2011 Round Up

Last January, the kids looked like this:

and, according to my pictures, we didn't do all that much.  Probably because in February, Mike, Claire and I went to Germany to see castles, ski the Alps and do lots of fabulous things, including hanging out with Eric.

In March, Milena had both her first ER visit and her first blood draw after I found her with a mouth full of extra strength Tylenol.  Claire made me laugh with her homework, and I took her on a Claire-Mom weekend over spring break.

April. Milena turned two, we had a very nice Easter (I'm assuming thats what the family picture is from) and Claire made me laugh with her homework again.

Two of my favorite photos were taken in May, both with Hollie.  One on our Mother's Day getaway to Munising, MI, and the other in the state capitol.  They both do a great job of describing what its like when we all get together. We also went to Minneapolis to see friends and get to a few museums.

In June, we were in Door County.  Both girls stopped wanting their pictures taken.

July.  We took two separate trips to Door County, one girls only, and one all four of us.  Claire did a little cliff diving, with all her clothes on, and Mike threw out the eight first pitch at a Mallards game.

In August we went to IrishFest and also to San Diego, where we saw a lot of stuff.  Disney, SeaWorld, the Zoo, the beach. Basically we never stopped moving, and had a great time.

In September Claire turned 8 on the 8th.  For her Golden Birthday, she requested a Wheel of Fortune cake.  It actually spun, and she had to solve the puzzle on the board before she could eat any.  We had a party at Justin and Jacques. Its always fun to get the kids together.

October saw the 15th anniversary of the Cabin Trip.  Things obviously got a little crazy.  We started going to Brewer post-season games. Milena dressed up as her rainbow puppy and Claire as Cleopatra for Halloween.  

I also found this little note bunched up in my winter coat pocket, which reminds me of how awesome Claire is.

November is really light on pictures.  The kids obviously spent most of their time being sweet.  We went to the Green Bay Botanical Gardens to see the lights.  I talked Mike into a FAKE Christmas tree, which I put up whenever I wanted to. My favorite ornaments are these two cars, which my dad made me after each of the two accidents I was in. 

And December.  We went to Florida and had the opposite kind of vacation as we did in San Diego. For this trip we rented a house as close to the ocean as you could possibly be and spent every day all day on the beach. Actually, I only left the beach house twice, once to go to the Clearwater Aquarium and once to go to the airport the day we went home.  Teresa joined us for most of the trip, we were able to see Mary for breakfast one day, and we collected a huge number of seashells.

2011 was a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to what 2012 has in store.