Spring Break in Houghton…Yuppers for a Week!

For Spring break we ventured twelve hours north to Houghton, Michigan to visit Benjamin’s brother and his family. It is a tiny little town in the Upper Peninsula surrounded by the Great Lakes. It was such a fun week! Abraham and Chelsea were so so kind to us while we stayed there. We ate so well! Chelsea is such a good cook! She made us amazing mushroom burgers, Thai curry, homemade sushi rolls, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, a delicious caprese salad, and these delicious custard pancakes called pannukakku. Chelsea was also almost constantly whipping up a batch of hot cocoa! One of the stores there was having an annual fresh sea food sale, so Chelsea and I headed to the store and came back with king crab legs, scallops, shrimp, sausage, and tons of veggies. She prepared a delicious crab boil for us. When it was time to eat, she dumped it all out on the table. We all had little cups of melted butter and sliced lemons and then we all just dug in! It was such a fun and amazingly delicious experience.

We also ordered pasties (hand held meat and veggie pies that are a big food in the UP) twice. So good!

On Fat Tuesday (the day before lent starts), we went out for these amazing filled doughnut things call packzi. We all polished off a bunch of them and then Chelsea and I went out again to get more because we wanted to try them from a different shop. 

Chelsea also took me and Stella out for breakfast at a Finnish breakfast restaurant. We had the best thin, somewhat crispy pancakes.

While we were there we also went cross country skiing and sledding. There was so much snow! I have never seen so much snow in one place.

Benjamin and the boys spent a lot of time outside skiing, skate skiing, snow shoeing, and just playing. Thank goodness Pearl had an extra snow suit for Stella! Such cute twinners.

We also went to this really cool mineral museum. It had the neatest displays of gems and rocks. Abe and Chelsea were so so sweet and bought me a pretty ring with an opal gem stone. Its kind of a purplish opal and it is so pretty. I really love it.

Chelsea is pretty much the sweetest person I have ever met. She helped me make these cute little boots for Stella. I was so proud of them and she was the best teacher.

Most of all, we had so much fun hanging out with the family.

 

Stella loved her cousins Pearl, Ruby, Miles, and Isaac. She was in heaven having so many friends around.

It was just such a great trip. Thanks so much Abe and Chels for the best spring break ever, snow and all.

The Museum of Biological Diversity Open House

Last month we had a fun day wandering through the Museum of Biological Diversity. It is normally a research and teaching facility, but once a year in February, they open their doors to the public to come see all the collections and different projects they are working on. It was really crowded, but really fun. It was geared towards kids older than Stella, but she still had an absolute blast.

There was an awesome bug petting zoo.

Stick Insects:

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches:

Yup! That’s me holding that cockroach! Stella petted it a few times, too.

I held a salamander, too!

How cool are these photo Op booths? I thought they were so funny and crazy and I just couldn’t resist getting some pictures of Stella as a Mite:

And how about this creepy one:

Here are just a couple of the many cool things we saw:

Giant Clam:

Meteorite:

Walrus Hide:

Elephant Skull:

Two workers had these little animal puppets outside the mammal room and Stella LOVED them! We walked past them multiple times and every time she would squeal and reach out for them. She kept trying to hug them and kiss them. It was so cute.

Such a great day! We will be back next year!

Stella’s Birthday

A month ago we celebrated Stella’s first birthday! I can’t believe she is one already. The last year has just flown by. Stella is such a sweet, spunky little soul. I am so happy she is a part of our family.

At thirteen months Stella can take 5 steps without help, stand up on her own, dance, wave, sing. She can do the actions for Popcorn Popping, 5 little monkeys, Patty Cake, and a couple other little songs. Her favorite toys right now are her baby, her monkey, her musical giraffe, her bath toys, and books. She likes to pretend that she is reading her books outloud and it’s the cutest little gibberish. She can say book (booh), ball (ba), duck (duh), puppy, baby, Jesus (zeezus), Ta-Da, Hi, wow, uh-oh, mom, daddy, nana (food), nose (noh), turtle (tuh-tuh), yeah, and baba. Not all of them are complete words, but she uses them correctly and consistently. She signs drink, more, food, and all done. She makes the sound of a monkey, bee, dog, and owl. She has 8 teeth with a molar working its way through.

Stella opening presents:

Stella Eating her Smash Cake:

Sorry the movie’s are so long. I just couldn’t cut anything else out. I love how she starts eating the bananas, then ends up in Benjamin’s lap with a fork, and ends on the floor again. She was kind of moody that night and went from saying “hi” to me so sweetly to screaming “nana!”

Stella first thing in the morning:

Stella’s funny little squishy smile that she does when she is in a really silly mood:

She really can get quite silly, as the next video will show. I love this video because she is just learning how to stand up on her own and you can see how proud she is when she does it. I also love the random dancing and how she is just all over the place.

We love you so, Stella Snow.