When it Gets too Quiet, Investigate!

Yesterday when I picked Abby up from school she wanted to play downstairs and I wanted to work upstairs. She seemed content to play alone, so I continued working upstairs. It eventually dawned on me that it was far too quiet downstairs, so I went to investigate and found Abby with ink all over her hands!

We both had a good laugh and she explained that she was attempting to make "finger buddies" and was having a difficult time! With a little help (and attention) from me, she made some lovely finger buddies including this T-Rex!

The Arch

If you've ever been up in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, you know that it's not exactly the greatest activity for claustrophobic folks. We learned that Abby clearly doesn't have a claustrophobic bone in her body! Perhaps the "capsule" you take to the top, doesn't seem quite as small to someone who is only three feet tall!

Erin and Tim's Wedding

Abby had the time of her life at Erin and Tim's wedding! She wore her favorite dress and got to pick out new sparkly shoes! She said her shoes were magic shoes. She also said that "the wedding people are going to think I'm beautiful!"

Abby was fascinated by Tim and Erin's first dance. I was afraid she was going to run out and join them!

But she got to dance soon enough! At one point, while dancing, she looked at me and said, "I'm never going to get any sleep!"

Abby quickly took to our friend Rebecca and her sister Rachel. And luckily for us, they both were more than happy to dance and play with Abby! Rebecca lives in Mozambique and immediately impressed Abby by telling her that dugongs live along Mozambique's coast!


Finally, Abby did get some sleep! We did take the sparkly shoes off, but she got to keep the party dress on!

Iowa City

It was so much fun being back in Iowa City! We ate lunch at a favorite college hangout -- the Hamburg Inn (yes, I ate meat for awhile in college).

We hunted for fossils, went to the old-school natural history museum, and the wonderful university art museum that houses a lovely African art collection. (I LOVED the African art classes I took in college.)

We all LOVED the Devonian Fossil Gorge. Abby was really good at finding the fossils!




Below is the fossil of some sort of worm-like creature from the deep sea.

Coral and ancient sponge covered this rock.

Will and Abby enjoy the natural history museum. The main reason we visited was to see the right whale hanging above Will's head. Abby is a whale aficionado and had never seen a right whale.





This picture doesn't show it well, but Abby was actually quite interested in the African masks and asked a lot of great questions!

Abby's 1100 Mile Road Trip!

Thursday morning we started our "journey" to St. Louis, Missouri to attend our friends' wedding. On the way, we stopped in Iowa City, IA where I attended college. So much had changed -- including the discovery of 350 million year old Devonian area (pre-dinosaur) fossils. Abby LOVED hunting for the fossils.

Missouri is the twelfth state -- thirteenth for those of us who believe DC deserves statehood -- Abby has visited. In addition to attending the wedding, we went to the zoo, went up in the Gateway Arch, and visited the St. Louis Museum of Art.

Abby was an amazing road tripper! She was as content as could be coloring, looking at her Bible, listening to stories on her "I Pod," doing her stitching work, or simply snuggling with her animals!

We were accompanied by a roadtrip mascot!

Will taught Abby one of the most important skills needed on a long roadtrip -- window cleaning!

Twirling

Abby loves wearing dresses now! In fact, she wants to wear them all the time. Her favorite dresses are the ones that twirl the most!

Mother's Day Weekend

Will planned a wonderful getaway for us over Mother's Day weekend. We spent the weekend in St. Paul and Minneapolis. I didn't know where we were going until we got into the car and started to drive. There were eight envelopes in the glove box and I got to open one at a time as the weekend unfolded!

The eight "Mother's Day Activities" included:

* Dinner at an Indian restaurant (we really miss good Indian food)

* A performance of Champions on Ice (I really love ice skating)

* Marriott room service(Abby and I love staying in hotels and ordering room service)!!!!!!

* The Minneapolis Institute of the Arts (Abby is drawing my portrait in the photo below)

Abby made a woodblock print Buddhist prayer flag with a Tibetan monk.

* The Science Museum of Minnesota and an Imax movie about Australia.

Abby enjoyed "suspending" the ping pong balls above the current of air.

At the end of the day on Sunday, Abby said, "Mommy, even though I'm not a mother, Mother's Day was still my day too!"

Will laughed and said, "Abby, every day is your day!"

The Sweet Smell of Lilacs!

Spring is here and Abby is discovering the wonders of sweet smelling flowers! These lilacs are at Noni and Granddad's new house in Rochester. Abby also enjoys the Lilies of the Valley that we have growing at our house!

Jacob, Jacob, Jacob!

Abby's cousin Jacob (and her Aunt Lori and Uncle Pete) came to visit this past weekend. Abby was so excited and followed Jacob around for two days. Jacob got a little bit tired of all of the attention, but was a great cousin and played with Abby. He also brought Abby tons of his and Cousin Ashley's Playmobil toys!!! Abby was and remains DELIGHTED with all of the "new" toys!!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit Abby's Class

Yesterday Abby's Oaks class had an open house and Grandpa and Grandma Engelhardt went along! Abby showed us all sorts of wonderful things. She gave Grandma a lesson on gluing and Grandpa a lesson on playing the xylophone.

Abby also demonstrated the work that she does with a blindfold. Without looking, Abby works to separate three different sized pegs simply by feeling them! We all thought it was pretty cool, but also saw how pink eye can spread!!!!!

Abby's friend Aidan was very excited to join Abby and Grandma and Grandpa for a photo in front of their classroom -- look closely and you will see oak leaves on the tree!

Abby's Class' Quilt

Abby's Oaks class made a quilt for her school's annual fundraiser. Each student made a square and the older children helped sew the quilt. Abby's sqare is a heart and quite lovely!

The quilt will be auctioned off tonight.

This is the square that Abby made.

Abby's square is the second from the left in the second row.

Abby's First Random Roadtrip!

Early Saturday evening we drove to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Neither Will nor Abby had been to South Dakota before, so it was quite the adventure. South Dakota became Will's 42nd state and Abby's eleventh.

This 3.5 hour road trip was actually a trial run for the 8.5 hour road trip to St. Louis we will be making in two weeks. Remarkably, Abby was asleep within minutes of the road trip's beginning.

But she was awake soon enough. We discovered that the Doodle Pro is a necessary road trip item!

We also discovered that candy and tattoos work too!
We finally made it to South Dakota. We stopped at this rest stop just across the Minnesota border. I told Abby that it was her first rest stop. She asked me what a rest stop is. I told her on our way into the restroom. She looked around and commented, "Well, this is a nice little restroom!"

We stayed in one of our beloved Marriotts and Abby enjoyed the morning paper.

Sunday morning we started our Sioux Falls sightseeing at the Great Plains Zoo and Natural History Museum -- as you can imagine, Abby LOVED it!

Abby takes her zoo friends for a spin!

Abby and I rode the carousel, but when our ride was finished, she begged for a second ride on the carousel with her daddy. Needless to say, Abby got her wish!

We actually had a difficult time getting Abby to leave and we got conned into buying Abby yet another stuffed animal!

In between the zoo and our next stop -- the science museum -- we all had a bit of a meltdown and stopped for lunch. Abby refueled on one of her new found passions -- BACON!

Abby and Cheetah were supposed to be striking a scary T-Rex pose, but neither look particularly scary!

Cheetah and Abby practice flying a hang-glider.
Will and Abby were attempting to land a space shuttle, but I kept hearing very loud crashing sounds!

Abby recently announced that she wants to be a paleontologist. We quickly discovered that South Dakota is a great place for a young dinosaur scientist in the making! Will and Abby built a triceratops and dug for bones.

I love this picture of Abby!! I'm holding a salamander and trying to get her to touch it, but as you can see, she wanted nothing to do with it! She did eventually touch it and was interested in how smooth and cold it felt.

On our way out, Abby found a beautiful piano and proceeded to play a song for Cheetah!

Our last stop was at the Big Sioux River water falls that Sioux Falls was named for.

We found Sioux Falls to be very road trip worthy and had a wonderful time. But alas, all good road trips must come to an end (although Cheetah doesn't look very tired)!