The Adventures of Bruce & Alena

Auntie Avery got a little orange kitten and named him Bruce. Alena met him and thought he was a pretty cool new toy. Bruce did not completely agree with this assumption. He found out very quickly that Alena = kitty torture. They were very cute together, though!

Random Shots

Bubble bath time!

Sitting on her potty reading the Northern Tool catalogue, certainly looking for "dadoos" (aka tractors), excavators, garbage trucks, cranes, dump trucks, etc :)

Random shot from our now broken camera. Point Beach State Park in early August. She LOVES the beach and the sea gulls.

Welcoming Auntie Avery back from her trip to Europe. She took the SS Badger car ferry from the camp in Michigan. We were happy to greet her!

After bathtime at Grandma's house, wandering around in her towel and getting in to her rocking chair.

Avery's Shower

Now that we've got a new camera, I'm hoping we can continue to take more pics and keep everyone that reads it updated. I'll have a few random shots and videos that are out of chronological order, but who cares, right? I couldn't figure out how to get the videos off of the video camera we've been borrowing, so I couldn't add those, yet.

Avery is getting married on January 1st, so we had a bridal shower for her with the DeNamur women and a few of Avery's friends. It is always so nice to get together with the family!

Alena loved playing with Auntie Avery's kitten, Bruce. She also tried to strangle him. Several times.

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Avery got some help opening her shower gifts from her flower girl.

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The girls in the family :)

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We went out to the cabin after Avery's shower and Daddy treated Alena to a ride on Grandpa Hawkins' excavator. Both daddy and daughter were in heaven.

Quarry Quest

A few weeks ago, I surprised Eric with a trip to Michels Quarry in Neenah for their annual event "Quarry Quest." They had a lot of machinery that both Alena and Eric love. We used Eric's parent's camera and their video camera to capture a few moments. They had a photo spot by these skid steer loaders. We had a tough time getting a good shot because my daughter wanted to oogle over the machines.

Playing around in one of the huge sand piles called Tot Spots. She loved it. All of the kids got orange vests as they entered, so Alena is wearing hers.

I hate seeing the nuk, or as she calls it, "noona," but she was really not a happy camper at all! We were sooo disappointed in her mood. On a normal day, she would have been extremely happy to help operate an excavator (in a video to come) or see all of the cranes, dump trucks, and loaders. But not that day! :(

Her daddy helped her to ride on an excavator and we all rode around the quarry on a huge dump truck (forgot the exact name). We agreed that it is a cool event and that we would have to return in the future when Alena is a little bigger and in a more compliant mood.

"Micro Cerkas" aka Baby #2

The first photo of out new baby. Sure can't tell a whole lot about what the baby looks like, but the doctors can tell a lot by the ultrasound! Seems healthy so far! We'll get our first glimpse in January :)

Broken Camera

We have been MIA for a while here. The biggest reason is that our camera is broken! We used to take videos and photos with it and haven't replaced it, yet. Hopefully soon we'll have a better update complete with photos/video. I'll have to upload some of the new baby's ultrasound photos in the mean time!

We're very excited for our new little one! I've been feeling the baby kick very regularly, and it seems like a very strong kid! We're hoping that Alena doesn't mind having an attention hogging baby around all the time! She likes babies, but none have been in her home for an extended period! Time will tell!

Up North Weekends

Alena on her first tube ride at 16 months or so :) See video below!

Wading in the water with her godmother, Angie Hudy.

At the cabin on a wet morning. The grass was just too wet to plan in, and Grandpa and Dada were working on building a new wood shed, so no babies allowed wandering in the way! She really seemed to like it!

Our "pool" at the cabin. Only trouble is that she took her stackers and used them as cups to drink the dirty creek water! I didn't notice any sickness, but I don't want that to become a habit, either!

Going for one of numerous rides at the cabin. This time she's riding on the mower with Grandpa.

Another "ride" with grass in a wheelbarrow. She loved it just the same!! She went for countless four wheeler rides that weekend and was always asking for more! She loves to put her hands on the handlebars to steer and to go fast with the wind in her face. We are VERY happy that she is an outdoorsy, up north kind of girl! Eric couldn't be more happy, either with how much she loves machinery and even sometimes says "tractor." Love her! (most of the time)

Here we have Alena on her first tube ride. Daddy drove and went very slowly not only for Alena, but for the "micro Cerkas" that'll be here in January. Alena wasn't too happy about it, but I really think that next time she goes, she'll love it! The first time she was in a boat she was fussy, but this time she kept on saying, "weeee" with a smile on her face. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Dada was on the tube getting slammed around behind the boat! She really loves the water... tremendously!