Daddy's Home

County Fair!

The county fair is in town! Rochester actually has a really good one. There is all the typical foods and rides, but the Rochester fair has a large amount of farm animals for the kids to look at and pet. This year they also have an exhibit called the Miracle of Birth. They have all kinds of baby animals and animals giving birth. We got to see baby chicks and ducklings, piglets and lambs. Ellasen got to pet a baby chick today and a piglet. We also got to see a calf birth. I think Ellasen liked the chickens and the bunnies best of all. Since you can't take a toddler on the roller-coasters, we spent a lot of time with the animals.  Here are some pictures!

Her face here is priceless...she was SO excited! 

 The baby calf is almost here! 

 Here she is! 

20 Months!

Well, I am a little late because we have had some visitors, but Ellasen is 20 months old. Now is the time to start saying "She'll be 2 in November" when people ask me how old she is. Ellasen is very observant. She hears everything, and understands a lot of what is going on around her. She repeats EVERYTHING you say (we are being very careful!) She can count to 10 by herself, and she can say most of the ABC's with some help. She loves music and books still, and she is eating much better. She has a few weeks here and there where she is picky, but she has been eating really well for a while now. We have a doctor appointment tomorrow to make sure she is gaining weight well. Ellasen is a really good kid. She listens well, and discipline isn't really too big of an issue...yet. Mostly we are working on "please". She says "thank you" pretty much on her own all the time. She is so funny and silly. We are having so much fun this summer, and we are thankful that Tim finally got a relatively easy summer quarter. We are getting to spend a lot of time as a family. 

Ice Cream!

When Tim was on call last we took Ellasen  to McDonald's for an ice cream cone across the street from the hospital...yummmmy! 

Relaxing with Daddy

(Yes, that is a Christmas book...it is one of her favorites!)

Vacation!

Tim was on vacation this last week, and my parents came up to visit. We had a great time all together, and they also watched Ellasen for us while we went to the cities for a few days. Tim and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in IMAX 3D (awesome, by the way!), we stayed in a nice hotel, had drinks on a rooftop bar, had a great dinner and went to a Twins game the next day! It was only the second night I had been away from Ellasen since she was born, and I think I limited my calling to 3 or 4 in the 36 hours we were gone...I didn't take too many photos, but here are some.

Happy 4th of July!

We went to some friends' house for a cookout and fireworks for the 4th. I didn't take any photos there, but we had a great time. I did manage to get one photo of us before we left the house and one of the Ellasen in her car seat on the way to the party. Ellasen did not like the fireworks...oh well, there is always next year!  Happy Birthday America!