Our Trip to Michigan - by Olivia

Here is my friend Maya! We had lots of fun playing together while I visited the States this month. She shared all her toys, high chair, and even her porta crib - and she didn't even know me yet! I especially liked pushing her around in her high chair because it had wheels and really went fast on the hard wood floors!

While I was in Michigan, I got to visit a lot of people. In fact, every waking hour (well at least for Mom since I still take naps) it seemed we were out seeing someone Mommy knew. Here I am with some friends of Aidan and Abby. Julie kept me happy while Mommy ate lunch with all her girlfriends at one of her favorite restaurants, Panera Bread (yum!). Jordan let me lay on him and fed me cookies - I really enjoyed meeting him. Hopefully he'll remember me when I'm older (I like cookies!).

Here I am visiting Aunt Ivy and Uncle Eric. Again, Aunt Ivy was bribing me with cookies and crackers before dinner (hmmm, maybe I should visit the States more often since it is an American custom to give babies cookies!). Here I am with my cousin Evan - He sure has grown since we last saw him!



One of the highlights of our trip (besides the cookies) was seeing BOTH of my Grandmas! Here I am with Grandma Rose - I got to visit her twice when she took me over to Aunt Margaret's house. By the way, did you know I am a piano prodigy? And after only one lesson with Debbie Pyne at the Pyne's house, hard to believe I know. Don't I have great posture and hand positioning?




Here I am with another Aunt (Jamie) and her son Nathan. She gave me a cute stuffed bunny for Easter and a pretty new outfit for my upcoming birthday (which I have already worn since it is summer here in CR. She had very soft carpet in her home which is much easier to crawl on than the tile here!



And here I am with my other Grandma and Grandad. They came all the way from Indiana to see me even though the are coming to CR tomorrow! Maybe they'll bring more of those cookies! I had such a nice trip even though we got a little sick. I guess that's what happens when you go from humid and 85 to sleet and 35 degree weather, eh? Thank you to everyone who made our trip so nice!

For the Grandmas

Okay, this entry doesn't have much to do with life in Costa Rica. It is really just for the grandparents to see Olivia's one year old portraits taken by Aunt Sheri (Sheri's Photography in Riverview MI) while we visited the States last week. She always does a wonderful job and since we don't have much in the way of photography business here, it was great to get some pics done for her birthday next week. If you want to see any up close, just click on the photo!

"Mom has always wanted the flower pot shot as a newborn but I was too big by the time we got around to the baby photos. So, we did the shot a different way now that I am bigger and can sit by myself. These were some of my Mommy's favorites poses."

"Here we have my cute smile with my new blanket (Mom left the other one at airport security on the flight home). We also bought a cute dress from Costa Rica so I could have a picture in it. Hopefully Mom won't make me do traditional dances in front of people when I get older! Lastly, we have some bathtub scenes - as you can see by my face it wasn't much fun until Mom broke out the bubbles! Isn't Aunt Sheri creative? Well, the model isn't bad either, right?"