Where did the last 6 months go?!?



I'm so bummed, I typed a whole blog (with pictures!) and it vanished....

 

Here are the highlights:

 

December:

Britta and Allen got married!  Hana was a flower girl again and it was a wonderful, snowy day!

 

 

 

Hana and I went to our annual Maggiano's and the Nutcracker event.  Always a hit!  (She's so tall!!)

 

 



Christmas was fun at the Balk's this year.  We spent the night and Lucy pooped all over their lovely carpet.....  Knute and I spent most of Christmas morning cleaning up that mess.  But Hana had fun with Ingrid!

 

 

January:

January 5th, Hana turned 7!  We decided to do an "old fashioned" type party at the house.  We have a face paint/animal balloon make and the girls all painted a frame to take home (along with other goodies!) with a picture of the party.  They also played pin-the-tail on the donkey and the balloon popping game.  Less popular was the "close your eyes and draw a self portrait" activity.  Hana chose a chocolate cake with mint chocolate chop ice cream.  Yum!

 

 

 



After her birthday, I took her to her first symphony as an experiment.  They played the 1st Harry Potter movie and the Colorado Symphony played along.  Hana LOVED it!  We're going back for 2 in July and 3 next January - already bought the tickets!!

Also, baby Anneliese was born to Eric and Angie!  Both Hana and Ingrid were pretty excited about that!

February:

The Great Wolf Lodge opened in Colorado Springs recently and we decided to check it out.  Hana said it was "THE BEST TRIP EVER!"  Wow!  Guess we'll be going back.  (Actually, we did over Mother's Day weekend in May when Knute was turkey hunting in Wisconsin!)

 

 

We also spent a few weekends at the newly renovated condo!  Super fun, especially when they Balk's were up there too - right across the hall!!  Wonderful!

 



March:

Cayman time again!  We got the BEST unit this year!  Top floor two bedroom.  It was huge and quiet and I was in heaven!  We went to our favorite places (of course) and discovered a few new places this year too!  We saw a ton of starfish at Starfish Point and we discovered Spott's Beach, where sea turtles are abundant!  The first one we snorkeled with was just gigantic!  Sadly, I erased the video I took of Knute & Hana with it by accident.  Such a bummer!!! 

 

 

Hana finished up her ski lessons in March and fell in love with the Woodward Barn.  They taught her how to do a backflip (into the pit) the very first lesson.  She's a great little athlete/skier!  She's also blooming in school.  She's one of the top readers in her class and LOVES math and science.  We're so proud of her!! 

April:

Britta came over for our annual Easter Egg dyeing and that was fun! 

 

 

With the birth of Kelsey and Jordan's first baby (Odin John), the Balk's went to Iowa and the other Nelson's we're spread out this year as well, so we decided to go to the condo for Easter.  Thankfully, the Easter bunny found us there again this year (remember, last year he found us in Maui!!) and Hana got to participate the one of the "world's biggest" Easter Egg Hunt's at Copper Mountain.  She had a blast (and even went skiing afterwards!)  Might be a fun, new tradition?!?  We shall see!

 

 

 

Hana also moved up to the "advanced intermediate" class in gymnastics and was pretty excited about that!  

 

 

May:

 

May was a blast!  School ended, Hana and I went back to the Great Wolf Lodge, Knute and I took Hana to the Star Wars symphony, we all went fishing by the condo (Hana caught one again, which we put right back, of course!), Leif turned 60 and Solveig graduated from Luther!  It was a whirlwind, for sure!