Welcome Simba!

On a crisp, sunny fall day in Chicago...

We welcomed Simba into our family!
(not her real name, hers is much less Disney)

We think she's pretty awesome

And so do most of her admiring fans!

Many more pics and stories to come. But for now I will say that Simba is fitting nicely into our family and we are incredibly grateful for her!

September Fun

The days are winding down on our time as a family of three. In September we've made a concerted effort to do some things that we won't be able to do when the new baby comes. One important thing on our list was to visit with Baby Les and her parents. Nemo was pretty gentle with Les, who is about 8 months old, though she couldn't quite understand why Les didn't want her pacifiers at all times. Nemo kept handing them to her and Les wasn't really that interested. But other then that Nemo was interested in the "baby" as she calls Les so we'll see how she likes having her own baby at our house soon...

Adventures in the west!

Nemo has had quite a few new experiences in the last few weeks. There has been hiking through the maintains, gondola rides way up into the sky, bear sightings (including one grizzly on the path!), boat rides on mountain lakes, swimming lessons, rock throwing, and plenty of swimming in cold mountain lakes!

And not to be forgotten her auntie's engagement, celebrated up in the mountains...

Though we love our city it is good to relax in the mountains for a while..

Three girls playing...

A few weeks ago we got together with Nemo's baby friends... One of them is moving overseas this month so it will be our last gathering for a while. Here they are in the Summer of 2012. It's so fun to have girls with my college friends that are all within a year of age...

searching for eggs

still searching

too funny!

it is amazing how big these girls are

moms and girls!

And just for kicks here's the three of them over the last two years...

Winter 2010

Spring 2011

Summer 2011

Fall 2011

More from our adventures...

While we were down south, we had the pleasure of exploring and being hosted by my aunt and uncle. They have an awesome yard and tons of creatures for Nemo to greet. She was especially excited to see Bailey the beagle and Puska the cat. Fortunately, they were very patient with her.  

Bailey the wonder dog!

Eating and thinking about the water...

Always swimming!

She's ready to see those gators...

Giving kisses to Grammy

Nemo's new love...

This past month Nemo developed a new love... with the ocean! This was her second trip to the ocean (though the first time she was only 6 months old), and she LOVED the water. She only wanted to stay in the water and when we brought her up onto the beach she was constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to make a fast break back to the water. She would have stayed in the water until she froze if we let her... I think she was channelling her fishy side.

More to come from our travels down south...
also I'm a new convert to instagram so feel free to see more of our adventures at minspinmom