Some new Sophie pictures

Here are a few of my favorites from the latest batch...


Look at those eyes!

This is her looking longingly into the pool area at our hotel in O'Fallon, pulling behind her the backpack my mom bought for her as a gift.


We snapped this cute one of her at Eckert's Orchard in Belleville during our trip.

My Trip Home

We drove down to where my mom lives in O'Fallon, IL, just outside of St. Louis, to visit her for a few days in mid-September. It was really nice going home again and getting to see my mom. She got to see Sophie again for the first time in several months. Sophie's changed so much in the past few months, my mom was really tickled to see how much she's grown and to learn all the new things she can do now. And it was really nice getting to have dinner with a good friend of mine from the area (Hi Jaime!) who I haven't seen in about a year or so. We had a lot of catching up to do!

My favorite part was going back to my old college for a visit. The 4 of us stopped at McKendree and went to the bookstore to pick up a few souveneirs, then walked around the campus. It was amazing to see how incredibly friendly and welcoming everyone was. I felt like I was home again. There have been so many changes on campus, new buildings and such, but everything was still the same. I really miss it. It was hard to leave.

On the front lawn of McKendree's campus.



Spending time with Grandma.

Walking down the path in front of Bothwell Chapel.

New exterior house photos

So, here is what our house looks like now that everything is done (sod, landscaping, etc.) It's all been done for quite some time now but it's taken me a while to get around to snapping a picture, finishing the roll, getting them developed (yes, I am one of the 4 people left on earth who doesn't own a digital camera), and uploading them to the site.




Here's another view of our backyard, now that they've put up the fence between the houses. It makes for watering the backyard a bit of an adventure, but at least it's somewhat more private.