Jeep Jamboree (Day1)

These are some pictures from our first full (non travelling) day at the Jeep Jamboree in French Lick. We were up very early with a bit of a drive from the hotel to the actual Jamboree site. We had all our meals in the "Ranch" where the trails were also, so that was nice. We had a big breakfast, wheeled for a few hours, ate a boxed lunch outside, wheeled some more, and made it back in time for dinner. All the meals are included in the fee you pay and everyone eats together. Julia was officially registered and she got the name tag with meal tickets and everything, even though she was free. It made for a cute picture, at least.

Have fun scrolling the photos, I'm feeling too lazy to do captions.

99 Balloons

I don't watch Oprah. I never watch Oprah. Tonight, I stayed up late in the back room on the computer. The TV in the living room was on ABC from the last show I had watched. I could hear Oprah starting as I was finishing up and getting ready to go to bed. When I passed through the living room, I got sucked in. The show was about miracle children and I was hooked. They showed conjoined twins, a Katrina survivor, a boy with no legs. Every child overcame incredible odds to be extraordinary. It was awesome to see, but I am hard to sway. I can't remember the last time I cried over a movie or something on TV. (Excluding my pregnancy of course!) But I saw something on Oprah tonight that left me sobbing. I mean, totally beside myself. I can't even sleep now because I can't stop thinking about it, so I thought that maybe if I blog, that will help. Oprah showed a video that a viewer found on You Tube and wrote to her about. My warning...this is not for the faint of heart. You won't be the same after you see this.

This is a father reading letters he wrote to his son Eliot.

Pool Party

We spent October 9-12 in French Lick for a Jeep Jamboree. Thursday and Sunday were our driving days and Friday and Saturday were spent out on the trails. Daddy made sure we got a hotel with a pool. Julia had a blast. She loves the water. Even in the bathtub she tries to swim! Hopefully we'll have a pool one day. Look out Michael Phelps!

Smash Cake!

Yes, I do realize it has been two weeks. I've been trying to get the birthday video sorted out... there were some technical difficulties. (More like operator error because John took the video wrong, but I won't even go there so as not to embarrass him on the world wide web.) But, I figured I should get some pictures up here and the video will come along later when I get it figured out.

She did pretty well through the singing and only cried at the end when I took the candle away. We were worried because in the days leading up to the party she would cry whenever we sang Happy Birthday to her. But when sowtime came, she just made pathetic pouty faces.

I stuck her hand in for her to show her that it tasted good and she did the rest from there.

She also had fun smearing it all over the tray.

Is there even a hand in there?

I can't remember whose idea it was to see if she would feed me the cake. But all I had to do was kneel down there and open my mouth, and she got me good! I couldn't believe how far she stuck her whole fist in!

Fry Happy

We stopped at a McDonalds on the way home from the reunion. Julia has never been to one, and it was hilarious to see her eat fries. She's getting really good at the whole finger food thing and I was impressed. I would give her the longest fry I could find and she would take little bitty bites until it was all gone. It was so cute that I pulled out the camera to get a video. Then she got all goofy on me and practically inhaled the next fry! What a nut!

Note: No babies were harmed in the making of this video. Julia had a well balanced dinner before comsuming a few fries for laughs!

Family Matters

This year was Julia's first trip to Little Grassy for the Hankla family reunion. None of my immediate family went last year because it was so close to my due date. It's a lot of fun. One of my Grandpa's brothers is a retired Methodist minister so we stay at a Methodist camp that he was really involved in. It's neat. We stay in this lodge-type building with like 20+ rooms with bunk beds and one big meeting room for us all to be together. There are a few trails to hike and a good bridge to fish off of. It was rainy this year, but we managed to pull off the weiner roast and even got some s'mores in. I'll admit it, I had two!

Julia and her Great Grandpa Hankla

Julia just discovered she could put her finger in her nose that weekend. She hasn't done it since though, so I'm hoping she just had some troublesome boogie issues that have since resolved themselves.

Brian, Tiffany, Kristen, Jessica, Julia, Tammy

(John and Dad stayed home)

This was the first year that someone from the camp staff came and opened up the camp store for us. We've been coming every September for 16 years, and we finally have some T-shirts! They were only five dollars and they have a picture of the cross up on the hill with the semi-circle wall around it that we always take pictures by.

Julia and Nana by the campfire

Julia was great in the car, like always. The weekend wore her out, naturally. Gotta love those long lashes.

Rock-a-Bye Baby

September 19-21 was our annual Hankla family reunion. We travelled to southern Illinois to meet with my Mom's Dad's brothers and sisters and their respective families. I'll post a bit more on that later. This video was taken when we stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel on the way down. I couldn't believe how she knew what to do when I just plopped her in the chair. She gets her brilliant powers of deduction from me!