Steele Family Vacation Video

At the end of March, we traveled to Savannah with Joel's family. His brother Micah made a picture video of the trip which you can view at their blog:
http://micahsteele.blogspot.com/2009/05/savannah-vacation-video.html

A taste of the good life

And here are a few shots of Cora enjoying the undivided toys and attention at Grandma and Grandpa Steele's!

A Date at Fitz's

After the half marathon, Grandma and Grandpa took Cora home with them since Mommy needed someone to watch her the following Monday and Tuesday mornings. Daddy and Mommy had some fun one-on-one time with Mim and Cora had some fun one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa Steele. We took Miriam on a dinner date to a St. Louis favorite - Fitz's Root Beer. She enjoyed the root beer immensely!

We saw very little of this...

and a LOT of this!

Saint Louis Half Marathon

On a rainy Sunday morning a few weeks ago, Daddy ran his third St. Louis half marathon (after running the Illinois half marathon in Champaign just the week before). In an attempt to stay a little bit drier, we hung out under an overpass to see him run by in the middle of the race. Daddy did a GREAT job, despite the rain. After some yummy brunch with Grandma and Grandpa Steele, all of us who did NOT run the race took naps, but not Daddy. We love cheering for him when he's running!

Practicing politeness

Cora has started saying "thank you" consistently and Miriam has started saying "you're welcome," so it's been really fun in the last few days to hear Cora say "thank you" to Mim and to hear Mim say "you're welcome" back to Cora. It makes the other 90% of the time when they're picking on each other a little more tolerable. :)

Miriam, the Artiste

A few weeks ago the Shike's came to town for an event they were organizing and we had the opportunity to hang out with them for a couple days. On Sunday Dan, Olivia, and Hunter went to church with us and on the way Mim drew this on their magna doodle. By the time we could get home to get a picture of it, the artwork had faded somewhat. Hopefully you can still make out the detail

When asked what she had created, she exclaimed with pride "A SHARK!" Yikes, I can't even draw a shark this well.

Then today as we were putting the girls to bed, I (Joel) noticed our magna doodle in Mim's bed. I tossed it aside with the rest of the rubble to clear a spot for her to lay down. When I turned around, this picture was staring at me. When asked what the picture was she remarked "Daddy" (nevermind the dress, you weren't supposed to know about these things)

She's two, for crying out loud. Aren't they just supposed to be learning to draw "circles"?

Mim's first race

The day before Joel ran the St. Louis Half Marathon, Mim had the opportunity to run her first race - a 50-yard dash.

The pre-race excitement!

The in-race nervous breakdown. You can't really tell from the video, but she just got really scared and started crying and wanted me to pick her up.

The post-race medal!

Goodbye Chass, Lyrick & J

Our friends and backdoor neighbors, Chassity, J and Lyrick moved away a few weeks ago. Before they left, we made a visit to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery for a "Stables only" tour (you'll see the clydesdales in the back of one of the pictures) and a stop at the hospitality room. Lyrick loves superheros and specifically asked me to take a picture of him doing a "Spidey pose." Then Mim immediately tried to imitate it. It was really cute.

We miss you guys!

Mr. Brown Can Moo

This is a favorite Dr. Suess book around our house right now. It originated from Stephi's college years and some sorority "event." :)