#94: Get a New Passport‏

We're headed out the door on our way to Canada!  For those that don't know, my Mom is originally from Saskatchewan and we are going to visit her side of the family.  Trevor's never been before and has only met a few of the relatives (hence goal #14: Take Trevor with me to visit family in Canada).  We'll be traveling with Mom & Dad and Kim & Justin and the girls, so it will be fun to spend some time with them, visit with relatives, and just get away for awhile. 

So thanks to the new law (as of June 1, 2009) that requires passports to cross the border by land now, I was forced into completing goal #94.  I did have a passport from my college-days when we spent a semester in Greece, but somehow it got lost in all our moves.  It really bugs me that we can't find it…I have NO idea what happened.  I'm pretty bummed too, since it had the stamps of the countries we visited while we were there.  Anyway, I was a little worried about the process of reporting it lost, but it actually was a breeze.  Except the part of the form when it asked "where" I lost it….seriously?  (I know they must have meant what part of the world…but still tricky to answer.)

You may notice that I didn't post a picture of my actual passport.  Partly, because I'm not sure you should do that for security purposes (you know, there's a lot of blonde, blue-eyed terrorists out there) and mostly because the picture was HORRIBLE.  Running a bunch of errands + fluorescent lights + my face filling up the whole frame = bad picture.  You may think I'm exaggerating, but when the Walgreens guy brought it to me he actually said something along the lines of, "Don't worry.  You'll only have to live with it for the next 10 years."  Nice.

I'll update when we get back.  Until then, I'll be saying goodbye to 100 degree weather and hello to highs in the 70's all week!

Victoria turns 3!!

I'm still alive!  I'm just trying to catch up on "life" after working 12-hour days the past few weeks. 

My niece Victoria turned 3 years old on June 3rd. I guess that made it her golden birthday.  The weekend before her birthday I headed up to Nebraska for her party.  My sister, Rachel, from Memphis was also up there with my niece Caroline visiting , so we had a great weekend of family fun!

Get ready for picture overload:

Alexandra dressed up in her cute little skirt for the party...

Victoria showing Alexandra some sisterly "love"?!?

Grandma and all her grandkids...

Victoria couldn't wait to dig into her cake...

The whole family

I think she looks so pretty in this picture.  She sure is growing up!

This video is pretty funny.  Right after we get done singing happy birthday you can hear Victoria calling out Linda, a family friend, for not singing to her!  :)   After that we are all trying to tell Victoria that she shouldn't be touching the cake after picking her nose.  She'll appreciate that someday.

It was so fun to see Caroline & Alexandra interact and roll around with each other...

Opening presents....

In the picture above Victoria was SO excited that she got some money.  After that every card she would open that was empty she would say there was "No Money!" and would throw the card down. (I think I know what I'm getting her next year.)  This next picture caught her right before she chucked the empty card.

Rachel and I got Victoria some dress-up clothes.  Here she is in her fairy outfit.

  

She also got a doctor costume from Grandma Jan...

But her favorite gift was her first bike from her mom & dad.  Here she is on her first ride...

...and here she is after her first fall.

Late that night when the babies were all beyond tired, Mom and I brought out some matching shorts and hats that we had bought from the clearance bin at Children's Place before the two babies were born.  We knew this might be the only time all three of them were together when they fit in them, so we decided to torture them by changing them and making them sit together for a picture.  We didn't get one good picture, but looking back I think these series of pictures are hilarious!    We hope they think they are as funny someday...

        

Granny and Paul had come down from Wisconsin for the birthday party and to meet Caroline for the first time.  Mom had me hold Caroline to be in a picture with them, but she told me to hide.  So it made for a weird picture where Caroline looks like she's floating.

Four Generations: Rachel, Granny, Caroline, and Dad

Caroline's first Valentino's experience.  Mmmm...

A nice picture of Caroline & Rachel before we headed back to Kansas City

Once we got home Sunday, we decided to all go for a walk.  Rachel asked if either of us wanted to carry Caroline and Trevor volunteered.  I don't think he knew what he was getting into.  Rachel wrapped him in up the Moby Wrap and I think he was having second thoughts.  I don't think he felt very manly.  I need to show him the Moby website...the main page has all men using them.  Maybe he would have felt more masculine if he'd been able to wear the one with the dragon on it like one of the guys in the picture...Ha!