Sikorski Saga

We met Katherine "Kit" Kensrud and her daughter Annika at Java Train before heading to the zoo on March 11 th . The coffee shop caters to young families and has a train built for the kids to play. Incredibly cool idea! We went to Como Zoo. Here we're in the tropical region and Luella is looking at the ray cleaning the glass and two turtles playing in the water. Kit's mom, Merrie, volunteers at the zoo. She gave us a great tour and let the girls play with some educational toys. Here's Annika , Kit, Merrie, Katja and Kirsten looking at the other ray and a water snake. Here is Chloe the sloth. She was Merrie's assignment for the day. Merrie teaching the girls about different plants and the silly monkeys who eat the outside of the cocoa plant and scatter the seeds to plant more cocoa! We eat the seeds of the cocoa plant. Luella is shaking it and sniffing the cocoa. Katja fell asleep while Kirsten was carrying her. I'm sure the tropical heat and humidity...

We have a rule that if you wake the baby, you get thrown in a snow bank. Luella got dipped in a snow bank preemptively. R eally it was because she took off her socks and shoes in the van so we had to carry her.

This was our first day in Minnesota. We stopped at A&W for lunch and they give kids under 5 free root beer. Kyla asked if she wanted a root beer and Luella responded, "Mommy, I want a beer!"

(Picture posted after laundry.) Luella swears that she'll never put squeeze on the cat again. I almost feel like CSI taking this picture. This is what I get for not checking on the giggles earlier. Luella found the diaper rash cream, or squeeze as she calls it, and put it all over. It's in her hair, face, shirt and pants. It's all over the cat! It's all over our suitcases and the carpet. It was also all over my bed, sheets, comforter and pillows. Okay, I pay people good money to bathe my cat, so I don't have to. This was the first bath I've ever given Goobers. He almost looks small in this picture.

Katja looking absolutely gorgeous! Luella and Dad playing with the trike. Dad showing Luella how to pop a wheelie. Dad took Luella sledding on the snow that didn't melt in the shadows. She loved it! Luella showing off how she can go sledding and still get grass stains, yet still look absolutely gorgeous!

After the cows, we came home and had dinner and a chocolate brownie cheesecake for Luella's 2 1/2 birthday. Katja sleeping after the hard day of playing with cows and celebrating Luella's half-birthday. Dad almost asleep with his little sleeping pill ( Katja's cuddly nickname).

Dad wanted to take the girls to go see cows. Kyla grew up with cows out her bedroom window in Wolf Point, MT, but her girls have to search out cows. We went to a local 400-cow dairy farm. Here they are getting milked in the parlor. Luella had to build up courage to go pet the cows and feed them. She built up the courage to pet them, and they all backed away. That didn't stop her from trying! Here's a baby calf only 3 days old. This one let us pet it. It even thought Dad's fingers were tasty to suck on - just like Katja does to Kyla! Luella played in an empty calf hut. It was just her size.

Tim's off to Korea for Army training for 3 weeks. So Kyla took the girls to Minnesota for a visit with her family. Kirsten and Laura flew out to help us drive back. Our trip (and Tim's flight) was delayed a day due to the snow. Here's our van and motorcycle before we got plowed out, and another 3 inches of snow fell. Here's our backyard. It gets a little less wind, so you can see more snow accumulation. Kirsten took the pictures along the trip. Minus Kirsten, it was all our first time to West Virginia. The people were nice. Here we're at Cici's Pizza after the kids' art fair at their school. Luella's helping feed her sister after eating her own pizza. Honestly their best pizza was the mac-n-cheese.