4th of July Travels

So, we decided to take a vacation this week. We departed yesterday, July 4th, drove to Rochester, MN and stayed with our friends: Pam and Dan Halvorsen. It was a lovely stay. After some snacks, Elias decided he should make the best of his time out of the carseat and decided to attempt running! He did a really great job. For about a half an hour he would walk from person to person and chair to couch and back again. It was really fun to see! He only stopped because I was a bad catch once and he bonked his mouth. Today, in the car, he was getting frustrated when we were stuck in traffic so I started reading him one of his favorite books - Baby Animals. I got to the page with the "fat and funny" puppies and he said "Bow bow!". Very exciting! He also knows that cats "Mow" and cows "Moo". Having lots of fun on this vacation - hope it continues. Tomorrow we are going to attempt downtown Chicago.

See? I am bad at this!

Seriously, I am terrible at remembering to blog. So let's catch everyone up. Elias is almost 11 months old and has started to walk. He is very timid about it but just last night he took 3 steps from the safety of holding onto a chair to getting to my legs. It was very exciting. The other day, he took 2 steps to get to his friend Charlotte. She did not, of course, enjoy being a support for him so he did fall down. But it's exciting that he is growing up! I am trying to enjoy all the little things but I can't wait until he starts actually walking!!! Woohoo!
His vocabulary is up to about 12 words which is really exciting. The most recent additions are "Baba (bottle)" and "Juice".
Tomorrow we are heading to family camp at Crystal Springs Bible Camp and then on Sunday, we start our really long excursion to Chicago. I really hope it will be fun!

Full vocab:
1. Mama
2. Dada
3. All Done
4. More
5. Please
6. Dog
7. Jack
8. No-No
9. Nana
10. Up
11. Baba
12. Juice