More Tulip Time Pics - but, these are better

So, you may be sick of Tulip Time, but frankly, I don't care. The above pictures represent some of the best pictures of the year. Period. One is a close up of her. Primarily, I like it, because it shows that I am gaining some skill in this crazy thing called photography. And the second, it's a historical matter, okay? Anyone who has a dutch costume probably has a picture of themselves sniffing a tulip. I know my mother has one of me, and therefore, I have to have one of Jaina. It is a weird genetic thing, that I can only hope gets broken if Jaina marries a red-headed, green-eyed, Irish-Catholic Fireman.....

In the meantime, she gets to smell tulips......

Tulip Time

No blog would be complete with a little Dutch girl's first Tulip Time.

Now, I admit, I beat myself up quite regularly for the fact that I waited three years before taking Jaina to a Tulip Time. But honestly, things kept coming up (Primarily, some relative of Mike's got married for the last three years, to be exact), and this year, I said "Who care? We are GOING TO PELLA for TULIP TIME!" And lucky for us, no one got married. Lucky for us? More accurately, lucky for Grandma and Mom. Dad (Mike) had to sit through the bloody thing, and Jaina had to wear a horribly uncomfortable dress. But I feel accomplished. I have walked my baby through the Baby parade. And now wonder what particular brand of crack I was smoking......

Gramma and Me

I love this picture. I am not sure why. Maybe it reminds me of what a professional photographer would do. Maybe because I love my mom, and I love my daughter. It's hard to tell, but seeing the two of them together, watching the mass of geese come in, (which turned out to be the ending point of this poignant pic), or the fact that some form of water is involved, I don't know, but I think it is great.

June - zoo Month

Throughout the summer of 2007, we took numerous trips to zoos. So forgive me if I combine several favorite pictures into our "ZOO" theme. The first one was Zippity Zoo day at the Sioux Falls Zoo. They have this stone camel, which in and of itself is not THAT big of deal, but when you are using it to measure your daughter's growth from year to year, it becomes a largly big deal. So here is 2007's pic...

Some other Zoo trips we took this year included the Como Park Zoo, in Minneapolis, and the Omaha Zoo in, well, Omaha. We are strongly hoping that Aunt Alayna gets a job in Omaha, so we can visit more often. Have I ever mentioned that Jaina LOVES carousels?

This picture was taken in March of 2007. This was our "big" snowstorm of 2007. It started on March 1, 2007, and I was insane enough to attempt the 45 mile drive to work.

When I got to work, it turned out that anyone that lived within a 10 mile radius had already opted NOT to come in, so I felt both stupid and victorious. Of course, I left at 9:30. Then Mike and I proceeded to paint our bedroom for the next two days?

Where was Jaina, you may ask? She was in Pella, surviving the storm her own way with Grandpa and Grandma Willer. She had been gone for an entire week, and I was just aching to see her. Of course, with the interstates shut, that was an impossibility. Once I got her home, I took full advantage of taking her outside, and building our first snowman. This picture represents that fact that I got her home, and that we had a great time.

There is also a future story for this post, as you will see in December 2007 :) I love pretense, ans suspense :)

Top Ten Of 2007

As we draw to the end of 2007, I thought I would take a few posts to share (primarily with myself, since no one else reads this.....) some of my favorite pictures of our family throughout 2007...

Stay posted for more.....

Hmmm, once a month

I guess I indicated I would be a once a month sort of gal. A little less, I would say. The truth is, I forgot my password. A truly humiliating experience, really. I try to keep all of my passwords the same, but you know how picky websites can be. This one needs a special character, this one needs an uppercase letter, and this one needs the middle initial of your mother's unborn child.

But, seeing as I haven't posted since June, I thought it was time for a few updates......

Let's see........

In late June, Mike, Jaina, and myself took a small vacation to Omaha, and met up with my parents. A GREAT idea to split the trip halfway. An added bonus is the ability to stay in a hotel, with a pool, which then allows Jaina to spend a LOT of energy.

We also got to go to the zoo. Jaina loves the zoo. And the Omaha zoo is a mite bit bigger than our usual Sioux Falls zoo, with it's multitude of ducks.

Also in June, we also had Jaina's first fishing trip. She caught a fish. If you ever want to hear about it, just ask her.

She tells everyone at daycare all of the time.

Let's see, what else? Oh yeah, we went to a couple more zoos. :)

And then school starts.

Fun summer, huh?

Trust me, more updates later.