Big Island

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, Joe was in town for the shenanigans of his bachelor party weekend. We hit up Hiawatha for a round of golf, Pepitios for dinner and Purple Judas' first snap as a Viking, Brit's for lawn bowling and then crashed at a cabin on Lake Minnetonka for the remainder of the weekend. Joe's buddy John Koch was kind enough to lug us around on the lake Saturday, and as you can imagine after seeing the above pic, once we found the 'Big Island' we didn't stray far.

Great, great weekend (although we probably could've survived on a few less beers!).

5 months

Evie hit the 5 month mark on the 27th. I'm sure I'll say this with every age update post, but I just plain cannot believe how quickly time flies.

A few of Evie's latest tricks include...

• Tongue rolling
• Barrel rolling across a room in the blink of an eye
• Sitting, tripod style

A few of Evie's latest favorite things...

• LaTosha, E's daycare teacher, and all her new friends in GMI's Yoplait/Purple Room
• Flirting through a mirror while doing 'tummy time' with her new daycare buddy, Nicholas
• Hair, fur, hat and glasses grabbing, pulling and chewing

The pose + 1

The main reason Linds and EJ trekked down to Cinci last weekend was to attend Dr. Jaime's bridal shower. Linds, Kelly, Jaime and Natalie have been BFF's for as long as they can remember and for the past 17 or 18 years whenever they've been able to gather in the Rice family kitchen they hop in this exact pose and snap a picture.

It looks like they've opened up the doors to adding new members to the pose... I can't wait to see this picture in another 17 0r 18!

Cin City

Linds and Evie flew down to Cinci last weekend and apparently our little ham was quite the hell raiser (signs that maybe she is starting to take after dad a bit!).

Pictured above are some of her highlights: goofing a perfectly good photo opp with Aunt Ashley with her "raspberry" face, attempting to expose Tara Elson, aiming to convince Papa Bob to take her out for a spin on his HOG and harassing Maxi the family cat.

I guess this is what happens when dad's away.

Solids, take 1

Apparently, once an infant hits the four month range and appears to show interest in watching Mom and Dad eat... he/she is ready for the solid stuff.

We've been wavering on whether or not Evie's been seriously eyeballing us at the dinner table... that is until we heard that babies on solids sleep through the night at a much higher clip than those purely on milk or formula.

Well, now we're certain.

Already?!?

At barely 4.5 months, Little Miss Evie Jane had her first Parent-Teacher conferences.

While the bar isn't too terribly high just yet, Evie seems to be keeping up with the Junior Joneses quite nicely!

Mathletes

Check out the video above for a glimpse into Linds and La's epic tetherball battle from the Geneva weekend.

I count 17 whiffs and 6 ducks. Impressive ladies... impressive.

Lake Geneva

The Backer clan had its annual cabin week vacation at Lake Geneva Resort in Alexandria, MN last week. Since I was only one week into my new gig at GMI I couldn't quite justify taking a week of vacation so Linds, E and I just joined the crew for 48 short hours.

Evie certainly made the most of it conquering the art of holding one's own bottle, sunning herself while taking cat naps on the beach and enjoying her first taste (literally) of both MN lake water and sand.

Pictured with Evie are "cousins" Tanner (~9 mo) and Maddie (~3 yr).

Doggy daycare

Linds, Evie & I... and our primary dog-sitters are off for a lake weekend in a few short hours, so Griff and Maya will be checked in to a kennel. Well, the 2009 pampered dog version of a kennel that is.

From 3pm today (Friday) 'til 7pm on Sunday, if you're looking to kill some time surfing the web, feel free to watch them at the Pampered Pooch Playground's streaming web cams by clicking here.

Back at it

On Monday, I re-entered the working world... which means EJB entered the world of day care.

I'm back at General Mills in a role very similar to that which I held during my internship in 2008. Long story short, I'll be doing customer/retailer-based market research. I'm really excited to be back in this particular group... and from what I'm learning about my assignment I think its an excellent fit!

Evie is at the General Mills day care (pics to follow) which is housed just a few hallways and doors from my desk. Day one was certainly a bit hard to swallow, but we're adjusting. I'm able to sneak down for a quick hug and "chat" daily... and occasionally even get to see her being strolled around campus in by her caretaker, LaTasha. E makes my day by greeting me with the biggest, proudest smile every time I catch her... but I'm already getting those, "da-ad, I'm with my friends now... why don't you run along" looks, I swear.

It only took 4 months. Ugh.