April Florida Trip

This past April, we traveled to FL so Josh and me could attend a conference in Orlando. I never thought we'd be going to the same conference since I specialize in older adults and Josh went into peds ophthalmology, but with my current position I get to be concerned about all vision related conditions. Since the conference was so close to home and I knew Josh wanted to attend we made plans to go together. This meant Luke got to spend some quality time with Nana and Papa while mommy and daddy enjoyed a couple of days together in Orlando. The first day of the conference was over for us before noon so we headed out to the boardwalk by the Swan and Dolphin resorts (where the conference was, but not where we stayed!). You could see Epcot from there and we ate lunch the next day at the ESPN zone restaurant (which I've read recently that they are closing this chain).



Since we couldn't check into our hotel yet, we went to Downtown Disney and walked around. Josh had never eaten at a Rain Forest Cafe, and even though we didn't have our kid with us, we had lunch there. It ended up being good that Luke wasn't with us. Look how close we sat to this mechanical elephant, I think Luke would have freaked.


Our trip to Orlando included a visit to my good friend Vim so we could see her adorable daughters! Here is Josh with Violet (she's about 5 months younger than Luke so we were sad to not have Luke with us) and one of me with Violet and Vim holding a newborn Natalie. So glad we got to visit with you guys while we were in Orlando!!



We finished off our evening with a trip to Universal Studios City Walk. We intended to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, but decided to walk around a bit first. We found our way to NBA City and of course had to look around. By this point I was starving, and still in my first trimester which meant "I NEED TO EAT NOW!" so we dined at NBA City. The food was ok, but both of us wished we had eaten at Bubba Gump.

More about our trip to FL next!

so sweet

one of my favorite recent pictures of Luke (taken 4/11/2010) so sweet!

From Luke's point of view

Luke grabbed the camera and took some pictures all by himself, and mostly of himself! He did this while we were at Saturday Night Live watching my Grandpa and Eleanor perform. I think he did a pretty good job for his first stint as a photographer :)









Recently, Luke and I were watching an episode of Bob the Builder, which Luke has always referred to as God the Builder which I think is cute and hope that one day he really knows the truth to that. Watching this made me wonder if President Obama got permission to use the "Yes we Can" slogan, and then I wondered if he watched this program with his girls and that is where he got this idea :)
Also, during this episode, Bob was eating a sandwich and put it down for a minute and got distracted. When he came back to the sandwich a few bites were missing and Bob said "who has been eating my sandwich?" Without missing a beat, Luke said "Noah" (our dog) with just the perfect amount of disappointment!
For all those wondering who really did eat some of Bob's sandwich, it was a sneaky bird. I'd hate for you all to be left wondering :)

We interrupt our regularly scheduled catch up posts...

to tell you that we found out yesterday that Baby Elliott #2, who Luke calls Baby Bop, is a boy!!! We are so excited to have another son and so happy that Luke will have a little brother. The baby looks healthy, everything looked good on the ultrasound so we couldn't be happier with the news. Now on to picking out boy names. This is a new area for us, for some reason neither us can remember, we had the name Luke picked out long before he was a reality so his name was easy. This one will be a little bit harder :) So for now he remains Baby Bop!

Trip to Michigan-Part 2

Luke was able to have 2 Easter egg hunts while we were in Michigan, both with zero competition! The first hunt happened in my uncle Glenn and aunt Su's backyard the evening of the memorial service. We had a nice cookout and family time. My mom and my two aunts each had easter treats for Luke so we didn't even need the jelly beans I bought to fill the eggs!






The second egg hunt occurred at my uncle Danny and aunt Laurie's house Easter afternoon. They hosted a big delicious lunch for us. Luke was hunting like a pro by this time!

Luke hunting with Papa



Grant, Luke, Ansev, and uncle Neil

Trip to Michigan-Part 1

At the beginning of April we traveled to Detroit for my Mummu's (Mom's mom) memorial service. It was also Easter weekend. It was actually quite nice to have a memorial service the day before Easter as Easter service was very uplifting and reminded us all about how we will be rejoicing together in Heaven after this earthly life. Since both my Mom and Dad are from Detroit we had the chance to see a lot of our family. I will post about our trip in several parts since we did a lot while we were there! We were able to visit with my Grandpa (Dad's Dad) and his new wife Grandma Eleanor at their home. Luke was very interested in their keyboard and my Grandpa's model cars!

Luke and Grandma Eleanor at the keyboard


Every Saturday night they lead Saturday Night Live at their community. I have long enjoyed my Grandpa's singing voice, not to mention his awesome ability to whistle too! Eleanor also is a terrific singer and we were so happy to be able to see the famous duo host SNL while we were there. Luke really enjoyed it as well!

Grandpa leading the show


Grandpa and Eleanor

Luke gets in the action

Pictures from the end of March

These are some pictures from the end of March! One of these days I'll actually catch up to present time...hey I can dream can't I?

We went to Atlantic Station to enjoy a warm-ish day with friends Amanda and Carl. Luke got a new salamander we call Fred :)



Silly boy! Sorry I don't have fancy photo editing software to remove drool and snot!



Luke made Easter bunny ears at school and received some candy bracelets at the Easter party, he thought they were fun to eat. Sorry for the dirtiness of his clothes, he plays hard at daycare!