Children's Museum of Seattle

Playdate with Jack & Hazel

Ellie had a fun playdate with her friends Jack and Hazel. It was a little bit chaotic trying to get the three toddlers to share but they still had fun. The highlight was playing on the slide at the end. We could hardly get the kids to wait for their turn but they all survived!

Ellie's First Manicure

Yesterday I gave Ellie her first manicure. Luckily, I used the type of nail polish that dries in less than a minute because she was so fascinated with her new nail color she could hardly wait to touch her nails!

A Sunny Day

Yesterday we had an unusually sunny day for February in Seattle. We were able to get outside and do some yard work and enjoy the sun. Ellie had a great time playing ball with her dad! We were all grateful to see the sun again!

Hopefully this means spring is coming soon? I am not so sure!

My poor baby has croup!

Ellie has been sick for a week now. She started off with a cold and a bit of a fever. She has had a fever on and off and a runny nose(she is getting 4 teeth in so I think it has been a combination cold/teething symtoms). A couple of nights ago she started with a cough. Then this morning she woke up and was pulling at her ear... I asked her if it hurt and she said yes. So I made the first appointment that I could with the doctor this morning. Well... no ear infection but it turns out she does have croup! The poor little thing! I didn't even think too much of the cough because she is mostly coughing when she sleeps and first thing in the morning.... but it turns out that is when croup is at its worst because she is lying down then. So we have to get a humidifier in her room and prop up her crib mattress and make sure to listen to her breathing while she sleeps to make sure she doesn't get strider which develops with really bad croup and can create difficulty breathing so we would have to take her straight to the ER! Yikes!

So we have been couped up at home for the last week and it looks like we will have to stay that way for probably another week! I am getting cabin fever!

Trip to the ZOO

We went to the Zoo in Guatemala city on Friday. I have decided we should really only go to zoos in foreign countries from now on.... you get to see the animals so much closer! The last time we went to the zoo was the Bronx Zoo and she was bored half to death because the animals were so far away she couldn't even see them! But the Guatemala Zoo had the animals so close she could see all of them.....It made for a much better day for Ellie.

She is at the perfect age for the zoo and she really enjoyed the morning we had there.

The weather was a perfect 75 degrees.

We started off with the animals in Africa... giraffes, zebras, then onto the lions and elephants.

The highlight of the day was the "petting zoo" area. Mind you Ellie didn't actually touch the animals.. after all this is Guatemala... but she just loved how close the animals were. There was a cow, ducks, pigs, rabbits, a donkey... but the best of all was the sheep. Ellie came up to the cage and I said Ellie, what does a sheep say? She said "BAAAA." But the best part was ... then the sheep just about scared her half to death and said "BAAAA" right back. It was hilarious and she literally jumped when he did it.

"BAAAAA"

More on our trip to Antigua

We parked the car at the Hotel Santo Domingo so that is where we started our day in Antigua. It is a very beautiful hotel built around the ruins of the ancient Monastario Santo Domingo. We walked around the grounds of this hotel and I was truly amazed. The following picture is where they have the weddings at the hotel.

At the fountain on the grounds of Hotel Santo Domingo.

The plaza was filled with people selling necklaces, others wanting to shine your shoes, tourists orienting themselves around the city, and Guatemalans just relaxing on a Saturday morning. Ellie was a big "people watcher" at the plaza. She was running around taking it all in.

At the main plaza fountain. My dad, Ellie and me at the Arco de Santa Catalina. The arch is the only remnant of the once enourmous Convent of St. Catherine. As the convent increased in size... they had to build across the street. The arch was built so the nuns could cross without being seen.

Notice the volacanos in the background of the majority of these pictures!

Playing Dress Up with Grandma

In order to get ready for our trip down here my mom searched every market place and store around for toys that Ellie could play with. The following is one of the prizes she found.

A cute little dress up outfit. Unfortunately, my mom and I decided Ellie isn't really ready to play dress up yet. She just about had a fit while we tried to get the cute little outfit on. We still thought she looked adorable despite the frown!
Our little fairy!

Trip to the Ice Cream Shoppe with Grandpa

My Dad came home from the office the other day and asked Ellie if she wanted to go get ice cream. Well... Ellie is her mother's child in that she LOVES ice cream and was extatic to find out we were going to get ice cream.

Once we got there..... she saw the big playground outside and ran outside with my mom while my dad and I got the ice cream. She had just as much fun playing on the playground as she did eating her ice cream. She would climb up the playground, go down the slide, run to Grandpa to get a bite of ice cream and then run back to the slide again.

Trip To Guatemala

Ellie and I are currently visiting my parents in Guatemala. It was more than an adventure to get here but very much worth it once we arrived. We have had a great time visiting with my parents and seeing some sights in Guatemala. It is a beautiful country filled with friendly people. It has been so fun to watch Ellie's reaction to this new place. She is just in awe at all of the new sights and places that we have seen.

At the plaza in Antigua.

Today we took a little trip to Antigua. Antigua used to be the capitol of Guatemala.... but after numberous earthquakes in the 1700s the capitol was moved to Guatemala city. This little city is filled with ruins of old monistaries and convents. It was sort of like going back in time as we strolled along the cobblestone streets. Ellie's favorite part was the carriage ride tour. Although the tour was in spanish we learned a lot about the city from my parents translation.

On the carriage ride tour.

The city is surrounded by volcanoes... three in total. This picture is at the top of one of the monastaries. The ruins are filled with the most beautiful flowers.

The hotel that we parked at, Hotel Santo Domingo... it was just gorgeous. A hotel built around the ruins and the incorporated the beauty of the ruins into the architecture of the hotel.....I will post pictures of that tomorrow.

Helping in the Kitchen

Ellie loves to "help" in the kitchen. Every time she thinks I am making anything interesting she absolutely insists that I help her bring one of the kitchen chairs up to the counter so she can stand on it and see what I am making. Her favorite way of "helping out" is testing whatever I am making. Today... she enjoyed some of the batter of Tumbling River Ranch's Choco-Chewy Scotch Bars.

Winter Wonderland

The much anticipated storm came a later later than they had expected which took us all off guard.... and of course made for one bad traffic jam. Ellie woke up this morning and took a peek outside at the snow and was SO excited. She went back and forth from the windows facing the backyard to the windows facing the frontyard and yelling "know.. know" (her version of snow.) It was so cute I had to take her out on a little adventure in the snow as soon as soon I could.It turns out she really enjoyed the snow much better from afar. After coming out into the snow she really wasn't sure what to do. The most interaction she had with the snow was when she was sweeping it off of the bushes with her glove. Nevertheless.. I got a great video of her reaction to her first real snow :)

Ellie's First Swimming Lesson!

Ellie had her first swimming lesson class today. She LOVED it! She loved kicking and splashing in the warm water. It has been a few months since we have been swimming so I was a little unsure how she would do... but she had no fear at all. She learned to kick and splash and had a great time in the water. We are looking forward to our next class on Wednesday!

PS I think that it wore her out.... she took a 3 hour and 40 minute nap afterwards!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning with Ellie was more fun that I ever could have imagined. It was just priceless to see her expressions of excitement as she opened up her presents. Her first look at her new kitchen.
The highlight of the morning was when Ellie squealed with delight when she saw that she got a new baby doll for Christmas. We got it on our video camera and that is going to be a Rowley family hightlight!
Opening her stocking.
Her own little cleaning set so she doesn't steal my broom anymore!

Ellie became a pro at opening presents in no time at all. It was so fun to watch her rip them open. Some of the toys she tossed aside without even giving them a glance... while others she wouldn't stop playing with even to open more presents.... it was a very fun morning.

Christmas Eve

Ellie all dressed up for church on Christmas Eve.On Christmas Eve we had Brandon's family over to our house for dinner. It was fun to spend the evening with family. Ellie recieved her first offical gift for Christmas. A table and chair set from Grandma and Grandpa. She had a tons of fun opening this present that was bigger than she is! I think she likes it!

A little over excited about her present!

Celebrating the Holidays

Bellevue Botanical Garden Lights

On Friday December 23rd we decided to get into the Christmas spirit and see the lights and festivities that Bellevue has to offer. We started out at Bellevue Botanical Gardens. They put on a great display of lights. It really was a spectacular presentation... I was impressed!

Then we headed into downtown Bellevue to check out "Snowflake Lane." Every Decemeber the street right outside of Bellevue Square(the largest shopping mall around) turns into a what they call Snowflake Lane. Each night they have a little celebration at 7 pm. The street is decorated at each lampost with a huge drum. They have snowflake light displays lighting the street. At the start of the show they have a singer at each of the drums passing out candy canes and then they all get on their drums at start to sing when the music comes on... they are all playing some sort of tamborine. After a few minutes of the dancing carolers... the little drummer boy music comes on... out come the drummers through the crowded streets.... they each stop at their respective HUGE drum and get ontop and wait for the other drummers to get to their spot. The fake snow begins to fall from the top of the mall. This is one HUGE production. Ellie LOVEd it! She was dancing away ontop of her daddy's shoulders. It was a big hit at our house and we will definetly go again next year.

The Windstorm 2006

We woke up at 12:30 am on Friday morning to the creaking and crashing noises of branches falling in our backyard. We look outside and the trees were swaying at a pretty scary angle. We decided to venture outside to see the what was to be just the beginning of the damage caused by the storm. While we were outside the power went out. Little did we know it wouldn't be restore for FOUR days! We scrambled around looking for flashlights and batteries, etc. We didn't sleep at all that night. I was too worried about the crashing noises I was hearing outside. The winds got up to about 75 miles per hour. At about 1:30 am we heard a one loud creaking noise and a thud was felt throughout the house. We knew that couldn't be a good sign but felt it safer to stay inside at this point and not venture out.

Once the sun came up we went outside to survey the damage. All of our neighbors starting to come outside at the same time and we all took a walk around the neighboorhood to see how everyone was doing. Two houses down a big tree came down and blocked off the road. Two houses down in the other direction one of their trees went into their master bedroom. Luckily no one was hurt.

The house next to this one had two trees hit it. And the house next to it had a tree go right through their bathroom. It was an incredibly strong storm.

It was interesting to see the sense of community as a result of the storm. All of the neighbors really got together to see what we could do for eachother. Unfortunatly a cold front came through the day after the storm and brought the temperature into the thirties so we were all pretty cold while waiting for the power to be restored. Brandon, Ellie and I eventually went to stay with Brandon's parents in University Place. They didn't have power either but they had hot showers because they have a gas water heater and they also had a nice wood burning stove that warmed up their house. When we came back home on Monday to check on the house we had a nice surprise. The power had been restored at 5 am! We were SO happy. We were very lucky as most of our friends didn't recieve power until just Thursday! It really made us appreciate our nice warm house!

Ellie's First Encounter with Santa!

We went to Brandon's parents ward Christmas party. Ellie was up three hours past her bedtime by the time that Santa came but it was well worth the wait. She was a little confused by this strange looking man and especially by all the people that were looking at her as she

sat on his lap. Even though we couldn't get a smile out of her we thought

she did pretty well :) Ellie being spoiled by Grandma with cake. Yummeee.

That is her expression as she is saying her usual peeeezzzz(please).