Minnesota!

Sorry that I missed last week, but I had a decent excuse this time.  We were out in Minnesota visiting both family and Monica's mission, so we were a little busy!  Especially since Sunday was Madeleine's baptism, but more on that later.  First, we had to get there!

Well, and more first before that first is that we were home Monday-Wednesday living our normal lives.  Brooke has started to love doing things for herself when she can.  Sometimes at meals she gets really fussy unless we let her feed herself, which sometimes is fine, but sometimes we're eating pasta with sauce...

She also loves to drink out of cups.  We've finally found one that works pretty well for her.  We also got her a camelbak water bottle for kids, but that was this week, and I don't know if I took pictures of it, so lets not jump into the future yet.

Luckily for us the the plane was pretty empty so we were able to have a full row (we were on Southwest).  You have to hold children for takeoff and landing, but during the flight Brooke got her own seat.  She didn't really love being buckled in, but luckily she squirmed right out of it.

Being super into books also means she loves everything in a seat back pocket (because they are book-ish).  That was great!... until it also included the barf bag...

We happened to plan our trip during a very warm spell.  The temperatures were in the 30's or low 40's each day, and we avoided all snow storms.  We were still lucky enough to see an industrial grade street snow blower.  Yeah, not even just a plow, but an actual snow blower driving down the side of the street!

While visiting various mission places we also went by a Mexican Market that Monica used to go to on her mission.

Outside was Carlos Brown, and we had to go get a picture!  Like really, we forgot the first time we were there and left and when we remembered we turned around and drove back for a picture.  It was worth it!

Sunday was Madeleine's birthday!  Monica and I were all over the place.  We went to Sacrament meeting with my family, and then left right when it ended to make it to the St. Paul Spanish ward Sacrament meeting.  We stayed for a little to talk to people and everyone was happy to see Monica again.  Sadly, we couldn't stay long as we had to rush to the car and drive back for Madeleine's baptism.  The drive was such that we made it everywhere just in time!  Good thing it wasn't any farther!

After the baptism we went back to Spencer and Mackenzie's house for dinner and snagged a family photo!

We also wanted to get a picture of Brooke with her cousins, and Brooke loved the idea!

Monday we drove over to Rochester to visit people.  We wanted to keep Brooke in a different room over night so she wouldn't see us and try to get up or anything, so we set up shop in the bathroom!  There was another bathroom in the basement we were staying in so we just used that one after we put her down for bed.  Also, the people we were staying with didn't have a pack and play, so they borrowed one.  The people they borrowed it from served a mission in Mongolia!  So I wrote them a thank you note in Mongolian.

While we were out there Brooke found opportunities to play pianos, and loves it.  When we got home we put out our keyboard on the ground and she loves to go play it.  The keyboard has a sound effects mode with a dedicated button that she pushes a lot, but she doesn't like when it's in that mode.  I think it scares her.  Live and learn I suppose.  She also turns on the... drum beat mode, or whatever it's really called, and then she'll dance!

I just did a double check to see if I missed anything, and I forgot to mention that Brooke discovered doorstops.  Well... she's found ours, but we don't have the springy kind.

On Friday Brooke got sick.  You can tell she's sick in the following picture because she is cuddling with Monica and there is sunlight coming in the window.  Brooke only cuddles under two circumstances.  It is the middle of the night, or she is sick.  She also watched her first movie too.

She seemed much better on Saturday, so at least it was only a one day thing (but I think she gave it to me...).  On Saturday Monica wanted to try a pony tail.  Since Monica brushed her hair Brooke had to brush it too!  Also, the pony tail was short lived.

Brooke also likes to look out our windows.  She'll whine at the windows so we know to pull up the blinds.  She just started pulling the little curtain to the side for herself on the front window!

Wow, I feel like this was much longer than most of the entries have been of late.  I guess a lot happens when you leave town... or combine 2 weeks.  Well, I hope everyone is doing great!  Have a wonderful week.