Yum!

Pronto pup: check
Cheese curds: check
Frozen chocolate covered banana: check
Strawberry shake: check
Taco: check
Unlimited milk: check
Giant slide: check
Beauty queens being carved in butter: check
Funny mirrors in front of Epiphany Diner (love that name): check
Learning about new eco-friendly cleaner: check
Pet lamb: check
Pet baby chick: check
Pet horse: check
Pet Al Franken: check
Sticker from scary clown: check
Watch calf be born: check
Jia eating her very own ear of corn: check

Where were we? The State Fair of course!






Close up of the slide...




The slide and the corn were definitely the highlights. The slide elicited shrieks of "More! More!" and a dedicated effort to try to climb back up.

And the corn, well, it inspired her to not only yell, "Happy!" but also to say "I love you, Mama! I love you, Baba!"

Yes, we had fun.

Simpsonized

We created Simpsons characters in our image. What do you think?

Somehow Jia manages to look bigger than us. That makes sense because she often feels bigger than us.

A little magic!

One of the things that I love about the web is that it allows us to easily meet people all over the world. To that end, I connected with Melanie at Blossom Memories, a talented 16-year-old from Spain, who worked some magic on a few of Jia's photos. For free. What a nice gesture! Enjoy!







This last one is my favorite. We're definitely framing it!

Our Baby is Two!

Jia had a great birthday. We started the day by making blueberry pancakes.


She then played in the pool in her clothes.

We had a little luau and celebrated. Everyone survived the appropriately hot weather and seemed to have a great time.

Earlier, I took a picture of her in this shirt...


...which I had made into this cake...


...which after consuming, along with chocolate chip ice cream, had her "flying" around the house.

It was an absolute joy of a day.

Photo Sitting

Can you believe that Jia is almost two? Here are her two year photos (taken about a week early). LOVE THEM!

A Sad Time

It has been a painful couple of days here in Minneapolis. Our thoughts are with those hurting right now, and those undertaking the massive search effort of the 50-60 cars in the water. It is times like these that remind us to be thankful for all that we have. Jia's smiles keep us going. Here are some smiles to keep you going as well.

Our Venture Up North

We drove up north for a little getaway. The big highlights were going biking, hitting the local zoo and aquarium, watching the huge boats and finding a young Great Horned Owl on a hike.


After looking out our window at this sight, Jia was compelled to say, "I LOVE MOON!"



I love these photos because I think she looks like a little windswept farm girl.