Adventure Tuesday: San Diego

For our San Diego style adventure we headed to the New Children's Museum, which puts a modern art slant on museums for kids. Truman had a blast with his Nana, though much of the stuff was geared toward older children.







My mom pretending to be a rock-throwing giant in the toddler area:








They had a giant room filled with old mattresses to jump on and these pillows shaped like tires My mom took these lovely photos:

Half way there, baby

Spellbound baby is halfway here. So I thought I'd post a little update:

We kind of think the baby is a boy. We have no reason for thinking this because we're not finding out the sex ahead of time. But for whatever reasons we find ourselves saying "he is kicking" or "I wonder if he ..." When we do this, we usually recover with "or she," because the baby might be able to hear us now and we don't want to give her a complex if she is a girl.

My mom, niece Elizabeth and friend Amy think its a girl. Feel free to guess for yourself; the odds are great.

As implied above, I can feel the baby kicking now. I started feeling him or her around 16 weeks, but the movement of their little hands and feet are a lot more regular now. Joe even felt the baby the other day, but that was a super-ninja kick.

After the baby is born we will stick their ninja feet in these starfish booties.

In other news, I'm headed to San Diego tomorrow to visit family. I'll be gone for a week.

The McSpadden Clan

I visited with my Dad's side of the family on Saturday and we took a few moments to take some portraits using the handy-dandy remote control for my camera, which was strapped to a patio chair via my gorilla pod.

I think they turned out really well. It was a perfect day for portraits with nice, clean white cloud cover. The trick was taking a few pictures, then laughing at ourselves.







My dad and stepmom:



More pictures to come, including portraits of my four-month-old cousin, Nate, and his parents.

Waffles, Gnomes and Sunlight

We started out Friday heading to the Waffles Spot ( a breakfast joint nestled into the Kings Inn on Hotel Circle ). True to it's name, the restaurant serves great waffles. My mom and Kellie were excitedly playing with "Henry the Gnome" ( pictured ). For those of you that don't know Henry, he's a recordable plush toy that speaks in a high, quick voice. It's pretty funny.











Then we headed to Fashion Valley mall to do some shopping.

Here are Kellie and I basking in the sunlight.







As I was helping my mom take a picture of me basking, the on/off switch to my camera broke off. I immediately headed to a good camera store I know in Little Italy. The problem isn't too serious and it can be fixed relatively easily, but I am going to need to order a part when I get back to Minnesota.

I can still turn on my camera, but it is more difficult. The woman I talked to at the camera shop said that turning it on and off now won't harm the camera anymore, so I plan to. But, if the pictures slow down for the next few weeks, that's why.

We went to Miguels where I did not take any pictures, then I headed to hang out with my good friend Christie ( the one who gave me the CDs in the plastic bag, blogged about previously ).

* Photos of me were taken by my mom, Victoria.

Vacation, Had to Get Away ...

... from the cold (I wish you could have come, Joe).


So, I decided because I had so many requests to stow away people in my bags and bring them to warmth, I would do some blogging while I was here to keep you updated on my trip.


We left Minneapolis at 9:30 last night and arrived in Vegas at just before 11. Then our flight, which was supposed to leave at 11:59 was delayed.


Of course, there are worst places to be stranded than the Vegas airport.


(note: in the interest of saving time during my vacation, these pictures will not have my cool blog boarder on them)

This vacation finds the return of our own traveling gnome, Woodward:

This morning, I woke up to these old friends:

(Now, this is why I need a marco tube extender)