ZOO!!

Mara showing off her skills on the slide, something she had been talking about doing ALL WEEKEND!!


Feeding goats with not an ounce of fear!

Chillin' with Titi Rachel.

Sea Lion show (not that great, but Mara was content).

FLAMINGOS!

Penguin saying hello to us.

Hangin' with Lily, the brown holstein.

Exploring the Dairy Barn.

Mr. Lion saying hello to Mrs. Lion.

Mara was waiting all day to see the tigers. But when she did, they scared her so much she didn't even want to get close to the glass, so Mommy braved it and got up close and personal and felt like a piece of meat.

A Rough Month...

April began with celebrating my Grandma Lilly's 94th birthday (me from afar) but soon took a turn, when Grandma fell and broke her leg. So Mara and I went home to St. Paul while Trav was still in Tokyo, to visit. However, when we got home we got the unexpected news that my Grandma June had passed, very unexpectedly. Just 3 days earlier we received a Happy Birthday card in the mail from her for Mara's 3rd Birthday with a cute outfit for her. We miss her every day and still it is very hard to believe she is gone. So we spent some time with the family that weekend then flew home (pic above) cause I had to work a few days, then drove back to MN with my sister for the funeral. Thankfully, Trav happened to fly into MSP the day of the visitation, so it was so great to see him after so long and to have his love and support through such a difficult time. Needless to say, Mara was very excited about the plane trip and did great and equally excited to see Daddy and to talk about his plan trip. Now she thinks that whenever Daddy is gone, he is flying somewhere!


Typical Minnesota greeting: SNOW!!


Gotta love Charlie Brown if you live in St. Paul! Finishing up a nice breakfast at Key's with Papa and Nana Vickerman.


Came home to Easter and an egg hunt in our pull-ups!


Mara's new thing is playing Mousetrap as often as possible, which includes cheating by Mara and Daddy!

Nice to Meet You

We went to a carnival at the local Elem. school last weekend and Mara took about 10 minutes to decide to try cotton candy, but when she did, oh my!


She loves it!


Playing some games and winning some prizes.


She sure has a pretty good arm!






In this video, Mara and Daddy are playing 'Nice to Meet You.



Trav entertaining Samara!

Mush!!!

We heared about the Door County Dog Sledding when we were watching the coverage on the big storm last week, as dog sledding appeared to be the only way to get around town at that time. We decided to give it a try today and it was absolutely wonderful!


This dog, Good Girl, was so quiet and laid back that Mara really liked her. She was so gentle and good with the dog!


What an absolutely gorgeous sled dog!


Again, she was so nice and taken by Good Girl.

I couldn't believe it, but they could handle all three of us on one sled!

Our team, ready to go!

Heading out...

...Tipping over...

...Getting off...and back on...

...Coming back!

Fun Times!

Snowfort

Trav had an itch, and when Trav has an itch, there is nothing short of striking him dead to stop him. So, even though I disagreed, he scratched his itch...and survived.

PS: Notice at the end that he is completely gone, buried in the snow! I was laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera on it very long.


Trav climbing Mt. Stratford.


Trav diving off of Mt. Stratford...into more snow. I did the same thing, only head first into a small 'Mt.' Now I am freezing cold...


Our impressive fort/tunnel.

Trying to convince Mara to go into the tunnel to meet Daddy on the other end.

Mara finally agreed and loved crawling through her fort.

Trav working on creating the fort.

Mara wasn't too excited about being outside until she could go in the fort. Notice my finger keeping her in place just to take the pic.

SNOW!!! and Christmas

Mara looking at one to two new, really cool puzzles she got from Papa and Nana Vickerman.


Trying on her new shirt.


Helping Great Grandma Lilly unwrap her presents.

Doing the same as above with Nana.

Throwing away the paper, being a big helper.

Checking out the turtles at Kent and Toni's house.

Having a snack of Cheerios with her friends.

Checking Daddy's ears to make sure he is OK. What a bedside manner!

Playing with Great Grandpa Reuben Nonn.

The awesome baby she got from Great Grandpa, which she can't put down now.

Said baby, getting carted all over.

Mara loves to close her eyes or squint, but here she is anyway with cousin Maddie.

Opening a present at home.

Working on her letters! She really enjoyed this! Well, actually anything that has to do with coloring or drawing she loves.

SNOWNAMI 2011: These drifts were 6-7' high at around 6am 2/2/11. We got at least 22".

More drifts; there is supposed to be a road in between us and the roof of that car. FUN!

Drift outside our front door. Thank God we don't use it during the winter because it is too drafty!