April 28, 2010

ella at 20 months

  • My favorite age so far. Hands down.
  • Her vocabulary is great. She said "I want drink water" this morning. But her speech is not so hot. She still makes noises, not really words, so what she really said was, "Aya deek wa." It's odd, though. When she first learns a word she says it clearly. But once she gets it down she condenses it into a noise. We can't deicide if she is being lazy or efficient.
  • Still loves dogs. I worry about her getting hurt because she has no fear. She loves it when they lick her, so she shoves her hand in their mouth. Totally safe, right?
  • She has a mullet. Yep. Full on.
  • We walk to the water feature in our neighborhood every day. "Wa? Wa? Wa?"
  • She loves her little friend Avery. If we forget to pray for "Vrey" we have to say the prayer again.

This picture is taken after they saw each other across the park, ran with open arms to one another and hugged. No prompt necessary.
  • She says "Yeeaahh!" and "Noooohhhh..." with conviction
  • Favorite food: pasta.
  • She loves her play food and her kitchen. She has figured out the whole pretend thing and will fill her glass with water or milk, and then pour it out on the ground, "Oht ohh!" and then clean it up. Pretty cute.
  • Favorite number: nine. She knows two {yeah, can't figure out 1}, three, four...nine! Anything above four is 9.
  • She waddles side to side when she runs.
She likes to "smile" for pictures

April 18, 2010

evening walk

April 16, 2010

NZ

So, the weather was on the wet and cold side, we spent around 65+ hours on a plane/car/airport, and one of our most anticipated activities was cancelled. And, yet, we had one of our favorite trips ever. We loved New Zealand and would go back in a heartbeat.

I couldn't pick a blog-appropriate number of photos, so I put my favorites on Picasa.

New Zealand

April 13, 2010

Queenstown

We have absolutely loved Queenstown. It is a small mountain town on a beautiful lake. Reminds me of Jackson Hole or Park City. The mountains are stunning. We were scheduled to go on a flight/hike/boat ride, but there was an absolute downpour which shot those plans. Instead we saw some amazing waterfalls and went on a hike in the rain. We almost went to a movie, but luckily it cleared up and we rented a boat and drove around the lake. It was gorgeous.

This morning we went on a jet boat ride. Google jet boats. They are crazy. They can go in 10 cm of water, and they fly. We zipped down a tight canyon, sure we were going to crash. It was truly thrilling.

We are now starting a 5 hour drive to Milford Sound where we go on our cruise and hopefully get our dolphin experience....

We miss you, Amelia!

April 10, 2010

New Zealand observations

They offer two types of milk: trim and regular
If you are flying domestic there is no security. It is wonderful. I forgot how easy flying can be. You check yourself in, print your luggage tags, place your bags on the conveyer and walk in. 5 minutes, tops. 
Native New Zealanders really are called kiwis. 
April 10th was the first day in three months that Dolphin EcoTours did not find dolphins to swim with. At least we had a nice 5 hour boat ride...
New Zealand is the most "green" country I have ever visited. 
I can count on one hand (and I've been counting) the number of fat people I've seen. Haven't seen one obese person yet. Must be all that trim milk. 
The airport in Picton is a house. The living room is converted into a check-in area. The landing strip runs parallel to their driveway/road.  No checking ID, just take off when all 12 passengers are there. And feel free to use your cell phone.  
The people, as a whole, are incredibly friendly and laid back. Kiwi hospitality. Love it.  
Wellington feels like a cross between San Francisco and Seattle.

We are having a great time so far. We are headed to Queenstown today, where we will meet up with our friend Justin.

Cheers!
   

April 7, 2010

Kia ora

We made it. 24 hours of relatively easy traveling. We chilled in the sky lounge, had an empty seat between us, watched movies and slept. Pretty great. We even saw Pauly Shore at LAX. I honestly thought he was a crazy, high, homeless person when we first saw him. I may have been wrong about the homeless bit...

We are now in Wellington.  From the airport it looks quite charming. We're waiting to take a puddle jumper to Picton, and then a boat through the Marlborough Sound. Should be fun.

Thanks for the book recs. I brought Book One of The Hunger Games and The Help.  Hunger Games has proven to be a great travel read. The only downside is that the rest of the series isn't available as an iBook so I'll have to wait until I get home to finish the series.

Thanks to all the people taking care of Ella. I am a lucky, lucky girl to be able to do this. I love and appreciate you.





ps--Ryan is blogging, too. Bike.ella7.com. (at least I think that's the address....) 

April 5, 2010

go. duke.

April 3, 2010

due

Ella's really into having "due" {two} of things lately. Like pairs of shoes.