Mall of America

I went on a day trip recently with one of my best friends, Dana. We drove the 4 hours to Mall of America, shopped all day, and drove back late into the night. It was so much fun!

First off, we stopped at Ikea, which was across the street. We took full advantage of their Child Watch and did some Christmas shopping. Of course, we had to eat lunch there.

My dream has been to go to Lego land. It was there!! My life is now complete. They had some extremely cool sculptures made of legos. Yet, they were all made wimpy by the towering Transformer sculpture.

 This baby was about 2 1/2 stories tall from my estimate. The lego guys by/in it are probably about as tall as me. It was mind blowing. All made of little legos.

It was so fun to pick out our own legos from the bins and create our own guys (you pick out your own body parts). 

We walked and walked and shopped and shopped and ended the day watching a dance team show. Ellie loves dance so that made her day.

Vacation/Work

I got to spend a nice vacation in Utah, while Ryan worked. Same place. Hopefully he still felt it was a little vacation. We did a Medical Rotation in Mt Pleasant. I loved spending time with everyone! Unfortunately I forgot to take a lot of pictures, so I didn't get any of Chris, or Grandma Honey, or any of the Allens!! Argg. But first, this picture. Ellie's friend has a Buzz Lightyear backpack with wings. She loved it and decided to make her own. This is her version, with no help from us!

Back to Utah, Mom and Dad made us very welcome. 

We really enjoyed getting to spend so much time together. 

The neighbor girl came over to play with Ellie almost everyday. Yay!! A playmate! They played so well together that I got a much needed break.

 Mom and Dad remodeled the living/dining area and I got to help! I loved having work to do, and any project with my dad is bliss. I love working with him. There isn't a more patient man out there.
Here we are taking a little break from all our hard work.

Ellie and Grandpa got to play with leaves together while Grandma and I went to the store. How do you play with leaves you ask? Well, there is a mommy leaf, a daddy leaf, a kid leaf...

David and Elann came to visit one Saturday. It was great to see them! Chris and Rene came the next day too. I am so glad they all came down so we could play! I also got to see Jen almost every day. It was so so awesome to spend so much time with her.

These 3 are cozy on the couch. Room for one more?

These mysterious marks showed up in our newly mudded wall... hmmm... maybe they have something to do with the mud painted wall in the T.V room?

I have no pictures to document, but we got to spend some time with Ryan's family too. I am pretty sure I have the best In-Laws ever. We loved seeing them and all our friends and cousins. Thank you everyone for making our trip so great!

Nauvoo

Grandma and Papa came to visit!! Ellie loved every minute.

 We took a break from the quilt (see previous post) and took a trip to Nauvoo. On the way we stopped in Pella to see their tulips. We missed the festival by a week, but there were plenty of beautiful tulips to look at.

 We found this cute courtyard with cool tile paintings.

 Pretty girl with some pretty tulips.

 

 I only got one picture from Nauvoo. Did I mention I am bad at remembering to capture moments?

We went on an ox cart ride.

 

 Not only did we tire out Papa, but Ellie, who never naps, was exhausted. It created a perfect photo opportunity of which Mom, I, and Ryan all separately took advantage of. 

 Thanks for the fun visit Mom and Dad! Come back soon.

The Quilt

Well folks, this is the moment we have been waiting for.

The quilt is done.

Some of you may know, this has all consumed my life for the last 6 weeks. Hours a day sewing. 

Mom and Dad graciously spent their vacation here helping me to finish it off. We tied it and Mom bound it. It would have been so much harder without their help. Thank you Mom and Dad!!

  

 In case you are curious...that is 784 2" squares sewn in the middle to create the picture. Had I figured that before I started, I probably wouldn't have started.

 

 Zelda is on my side of the bed, and Link is on Ryan's.

 Project

 Here is a glimpse of the big project I have taken on. 

You can't tell so well from the picture, but it is made up of 2" squares.

 It is a quilt, but I am going to let you guess what image it is going to be 

(except those I have already told of course). 

This Triangle piece is a big hint to those fellow geeks out there. 

Or cool people, depending on how you look at it :) 

A HUGE thanks to both my parents who taught me the skills to be able to do this. 

I really really really really appreciate you both.

And of course, I can't post without posting a picture of this cutie. 

Hey guess what?? I have a blog!! I forgot! 

Things I have learned: 

Brownies make life a little better

That's it.

 Here is my little ballerina. She fell in love at her first viewing of Swan Lake.

What do you think? Is she going to be a Cellist or a Guitarist? Or maybe she will invent something new.