Decorating for Christmas

Meant to put these on earlier, but here's a few pics of us decorating for Christmas! Sophie loved putting ornaments on the tree!

Happy Halloween!

Sophie was a princess for Halloween this year! She made a beautiful one!!



Here she is with Jason dressed up in his grim reaper costume. She thought he was funny in his costume. This picture cracks me up!


Here's a few of our friends at the branch Halloween party!

Fall festival

Albert Lea had a fall festival downtown on Saturday so while I went down there to cover it for the newspaper, we also had a fun time!

Fishing

Sophie's first day of preschool!

She was excited to say the least!

An adventure on the trail

We went on a little stroll the other day on one of the trails at our state park in Albert Lea. Sophie had a blast! Here's some photos from our adventure!

A little trip to Cannon Falls, Minnesota

I'll be honest. My job takes me to some pretty amazing places and to see some pretty amazing people. So when I heard that President Barack Obama was coming to Cannon Falls, Minn., a small town about 1 1/2 hours away from me, I jumped at the chance to go.
Whether you agree with the man's political views or not, I think it's still a neat thing to say that you've actually seen a president of our country.

This little town-hall meeting felt like a campaign stop of his I had covered a couple years ago when he was running for office, just much more security. It was practically like going through airport security but it went a little faster. It was fun.
Perhaps even more exciting, however, was seeing reporters from all over the country — I sat next to a reporter from the Washington Post and in front of me were a couple reporters with USA Today.
And then of course there's the awesome press passes you get when you go to these things that I like to collect.
This one said "White House Press Pool."
Pretty neat stuff for a small-town, community newspaper reporter.


(Photos by Eric Johnson/Albert Lea Tribune)

To see more about the visit, go to http://www.albertleatribune.com/2011/08/15/obama-its-time-for-the-games-to-stop/

Some crazy fun!

Call me crazy, but sometimes you just have to let your kids have a little fun....
A couple weeks ago, our neighbor had his sprinkler on across the street, and he yelled across the street to me when we were taking out our dog to if Sophie wanted to play in the water. I took a large sigh, thought over the odds (after all she was in regular clothes and I wasn't sure if I wanted to deal with getting her cleaned up, but I went ahead and said, "Sure, why not!" I knew she'd LOVE doing it!
So I bit my tongue and she went flying over there! I let her play in the water for about 10 minutes, and she got soaked!
Ha, but I got some good laughs out of it!

Swimming!!

On Saturday, we went to the city pool here in Albert Lea! They had a free swim day! Sophie was reluctant to get in the water, but once she did she didn't want to get out!!

Our garden!

Though things seem a little bit slow this year, our garden is finally starting to take off! We have a 10-by-20-foot space. It starts with cucumbers, then green peppers, chili peppers, tomatoes, zuchinni, onions and green beans!

Flowers!

Here's a few pics of outside around the house!

Eddie Cochran car show

This was from back in June during the annual big Eddie Cochran car show that Jason just loves!
Jason and Sophie next to Jason's camaro.
Killing some time waiting for Jason and his mom to come by in the 26-mile cruise part!
Jason and his mom on the 26-mile cruise, while Sophie and I watched from the sidelines :)

Library fun

Sophie loves the library, so we've been trying to get her to as many special events and storytimes that they have this summer! Here she is at one when a guy from a reptile/amphibian zoo came!
(For the first two photos you can play a little "Where's Sophie?" game -- instead of "Where's Waldo?" :)

Swimming

Here Sophie is swimming with her friend Hannah! They're getting together again this week to swim!

Fishing

(These are kind of old but I'm finally getting around to getting them uploaded! I thought these were adorable! These are from the first time Sophie went fishing with Jason! Looks like I'm going to have two lovers of fishing on my hands!)

Third of July Parade

Here's a couple from the recent Third of July Parade here in Albert Lea while we were waiting for it to start. (Note Sophie's funny faces!)