Yellowstone

Earlier this month we traveled to Yellowstone for 5 days. It was John's first time visiting that national park, so it was pretty exciting! We went with my parents and had a great time. We were a little disappointed with the weather though. It was pretty cold, especially at night. We camped out and had to bundle Ellie up quite a bit: 2 pairs of socks on her feet, 2 pairs on her hands, 2 pairs of pajamas, a jacket, a swaddler, a hat, and her snow suit was her sleeping attire.
One night we ended up having her sleep in our sleeping bags with us. This also ended her amazing sleeping habits. She woke up several times per night while we were there. Since we have been home, it just hasn't been the same. Despite this frustrations it was a great trip. We saw some fantastic geysers and had a good time getting away.
This is the only place we actually took a picture of Ellie there. I am kicking myself for it now, but it was just too cold to get her out of the stroller most of the time.

My parents and us at Daisy geyser.

Grotto geyser is cool because of the formation that the water has made over the years.

Other cool water features.

Mud pots!

Twin bandanna heads!

I love how blue the water is there! It is hard to get anything besides the steam though.

5 1/2 months

Thanks to my sister for taking these great pictures!!!

This is totally her whining face. :)

I love it how she uses her tongue when she smiles so big!

Blowing bubbles.

5 months

I can't believe how fast time flies! Here is a sampling of pictures we have taken of Ellie in the last month or two. She is finally old enough to play with her saucer which she got for Christmas last year. She was pretty overwhelmed with it at first, but now she loves it.
Bath time! This is where she gets some of her baths. She likes to play with the water coming out of the faucet, but unfortunately she sprays herself in the face a lot of the time when she does that.

This picture is just classic Ellie.

Her first encounter with rice cereal. This is the clean baby.

This is the messy baby. :)

This is my attempt at an impromptu photo shoot. She is starting to sit pretty well with the boppy supporting her.

This is how she spends most of her play time. She is just for a couple days now actually lift her her waist too, so she is just on her hands and knees.

The only problem is she always collapses when we make her smile or laugh.

Before she goes to sleep she always has to rotate 90 degrees to her left. I don't know what it is, maybe she just likes the feel of the side of the crib on top of her head.

Ellie is such a delight! I just can't believe how fast she is developing and changing.

Donut Falls

Over the 24th of July we wanted to go to a place that we both hadn't been since we were teenagers. Unfortunately we didn't know that the main donut of Donut Falls collapsed. Despite this we decided to go. We had pretty good timing getting there. We got there right as one big group was leaving and left right before one huge group got there. It was a beautiful drive to get there and a gorgeous little walk to make it to the falls. My mom came with us and we had a yummy picnic lunch afterwards. I love that extra holiday in July!
You can see that there still is one small donut at the top, but all of the big boulders are the reminants of the larger donut.