Westward Bound

This is the Fairy Princess Palace, a great book which folds out into a palace with paper fairies. We played this A LOT on our trip west. Out of a 5 day journey Ella didn't want to watch any videos for 2 whole days! I grew a bit weary of playing fairly princesses or frog princesses or dinosaurs. I had two baskets full of activities and books and I think we used every last one. We played games and read a bunch of stories and she did play with her leapster occasionally, but I think it's still a bit advanced for her and caused some frustration.
Summit and Ella starting the journey west. Summit actually sat in the front seat for most of the drive and I sat next to Ella. Summit looks so happy in this picture because he just had a great run. He escaped from our hotel room in PA and raced around outside dodging us for 1/2 hr until he almost got hit by a car and Greg was able to grab him. Naughty puppy!
We left my parents Saturday around noon and by Sunday evening we were in Chicago where we were able to visit with our friends Dan & Tanya and their boys Eric and Caleb.
Monday we drove through surprisingly beautiful Wisconsin and ended up at the Como Zoo in St. Paul by mid afternoon.
My friend Mary, who lived in Denver at the same time I did, now lives in MN. I'm so glad she was able to join us for the zoo and dinner. I haven't seen her in over 6 years and it was wonderful to catch up!

Tuesday morning started with Greg's requested stop of the trip- Fargo, ND- and it was everything we'd imagined. A few hours later we enjoyed a visit to the Dakota Zoo, Greg and I took turns going into the zoo with Ella while the other one walked Summit in the adjacent park .

Eastern Montana is lovely

but western Montana is breathtaking.
My highly anticipated stop of the trip was Bozeman, Montana. Home of Greg Mortenson author of Three Cups of Tea and founder of the Central Asia Institute. http://www.gregmortenson.com I didn't see Greg Mortenson but I loved the town of Bozeman, it has a very cute downtown area and Ella found a fun park.
The last day of our journey-Thursday- started with a beautifully rainy NW morning in Missoula MT where we rode the gorgeous Carousel

Thursday evening we stopped at Deb and Cecil's in Seattle to have some dinner and pick up our car and then headed out for our new home.

Summer in MA

We're loving life in the great NW! And as soon as I find the cord to upload photo's I'll post some. Here are a few of our summer in MA
Ella did great in her gymnastics show, she's 3rd from the right, doing the hula.

We had a great 4th of July, going to the carnival in our town for 4 nights, enjoying dinners on the common and 2 nights of fireworks. Ella had a great time with her friends Marissa and Audrey. Nana painted her face for the festivities.

We spent a weekend up in NH at Storyland with Nana and Papa. Ella absolutely loved it!


Hunter, Chase and Auntie Faye came to visit Nana and Papa for 2 weeks. Ella and Hunter were inseparable and had many adventures including trips to the aquarium, zoo, Harvard Natural History museum and the Children's museum, 2 days at the beach, one at the town's lake, and this trip to George's Island- an island off the coast of Boston.





We visited the aquarium and played in the fountains in Columbus Park with Audrey and Marissa, Ella's playgroup buddies
A stop on the bridge of flowers on the way to Tanglewood
A perfect summer night at Tanglewood, We will miss so many things and so many people in MA!

Washington

The highlight of our trip to the NW was the wedding of our good friends Ryan and Jasmine. Greg likes to take full credit for this blessed union since Ryan (Greg's med school roommate) met Jasmine (who did her residency with Greg) met at Greg's 5th of July party (to finish of the keg from the 4th of July party) back in 2002.
We also enjoyed spending time with Uncle Cecil and Auntie Deb and visiting the Woodland Park Zoo (twice)


We spent 5 days at a lovely cabin up in the Mt Baker area of Washington, not far from the town where we'll soon be living.
Ella loves throwing rocks in water!



Ella took this picture

Ella found tadpoles in the lake and with some help caught a few.

The view from Ella's Preschool. We spent 2 of our days house hunting and bought a great house close to the biking trail which runs through our new town. WA is not experiencing a declining housing market and we actually got in a bidding war and lost the first house we put an offer in on.
Back in Seattle we got some beautiful weather and Ella got to go swimming in Lake Washington
Mt Rainier

Vancouver, BC

After moving out of our house and tuning in all of our adoption paperwork we headed to the great NW. Greg had a conference and Ella and I were able to enjoy some time in Vancouver.
We really enjoyed the Vancouver Aquarium



We saw a sloth!
And a baby Beluga whale, just 9 days old.


Guess which 3 1/2 year old dressed herself this day!
The pool from the Pan Pacific has such a great view.