Carly Kay

Jeromy and I flew to Minnesota at the beginning of February to use up a canceled ticket from last year. (Or maybe just for the fresh chocolate chip cookies on Midwest airlines, but don't tell!)

It happened to be a somewhat mild few days during our stay, which nixed any plan to snow tube, but since warmer weather in the middle of winter is like heaven on earth to any Minnesotan, we weren't too bitter about it. At any rate, it is always the visiting "out-of-towner" who gets the blame for any unseasonable shift in weather, right? Which means they loved us. And sure enough, as soon as we returned to Southern Maryland, the cold winds picked right back up!

While in Minnesota we were able to surprise my mom on her birthday, which made the short trip extra special. We enjoyed a wonderful couple of days playing Scrabble, getting out to see "New In Town" (we had to since my brother lives in New Ulm, which is the setting of the movie), and doing little else. Just some visiting with a few relatives and a couple of friends. Nothing says "vacation" better than a light-to-nonexistent schedule. We absolutely savored this unusually relaxed visit home.

Of course the star of our family is my sweet niece Scarlett. Little Carly Kay celebrated her first birthday just a couple of weeks after our trip to Minnesota. So many things about her had changed since October when we had last seen her in person. It's just plain hard for an auntie to live 1,000 miles away from her niece! So of course I ended up snapping a bunch of pictures while we shared some "Scarlett time". I have to say, that girl wears a million faces! Every photo seems to display a different emotion - happy, curious, silly, mischievous, mellow, cheesy - just to list a few.

And here is one of them, and Scarlett is almost serious. Contently looking out at the quickly melting snow. And with the afternoon sun shining in those baby blues!
























(Go check out the other entries for the I Heart Faces contest this week! Theme: "No Flash")