Road Trip!

Last week we took a road trip to visit my family.  

Lila got to spend time visiting grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Here's Lila with her mama and great grandma. 

We spent Friday morning at a pumpkin patch, and Lila insisted on wearing her Halloween costume - a kitty! 

It was a chilly, windy day, but we had a great time!

painting whiskers!

Lila's great aunt works at a fire station and we popped in for a visit.  Lila got her own personal tour of the fire station, including time to crawl all over an old school fire truck.  

She had a ball rolling up and down the windows and opening and closing the doors. 

 Lila even got to climb in an ambulance, where one of the paramedics hooked her up to an EKG machine.  Lila got to hear her heartbeat and take home a printout of her heart rhythms. 

So much to do, and so many people to see...  thank goodness for naps in the car!

Lila is an amazing road tripper.  

We banked over 1,000 miles, countless restaurants, new people, missed nap times and late bedtimes, and Lila was a trooper through it all.  We only  had a few meltdowns but for the most part she was a smiley, agreeable, happy girl.  I'm so thankful for the week we had an all of the time we were able to spend with  family.

Fall Fun

Today we headed to an apple orchard.  

It was downright COLD outside, but we had a blast - especially Lila.

So many animals to see and to pet! A cow, bunnies, hens, goats....

We took a hay ride out to the orchard, but it was so cold that we didn't get off the wagon to pick apples.  We decided to buy our apples from the farm's store instead.  

Despite the cold, lots of fun was had, especially by this little girl!

Streetcar

On Saturday while Daddy was busy, Mama and Lila took a ride on the streetcar. 



To say that Lila enjoyed herself would be an enormous understatement. 

Lila's great grandfather lived in Minneapolis years ago, and has told us stories about the streetcars that used to zip up and down the city streets.  An old-fashioned light rail line, if you will. 

It was fun to take a little jaunt by the lakes on a beautiful fall day, and think that we were sharing in a tiny piece of our family's history. 

VIP

One of the best things in life when you're 2? Being friends with the goat lady. Oh yes. Lila got to jump in the goat pen at the State Fair and play with goats.

A group of kids walked by the baby goat pen and wondered out loud, "how come they get to play with the goats?"  Because we know the goat lady.  Yessirree.  Card-carrying goat friends, we are.

(There was SO much excitement, in fact, that in the whole time she was in the pen, I didn't manage to capture a single photo where either she, Daddy, or half a dozen goats weren't blurry.  Fun was had, people.)

 

Festival!

Tonight we went to a festival near our house. Lila had a ball! Her favorite part was the fire truck.

Cheese, apples, and bananas came in a close second.

Well, the rolling slide was pretty awesome, too.  This thing hurt my butt, but Lila loved it.

(And speaking of slides, has anyone else ever noticed that it's dang near impossible to take a pic of your kid on a slide without photographing someone else's kid? Yeah.)

 

Love.

A while back, we went out for a date night and Lila spent the evening with her friend Hudson. It was her very first time getting ready for and going to bed with someone other than Mama and Daddy.

Midway through our date, just as we were wondering how bathtime was going, we got this picture message.


And then we died of cuteness. (And vowed to go on lots more dates.)

Who's two?

This girl.

In case you forgot.

Happy 2nd birthday, littlest love.

Two years ago today, we became a little family of three.

How is it possible that our tiny baby is two already?

make a wish!

Happy, happy birthday, baby girl. We love you more than you will ever know.