Happy Mother's Day!

We really need an updated picture as this one is six weeks old, but the mom-to-be is on a plane to Florida right now, so this will have to do.

Old Man Birthday

Luckily this birthday party had some good pictures of young people so there was something to share. Megan made the delicious pie that you see Leah and I eating with relish.

Just to be clear - the wine glass is mine and the sippy cup is Leah's. Before dinner we were reading The Little Mermaid. I assured her there were no bad guys in the entire story.

Who do you think is the better looking guy? I'd go with the bald one, although the hair profiles will most likely reverse as the years go on.

December Trip to Costa Rica

As some of you know I took a little trip down to Costa Rica in December with my friend Jenny to attend a wedding for her family friends that live down there. The first part of the week we did some sightseeing on our own and the second half of the week it felt like we were graciously accepted as part of the family as they prepared for the festivities! It was a very fun and relaxing trip even while working through the goods & bads of the 8th week of pregnancy.

Here are are few photos of Costa Rica. If I was asked- I would go back in an instant!

Not pictured is our trip inside of the "Bat Jungle" where we learned alot about bats and saw them awake during the day. We learned that bats are pretty much extinct in the east coast and europe due to a white nose fungus that is transmitted from cave to cave. The disease is moving it's way across the country with 100% mortality rate in some caves. (See this link for more info)

Also not pictured is our trip to the local Monteverde cheese factory (my favorite cheese was the Monterico- sadly it isn't sold in the US :( )




I'll leave off with a video from the Hummingbird garden in the Monteverde cloud rainforest:

A Little Trip to Colorado

Labor Day weekend, Casey and I flew out to Colorado to go to a wedding. Below are a few highlights of the weekend. Enjoy!

At the Cabin

Megan, Henry and I spent a weekend at the cabin with my parents, Adam, Katie, Annie, aunt Julie, Uncle Jeff, and cousin Nick. It's actually Julie and Jeff's cabin, but they let us squat for the weekend, which was nice of them. Megan and I were also too lazy to drive three hours up to Leech Lake, so Adam flew us there in his family's Cessna! And yes, Henry joined us on the flight.



Megan and Adam sat up front and did the flying.



Adam had to look at the map right as we were picking up speed down the runway, so he asked politely if Megan would take over for a second. Megan didn't miss a beat, and pulled us into the air. The only thing she didn't realize was that if you turned the controls with your hands, the plane turned as well. So as soon as we took off, we started going in a circle. Adam proceeded to ask Megan why she was going in a circle, which since she didn't have a good excuse, put us on track for Walker, MN. Henry was a little scared when we took off, and spent some time on my lap.



Eventually he relaxed and took a seat next to me.



Here's the cabin. Julie and Jeff own five acres on Leech Lake. It's a great location.



The lake front is part bog for quite a few feet before the water starts, so a long dock is needed to dock the boats.



Henry and I walked out to the end when we got there, and Henry, being the curious pup that he is, thought he could walk off the end of the dock onto the nice green looking carpet and check things out. Little did he know that that nasty green carpet was actually the lake, and in two seconds I had a panicked dog splashing all over the place. With the help of my dad, we were able to pull him back onto the dock. He learned his lesson after that.



Good times were had by all. We did lots of swimming (at a sandy beach close by), rode the four wheeler down some wooded paths, ate good food and sat by the campfire at night. Annie was very busy the entire weekend. She LOVED coloring with Auntie Megan - here she is in action.



Annie also put me through some kind of yoga workout. I tried my best.

And finally, a little dog humor. Henry wasn't used to so many flies hanging around, and got really annoyed if one landed on him. When he wasn't swimming or running around, he was usually doing this.

Saturday Morning Project: Gathered Clutch

I typically look like I'm headed to my first day of school when I go to work every morning. I have a little blue backpack that I put my lunch, a good book and sometimes my homework (aka my computer). The reason for the backpack is to avoid having too much baggage going into work with a laptop bag/purse/lunch bag etc- I get too scatterbrained sometimes during the day to keep track of it all.

So, in an effort to cut out the necessity for a purse- I pack all of my purse essentials into my backpack every morning. Likewise, every evening, I have to make sure to transfer it all back to my purse. That's a lot of stuff that could get lost in transit!

This morning, with some help from my Mom, I created my solution to keep me organized. My Gathered Clutch is small enough to fit in my backpack and purse but big enough to hold all of my random stuff! So I just need to grab this little bag and go! This is the 2nd sewing project I've done since home-ec back in 7th grade and I must say I'm very happy with the result. :)

SherPlante Garden 2011

This is the 2nd year I've tried my hand at growing some veggies in our garden. I'm learning many lessons and fine-tuning which of these foods I would consider growing in years to come.

Clockwise starting from the upper left:

• Carrots- They do taste better straight from the garden (or maybe I'm a little biased). I think that next year I'll have to actually thin out the crop so that I get some bigger ones. This year is more a crop of baby carrots :)


• Kale- I think this is one of the nicer looking plants in my little plot. One row of this stuff has been contributing all summer to lunchtime salads at the Sherplante's. It's really good for you too I found!


• Marigolds- We don't eat these, they're mostly for show.


• Peppers- We have a few late bloomers on our plants. I'm not sure I would do these guys again because we paid for 4 pepper plants and will probably get about 4 peppers out of the plants. (I figure then that each pepper would end up being about $2 more than the ones you can buy at the store). Blech!


• Tomatoes- Once we found the one sunny spot in our yard we have a mini forest of tomato plants. As you can see by the picture we are looking forward to lots of tomatoes in our future.


• Not Pictured- Beets (they suffered similar to the carrots because I didn't thin them out)
  Raspberries (They're all done at our house for the year- which is sad...)

Next year? Definitely Kale, Carrots, Tomatos and perhaps we can try some cucumbers or cabbage....hmmmm oh the options!

Feel free to send suggestions!