Our First Halloween at 2708

Organized chaos?

We had a great time meeting up with neighbors this Halloween. About 25 kids showed up for the pre-trick-or-treating photo-op where parents of the kiddos passed out candy and treats and then traveled around our neighborhood's circle to visit the other houses. Anja had a blast with Sophie, a new friend who lives just a couple houses down from us.

At first, Anja wanted to be a ghost. Then, on the fairy kick (like everyone else), she decided she would be Abby Cadabby, a fairy-in-training and also her favorite Sesame Street character. We teamed up with Erik's mom who sewed a fantastic skirt, and I even busted out the puff paint (!) to put the finishing touches on the wings. Here we are dressing her up on Halloween night:

Abby Cadabby is ready to go!


Sophie and Anja take a pit stop.

Anja and Sophie visit our house, where Erik's parents handed out candy and watched Milla.

After the trick-or-treating was done, everyone met up again to have another bonfire. It was way past Anja's bedtime so our time there was short, but we were still able to talk with a few neighbors. Anja summed up this Halloween just like Corduroy as the "best Halloween ever!" She's already talking about her costume for next year.

Six Months!

Hey! Hey! I'm six months old today!

Milla spent part of her 1/2 birthday at the Tamarack Nature Preserve for their Trick or Treat event. It was a great, non-sugary filled event that we hope to attend in the years to come!

Milla continues to be a sweet, sweet baby. She's happy and content the vast majority of the time, very strong, and is on the cusp of crawling. Still moving around on her back, she oftentimes runs right into the stone fireplace. (Ouch!)

Anja is also becoming more interested in her little sister---giving (and taking away!) her toys, singing to her, wanting to help when she can, and even cleaning up copious amounts of her spit-up!

Joe, Elle, Milla, me, Anja & Maya trekking around Tamarack in search of the next treat.


Anja and Elle playing with gourds and filling up their buckets. (A good lesson in sharing for all!)


Cranking out fresh apple juice . . . yum!

We've Moved!

Well, we're in the process! We closed yesterday afternoon and stayed the night at our new place last night. Anja was SUPER excited to finally be able to go into the house (we'll post pictures later). We won't have internet or phone access until next Tuesday, so it'll take us a few days. Time to get packing!

Twin Cities 10 Mile

Erik and I ran the Twin Cities 10 Mile today . . . let's call it our longest training run in a loooong time. (Two and a half years for me!) It was slow, but we're happy to have finally "raced" again. We look forward to more road races and triathlons in the next year.

Grandpa Ron brought Anja out to cheer us on, but was a little shell-shocked because after hugs and kisses, both Erik and I ran away from her. She was probably thinking: Huh?! We hope to sign her up for some fun runs of her own as well.

We hope to post some pictures soon!