No time for captions...

Sorry all, but I have no time to write captions or chit-chat. Here are some photos from last week. The first are my darling Sophia and her baby sister, Madeline. Also pictured is Molly, the kitten.
Next, we have Katie Albin frolicking about. She is great!
Full names, captions and stories to come on these topics later.

Taken by Ms. Sophia Schwartz

Now presenting Sophia and her 12 hour old sister Madeline...
drum
roll
please...
prumumbumbumbumderrum....

If Katie Albin were a baby she would look just as cute as the two seen above, but she is not.
Enjoy this slightly older but equally cute fun female.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Bruno, Gui, Kristin and I left Minnesota on Friday afternoon. We were headed to Chicago for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. We stopped off at an exit to eat and we found this giant bull cow, I tried to feed it with Bruno's assistance. Then the boys spotted a Dollar Tree and we stocked up on Pringles and various green accessories. We drove for 7 hours on day 1 of the road trip and stopped in Chicago around 12am. The city skyline was beautiful at night, although I already missed the countryside. We stayed at the Holiday Inn for only $100. I will forever praise the AAA card that gave us that extreme discount. Not only was our room with 2 double beds cheaper than the King-bed room, it came with this amazing view!

From top to bottom: this was our view from left to right.

When we were settled into our room and everyone was showered, we decided to go for a walk to the park. The boys wanted to show us another very large statue. This time they wanted to take us to a huge kidney bean. After exploring the city for the better part of an hour we stopped off at 7eleven and then headed to the park. It was closed. We begged the security guard and even offered him chex mix but he just wasn't havin' it. Bummed and tired we trekked the 20 blocks home, but it was a nice winter walk and I took a few pictures.

The next morning we woke up at 10am, threw on some green and headed out the door. We walked to the river and it was unlike anything I have ever seen. I didn't believe Gui and Bruno when they said the river would be dyed green. I definitely owe those two an apology. We were all playing air trumpets, saxophones, and drums in anticipation for the parade, when Bruno met some of his Brazilian natives in the crowd. We all walked to Subway to eat some $5 foot longs and consequently missed the parade. We did catch a few glimpses on the 10 inch TV though.
I cannot forget to mention the monumental thing that happened that Saturday. Kristin and Bruno convinced me to put potato chips on my Veggie Delite. Ever since I added those crunchy chips to that sandwich I have been hooked. Today I even added chips to a tuna sandwich, and it was really good. I encourage everyone to eat chips on their sandwich today, I had no idea what I was missing. After our trip to Subway and the great kidney bean, we walked all the way to the shore line. There was a bocce ball tournament being held on the frozen beach. Kristin and Gui reenacted their favorite dance and Bruno even got his feet wet, even if it was accidental.

"Look for my balloon"
This plan actually worked, the brazilian hotties were located and we made our way to Subway and the giant bean.


The poster reads: Help! Scientology is after my moneys!! Besides the really adorable cat which originally caught my attention, the banana man was hilarious and Scientologists are so out of their minds.

Cute little Irish babe.

Dance partners, lookin' gooooood.

Goodbye Chicago!

The sunset from inside the van's window on Saturday as we headed to Shamokin, Pennsylvania. It may have been the only extended road trip I have ever taken, but it was certainly the best. I think it will be hard to top this trip and I won't forget it. There was a ridiculous amount of laughter, joking and dancing for one car.
Ps. I need to make a pee.

Spring Break with the Brazilians..

Did I mention we were in Minnesota?
The trip was chilly, to say the least. To tell the truth, I had the best week EVER. I flew with Kristin and spent the whole week with her Gui and Bruno. We talked, danced, joked, took pictures, went out, had fun and traveled A LOT. The boys are great hosts, they were constantly treating us to things and taking us really cool places.
We were never lost because of the gps therefore tempers were never high :). Many photos were taken as we wandered through campus and played with numerous statues and monuments. Bruno and Gui also gave us a tour of the green house at the University of Minnesota. We were smelling coffee beans, sitting on cacti and petting turtle mittens; I wish I was still there. The green house also had really cute cats and the soybean lab had a few dead mice. I didn't get to see any, but Bruno told me how he affectionately stomped on a mouse to put it out of its misery. After a few walks on campus we went to the Mall of America and shopped until we were tired. We also visited the aquarium there, which WAS NOT impressive at all. Do not waste your money. There is NO touch tank. I think Kristin is still crying about this, you are not the only one sister. We also walked around a small park by the Minnehaha Falls. The falls were frozen! This is the first time I have ever seen anything of the sort.


When we first arrived Bruno asked me if I wanted to ride a bull on his campus, I thought he was talking about a mechanical bull. We were fighting over how long I would stay on the bull and he told me I would probably last 5 minutes...he was right. These bulls were really tame and quite nice to ride.

The cactus, thorn tree and purple striped flowers were all in the green houses at the U.

These photos were taken at 'the big spoon' This spoon usually has a cherry on it, but when we arrived all we found was a little sign saying the cherry was being cleaned.








These creepy creatures were all caught on camera at the aquarium. The last one I spotted ended up following me home :)!




These are the Minnehaha Falls. A very beautiful sight on an extremely cold day. I think the temperature was somewhere around 3 degrees!