ever fall out?", "what happens if you don't milk the cow?"... the nice lady explained that the milk doesn't fall out but the cow will actually leak when she gets too full and if you don't milk the cow she'll be really, really miserable and get really sick!!! Ha!!! Just like us humans!!!

So daddy, who didn't want to go actually enjoyed it the most. I'm sure we have 150 pictures of something called a Tarkin. It was in the Africa section of the zoo and I've never seen one... nothing excited, a four legged hoofed animal. The red-butted monkeys had their pictures taken a bunch too... the nice thing is, all the pictures are digital so we don't have to develop a single Tarkin or butt monkey!!!

Sweet pea just had fun hanging out and touching the baby goats... otherwise, she was oblivious to all... sweet, but oblivious! We love her!!!

swimming... no way

ok, that didn't work too well. the water was only in the pool for about 2 hours, still toooo coooollldddd. she'd hang out by the edge and splash, but wouldn't get in. i put her in and she'd stand there looking at me with this pained look on her face... yikes.

we'll try again later. maybe next time i'll fill it up in the morning and let it warm all day?

or, i could empty the hot water tank by hooking up a hose to our kitchen faucet? now that seems silly ;)

or, i could just throw her and and make her get used to it?

or, i could start giving her cold baths in the bathtub - now THAT'S an idea!

(just a note, you are seeing sweet pea in her bathing suit - no making fun of her thighs... we happen to think they are cute... and i hear she may lose the roles when she starts walking!!! we can only hope.)

it's friday and she's asleep :)

here she is, our sweet pea. the little one is sleeping now, she's had a busy day. dad woke her up early, changed her diaper, gave her some milk, and PUT HER IN THE CAR!!! yep, i had a dentist appointment at 7am so daddy and sweet pea just met me there so daddy could go to work.

so... i really wanted to run some errands before heading back to the house but i was hungry and so was sweet pea. before heading to super target, we had pancakes at perkins... everyone say, YUM. then, on to penseys spices... again everyone say, YUM. i picked up a new recipe for a chicken curry, the spice smells super yummy and i can't wait to try it. the recipe calls for apricots too, making me a little nervous. oh well, we'll try anything once! yep, if anyone realized it, the sweet pea just went on errands until 10am in her pajamas! another thing i swore i'd never do! at least i wasn't in mine...

i'm going to head upstairs and get sweet pea's baby pool out and filled up. maybe the water will be warm by the time she wakes up :) this will be her first time in the baby pool. don't worry, i'll post some pictures later!