Our time in MN

As I mentioned in the last post Ella and I were in MN for just over two weeks, spending time with my family. I was mostly just time spent with family and hanging out. Ella got to hang out with her cousins and play. She was so happy to be with them, especially Kaia (Alicia's daughter). Kaia and Ella are only 8 months apart from each other and they play together very well. Kaia and Alicia are living with my parents right now, so the girls were together all the time.

"Not quite twins"

Trying out papa's motorcycle

I was even able to have a few friends over for dinner one night. My friends Renee, Rosie and Terry came over one night for pizza. Renee has a daughter, Natalie, that will be one in October, so it was really fun to see her. I've literally seen Natalie twice since she was born, so I love it when I get the chance to spend time with her. Here is a picture of her and Ella while they where over.
Another event while we were in MN was that Ella got her first "real" haircut. What I mean by that is this haircut actually changed her hair style. She has had two haircuts before this, but they were just very small trims. Here are her before and after shots:

Before

After

I was very happy to be able to spend so much time in MN and just hang out with my family. It was nice to be away from my normal day to day life and throw in some different things. Ella and I made a trip to the MN zoo one day as well. I took along my oldest niece and nephew and we had a good time. The new Grizzly Bear exhibit was really cool and the animals were so close to you. The kids had a good time and I got them to pose for a couple of pictures.

Amelia, Joseph and Ella posing for pictures

After being away from home for 3 weeks I was ready to come home, but I am always sad to leave my family. I felt bad for Ella too, she has been asking "Kai too?" all the time. She misses her cousins and I wish we could see them more.