Maine

Here are some great pictures from our wonderful time in Maine.

Minnesota

Minnesota Rocks!!!!!

Breakfast at the cabin on Lake Vermillion

Emma and Nolan-the littlest cousins

Fun at the lake

Nolan and Lucas

Nate and Alli's beautiful wedding

I can't quite figure out how to label the rest. The kids on the bottom are my great friend Lisa's children. She came up to visit us. We had a blast! And you can also see our camping pictures with Papa Jim and Grandma Kathy. Minnesota was great!

8 and 9 months old!

It has been awhile since we have updated. Nolan has been busy these past 6 weeks. He spent 3 weeks in Minnesota and one in Maine. He has 6 teeth total, but he started with "fangs", only the two side teeth on top with the two bottom middles. Scary! He is crawling all over the place and likes to pull himself up to kneeling or standing. We went to the doctor today and he is developing right on track. He weighs 21.5 lbs. (68%) and is 28.5 inches long (60%). Quite a change from the beginning 3 months of life. A good meal sure works wonders. Enjoy the pictures.

Nolan at 8 months old

9 months oldA few of my favorite things...

Playing with ballsDrinking from a sippy cupMy "precrawling" stanceMy best buddy, CassieGetting into "interesting" placesTrying to feed myself
And my favorite...CRAWLING

Maine or bust...

We are heading out this afternoon for the beautiful state of Maine. It is Nolan's first time on an airplane, but I think we are ready with toys and treats. Wish us luck! I promise to get all updated when we return on Saturday, Aug. 23.

Memory Request

Here's the drill (This one's kind of interesting...)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you (if you have a blog).

Play along if you wish!

Pics for Daddy

Nolan and I are still up north in the great Iron Range of Minnesota. We have been having so much fun, even though Ted had to go back last Sunday. I will post more when we are back in St. Louis, but I had to give Ted a few pictures to get him by missing us so much.

Just to note how much it sucks for Ted to be back in St. Louis: when he got home, all of our power in the kitchen had gone out. Couple that with hot weather and food in the fridge, and you can get the picture. He had to get up on garbage day at 5:15am to clean out the fridge. Then yesterday, our A/C stopped working. And it is over 100 degrees and high humidity right now. I asked him what he was up to earlier, and he said "sauna-ing." Poor guy. I will admit that I am not too anxious to get back until he has fixed everything. Thanks Ted!

Pictures from our trip so far...

Nolan at Nate and Alli's wedding.

4-wheelin' with Papa

One of the great things we did was we went camping on the "North Shore" of Lake Superior with Papa and Grandma. Nolan was such a great kid. He LOVED sleeping in the camper and hiking was also a favorite.

Nolan's new buddy-a chipmunk

I love you, Daddy!

As you can see, we have had quite the adventures. While here, Nolan has tried many new foods: bbq chicken (no sauce, of course!), turkey, hamburger, watermelon, and his favorite, Minnesota blueberries. He has also reached a big milestone-his bottom 2 teeth! My parents call him "Two Tooth Jones." He hasn't quite figure out crawling forwards yet, but he is so close. With his determination, it won't be long until my life is completely changed.

I have so many more great pictures of everything we have done here, but this post is specially for Daddy. Hence all the Nolan/Kristina pictures. (But does he really need pictures of me anymore? Isn't it all about the child?) I can't wait to share all the cousins, cabin pictures, wedding pictures, grandparents, and everything else. I will cheat, though and encourage you to check out my sister, Melissa's blog for a great post to tide you over. Thanks Melis!

Minnesota

We are currently up north in beautiful Virginia, Minnesota. My brother Nathan is marrying his longtime sweetheart Alli on Saturday, so we are here celebrating! It has been such a blast so far.

Last Thursday night, Ted and I loaded up the van and Nolan and headed out at about 9:00pm. We drove through the night and got to Virginia about 10am. Nolan was amazing! He slept really well all night and then played happily in his carseat when he woke up. If you can make it by taking turns or however, driving through the night really is easier on the little ones.

When we got here, we went up to the Downing cabin. I remember spending much of my childhood summers there. It was great to bring Ted and Nolan there. The water was freezing, but Nolan still couldn't get enough of it! We will have pictures when I have a better computer to load them on.

Families really are an amazing thing. Mine family is quite large-5 siblings, 3 (almost 4) spouses, and 7 kids aged 5 and under. What a crazy place! We have been really loving being with them all. Nolan especially loves all his little cousins.

Nolan and I will be staying here for 3 full weeks! Crazy stuff. Ted's dad and sister are making a trip up here for some hard-core camping and canoeing. We will hitch a ride back with them on the 25th.

That is it for now, but we will keep you updated as the weeks go on.