Road Trip!

Right after Mama got out of school, she decided she wanted to take a long trip in the car, and she decided to take me too! Daddy stayed home from this trip, because he needed some introvert time.

First, we stopped at Gaga and Grandpa's house in Iowa for a few days. It took about 5 hours to get there- I kept very busy in the car. I slept, read some books, drew pictures, and listened to Curious George on CD. Once we got there,we had a fun time! We played with monster trucks, went shopping, and went to church on Sunday.

After church and lunch on Sunday, we took off for another state- Missouri! We met by a big river to have dinner with the Schades- our cousins on Daddy's side. Donald met me in the parking lot to show Mommy and I how to get into the restaurant.

Once we were inside, my cousin Caroline made me giggle...

Then after we were "Ah Doe"(all done) eating, Caroline and Donald showed me around a little more. I love my cousins!

After dinner, we said goodbye, and Mama and I got back in the car to go to Aunt Christi and Uncle Brandon's house. It didn't take very long to get there (Thanks to Mama's GPS. I helped her understand what it said. I told Mama "Turr Righ" and "Turr Leff" too!)

When we got there, we had lots of fun things to do. On Monday, we went to the zoo- it was pretty great, but we forgot the camera. On Wednesday, we went to this place called "Sih Flagg", which is an amusement park/waterpark in Saint Louis. I loved it!

This is my cousin Kendall, who came with me to six flags. She's six.

This is my cousin Jordyn- she came too. She's nine.

Mommy wanted to see if I liked riding rides.We tried out a few different ones, and I liked all of them except for the Scooby-Doo ride. That one was too loud. One of my favorites was the carousel. The horse went "Rou and rou" and "Uh and Doww". I thought it was great!

It was starting to get hot, and so my cousin Kendall and I decided to play in these little fountains that squrted water straight into the air. They looked like this:

Here's a live action shoot, so you can more fully understand how awesome these fountains really were.

What a fun time in Missouri! On Thursday morning, we said goodbye to Uncle Brandon, Aunt Christi, Jordyn, and Kendall. Then we got in the car again to head back to Iowa. We stayed with our friends Gail and Elijah at their seminary house in Dubuque. The next morning Elijah and I and our Mommies went to a cool river museum!

First we looked at the turtles and fish under water.

Then we learned about lizards, and played under their cage.

Then we even decided to pretend to BE lizards! Our Mommies thought we were cute.

Before Mommy and I drove back to Minnesota, Elijah and I played outside on the cool river animal toys too. We had a great time visiting the Brechts! What a fun road trip!

April/May Happenings!

In April, we moved from our old house in Monticello to our new house in Arden Hills. It was big adventure for me. I was a very good helper.

There's the big truck, Unkie Chad!

The big truck was my favorite part of moving. Mr. Jeromy even let me sit in the driver's seat.

Our new house is pretty great, but my favorite part of our new house is the sliding door to the deck. I am SO good at opening and closing it.

Mommy said that since we moved, we are really close to everything! She got a few free ride passes from school to Nickelodeon Universe Amusement Park, so we visited the Mall of America as a family. I didn't even fall asleep on the way there like I used to when we lived in Monticello.

I loved riding the rides! I saw a few big trucks like Mr. Jeromy drove when we moved into our new house, except they were MY size. They were my favorite.

I also started to explore my new neighborhood, where there are lots of animals. Mommy, Daddy, and I have seen squirrels, ducks, geese, turtles, and tatterpillers..um..caterpillers near our house. Here I am, making friends with the wildlife.

Right after we moved, we flew in a big airplane to a strange place called California to see my uncle Aaron. Here we are enjoying some graham crackers together. I think Uncle Aaron may need a few pointers..

Uncle Aaron lives near a place called Hollywood, so sometimes movie stars are around his house. We were just driving down the street, and we saw this strange looking car, so we stopped to take a picture.

Daddy explained to me that the people that drive this car get rid of scary things like ghosts. They call them Ghostbusters, and apparently anyone who grew up in the 1980s knows who they are- I guess they made a movie about them. After we saw this car, we went into a building nearby, and met a REAL LIVE movie star- His name was Dan Akroyd. I guess he was one of the Ghostbusters. Thanks for keeping Uncle Aaron's neighborhood ghost-free, Mr. Akroyd!

We had a great time in California, and spent lots of time with Uncle Aaron and Mommy's cousin Adam. It was great to see them!

At the end of May, Mommy and Daddy's friends Jim and Kelly got married! I don't really know what that means, but my friend Elijah and his mommy and daddy came to stay with us for a whole week. It was great to play with Elijah. We recorded our first baby band album together,

had a few lunch dates together,

and played with our friend Bri while Mommy and Daddy went to the wedding. It was so much fun! (I don't have a picture of us playing, but here's Mommy and Daddy at the wedding)

Imagine Christmas Wishes . . .

It's an Owen Christmas!



What's that? You want to see some Christmas-themed pictures of me, Owen Rimbo? Well, ok, but only because I'm feeling merry.

We set up our Christmas decorations a long time ago. My favorite part about Christmas is the tree. For the past month or so, I've been pointing at it saying "Tr-! Tr-!" My second favorite part? Reindeer antlers!



I opened some of my presents on Christmas Eve, before my Babu and Bibi and Aunt Debbie came to visit. Grandma Larson sent me a keyboard . . .


And Mommy and Daddy got me a guitar . . .


So I'm ready to start my own band. I also got a new bath towel, but Daddy was more interested in it than I was:


And that doesn't make noise, either. One of my favorite presents was a computer of my very own! So on Christmas morning I sat down and checked my email with Daddy.

Here's a video of me updating my Facebook status and busting a move.



On Christmas morning, we were ready for visitors. I was looking gooooood.



Before our guests arrived, I made sure I knew where all of the ornaments were, in case they asked.


But just when we were ready to have friends over, we realized that it had been snowing for three days straight! My Unkie Graham and Aunt Haley had to cancel their travel plans, so they came over to our house instead. Thank you, South Dakota, for closing your roads!

As you can see, we got outside to play in the snow and get our clothes wet. Daddy's cousin Eric came down from his farm to build us a snowman (Aunt Haley helped. It was her first snowman ever)!



It was cold outside, so we bundled up . . .


And Unkie Graham sledded down a hill with me on a shovel!




I was so excited that my family made it here safely from New York. We had a great Christmas, and I'll post some pictures of them once I find some . . .

For now, here's a montage of me trying to say "cheese" when people took pictures of me. It's harder than you think.








Success!! Merry Christmas!