One Year Old

Ellie turned 1 on May 27; and she's had a whirlwind of family fun since then! On the 26th, Granddaddy and Grandma Donna came for a quick visit on their way home from Belize. They must have been exhausted since they flew from Belize to Houston to Los Angeles and THEN Detroit; but that didn't spoil any of the fun for the birthday girl. They headed back to Honolulu and Granny Em came in from Connecticut. Ellie's friends came over for a pool party on the 31st and we all had a blast. Granny Em then watched our little peanut while Dave ran the Dexter-Ann Arbor 1/2 marathon and I ran the 5K. Dave did great! He finished in 1 hour 49 minutes. I finished my race in 37 minutes. Considering I walked 1/3 of it (stupid hill!), I was pretty pleased.

Dave went back to training after a long day of running and ceiling fan installation (yay!). A few days later, Granny Em returned to Connecticut and Ellie and I headed out west to see the Portland Rowe's and Watters'. Ellie loved playing with cousins Daisy and Chloe and seeing Aunt Anne, Uncle Jeff, Uncle Joe, Aunt Kristen and Grinnie.

We then hopped on a train to Tacoma where Uncle Seth met us at the station and took us to the Frankel's in Kent. Ellie and I spent all day Saturday with Abigail and Maile while Seth and Christina participated in the Great Urban Race in Seattle. Ellie had so much fun playing with her cousins. We had a brief, but super fun, visit with Miss Katie and her cutie pie J.D. before heading home on a late-arriving flight from Seattle. Our girl is quite the traveler; she's been on 17 flights already!!!
















Doing some light reading with Granddaddy and Grandma Donna





















Helping out with a little "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear"
















Blowing out the candles (1 for this year and 1 for good luck)

















Yay! I'm one year old today. I stood on my very own on May 24th, just wait to see what else I'll do ...