I know. I've been gone a long time. We were on a short family vacation from Sunday through Wednesday. Yesterday was just too busy to post. I have a long list of things to share. But I also have work to do and family from out of town to visit so I can't do the extended version. Here are some highlights:

1 - Annika made the funniest face Monday night. She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth while squishing her nose up. Everyone who saw it died laughing.
2 - Annika is an excellent traveler. She slept the whole way to and from our vacation at Caribou Highlands. Granted, we left Sunday night at almost 8pm so it was almost her bed time anyway. But she slept the whole way home on Wednesday and still went to bed on time Wednesday night. We did a bunch of driving during our vacation too so we could tour this and look at that. Annika was excellent with all the driving and being taken out of her car seat then put back in. It probably helped that Auntie Krystle sat in the back with her for the touristy stuff.
3 - Annika saw Lake Superior for the first time and even got to splash a little in it. She wasn't nearly as impressed by the lake as Mommy is.
4 - Annika ate a rock. OK, it was a small, very small, pebble. But she did ingest it before Kris could fish it out. It was on a beach alongside Highway 61 North of Grand Marais. Silly girl. We left the rocky, pebbly beach shortly afterwards.
5 - Annika went hiking for the first time. OK, she rode through the hills of the North Shore in her Baby Bjorn for the first time. It was a short hike but I think she liked it anyway. I did.
6 - Annika took immediately to our out-of-town relatives. She especially bonded with Grant. He liked her too. I have a couple cute pictures of them sitting in the recliner together. Grant had a bracelet (like the Live Strong bracelets) that Annika loved. Tuesday, while touring Grand Marais, I carried Annika while Annika held Grant's bracelet and Grant walked beside us.
7 - Annika likes sitting on people's shoulders. She also does this cute thing where she leans over to look at your face when she's up there. And being the silly girl that she is, she leans over to her right to look then sits up and leans over to her left. Repeat, repeat, repeat until she's so squirmy you have to bring her down.
8 - Annika loves bottles; water bottles, pop bottles, etc. She loves carrying them around. They can be empty or full; it doesn't matter. She just likes them.
9 - Annika babbles all the time. And she's experimenting a lot with her tongue while making sounds. I think she'll say some actual words here pretty soon. So far, the only thing resembling a word is "yeah". What's funny is that she says this at the appropriate time and with the correct intonation. Like when Annika was eating in her high chair and Auntie Krystle asked if she liked her food. Annika looked up at her and said "Yeah" excitedly while then babbling on about who-knows-what.

Now we're back home and getting back to our routines. The house is almost done! The appliances are going in today and carpet goes in next week. Kris has finished all the tile work except for the base of the shower. He'll finish that this weekend. Tomorrow we're having a big family reunion and Sunday is Brianna's 1st birthday party! Happy 1st Birthday Brianna! (Her birthday is today!)