Video Extravaganza!

Good afternoon, everyone!

I've found some time to grab the video from a couple of more tapes, and here's what we have!

When we were in Virginia, grandpa Johnsrud started playing this game with Sophie - she got a real kick out of it...

As she does with me, she liked to play jungle gym with grandpa...

Her uncle Brad exhausted himself playing super-jump with both Sophie and his son Braydon...

The day before Halloween, our church held the annual Pumpkin Party - a trick-or-treat alternative with carnival games, a bounce house, and a slide Here are a few snippets from that night...

From a couple of weeks ago (it's long, but worth it)...

Sophie is "reading" her Dora Pumpkin Patch book. She is starting to remember the stories, and even roughly what each line in the book is - it's pretty funny and cool at the same time!

That's all for now - more to come soonish!

Larry

Around The House

I've collected a few pictures from the last two months of just some daily life kinda stuff.

I hope you like them!













More to come soon!

Larry

Trip To Virginia, Part I

So, I'm back to posting, and as alluded to in the last post in... August (wow!)... we went to Virginia to visit Stacy's dad and family.

Sophie met Cal (grandpa Johnsrud) last summer, because Julie (grandma Johnsrud) flew him out to meet her - but now, the whole family was going to get to meet Sophie, and she them...

The trip was dreamed up by me as a surprise to Stacy, but I couldn't keep my trap shut for long... I wanted Stacy to get to see her dad again, and also to bring Sophie out to meet everyone.

Stacy and I were very hesitant about the travel component - our last plane ride with Sophie, which admittedly was under extreme circumstances, was the worst sequence of flights we'd ever taken. And yes, Sophie was the one and only reason for that misery.

Again, I understand that she was 19 months old, on flights that took us literally halfway around the world (which can wear many people down), and she'd known us for just over a week, but, it was the exact opposite of fun.

Anyway, we hoped and prayed that Sophie would be okay on the flight, and thankfully, she was. Now that she was into Dora and Kai-Lan, giving her a portable movie player helped A LOT. Combined with Stacy and I describing playfully what the airplane was doing at takeoff and landing, all contributed to us having a good flight in.

There was one hiccup, which was kind of a blessing in disguise.

When we checked in at the desk in Minneapolis, we were told that our flight was delayed by two hours, and that we were going to miss our connection in Atlanta to get to Richmond that night, and would have to stay in Atlanta overnight, and they were booking us on an early flight out the next morning.

It was a blessing, because we were originally scheduled to get to Richmond at around 10PM, which would have been pretty late. This way, we, and the Johnsrud's, were able to get some sleep, and we could start again in the morning.

Here are some pictures of Sophie in the big bed in our hotel room in Atlanta:







Everything went pretty smoothly, and we got into Richmond just fine the following morning.

Believe it or not, this is the only still picture I took while we were in Virginia - the rest is video, which brings me to the fact that part two will be coming soon, with video, and a selection of the portraits that we had taken of the family while we were out there...



I'll try to get part II up this weekend - so stay tuned!

Larry

Punkin Patch

Okay, I'm back to posting, and the first catch-up item I'll post about is our visit to the local pumpkin patch / farm the first weekend in October.

The pumpkin patch marks the point where we lost our camera, one of the big reasons for us not posting for the last two months (sorry!) - but it was safe and sound in our glove box he whole time, so we still have our good camera, and more importantly, have all of the images that were on it...

We will now be downloading the pictures on a regular basis, just in case...

So, it was a cold Saturday morning in October, and we had our first (and so far only) snow of the season. Because of the weather, we called to make sure that the place would be open - they were (obviously).



When we arrived, there was only one other car there, and we were a little hesitant - but the owner came out and greeted us, and we started to look around at what they had.



This was Sophie's first pumpkin patch, so she was wandering around, just looking at everything, until we moved toward the petting zoo area. She loved every one of the animals.







As we walked around, we saw a rabbit hutch with a fence around it. They started coming out, and eventually there were 8 or 9 rabbits all walking around and being cute. Sophie wanted to climb in a pet them, but we made sure she didn't fall in.





After the animals, we went to a cart they had set up that had smaller pumpkins, and each of us picked out a pumpkin to bring home and have on the stoop.

We got home just fine, and Sophie was happy to have seen the bunnies...

More to come soon!

Larry

Just Some Pictures Before We Go

Well, we are leaving for Virginia in a couple of hours, but I wanted to get these pictures from Sophies 3rd Birthday (and a few bonus ones) up for you all to see...

UPDATE! - I now have taken the time to res-sort and comment on the pictures! Yes, I'm posting again!

Sophie is a Dora Freak (and secondarily Diego and Kai-Lan) - so it was natural for her first "aware" birthday party to be a Dora party. We went all out, Dora plates, cups, napkins, cake, and a banner!

In the time-honored tradition of children everywhere, Sophie sneaks some frosting...

Here is the "Giggly" Kai-Lan doll that we got for her - it reminds us of how she looks when she does her big smile :) That's grandpa Ziegler looking on...

At this party, she was really figuring out presents, and this present had a bunch of different things in a bag big enough for her to fall in, and she almost did, trying to get the stuff on the bottom...

Sophie got her first Barbie, which she is showing off to her friend Jayden, as grandma and grandpa Ziegler watch...

When Sophie has stayed with grandma and grandpa Gabriel, she and grandpa share some super big marshmallows, so grandpa got her a big bag for home use...

Just a small portion of the pile o' presents...

Sophie had such genuine enthusiasm for everything she received (whether she knew what it was or not) - I hope she keeps that...

Giving grandpa Ziegler a big thank-you kiss...

Eating her lunch with her baby and grandpa Gabriel.

"How old are you?"

The previous evening, Stacy and I gave her the bulk of the presents from us (so it wouldn't be just a mom and dad fest with everyone else there).

I had been finding some awesome deals, and we got her a V-Smile learning system and a bunch of games so that she could get started with some other types of fun learning.

Sophie loves playing with hair, so we got her a set of hair toys...

She also gt her first Cabbage Patch Kid (we tried to get one that looked like her)...

Sophie's aunt-aunt gave her a couple of games that she already had, so I traded them in for something we knew Sophie would love - a play vacuum. Every time I vacuum, she wants to hold the handle and help - now she has one made just for her. The middle section pops off, and can be used like a dust-buster. She loves it! Thanks, aunt-aunt!

Another thing we've started, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, is to get her started with Legos. Right now, she has all of the Dora and Kai Lan sets (actually Mega Bloks, but they work with Duplos) - and she loves to build and play with them. She's getting much better at stacking and arranging them, and she loves being able to play with her favorite characters too.



Grandma Orsund got her a couple of costumes, including this cowgirl outfit, which looks very cute on her...



See you later!

Larry

Catching Up - Dad and Daughter Weekend II, Silly Gril, and the Zoo!

Well, I apologize that it has been so long since the last post - we've been pretty busy...

I'm going to just unleash a ton of pictures here, with no real description, as I am extremely tired right now, but I want to get the pictures posted.

I may come back in here and edit the post with descriptions... we'll see...

I hope to dive back in with a full-on status report soon, but for now, I hope this satiates those clamoring for new stuff...

Saturday In The Park

It's been a very long time since my last post, but I thought I'd sneak one in about our first trip to the local park a couple of weeks ago...

We've been living here for over 5 years, and until two weeks ago, had never even thought about going to a park, but we finally did, and Sophie had a lot of fun!

A few days earlier, I was cleaning out the garage, and Sophie wanted to climb up on my yard tractor. Since it was in gear and I had the keys, I let her up there and she pretended to drive...



In ten years I'll be asking her to mow the lawn - we'll see how much she smiles about it then :)

Anyway, we went first to get Sophie's hair trimmed (you can see how long her bangs are in the above picture), then we hunted down Mark Park, which is about two miles from our house. They have a splash park there too (not pictured), but we were interested in the playground equipment...



This is the larger of the two main pieces, there are also two swing sets at the park.

Sophie on the bridge to the slide:



And here she's sliding down the aforementioned slide:



Like many playgrounds, a steering wheel attached for no particular reason is included:



Mommy helping Sophie up after coming down the big slide:



Sophie sliding down yet another slide:



And climbing a spiral ladder:

You can see from all of the pictures that Sophie loved the park. Next time we'll bring a swimsuit so she can play at the splash park.

It's also important to note that with very few exceptions, Sophie did all of the climbing and sliding completely unassisted. She's getting better coordinated every day, and playing like this definitely helps build more strength too!

Stacy should be popping in here in the next day or so to give a report of their trip to the local nursery, where Sophie fed some deer and pet some puppies!

Later!

Larry