Trick or Treat

Halloween is upon us and the grandkids got their first taste for begging for candy.  Here are their outfits.  It seems animals were a big theme.

Lilly's First Birthday

Lilly turned 1 on August 23 and we had a grand celebration in St. Louis.  Family and friends gather to celebrate the event.

Lilly Walks

Lilly progressed quickly from crawling to walking and took her first steps while Leah captured the video. 

Elly Shots

Elliott continues to text pictures of Elly to family.  If his pace continues, he will possibly have more published bits than anyone on the internet. 

Shots from Seattle

As mentioned in a previous post, we spent 9 days in Seattle.  Leah and Andy were already on the West coast visiting friends and touring.  Katie and I watched Lilly and also had to fly with her to Seattle. Unfortunately, she did not sleep on the plane but bounced between Katie and I the whole way.  She immediately fell asleep in the carrier as we were waiting for luggage.

We did lots of touring and wine tasting. Visited the Red Hook brewery and took a ride on the Ducks.  Here are pictures of us on the duck.

 Here we are loading up on the duck. You enter from the rear.  We rambled around downtown Seattle and then went to a marina on Lake Union for water time.

 Unfortunately, Elly was tired and was asleep in her pouch.

 Here is another duck in front of us entering the water.   You just drive on, engage the prop and away you go.  I wouldn't want to take it out in rough water. 

Lake Union is just loaded with boats, houseboats and floating homes like this one.  Must be nice to have your boat in the driveway, so to speak.

And a few nice daughter-granddaughter shots that were taken during the cook-out on Elly's baptismal day.

Lilly at 10 and 11 months

Time flies and I've been lax at getting pictures posted.  Leah sends me monthly updates of Lilly at each anniversary, stickers and all.   We are fast approaching Lilly's first birthday, so I better get these posted. Here are the 10 month photos.

And here are the 11 month shots.

Elly gets baptized

Katie and I, along with Leah, Andy and Lilly, spent 9 days in Seattle in early July to visit Keri, Elliott, Elly and Kevin.  On July 7, Elly got baptized at Our Lady of Sorrows in Snoqualmie, WA.   Here are pictures from the blessed event. Leah and Andy are the Godparents.

After the ceremony, we hung out at the house and had a cookout with Elliott's family and Kevin.  Elly had a fancy cake for dessert.

Lilly's Crawling

It seemed like Lilly would never crawl. She could move around by sitting up and rolling in different directions.  The doctor even said some kids do not crawl.  However, just like that, she started crawling.   Andy captured the first crawl on his iPhone. 

This happened in mid-June and now she is cruising. She also loves to stand and test her balance.  She'll be walking soon.

Elly's Trip to St. Louis

Elliott needed to be in St. Louis the week of June 17 for a Monsanto conference. Since Keri's work schedule was pretty busy that week, they decided to send Elly along to visit her Grandparents.   Leah is off for the summer, so she could watch Elly while the rest of us toiled.  Elly got to know her cousin Lilly and they had a great time together.  Grandma and Grandpa also had a great time playing with the grand-kids.

Elliott documented the trip with regular photo updates as the trip progressed. 

Here's Elliott's checking out the travel carrier.

Going through security. Looks like Elly is stashing something in her mouth to avoid confiscation. 

On the plane ready to travel.

Elly in the pool

Elliott was on the varsity swim team at Notre Dame. Keri was on the varsity swim team all through high school. Therefore, Elly has got to have some nautical genes.  She was enrolled in water babies and has recently started going with her Dad to the classes to get wet. Elly enjoyed the water and I'm sure she will follow in her parents foot steps.