Hands!

One of the best parts of our visit to South Dakota were all the extra hands there were to hold me!  I like being held...and I liked all the special people that held me!  

Great Uncle Tim

Great Uncle Brad

Great Aunt Amy

My second cousin Logan

And of course my GG

What a small world!

Well, our furlough finally came to an end and it was time to fly home.  We got up really early and flew form Minneapolis to Miami in the morning.  Then we stayed almost all day in a hotel, resting up for our over night flight from Miami to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  When we got to the airport in Miami, we were looking for our gate and can you believe that we ran into someone we knew!  We saw a family that we met about three years ago in Colorado, when we were doing our missionary training.  They serve in a rural area outside of Santa Cruz.  They had just been home on their furlough and we were going to be on the very same flight back to Bolivia.  Isn't that crazy!  It was wonderful having some friends to play with while we were waiting for our plane.  (And, there was another little girl that played with us too!)

Hangin' out in the airport.

One Year!

In January I turned 1!  I spent my real birthday, January 10th on an airplane high over South America.  But the week before my Uncle Dan and Aunt Katie threw me a birthday party to celebrate.  It was really fun.  I had my very own cake with a candle too!  Check out my pictures. 

This is my cake.

I'm just going to see what this tastes like.

Yum...that was pretty good.

I think I'll have some more.

This birthday stuff is fun!

Shopping!

Shopping at the Mall of America...

...where have you been all my life?

And when are we going back?

My first haircut!

I know it's hard to believe, but I have never had a haircut.  Since my hair is so curly, it just took SO long for it to seem like I had long hair.  (Which is what I wanted.)  In the bath tub when my hair is wet, it stretches all the way down to my lower back.  But as it dries, it curls up to just below my shoulders.  So I've been letting it grow and grow.  But my Mom said it was starting to get kind of frizzy and hard to take care of.  So while we were in South Dakota, I got my very first hair cut at 4 1/2 years old.  Don't worry, it was just a trim!

Before picture.

Getting it washed

That felt pretty cool.

All clean and ready for my cut!

Ready?

I loved watching in the mirror and it all happened. 

I got to use product in my hair.

That blow-dryer thing felt kind of weird.

All done!  That was fun.

After picture.  So much better.

South Dakota Cool...

It was definitely the coolest weather I've ever been in...

...but I didn't let that cramp my style... 

...I still got my swing on.

South Dakota Children's Museum

One day we went to the South Dakota Children's Museum in Brookings, and it was AWESOME!  There were so many cool things to do there.  I had a blast.  I posted a TON of pictures so you can get the idea.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it.  

I learned how to check the oil...

Check out my cool jacket.

I wasn't afraid to jump in and get my hands dirty.

We had the whole place almost to ourselves.  Thank goodness for this other little girl!  I was getting bored at the check-out!

Harvesting potatoes...just like they do in Bolivia!

Climbing in the clouds

I did my own news broadcast...

...from a castle!

There was a whole room just for little babies like Lydia.  I was too big to go in there.  

My parents got all excited about this giant Light Bright.  I didn't know what those things were, but I thought it was pretty cool that it said my name.  

Lydia also really like it.

I even got to paint right on the window!

We thought about weighting Lydia in the grocery store...

As you can see I had a great time.  But this place isn't just for kids.  At least my parents and grandparents had a great time.  I had to beg them to leave!