Slippers

Don't pay attention to the mess. We're in the process of moving to a bigger apartment.

My little helper

Taking a break from my recap of the last 2 months... This was taken this morning while we were attempting to clean our apartment.

I have no idea why Elsie loves the vacuum so much, but I'm not going to do anything to discourage it.

The Bounce House

It was pouring rain one day with a 100% chance that it would keep raining all day, so the guys took the day off. We found a local inflatable bounce house to take the kids to play. It was the perfect remedy for the rainy day blues.
Elsie wasn't to sure about the place at first. It was a little scary walking around on everything, and she wouldn't go anywhere without holding someones hand. She got a little braver towards the end, mostly because she wanted to go where ever Parker was going.

All the kids taking a sippy cup break

We went to Red Robin for dinner afterwards. Very tasty, and my free birthday burger made it taste even better.

Weekend visit from the East Coast Jensons

Andrew, Michelle, and crew came down to visit us. We had a lot of fun playing with the girls, chatting with the adults, playing at the beach and the park, hanging out in the apartment... It was a fun visit.

Belated Birthdays

A few birthdays I forgot to mention. Elsie turned one a little while ago, and we celebrated with just a simple party with grandparents from both sides and some of her uncles.

My birthday happened while we were back east. Nothing fancy, just dinner with Alan and then my traditional Junior Mint birthday cake.

I made it!

We're finally home, and I have a lot to update... Ever feel like you're so far behind you don't even really know where to start? That's where I am right now. I guess my plan is to commit to doing one post a day for a while until I get all caught up. I plan on starting where I left off who knows how many weeks ago, but first I want to talk about today.

I finished my first 5K! It's not really all that exciting, but for an avid non-runner like myself, I was pretty stoked. I will admit, we were not on top form this morning, and I take all the blame for it. We ended up power walking most of the distance because I came down with the flu yesterday and spent the day heaving my guts out. Not exactly my first choice of what to do the day before my first race.

We don't know any of the official times yet because they're not posted online. But we didn't finish last, and that was our goal!

Katie and I all fresh and unsweaty, just waiting to go

My faithful cheering section...

...Who woke up so early to see my race
Coming into the finish line

Enjoying all of the free stuff they gave us at the end

Our lives on the East Coast

Not much to report. Elsie has been working on popping out a few more teeth. Her second top left poked though a few days ago, and the second top right is still working its way out. She has also learned how to climb up on our bed. Not such a problem if we could just close a door and she couldn't get to it... But even out here in the East our bed is once again in the living room while Elsie enjoys a bedroom all to herself. Constant vigilance is needed to keep my little dare devil from running head long off the side of the bed.

I miss our car, my daily walks, the easily accessible grocery stores, and having Alan home in the evenings with me. This short little adventure is feeling longer and longer as the days go by.

I've kept myself somewhat busy during the long days at home. Since we can't get to a store without borrowing a car, and it is what we would run out of the most, I've been baking all of our bread. While the process isn't hard, it takes a good amount of time to let the dough rest and rise. I'll show you my mad skills when we get home, Katie.

3 1/2 more weeks...