Pictures pictures pictures

I thought I'd take the opportunity during a sleep cycle to update the blog with more pictures from our trip to Lake Accotink as well as some first meetings with Elizabeth. There's also a really cool proud parent picture of what Vanessa can do towards the end.

So like we said, we went to Lake Accotink on Sunday thinking that we'd see the cardboard boat regatta where local kids try to race boards made out of cardboard. We didn't know at the time that we'd be welcoming Elizabeth just a couple of hours later. They had a festival like atmosphere with games, food, and a ton of people.

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Vanessa loves playing with her marble roll at home. You can imagine how much she loved a giant marble roll for prizes.

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We took a break to have a picnic lunch by the lake. You would never guess from this picture that Elizabeth was deciding that today was the day of the jailbreak.

Vanessa doesn't normally like getting sprayed by water. But it was toasty out so she braved a run through the sprinklers with mommy.

I don't believe Vanessa had ever been to a beach before. Here she approaches the water cautiously.

That caution didn't last long.

Vanessa loves her daddy, especially when she gets an opportunity to be so tall!

So now we'll fast forward to the next day. Daddy went to Nana's house and came back with Vanessa and Nana to see Sarah and Elizabeth.

Vanessa REALLY loves her mommy and missed her a lot.

Elizabeth was getting checked out by the doctor when we arrived, so Vanessa decided to entertain with her favorite game, Where's Vanessa. We had a really hard time finding her. We thought she might have snuck out and went down to the cafe for a snack.

Nana and Vanessa meet Elizabeth. Vanessa still isn't sure about this whole baby thing.

Uncle Brian works in the area so he stopped by after work to meet his new niece. Hopefully a second grandkid for Nana will continue to keep the pressure off him and Joanna and Kalena and John.

Daddy was a little bit tired, so he took a little break with his new daughter.

Sarah and Elizabeth checked out A-OK so we got to leave the hospital after only one night.

At home, Grandma had come to relieve Nana and got to meet Elizabeth for the first time.

The next morning we asked Vanessa where her baby sister was. She found her!

Vanessa still isn't sure about why mommy can't pick her up right now, but she seems to have mastered the answer to the question: Where's Elizabeth?

We went for a walk today down to the school playground. Not sure Elizabeth will remember her first stroller ride too well. It was nice to finally use the two-person stroller for our kids instead of Vanessa and her various stuffed animals.

Vanessa, daddy, and Grandma all play on the playground. Vanessa loves bouncing on this bridge.

So this this the official doting "Look what our kid can do" section. Vanessa has started building symbols out of her blocks without any help. After she built them, she gave them to us and told us what they were.

You can see two of the 1's were pretty basic, but the other 1 is great! Then she built an F as well and gave us a nice EFFFFFFF sound as she handed it to us. Not too shabby for a 21 month old! Must be trying to get a head start on that whole sibling rivalry thing.