I guess that I'm really not as ambitious as I thought since I haven't updated this blog since 8/18. Oh well... Here is some more things that we have done recently.

• Two weeks ago we went to my company's summer picnic. It was pretty fun but the best part for Ilea is they had one of those big jumping globes where a bunch of little kids get in and jump all over the place. This one allowed adults also so I went in with Ilea. She loved it in there. Sometimes she would just lie on the floor and let the jumping of all the other kids and adults bump her around and other times she would kind-of run across the floor trying to stay on her feet. She had a ball.
  
• Last week, my parents came up and spent some time with us. Ilea has finally started saying "Grandma" and "Grandpa". We were confusing her a bit because we would try various names. It seems that she was calling "Grandpa" as "Grandma" and, at time, "Pa Pa". We still need to work on those a bit.
  
• Last weekend, I took Ilea for her first hike in the mountains. I got the baby backpack and we took a 3 hour trip up the side of Tiger Mountain. It was pretty fun. She probably walked about a half mile and I walked about 5. When I got back I had a couple of large blisters on my heels but it was worth it for the exercise and the time alone with Ilea. Jenny liked getting out by herself while we were gone also.
  
• I'm sure, if you are reading this, that you already know that we had the ultrasound last Monday and that we are going to have a Boy! A girl would have been fine also but now we have someone to carry on the Howard family name.