Today marks three years since the day I walked down the isle and joined hands with my Love. It has been a phenomenal, adventurous journey. Life has changed in more ways that I could possibly have imagined, and I do believe that every change has been for the better. Could I ever have designed someone who would be a more perfect fit for me in every way? No chance. It’s obvious to me nearly every, single day that God matched us for one another. Only three years in? We’ve got a lot more coming. I can’t wait.
I love you, My Pete.
photos taken on our honeymoon in Jamaica – July 2007
Here they are! We had photos taken two weeks ago, just two days before Ella’s birthday, at Lief Ericson park. The weather was gorgeous and Ella had a new dress for the occasion. A few of the photos have been posted on the photographer’s blog. Simply click here to see them!
An enormous thank you goes to Sara Montour, photographer extraordinaire, for the beautiful images. Sara and I go all the way back to our high school days in Pequot Lakes where we participated in all kinds of crazy shenanigans on the weekends. We both ended up going to UMD, but hadn’t seen each other for somewhere around five years before the shoot. She has been living and doing photography in Washington state and was back touring through Minnesota, seeing friends, and taking photos. We’re glad we got to work with her on these photos that so perfectly capture our little girl. More of her creative work can be seen on her website at www.saramontour.com.
On a recent Sunday morning when we were still living in Minneapolis, we seized the opportunity of a beautiful morning and took Ella on her first trip to the zoo. There was no questioning which zoo we would visit since I have millions of memories from Como Zoo. My family used to visit Como during the summer and have picnics in the grass right outside the gates. I remember watching Sparky the Seal shows, showing little Jakey (who is now 23) his favorite – penguins, laughing at the polar bear swim around and around in his far-too-small pool (which they have finally renovated), and watching the majestic lions as they slept in the shade. Taking Ella to Como Zoo was like stepping back in time for me.
So, off we went to catch the zoo shuttle on a Sunday morning. (We decided it would be okay to worship that morning by thanking God for all his incredible animals. And they are pretty cool!) Here is a picture of our shuttle ride to the zoo gate. The outside was painted like a zebra.
It was pretty adorable to see Ella in a seat belt. Not her usual style.
The seals! I think here she was actually looking at the animals, but for the most part she was much more amused by all the kids that were there. She’s a people person!
Sparky! I remember watching Sparky shows with my sister, Becky, when we were little. And eating bomb pops, those fun red, white & blue popsicles. Oh, good memories.
These were fun exhibits since Ella was able to get a little closer to the animals. Her first glimpse of a zebra.
It was a perfect day to visit the zoo. We ended up being really glad that we went right away in the morning because by the time we left at 1pm, the zoo was completely packed. Instead of fighting crowds, we all went home and took lovely naps. Ahhh.
Today we’re heading to Central Minnesota to celebrate the holiday with my mom’s family. Pete will be working all weekend, including having his first on-call shift as a resident.
On Friday, June 25 our little Ella celebrated her first birthday. It was a big day! We spent part of it getting ready for her party and another part of the day with Grandpa & Grandma Scott and Grandpa & Grandma Olsen. Great-Grandma Scott and Auntie Kristin joined us as well. We had sloppy joes and potato salad before more friends joined us for the big celebration at 6:30. I love to make desserts and wanted to come up with a way to make as many of them for the party as possible. Therefore, we had the party after dinner and only served cakes, cookies, and ice cream. Mmm!
Here Grandpa Olsen is helping Ella with her new stroller. It’s one of her very favorite things now. She pushes her dolls around and around the living room and would rather not let go of it even when we pick her up and carry her to another room.
Miss Ella’s birthday cake. I made a triple layer, white cake with pink vanilla frosting. I have three little cake pans I was able to use for it. I had no idea how I was going to decorate it until I started with the white icing and – voila! – this is what was created!
Ella wasn’t sure what to think of the cake. We sang, Daddy helped her blow out the candle and…
…she cried! Ella reached for the candle right after it was blown out, got a little too close to the wick, and got scared. Poor thing. Look at that face!
A little frosting served as an excellent distraction. She delicately pinched the white frosting off the top of the cake. Eventually Pete “helped” her by showing how to properly eat a birthday cake. In the end, she ended up with frosting on her face, her arms, and in her hair.
Below are the other desserts at the party. Raspberry-filled cupcakes, blackberry cheesecake, my grandma’s pretzel-strawberry dessert, chocolate-strawberry cake and Grandma Olsen’s caramel brownies. Yum!
Cousin Malena had great time at the party! She’ll be one in just four weeks. Ella seemed to love having her at the party until Malena tried to play with the new stroller. That’s where Ella drew the line. She’s quite fond of her new toy!
Bliss. I am sitting on the couch in the unpacked living room, blogging from the house for the first time. Mind you, this is not what makes it such bliss. Ella is in bed, I have a glass of grape, fake Crystal Light (the kind the comes from Target), I’m eating tortilla chips with chunky salsa, all while watching “Julie & Julia.” The movie selection is entirely appropriate. If you’ve seen it, you’ll understand. If not, let me just say that Julie writes a blog throughout the entire movie. See? Perfect. I’m writing a blog, too.
This is Pete’s first night of residency. For the last two weeks he’s been in orientation, which hasn’t included anything in the evenings. This month he will be in the emergency department at St. Mary’s on top of his time in the clinic. We’ve been getting ready for this time for the last couple months. It’s hard to imagine how our lives will change through the next month as we get into the groove of intern year. This is going to be a big adjustment!
Tonight I’m going to upload pictures and do more writing so that we’ll be good to go over the next few days and I can get somewhat caught up on all the fun stuff we’ve done over the last month. Plenty of pictures to come!
Oh me, oh my! The time does fly! It feels like such a long while since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down at the computer and blog. Or to do anything at the computer, for that matter. It’s true, we just moved into our new house in Duluth and settling is going quite well. The hard part of the move occurred before our two-week Minnesota hiatus, but all the unpacking has been during the last week. We’re so happy to be out of boxes now and to be surrounded by a cozy, beautifully painted home on the East Side. Soon we’ll even have internet! For now, I’m nestled in a chair at Caribou in Canal while I catch up on the world of the web.
For all who have not heard, our two weeks away were spent on a road trip to the East Coast. A few months ago, Pete & I pulled out our atlas and debated locations for this year’s vacation for a good two or three weeks. We’ve already been to the West Coast, so that was out. We considered driving down the Mississippi to New Orleans, but a majority of that trip would have been in the car, and we had no idea how Ella would do with that. Besides, how fair would it be to keep her buckled in her rear-facing seat for so many hours? Not a lot to see that way. We’ll save that trip for a future motorcycle adventure. We then considered driving to Banff and staying in the mountains. But then Maine came to mind and we quickly decided that the East Coast would be a perfect destination for our first family trip. We rented a cozy, fully-furnished cottage on the shore, planned our route, and packed our bags (while packing the rest of the apartment).
So, now that I have a little internet time, I’ll work on catching up. Sorry for falling so far behind! Well, here we go…
