My Sophie Lyn

Sophie is getting so big. She is almost 17 months old and I can't even believe it. Time has just flown by and my baby girl is no longer a baby. She had her first dentist appointment on August 29th and she did so well. She has 12 teeth and just this past week two more teeth broke through. She is getting her fang teeth on the top and bottom on the right side. The first two days were a little rough, she had a little bit of a fever and she was in pain, so we gave her some Tylenol. After two days I assumed the fevers would go away, but they didn't, it lasted a whole week. I think she must have gotten a bug because she was so clingy, she wanted to be held all the time and she wanted her pacifier constantly. She is doing much better and is back to her normal self, except that she has a cough now.
Sophie's hair is getting so long. One day I realized that her hair looked a little shaggy so I decided to try putting in little piggy tails and she looked so cute. She does a pretty good job of letting me put the pig tails in, but she is good at pulling them out at any given time, especially if she's bored and doesn't have much to do (when she's in her carseat.)

The little stinker pulling her pig tails out while I'm trying to take a picture of her.

Sophie is talking so much now and she can say several words. Her first word was Dada of course, but she does say mama quite a bit. She says "Sisi" for Elsie, "Papa" for grandpa, "babby" for apple, "cl, cl" for clock, "ha, ha" for hot, hot, she says cars but sometimes it sounds like she's saying guys, she can say mouth and moon and they almost sound the same, she says poopy and when we ask her where her poopy is she points to her bum, she says puppy, and she has a push toy car that we call her beep, beep and just last week she started to say beep, beep. She says baby and she knows "ka, ka" for the garbage and for under the sink. We have a lot of cleaners under the bathroom sink, so I told her that it's ka, ka so she won't play there, so now she opens the cupboard and says ka, ka. She says it about the toilet paper too, which is funny, I think it's because I told her the toilet is ka, ka.

One afternoon I invited Elsie to come over and play with Sophie, so I put on the Disney Oceans video for the girls while they played. They looked so cute sitting on the couch watching the show. When I checked on them, Sophie was pulling off Elsie's socks and then she pulled off her own socks. She doesn't seem to like wearing socks very much and apparently she doesn't like other people to wear socks either.

Pulling off Elsie's sock.

She was being silly and put a piece of her banana on top of her head. She is still a picky eater, but I keep hoping that one of these days she'll start to eat better. She loves yogurt and that's about the only food I know she'll eat every day. She eats chicken nuggets, cheese, mac and cheese, fruit (apples, bananas, pears, peaches and grapes) but it does depend on the day as to what fruit she'll eat. This past week while she was sick, she wasn't eating much at all and I was getting worried, because she is getting thin. At her 15 month appointment, she was 20.6 pounds, which puts her in the 10% for weight. She gained less than half a pound between 12 and 15 months. That's not very good! We keep praying that she'll start to try new foods, in the mean time, we continue giving her new things hoping that she'll try them. Maybe one of these days she'll just surprise us. She did eat well today, which was wonderful. I can tell she is feeling much better.

I watched Elsie one afternoon while Rita did some shopping. It must have been an off day, because the girls didn't take a very long nap. Neither of them wanted much to eat before their nap, so I warmed up some chicken nuggets for the two of them and they sat on the kitchen floor eating nuggets.

These two are quite a pair. Elsie loves to give Sophie hugs and for the longest time Sophie hated it, and she would hit Elsie in the face. Now Sophie likes to give Elsie hugs and Elsie isn't always a fan. Obviously she didn't want a hug this time.

My cute girl in her I love Hot Chocolate pajamas. She just had a bath and was playing with Daddy.

I love this pictrure. This is what Sophie wore to church on Sunday. She looked so cute! I love the boots too. Thanks Rita for letting us borrow them. I saw the boots at a garage sale, but never got to try them on Sophie, so I didn't buy them. They were brand new Baby Gap boots and they were Sophie's size. Anyway, I went home and called Rita to tell her about the garage sale, and I told her about the boots. By the time Rita got to the house, everything was 50% off, so the $10 Baby Gap boots were $5. When she called and told me that she bought them for $5 I almost died. I couldn't believe it. I was so bummed! I loved the boots and wanted to buy them for Sophie. Well, Rita is the best and she told me that we could share the boots, that way we could get some use out of them. Well, we have the boots right now and Sophie loves to wear them. I love putting them on her, especially when she's wearing a skirt or dress. She's such a stylish little girl.

Happy Halloween!

We had a very fun and busy Halloween weekend. Wednesday, October 26th we carved pumpkins with Sophie. She had a great time but was not interested in sticking her hand in the pumpkin to pull out seeds. She doesn't like her hands to get messsy. Sophie wanted to help Daddy with the cutting. She wanted to play with the carving knife. She helped Jon cut out the nose, and then she just wanted to play with the nose. She'd put it back in and then push it out and put back. I think she did that for a few minutes until Jon convinced her to let him finish cutting out the rest of the face. She also helped Daddy by putting the carving knife in over and over where Jon had already cut. She wanted to be sure it was cut all the way through.

The finished product. My pumpkin is the one on the left and Sophie and Daddy's pumpkin is on the right.

Thursday, Oct 27th our good friends Ben and Karen Divine came to visit us for the weekend. They used to live here in Mankato, but they moved when Ben graduated. We had such a fun time having them here. We ate so much food and played lots of games. We went to Yu's for lunch on Friday and to ToKen for breakfast on Saturday. Saturday evening was the ward's Trunk-or-Treat. Past years the youth have been in charge of all the games, but this year the honor was given to the Primary. I volunteered to be in charge of the cupcake walk, which is why we don't have very many pictures of Sophie at the carnival. Mandy forgot her camera, so she borrowed mine and I asked her to take a few pictures of Sophie. This is a funny picture, but it's Sophie and Elsie standing near the cupcake walk. They participated for a few minutes and they were off to more exciting things. Jon and Adam spoiled the girls and let each of them have a cupcake without winning. After the carnival, we went outside for the trunk-or-treat. Jon handed out candy while I took Sophie around. She did so well even though she didn't really understand what was going on. The weather was nice and not too cold, which made for a fun trunk-or-treat.

Sophie has been completely fixated with pumpkins this year. Every time we get out of the car, she has to go to the front door to see her pumpkins. The night we carved pumpkins she didn't have her Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch shirt on, so I took her outside on Halloween so that I could get a few pictures of her with the pumpkins. Her favorite thing was to pull the tops off the pumpkins. By Halloween, the top of my pumpkin had shrunk so much it wouldn't stay on. Sophie loved it when I lit the candles inside the pumpkins, she tried to stick her hand in to feel the heat from the flame. Yes, my child is a pyro! She is obsessed with fire, matches and candles. We have scented candles that we burn in the house and she constantly wants to go over to the candle and put her hand over the flame. She says "ha, ha" for "hot, hot" which is what we told her. Now she wants to do it all the time. The other day she found some matches in my bathroom and she took out a match and I saw her scraping the match along the box trying to light the match just like Mommy does. Oh dear! Luckily she can't quite get it to work, but I'm sure one of these days she'll figure it out. I better keep all matches and candles up high so she can't get to them.

Pictures of my cute little pumpkin in her pumpkin shirt. I would have to agree with the saying on her shirt, she truly is the cutest pumpkin in the patch. Thanks grandpa for the cute shirt!

She got on the rock all by herself and at one point she ended up falling backwards onto her head. She didn't get hurt, but it sure upset her. Luckily Daddy was walking down the trail on his way home from work, so she didn't cry for long.

Sophie was a cute little dragon for Halloween. I wasn't planning on having her be a dragon, but our friends the Jeffreys had given us the costume when Tanner grew out of it. When we got out our Halloween decorations I saw the costume, so I tried it on her and it looked so cute that I decided to use it. She was the cutest little dragon I've ever seen.

We took Sophie trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Our friends the Judsons and the Andersons met us at our house at 6:30 and we met up with the Parkers on the way to their house. The weather was beautiful all day and the temperature was probably close to 50 degrees when we went out. I don't think Sophie was quite sure what was going on, but she seemed to have fun. About half way through, her hands and cheeks were getting cold, so we came home. When we got home the Jeffreys were just pulling in to the driveway. When everyone finished trick-or-treating, they came over to our house for some hot chocolate, hot cider, doughnuts and cookies. We had a fun evening with friends. Halloween is a lot more fun when you have a little one to celebrate with. Next year hopefully I'll be on the ball and Jon and I will dress up with Sophie.

To My Sweetheart, Jon!

This post is dedicated to the love of my life, Jon. I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming holidays and how wonderful it will be to spend some time with our families. I've also been reflecting about the past several months and all that has transpired. Last night while Jon and I were in bed, he pointed out that his hair is getting thick. I looked at him and for the first time I noticed that it really was getting thick. It looks like it's a little darker too, but that could just be me. Anyway, as I was looking at his hair I reflected back on his lack of hair throughout the summer. I was so amazed at how thick his hair is now, if someone hadn't known what he had been through this summer, they wouldn't be able to tell now. He is feeling back to normal, minus the tingling in his feet and he looks healthy. As I was looking at Jon's hair I realized that when we go to Utah for the holidays, he won't look any different to most of our family. With exception to my parents, Jon's parents and his sister Heather, our families haven't seen him since his diagnosis with cancer. It will have been nine months since the last time that Jon was in Utah.

During my reflection I felt extreme gratitude for Jon's health. I am so grateful that he is doing so well and that the cancer is gone. You never expect to have your spouse come home and tell you that they have to see an oncologist, but when the day comes you just feel so numb. I didn't know what to do or think. I was truly amazed at how quickly I was able to feel the blessings of the spirit strengthening me and lifting me up. One of my worst nightmares had come true and I didn't know how to face it. We felt the spirit so strong helping us through this difficult time. From the very beginning, I knew in my heart that the biopsy results would show that he had cancer, even though I know there were many who were praying that it wouldn't be cancer. I thank you and truly appreciate all of your prayers on Jon's behalf. When we found out the exact diagnosis I was truly at peace and I knew in my heart that Jon would beat this. He told me that he felt that it wasn't his time to go, and once he told me, I believed it.

We've had some very difficult times throughout all of this. Starting out with Jon's first chemo treatment. I was furious when I came home from working out and I found out that he had gone in before we were ready. Someone forgot to tell us that his appointment had been changed. I sobbed while I took a quick shower. I was angry and scared and I didn't know what to do or how to feel. I knew I needed to be strong for Jon, but I didn't know how. I've always been the sick one and I didn't know what to do to be a strength to him. Fortunately the rest of that treatment went well and Jon and I were able to enjoy some time together talking and just sitting in silence while we read. I was so grateful that my mom was here with us that day. She gave me great advice and was such a strength to me.
As Jon went through more chemo the side effects became harder and harder to bare. Not only did he have to deal with all of that, but he also had to have surgery for an abscess that caused him so much pain. There were times I thought we would never get through this. Times that seemed like this would never end, but we were continually blessed with love and support from friends and family and with strength from the Lord. My testimony has truly been strengthened through this experience. It wore me down physically and emotionally it was so hard to see Jon going through so much pain and feeling so sick, but the Lord gave me the strength I needed to be able to care for my family. Thankfully He also blessed me with good health this year. Sophie was such a sweetheart through all of this. I know my patience was limited at times and once Jon started feeling better and started teaching again, I realized how stressful the summer had been with him being so sick. I found myself being able to be more patient with Sophie and I felt sad knowing how short I'd been with her during the summer. Luckily she is so forgiving. She is such a sweet girl and I am so grateful to have her as a part of our family.

I feel so blessed to have Jon with me today. I am so grateful that the Lord saw fit to heal Jon. I don't know what life would be like without him here. I am truly blessed to have such a sweet little girl to spend each day with. I am so grateful that I don't have to work, that I'm able to stay home and be with Sophie each day. I don't think anything could bring me more joy. I am grateful for the eternal nature of families that we have been sealed for eternity. How wonderful to know that we will always be a family no matter what happens to us on this earth. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. My testimony gave me the strength I needed to get me through this difficult time. I am so grateful for all of the help from friends and ward members. What a blessing to have help with Sophie and for the many meals that were brought in. I thought I would be fine, but what a blessing it was not to have to worry about fixing dinner when Jon wasn't feeling well and Sophie was so full of energy. I want Jon to know how much I love him and how grateful I am that he is my eternal companion. I am so excited for the holidays this year and I look forward to spending many more with Jon and Sophie.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

When we were in Utah, my Dad bought this cute shirt for Sophie. It says The cutest pumpkin in the patch. We were supposed to go pick pumpkins the day she wore this shirt but it ended up raining all day, so we didn't go. I had to get a picture of her in the shirt but she didn't want me to take her picture as you can see. I don't know what was wrong, but she was like that for about an hour after her nap. Normally she wakes up happy, but not today. I don't think she was quite ready to wake up.
There is a local pumpkin patch about 6 blocks from our house and we decided to support the locals and buy our pumpkins from them. Sophie had so much fun wandering around looking at all of the pumpkins. She's so funny because she liked the big huge pumpkins the best.

Sitting next to the cute little scarecrow. She didn't want to sit and have her picture taken, but Daddy was able to get her sit still and look at the camera. She refuses to look at me when I have the camera, so I have to ask Jon to get Sophie to look up at him instead. What a little stinker!

She had fun playing with the wheelbarrow too. She's ready to take off with her load of pumpkins.

My strong girl! It was so funny watching her try to carry the pumpkins, she'd only hold them by the stem and they got a little too heavy.

Trying to find the perfect pumpkin. "Maybe this is the one."

"If I tap on this one I'll be able to tell if this is the perfect pumpkin."

I took so many pictures trying to get one with her looking at the camera, and this is what I got. This is a typical Sophie expression.

"Here it is! This is the perfect one."

My happy little pumpkin! She had so much fun with all of the pumpkins. She didn't want to leave, but her nose was red and her hands were getting cold. It was a beautiful day, but windy and the wind was a bit chilly. We didn't end up buying that big pumpkin. I didn't want to have to gut it and carve it. We got two medium pumpkins for carving and then two small pumpkins. We are going to carve the pumpkins next week, so we'll see how much Sophie likes carving the pumpkins.

Happy Birthday Jon!

Jon had a wonderful birthday this year. Sophie was my big helper all day. We went to the mall that morning and got Jon's popcorn bucket filled with his favorite cheese corn and then we stopped and got some balloons. Sophie loved the balloons! They kept her happy while we were in the car. We stopped by Jon's office and dropped off the popcorn and balloons. Sophie loves going to Daddy's office. She likes to play with all of his pens. Because Jon walks home, he asked us to take the balloons and popcorn with us, but not before he snitched some popcorn. He had to taste it. I made one of Jon's favorite meals for dinner, meatballs and mashed potatoes. While we waited for the potatoes to finish cooking, I let Jon open his presents.

Sophie was Daddy's big helper, she helped him open all of his presents. He had to get it started for her, but once he did she had fun pulling all the paper off. She isn't quite as experienced with opening presents. She didn't really have any interest in opening her own presents on her birthday, she had more fun playing with the actual toys.
Daddy's big helper!

Holding Dad's new ear buds and opening another present.

Jon got the new X-Men movie and the Harry Potter Legos Wii game.

He also got Thor.

She's getting to be such a big girl. She loves to help with things and she loves her daddy so much.

Jon received the best present of all, he had his last radiation treatment on his birthday. He is now officially done with all of his treatments and he's on his way to getting back to normal. He has felt fatigued and he feels like something is stuck in his esophagus and his feet still tingle, but the worst of it is over. We are so happy that he has made it through all of his treatments and we are anxious for him to feel like himself once again.

Happy Birthday Jon!

Grandpa Reeds Birthday Surprise!

Sophie and I surprised my dad for his birthday this year. We bought plane tickets back in July, to fly out on my dad's birthday and surprise him. My sister Nicole was in on the surprise with us, so she came and picked us up from the airport. We landed around 10:20 am, and Nicole was on her way. Sophie and I got off the plane and headed for the baggage claim. Well, I was on the cell phone talking to Jon and I missed the sign for baggage claim in terminal 2 and we ended up at the baggage claim for terminal 1. Nicole called and told me which carousel our luggage was supposed to be on and it was carousel 8, and I was near carousels 1-4. I realized we were in the wrong place, so we walked outside to terminal 2. By the time we got there, the carousel was empty and no one was around. I looked at my watch and it was 11:00 am. I figured the luggage had already come and gone and I missed it. I went to the Delta luggage claim area and sure enough, they had pulled our bags because we hadn't shown up to claim them. Once we got our luggage, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Reed's for the surprise.

I was so nervous and excited as we got closer to my parent's home. I had Nicole drop us off at the end of the street so that Sophie and I could walk, while Nicole went in the house to make sure they were home. By the time we walked up the driveway, Nicole had come out to tell us that mom and dad weren't home. Nicole talked to them an hour earlier and she told them that she would be there within the hour so they could go to lunch for Dad's birthday. I figured they probably decided to run to the grocery store for a few minutes, so we took our luggage inside and changed clothes. It was cold when we left Minnesota, but it was warm and sunny in Utah. About the time that we were ready to head upstairs and feed Sophie some lunch, we heard the garage door open. Nicole went upstairs first and I sat and listened, waiting for both of my parents to get in the house. Once I could tell that they were inside, I had Sophie start walking up the stairs. She wasn't quite sure what was going on. Nicole wished Dad a Happy Birthday and then she told him that someone else wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday. At that time he looked toward the stairs just as I lifted Sophie up to the top step. When Grandpa saw Sophie, he yelled. He was so excited to see her, he just couldn't hold it in. He wanted to scream some more, but he was worried about scaring Sophie, so he picked her up and cried instead. It was wonderful! My mom was in the kitchen trying to figure out who Grandpa was holding. Once she saw me, she knew exactly who it was and she started to cry. It was truly wonderful! Their reactions were the best. Dad told me later, when he saw Sophie he thought he was seeing things. He said "I wanted it to be her so bad, I thought I was imagining her." It was the best birthday present Grandpa could have ever wished for.

We didn't end up going to lunch, because Sophie needed to take a nap. By this time she had been up for almost 8 hours and she was sleepy. After her nap, we went to the park at the end of the street. It's perfect, because it's half a block away so Sophie could walk to the park. She had so much fun swinging, but most of all she had fun playing with the wood chips and finding dead dandelions. Sophie loves picking dandelions that have died. She shakes them to make all the seeds blow away. Poor Grandma, she has really bad allergies, so Sophie shaking dandelion seeds didn't help much.
My cute little girl! She had so much fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa Reed. She loved that they have a park so close to their house. She got to walk down to the park everyday while we were there. She also got to see lots of airplanes. There is a small airport near my parent's house, so there were planes constantly in the air. Sophie got so excited any time she heard a plane, she'd stop whatever she was doing and look for the plane. If we were inside, she'd run to the nearest window to try and see the plane. I was amazed at how well she can hear and see. We'd be outside and she'd start pointing to something and I'd look and sure enough off in the distance was a large commercial airplane way up in the sky. Aunt Nicole went outside with Sophie and anytime Sophie heard a plane she'd run to Nicole and try climbing up aunt Nicole so she could see the plane better. What a silly girl! I never knew she likes airplanes so much. It truly amazes me the things that she notices. I realize how much I tune out or take for granted. Sophie sees the smallest thing and thinks it's truly amazing and I never even noticed that it was there. The same thing with the airplanes, we tune them out so much, we don't even realize they are flying right above us. Thanks to my Sophie, I notice things I never noticed before.
Sophie playing with Grandma Reed. Doesn't she look so cute with her little pig tails? I realized one day that her hair looked a little shaggy. I told her that she looked like a little orphan, so I decided to try putting some pig tails in and she held so still. I was amazed! She does really well while I put them in, but once she realizes they are there, she pulls them out. I usually end up putting them in at least two to three times a day.

Sunday afternoon Nick and Ashley and the girls (Ashtyn and Avery) came over for dinner. Aunt Nicole stayed over night the night before, and uncle Scott came over just before church. After dinner Sophie went outside with Grandma and the girls and they found uncle Nick's skateboards, and of course Sophie had to try it out.
We also went to the park with Grandma and the girls. The swing that Ashtynwas swinging on was so high, I had to lift her up so she could swing. Luckily Grandma was close by, because Ashtyn fell off the swing, but she hung on until Grandma got to her and helped her down. Sophie and Avery got to swing in the baby swings, so they were safe.

While we were in Utah, we spent a day with Grandma and Grandpa Harper. Grandma fixed a yummy lunch and invited aunt Jenny, aunt Jesse and aunt Amber over for lunch. Sophie got to play with some of her cousins and they had a great time. She especially liked playing with Dustin. He knew just how to make Sophie laugh. Before we left, Sophie and Grandpa walked over to Jeff and Jesse's so that I could buy some pumpkins. Our nephews Braden and Dustin grew pumpkins at Grandpa's and now they are trying to sell their pumpkins. I wanted to buy a pumpkin, but I didn't think it would be very easy to take on the plane with us. Instead I bought a few gourds and some small pumpkins for my Mom to decorate with. Before we left I laid Sophie down so I could change her diaper and I noticed a big goose egg on her head. When I showed it to Grandpa he told me that Sophie tripped while they were walking over. He said she cried, but he didn't see anything. She must of have hit her head on the pavement when she tripped. I think it looked worse than it felt, because it didn't seem to bother her.

Snuggling with Grandpa Reed. She loves him so much! She learned how to say "papa" while we were in Utah, which made Grandpa so happy. She also started saying "bye, bye". We had such a fun week! Grandpa Reed was able to take some time off, so he got to stay home and play with Sophie. It was a busy week, but a great week. I got to meet up with four friends, two from high school, Jaynee and Sheri and two from college, Julie and April. It was so good to see each of them. Thanks ladies for taking the time to meet up with us. I sure had a great time!

Ten Wonderful Years!

I can't believe it was 10 years ago today that I had to wake up before the crack of dawn and get myself looking beautiful for my wedding day. It was 10 years ago that our poor guests had to arrive at the Salt Lake Temple by 7:10 am. Sorry it was so early, but we appreciate your love and support and willingness to be there with us so early in the morning. It was 10 years ago that I sat iin the Celestial Room with Jon and he asked me if I was going to say "yes" or "no". I told him I was planning to wait until we were kneeling at the alter to say "no". It was a beautiful sunny day and it was the best day of my life, I got to marry my best friend. He is now my eternal companion and I am so grateful the gospel and the priesthood power which makes it possible for our marriage to go on for eternity. I am so grateful that he is here with me today to celebrate 10 wonderful years and I pray that he will be around 10 more years and many more beyond that. I am grateful for all the prayers that have blessed Jon and helped him to be here today. He is doing well and looking great. He is my best friend, my lover, my companion, the one who loves me and accepts me for who I am and he is the father of my beautiful little girl. I love you so much Jon and I look forward to many more adventures in the future.

Labor Day Weekend Fun

We planned a fun weekend getaway with our friends the Andersons. Originally we planned to head up North to Duluth, but it would have been a little more than we wanted to pay, so we chose to go to Rochester instead. We left Friday afternoon after Jon's class, and we met the Andersons at the hotel. When we got to the hotel we went right to dinner. We ate at Newts, a yummy burger joint. We ordered some mac and cheese for Sophie and Elsie to share and Sophie just went to town. I was so surprised! She doesn't eat a lot these days, so I was so happy that she liked the noodles.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to swim. The pool was a little too cold, so we ended up in the hot tub instead. Sophie wasn't too sure about the hot tub and the bubbles at first, but once she got used to it she loved it. I was worried that she'd get too hot, so we kept her up on the stairs most of the time. When we finished we gave the girls a bath and then we put them to bed in our room. The rooms were right next to one another and there was a door joining the two rooms. Since the girls were in our room sleeping, Jon and I went to the Anderson's room to play games. The Anderson's room was a handicap room and it was huge. We played a few rounds of Uno and then we played a game of Dixit. Around 10:00 Jon, Adam and Claire made a late night run to Wendy's for frostys. It was a great late night treat!

The next day we planned to go fishing, but on the way to Whitewater State Park it began to rain and it rained pretty hard, so we decided to head back to Rochester until the rain stopped. We went downtown Rochester near the Mayo Clinic and we spent some time in the shops. While we were there it just so happened that they were having Irishfest. Ada got to play some miniature golf.

Two best friends. Elsie loves to give Sophie hugs, but Sophie isn't always a fan of the hugs. Until a month or so ago, Sophie would hit Elsie in the face any time Elsie came close. Now she has learned to be soft and give hugs too. It's so cute to watch them, because Sophie will give Elsie hugs now and Elsie doesn't always like the hugs. Silly little girls!
Sophie and Elsie with some of the people dressed up for the Irishfest.

We walked around the Mayo Clinic grounds, and they are just as beautiful as I remembered them from three years ago. Sophie liked running around and playing in the water from the fountain.

After we walked around the Mayo Clinic, we went to lunch at Canadian Honkers. What a name! Even though the name is a little crazy, the food was really good. I had the best French Dip sandwich. As we were walking back to our cars after lunch it began to rain. Once again, it didn't just rain a little, it was a down pour. I couldn't believe it, the drains in the streets couldn't keep up with the amount of water, so the streets were flooding. Thank goodness we have a car that is high up. When we finished lunch, it was nap time and Sophie fell asleep as soon as I got her all buckled in her carseat. She slept like this for about an hour. She woke up when we got to the state park.

When we got to Whitewater State Park, it was still raining, but it wasn't a down pour. Most of the Andersons really wanted to fish, so we bought passes and went in to the state park. We waited for 20 minutes or so for the rain to die down and then we all got out for a fun adventure. Adam and the kids fished, while Rita and Elsie and Jon, Sophie and I walked around. Sophie and Elsie were having a great time running around splashing in the puddles. Both girls had on their new tennis shoes, which they have the same shoes just different colors. Rita and Jon told me not to worry about Sophie's new shoes getting wet. I want them to stay looking new, but of course they aren't going to, she's 15 months old.

I took several pictures of Sophie and the butterfly, trying to get this picture with the butterfly's wings open. I thought it was a really good picture. She isn't actually touching the butterfly, if she were the butterfly would be gone.

Sophie and Elsie enjoying their Nutrigrain bars. They loved sitting on the curb, because it made the perfect seat for these cute girls. I sure love these girls. They keep us busy, but they are so fun to be around. When Rita and I have been out with the girls, we've had several people ask us if they are twins. We tell them no, but they are like sisters, they see each other several times a week ususally.