Minnesota Children's Museum

Jade and I got a chance to visit the children's museum with some good friends of ours, the Smith's. Jade and Sammi are good buddies and only a week apart, in age. On our way to the museum I looked back and they were holding hands. So sweet!

The museum was a lot of fun, they had a small "town" area with a restaurant, a doctors office, a post office, a park, and a few other things. This is the restaurant.
Jade is perfecting her stir-fry techniques.
I know my dad and step-mom will get a kick out of this picture as they're both mail carriers. I couldn't resist. She looks so adorable. :)
Sammi is taking a turn listening to Jade's heart.
Jade listening to her own heart. She has her hospital gown on, too.
We probably spent the most time in the water area. There were two low tables with water that Jade had a blast playing in. There was also a low table with bubbles in it and bubble wands. Then (and unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this one) there was a water ramp with stoppers up at the top, you put a boat behind the stopper and lifted it up, and the boats would go down the ramp. Jade and Sammi had a lot of fun with that one.

The dinosaur exhibit made Jade a little nervous at first because some of the dinosaurs moved slightly, but she had fun once I carried her in. A lot of my pictures are like this one. Jade was running from one thing to the next, there was a lot for her to do.
In a dinosaur nest.

We had a lot of fun and it was great to have a playmate for Jade. Thanks Charisse for letting us tag along.

Happy Mother's Day!

I feel so lucky to be a mom!! Jade has been such a blessing in my life and I'm thrilled to be her mom. I can't wait to see what kind of relationship we'll have as she gets older. Happy Mother's Day to all the mommas out there, especially my mamacita!

Spring Vacation!

Dan had an end of semester break so we decided to make the most of it! His break just happened to coincide with his half brother, Alex's birthday party. We were so excited to be able to see his Dad and Venus, and Alex, since they're living in Hong Kong right now and it's been over a year since we've seen them. So immediately after Dan's clinical at the hospital (well, not immediately, I guess. We did have dim sum with Brandon and Emilyn first), we hopped on a plane to Chicago.

Alex had his birthday party at Pump it Up, a fun place with lots of inflatable jumpy things. At first jade was more interested in the drinking fountain

and the arcade games.
I was nervous that she would fall down the steps up to the slide, or get up there and not want to slide down, but she had the most fun on the slides and kept going over and over again.
Dan helped her through an obstacle course.
Here's a group shot. That's Venus and Alex on the left. :) Thanks for the cool party, guys.
We had to visit our favorite crab house in Chicago, Bob Chinn's Crab Shack. Dan enjoyed the crab and I enjoyed some pasta, and a melt in your mouth steak. Thanks Dan and Venus for taking us. It was so nice to see you both.
After our weekend in Chicago we went to visit Stef and Kevin in Denver. We had a lot of fun, although, Jade got sick while we were in Chicago and had a tough plane ride. The night we got to Denver, we went with Stef and Kevin to a Rockies game. It was Jade's first major league game and really fun!


Jade sort of passed on her sickness to everyone else in the house or we all just picked up something gross. We ended up being sick for the last half of our trip there.

Here are the girls, watching Dora, of course.
We played a lot of Wii while we were there. It was a lot of fun, especially when I schooled everyone in Mario Party.
Cousins!!





We went bowling. The girls spent their down time watching Dora.

We took a tour of a candy factory.
Here we are, just killing time, waiting for our tour.
Ring a round the rosie!
All you can eat sushi! Or in my case, all you can eat teriyaki chicken.

Playing at the mall.

We had a really great time, and it was so nice to go on vacation! Sorry for bring sickness upon your house, Stef and Kevin. We had a blast!!