The Zoo

The National zoo is minutes from our house.  We went today to visit our animal neighbors and had a great time!  The highlights include seeing a hippo out of the water (have you seen them before, they are hilarious looking!), the baby elephant and baby panda, and the flamingos.  I know we'll make many more trips to the zoo.

Home in Maryland

It's been about 2 weeks since I've written last.  A lot has happened! We had a sad but wonderful last service in Vail Sunday September 7.  (To our Vail friends-we miss you!)  We literally got in the car and left from church.  Mike graciously drove Eloise and I to the airport to fly to Dallas.  Alex drove straight to Kansas.  Dallas was a wonderful time for Eloise and me.  My family threw a surprise bday party for me with yummy food and a cake with candles.  Eloise played with her cousins Charlie, Cici, and dog Ricky.  She loved every minute of it.  She also had a photo shoot (she loves the attention of the camera).  The photos are incredible and I'll post some soon.

We all converged on DC in the middle of the next week.  Our house was in pristine condition (thank you All Saints!), unfortunately we didn't receive our belongings until the next Saturday (one week ago).  We camped out, met all our neighbors and explored.  Thank God our truck came on Saturday (we were starting to get nervous seeing that they were a few days late) and Alex started work Sunday.  He preached a great sermon and has been busy at work since.

We're really loved having my mom here.  She's not only unpacked many boxes but has also been Eloise's best friend and babysitter.  She's given us the opportunity to go on several dates and parties while she stayed with Eloise--Thank you so much mom!!  We've also seen some great friends.  We had 3 friends from Vail come to church Sunday and seen some wonderful high school (Elizabeth and Adriana) and college friends.

The biggest news of all, though, is our new TV.  After 4 years of no TV service, we have decided to emerge from our hermit lifestyle and not only get fiber-optic TV service but also a new HD flat screen.  Alex is in Heaven (and so am I)!

Packing up and ready to go

Movers come tomorrow (Saturday) and we take off on Sunday--WOW!  We're in the home stretch now.  

We'll miss you, Colorado!

Two of the many things we'll miss about Colorado--friends and nature.

Steamboat Springs

We just returned from a 36 hour trip to Steamboat Springs.  It was a wonderfully refreshing time: we relaxed in the hot springs, ate gigantic cinnamon rolls, and hiked to a water fall.  The best part was Eloise shouting "WHOA" when the cinnamon rolls came out.  The waitress got a real kick out of that!

(And isn't Eloise cute walking in Alex's shoes?  She loves putting on our shoes these days!)

Iambic Pentameter

Milestones

We've had a few milestones this past week:

1.  Eloise turned 18 months!  Wow, how time flies!  Went to the doctor and she's has healthy as can be.

2.  We had our 3 year anniversary.  Went to my favorite restaurant Vin 48 and had a great night out.  Eloise stayed home with a babysitter and did wonderfully.

3.  It's 10:15 Saturday morning and Eloise is still sleeping!  We've been up for hours waiting for her so we could walk to get doughnuts.  Just gave up on that--Alex is going to get them now.  She's on 14 hours of sleep and counting.  

PS-It was 43 degrees when we woke up this morning.  Whoa!  Is Fall really approaching already?  Alex and I are both doing weddings today.  Unfortunately it's not great wedding weather!

Mountain Top Service

We had a wonderful mountain top service last Sunday!  It's been such a joy to work with the Keith family and the Vail congregation.  We will miss them all so much!

We'll miss Matt!

One of our most delightful friends in Vail is Matt McLoota.  We absolutely love having him come over and play with Eloise.  They have become such wonderful friends and play so well together.  He has made my life much easier because he can please Eloise much better than myself.  Matt is also one of the funniest children I know. We will miss him dearly!!  

Dinner Party

Last night we had a wonderfully fancy dinner party with our two friends Mike and Joan.  It was definitely the fanciest meals we've cooked and thankfully, it turned out wonderfully.  I used lots of cook books for this one, especially the Vegetarian Bible that Brent and Forest gave me.  Yummy--the polenta was outstanding.  I also used all our finest china and crystal.  I was so proud of all our hard work that I took a picture.  Doesn't it look beautiful??

And here's another pic of Eloise.  Can't have a post with showing you some updated Eloise pics.  She's talking up a storm and actually saying real things now: shoe, bubbles, Matt, Hannah, ball, Cici, Nana, Gigi, Daddy, Mommy, hot, hat, puppy, cracker, outside (her favorite), and more. To my Dad's dismay, she has yet to say "Grandad."  We're practicing though!

Cuz & Cuz

Helping Hand

Eloise helps her cousin Cecilia take some of her first steps.

Estes Park

Hello! We are sad our week in Estes Park with our family is over! We had such a wonderful time visiting with everyone, and it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed watching the cousins play.  They were adorable!  Eloise learned some new words from her cousin Cici.  She now says "uh oh" for everything.  It's really funny when she beats herself to the punch like saying "uh oh!" and then throwing her pacifier on the ground.  Eloise also says "Cici and Gigi" now but hasn't yet mastered "Charlie."  We got some GREAT video of Eloise helping Cici walk, but these photos will have to do until we upload the video.

One last princess photo!

This one didn't fit on the previous post, but I had to include it.

A Day in the Life of a Princess!

Eloise is sick. She has a little stomach bug so we couldn't go to church. Instead we dressed up and I played paparazzi all morning. It was fun and it definitely entertained Eloise! She has caught on to what posing is all about: I say "smile" and she bends her knees and scrunches up her face.