Elena time!

As Gunnar was in Kansas City last week, Grace and I spent the week at the Hilton's. Usually when I spend the week in San Diego, I run around like crazy hanging out with old friends. This time I didn't have nearly as many plans, but I got to spend lots of time with my super cute niece Elena. Friday night we had a shower for Ann and Elena, which was lots of fun.

I have lots of pictures (of course) so I think I will start with Elena pictures and post other family and the shower pictures later.



Grace is absolutely enamored with her little cousin. For the most part she is really good with her too. She loves to kiss her and hold her and talk to her. Tuesday my mom bought Grace a doll in an attempt to divert some of the "love" away from Elena. Grace enjoyed taking care of Baby Beth along side of Ann. They are both such good mommies. :)

Elena is such a doll, and so incredibly cute! I could look at her all day.

On occasions she finds her thumb, it is so cute!

Grace and I bought Elena a dress while we were down in San Diego. It matches a dress Grace already has so we were hoping to take pictures of them together. Unfortunately, Michael's camera got stolen and I was not able to get the dress down to where we were staying so we will have to wait for another day. But here are a couple pictures of Elena in her dress, and you can see some of Grace in her dress here.

Such a cutie!

eeghhh?


She had super cute booties to go with her dress!


She wasn't thrilled with laying there to get her picture taken.

Her fingers totally remind me of Michael's, so long as skinny.

Really, is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby?

We all love holding Elena so much that we all have to take turns.

When Gunnar got home he even got in on some of the baby action.

I love being an auntie!

Kansas City BBQ!

Hello Everyone (This is Gunnar)

I am crashing Anna's blog in order to give a quick photo log of my trip to KC. Sorry, I am not going to take the care that Anna does in preparing this! You may or may not know, but over the last two years I have made six trips to Kansas City to pursue a doctoral degree. This was my last trip for some time now...until hopefully next year when I defend my dissertation. Anna insisted that I take some pictures this trip....so I did one afternoon very hastily for you all! They are in no particular order....

First, check out the gas prices! Isn't it just wrong that I think $3.62 is cheap?




This the sign that leads you into the seminary.....



Take another look at those gas prices.....boy, don't we wish! :)




The same sign...okay, I accidentally uploaded the gas and sign picture twice....sorry! I told you Anna does this better!




The best think about Kansas City is the BBQ...in six trips I have put away about 14 "Texas Hots"! This is the absolute best spicy pork burger you will ever taste! This trip was a little hard as I felt really convicted to exercise after eating them and watching the Olympics!




It is pretty green there....kind of weird....




This is the "Smokehouse" the BBQ joint where I get my eats in KC!! Mmmmm.....notice the little pig in the picture...that is how I feel after every trip to KC!




The "Texas Hot"! This is not for the weak-willed vegetarian. In fact, when I ordered my second one ever, I asked the guy to only put one patty of pork on it. His response was, "Deal with it, they come with two." Since then, my stomach has dealt with it just fine....





This is the school house....where it all happens. I usually pound a ton of Starbucks on these trips!!


This is the campus...I seriously think they mow the grass all day everyday during the summer to keep up.



The dorms....freezing inside...they are not afraid to run the AC full blast all the time....



Geese. I hate geese, they are mean to me. These are pretty cool as they are migrating to and from somewhere (please don't ask me where to and from)....seems they are here every summer.




Kids, don't try this at home. A self-portrait while driving....notice though, I was not talking on my cell phone so totally legit.




This is my apartment...second floor, reminds me of barracks, but nicer.




This is the library....I try to avoid this place, well except for Thursday afternoon when it is time to print my boarding pass to fly home!



I was trying to take a picture of the fountain....apparantly KC has a ton of them, but I never have enough time to explore....the Starbucks is just on the right side of the picture out of view....



Starbucks dead center, but you can't see it as it is inside the "Price Chopper"!




Another shot of the Kohen Myers Building of Evangelism or something. It is named after two medical missionaries who were shot to death a few years back in Africa....

Cousin Time

Grace's cousins Jenny and Nick (and his girlfriend Teresa) came for a visit on Friday. Although technically they are Grace's cousins (their mom, Michelle, is Gunnar's sister), they have more of the feel of Aunts and Uncles as they are around Gunnar and I's age.

I didn't take too many pictures as we were too busy having fun. It was really nice to hang out with them and spend time talking, eating and admiring our chickens. :)

Grace and Oreo

The kittens have been growing and getting more adventurous. I am happy that they are past the really tiny phase, so I don't feel so bad if Grace man handles them. They are actually really good with her and tolerate her "affection" quite well. She adores them and although we are still working on the whole gentleness thing, she is learning.

You're a good egg, and that's no yoke!

It's official, our hens have started laying. At least of couple of them have. I think the two hens from the first batch are our culprits, as the smallness of the eggs is an indication that they come from the bantam hens.

I let Grace hold the eggs for a picture, and the fist thing she did was whack them together so they cracked. Thankfully they didn't crack all the way through, so I was able to finish taking the pictures. She called my mom afterwards and told her about it. Her version went something like this: "Grandma, I bonked the eggs and they broke. Daddy laughed."



We did not actually eat the eggs, although we do plan on eating the eggs in the future. Gunnar did consider eating it "Rocky style" becuase as we all know, that is obviously the key to big bulging muscles.

Fashion show

My mother-in-law Carol invited Maria and I to a fashion show to raise money for the Globe Guilders. The website explains what they do better than I could. Essentially, "The Globe Guilders Fashion Show raises much needed funds to support The Old Globe’s Education and Outreach Program."

The show showcased Naeem Khan and was sponsored by Neiman Marcus. As you can imagine, that is not the kind of event I normally spend a lot of time at. I figured it is always good to expand your horizons, right?We had a really nice time. As always, I enjoyed spending time hanging out with Maria. Being the stylish thing she is, she helped me out (boy do I need help!) with fixing my hair, make up and making me a dress. I did managed to buy my own shoes, so I was pretty proud of myself.
The first part of the morning was at a silent auction. Nothing was in my price range, so I didn't bid on anything. I did buy a raffle ticket, although of course I didn't win anything. I never do, so that was not surprising.

After that we headed to the main room, where we sat at tables and had lunch. During dessert, the we saw the runway models and the fashion line on display. After that, we went to a back room and were able to see all the dresses on display. I think that was Maria's favorite part, being able to check out all the dresses up close. Gunnar's sister Sonja was also at our table, as were a bunch of friends of Carol's.
Lunch was fun. I couldn't really understand the words describing what the food was, but it tasted okay. I think it was super model sized portions though, because I definitely could have gone for In-N-Out when I was done! :)

We had a few minutes to wait for Gunnar to pick us up outside before we left, so we took so pictures. I love the dress Maria made me. It is so cute and fit me perfectly. It was weird taking pictures that didn't include Grace. I didn't know what to do with my hands.