What does a puppy say?

Guess Who's Walking!?

Bahama Mama (and Papa and Baby and Extended Family)

We weren't able to talk about it before we left because it was a surprise, but we recently returned from a vacation to the sunny Caribbean! Charlotte had many "firsts" on this trip: first time on an airplane and a boat, first time outside the U.S., first time in the ocean... Charlotte's great grandfather (Kristi's grandpa) John recently turned 80 and for his birthday his brother Andy threw him a surprise party. But not just your average cake and presents party, he organized the entire extended family (over 40 people) to go on a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to the Florida Keys and the Bahamas! Shortly after all boarding the cruise ship we threw grandpa John a surprise party I'm sure he will not soon forget.


Charlotte checking out the view from the plane.

The big surprise! All 37 of us waited in this room for my grandpa to be led (unknowingly) to his big birthday party on the top deck of the cruise ship!

What they call the "Muster drill." It's where everyone puts on their life jackets and lines up pretending the ship is sinking and there aren't enough lifeboats. Just kidding. There are enough boats, though we were suspicious...those boats look awfully small.

The top pool deck at night. This is a sea turtle we saw from the ship when we were anchored out in the Bahamas!
Our little family on the privately-owned (by Royal Caribbean) island of Coco Cay.
Charlotte didn't like the ocean very well but she did love feeling the sand in between her fingers!
Matt and Char on the beach at Coco Cay.
Funny to think how it is snowing in late April in Minnesota, isn't it?
This is a sting ray we saw on Coco Cay (we saw lots of them throughout our trip). Matt was really really close to this one!
The cruise ship is too big to dock at the island, so we had to take little boats called tenders from the cruise ship (in the background) to Coco Cay.
This is from formal night in the dining room on the ship. The food on the ship was absolutely amazing!!!
From left to right, Travis and Lisa, Kate, Laura, and Kristi, Charlotte, and Matt. Kristi's sisters + husbands (and baby).
A jelly fish! We saw tons of these everywhere.
Matt on the rock climbing wall on the very back of the ship.
Matt on the bungee trampoline on the very front of the ship.
Matt and Charlotte at sunset.
Fruit animals! We watched one of the chefs carve a bunch of these. Aren't they great?!
We played a lot of shuffleboard on the ship at night. Here Travis is showing off his skills.
The bright blue/green thing in the middle right of this picture is a mahi mahi (a type of fish). The blue water really is this color in real life!
Charlotte is not so sure about the water at first. But she got used to it and ended up loving it!
Laughing girl (on her flower towel from great-aunt Sharon)
Every night in the dining room the very attentive waiters would ask what Charlotte wanted to eat. They would get us anything! We told them one night she really liked avocado, so every night from then on we had a giant bowl of avocado waiting on our table when we got there! She also had lots of pasta, vegetables, cottage cheese, bread, fish, and curry. She would eat anything!
Family photo.
My sisters and I pretending to be Tyranosaurus Rexes. You know, they have really short arms close to their body.
Matt and Travis being T-Rexes.Kristi's family. Dad Mark, Laura, Mom Cindy, Kate, Charlotte, Kristi, Matt, Lisa, and Travis.
Looking down the central area of the ship.

Happy Easter!

It's been a while since we wrote much on the blog. Charlotte is growing up so much every day, so there is lots to say! Several weeks ago we made the big step moving Charlotte into her own room. Everyone is liking the new arrangement, especially because we are sleeping better now that we don't hear her making little noises in her sleep at 4:30am!

Charlotte is getting better at moving--she is sometimes crawling on her hands and knees, but usually she scoots/army crawls everywhere. She is getting fast! We have started working on the word "no." She likes to scoot towards the collection of computer and speaker cords or towards daddy's important papers. It seems that her favorite things to play with are the things she can't have! I suppose that the easier solution would be to put those things where she can't reach them!

She has really perfected the skill of standing while holding on to the furniture. She loves to stand! We can also get her to balance on her own without support for a few seconds, but she will inevitably fall (we haven't dropped her yet!). A couple of times she has been able to pull herself up from sitting to standing. I'm sure it won't be long before she is doing it consistently. We had to move her from the top bassinett part of her pack & play to the bottom because she is so much more mobile now. She still sleeps swaddled (really really tightly!), but she sometimes works her arms out of it and then can move around. She seems to like being swaddled; it's one of her cues that it is time to sleep. We aren't sure how long we'll keep swaddling her...hopefully she grows out of it before middle school!

A few weeks ago (almost a month!) we were in Duluth for four days. We had a retreat for school with workshops and lectures at the residency program that we want to go to in a couple of years. For two evenings we had the "business" part of our retreat, and then the rest of the time we spent visiting with friends. It was so great to see everyone!!! Below is a picture of a group of our friends from that visit.


For Easter we drove down to Roland, Iowa to visit Kristi's sister and brother-in-law Lisa and Travis. It was so fun to see them and to spend some good quality time with them. Charlotte absolutely loved it--she was glad to see her aunt and uncle, but she also adored all of their animals. Lisa and Travis have 3 "big" pet birds (a cockatiel, a conure, and a parakeet), 3 "little" birds (finches), a rabbit, a gecko, and several fish. Charlotte was enthralled with all of the animals. Unfortunately she mostly wanted to poke them in the eyes or grab their feathers, so she mostly just looked at them! Here is our little bunny on Easter.

Here she is hoping to poke Thumper in the eye or nose. We had to bribe him to sit there by putting some oatmeal on the couch!

Aunt Lisa and Charlotte.

Isn't she sweet?!

Yesterday we went out for Birthday dinner at Applebees with Matt's parents. It is Matt's birthday tomorrow (26 on the 26th, his golden birthday!!!), and it is Kristi's birthday on April 2nd. Charlotte enjoyed people watching, licking a french fry, drinking water from a straw, and eating Cheerios.

Charlottte with Grandma Carol Ann.

Charlotte got a little messy as she ate lunch today. Those are prunes smeared all over her face!


Thanks for checking in with us! We hope these pictures of our cute baby brighten your day!

She's all grown up!

Charlotte learned an essential life skill today that she couldn't do yesterday. She picked up Cheerios and put them in her mouth!

Anyone who thinks we're crazy for broadcasting this information, you should know that this is a very intricate skill that requires a lot of brain power, hand eye coordination, and fine motor movement to pick up those tiny little o's. She's pretty much a genius in the making.

Here you go Auntie Laura! Ask and you shall receive!

No time to write now, but we will update you on all of her accomplishments soon! Until then, here are some pictures of our little bunny.

A couple pictures from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Travis

These are from Christmas-time I believe. Isn't she well-mannered? :)