Elijah John!

My little brother is a daddy!! John and Sarah welcomed Elijah John Owens into the world at 11:37pm (Germany time) on March 31st. He weighs 8lbs 6oz and is 21 inches long. Mommy and baby are both doing great!

Bird watching and other miscellaneous adventures...

Since returning from Tahoe and recovering from Kinsley's illness, we have been keeping ourselves busy looking for any signs of spring.  The snow was melting, but then it returned, then it started melting again...It has consistently been below or at freezing for the past week.  The poor birds and Kinsley are so confused!

In anticipation of spring, I found Kinsley ready to get to work in the sun with her hammer and sun hat from Grandma Shorty (Louie's mom). She was looking pretty cute in her attire.

The birds have been back out and about and making a lot of noise. One is actually pecking a hole through our house (add 'call siding company' to to-do list for Monday) and others can be seen in their nests.  Check out what I saw on the way to the grocery store today!

 In this video clip, the eagle is leaning over into the nest. You can get a little perspective once the car passes and she sits back up.

This next video was taken in our back yard today... It's way up in a tree so even with my super zoom it's hard to tell if it's a baby bird... you be the judge. (Sorry it's so shaky.)  He really starts doing some head bobbing at the end and as you'll hear, I found it amusing. :)


To continue with my nature kick, this past Friday I took the girls to the zoo.  The real reason was to celebrate Brooke's birthday.  We called it "Brooke-day." :) It included a bag full of candy, DJ honors for the trip up and back, and the title of honorary zoo guide for the day.  We had a blast!

Rachele had her camera out the entire time. I think she got a picture of every animal at the zoo. :)

Touching a starfish in the tide pool.

A sea dragon.  Crazy!

Kinsley and me at the dolphin tank... and yes, with the paci in her mouth AGAIN! What have I done?!?

Brooke's favorite animal- pigs (or rather wild boars).

Winding down after her long day... "Is it nap time yet, Mommy?"

As you can tell from the pictures, we are still bundling up.  I cannot express in words how ready I am for winter to be over.  This time last year I was already taking trips to the park in 50 degree weather.  Come on!!

Hope wherever you are, you're enjoying some warmth and sunshine. :)
Have a great week!!
-The Strykers

Lake Tahoe

March 11-15 Kinsley and I had the awesome opportunity to go on a family trip with my mom and family. Kinsley and I flew out of Rochester on Friday morning, took 3 short plane rides to Reno to meet up with my family, and then drive to Lake Tahoe.  It was a very long day for Kinsley.  She was a champ even when we walked out on the tarmac to board our teeny-tiny 3rd plane of the day... even when the airline lost her car seat and we had to hang out for an extra hour and a half to wait for it to arrive on the next flight...even all the way up the windy mountain drive wayyyy after bedtime... even after I carried her around asleep for half an hour in the hotel room while we unloaded.  You get the picture.  She's my little traveler and has had a lot of experience going with the flow on travel days.
My mom, Sarah, Kinsley and I spent the next (gorgeous) day recovering from the travel day and stocking up on groceries while Marcus, Luke, Emily and Drew hit the slopes at Squaw. On Sunday the whole crew headed to Northstar ski resort to do a little skiing. The weather was snowy/rainy so it was pretty chilly. Kinsley was still pretty tired so I didn't do any skiing that day but had fun checking out the 35+ shops and restaurants at the resort. On Monday, my mom stayed at the hotel with Kinsley while I skied with the rest of the family.  It was still snowy/rainy but we made the best of it.  That evening we went to eat at a restaurant right on the shore. It was beautiful!! Good times!
We headed back on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I think I pushed Kinsley a little too hard on the trip because she was pretty sick by the time we left. She wasn't eating and was throwing up and had diarrhea. Poor little bug. It took a while, but she's finally acting like herself again. I was pretty worried about her because it just kept hanging on. It's scary when your little one won't eat and looks so pale. :(  Unfortunately, now Louie is sick.  Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow morning at 7am when he has a presentation.
Other than Kinsley's illness, the trip was a great success. Thanks so much Mom and Marcus! We made some pretty fun memories! :)

From LtoR: Marcus, Sarah, Drew, Emily, Luke, and Me

Sarah and I had a little sisterly bonding time when I first arrived.  We also got a little camera happy.

Lucky for you, I didn't post all 15 of the pictures I have of us! :)

Marcus and his boys.

Sarah made a snow angel and then took a "sorority pose" pic with it. :)

Headed up the ski lift with Marcus.

Drew, Emily and Luke were on the lift in front of us.

Those two tiny spots are Marcus and Sarah going down a black. The picture doesn't quite do justice to how steep this slope was.

Getting closer...

At dinner that night with the lake behind us. (Missing Louie, John & Sarah and soon to be here... their baby boy!)

The view from our table. As soon as Kinsley saw it she said "beach" over and over. I was so proud that my MN baby knew what a beach was!!! :)

Up, up, up?? Maybe?

We got just a little bit of snow over night last night. Louie, thankfully, plowed the driveway this morning.

Side note: I feel I should make a public apology to our neighbors.  Can you imagine your neighbor mowing their lawn at 4 in the morning but louder? That's pretty much what happens at our house but with the snow blower instead of a lawn mower when it snows.  Louie leaves for work between 5 and 5:30 every morning and if it snows over night he has to plow before he leaves or he can't get out or, for that matter, back up the driveway.  It's so loud and I feel so bad! He tried shoveling instead but unfortunately sometimes there is just too much snow.  SOOOOO SORRY neighbors!! If any of our Rochester friends have any other ideas let me know!

After plowing, we got just enough additional snow to make our driveway super slippery.  This exciting adventure takes place 8-10 times every winter. I used to really freak out trying to get up, but now I know with enough "I think I cans," I'll eventually make it up...usually.

Brooke was with us this morning and had been trying to catch Kinsley being cute. Instead, she caught our driveway adventure on camera. 

It's hard to see what's going on outside the car but Brooke does a pretty good job narrating. :) At the beginning she's cheering me on trying to get me pumped up to make it up the driveway. When the car goes crooked, it's because we slid down sideways and bumped into a snow bank. Ooops.   I usually end up backing into our neighbor's driveway across the street and trying to gain enough speed crossing the street to get up ours... Brooke finally gave up recording because the video clip was getting a little long but we did eventually make it up. )

Oreos

Kind-of a pointless post but I found it amusing.  :)... She's a "dunker" just like her mama.

My Birthday Celebration WEEK! :)

My birthday was on Feb. 18th and unfortunately, Louie was on call. My sweet brother Andrew was here to celebrate with me. After our fun day at the Neighborhood (see post below) we went to eat - Andrew, Kinsley and I ate at a yummy Italian restaurant and then I opened presents on Sunday evening. The following weekend, turned out to be an entire weekend of celebrating.  On Friday night we decided to introduced Kinsley to one of our favorite winter activities... hockey games! She had been to a few games as a baby last winter but this was her first time to take in all the sights and sounds.  I thought she was going to lose it when they turned off all the lights, turned up the music, and turned one red spot light on the ice, but she did great! She stayed in my lap the whole time and really enjoyed the game. We had such a fun family night together!

On Saturday evening, my girlfriends organized a fun dinner at a Japanese steakhouse.  We had such a nice evening just, well... being with adults! :) There were two little-bitty ones there but they slept pretty much the whole time. Kudos to those parents for making it out so late with a little one when they knew they weren't going to get a full night's sleep! Thank you to all for making me feel so special!!

The video below cracks me up.There were many, many birthdays being celebrated at the restaurant and this man sang for everyone! We got to hear him sing many times throughout the night. He took his job very seriously. :)


The next morning we went to church and started a new class called "Love and Respect." It's a class for couples to help us understand what God meant when he said husbands should love their wives and wives should respect their husbands.  It's pretty interesting and I appreciate my husband joining me on this endeavor. He loves me very much and is sweet to go to classes with me he would otherwise pass on.
That evening he worked very hard to make me one of my favorite meals... shrimp paesano with angel hair pasta & alfredo, Caesar salad, bread and white wine!! It was so yummy!! Louie did a fantastic job and I, accidentally put a lot of pressure on him because I was soooo excited. :) Thanks Louie. I love you.

What a fabulous birthday! I received many phone calls, cards, facebook messages and texts from friends and family.  It's so nice to feel sooo loved. Thanks to all!! :)

I'll end with a picture I snapped at the grocery store the other day... ONLY in Minnesota!!

Have a great weekend!! -Catherine