Hello Hastings!

We're here! Hastings is a great community and we are really excited about living here. We found a great town home that we are renting. There is so much space in the kitchen that Scott has his own pie baking drawer! Now, if we can just find him the time for baking pies. He is really enjoying his new job and thrilled to be working with a great group of people. Next week as the plant goes into turn around he will work 14 hour days for about 4-6 weeks. In addition to that, he will work nights for the first couple of weeks. He'll be okay though...hard work has never brought him down.

The first week in town was short. The movers unloaded our things, we had a couple of days to unpack boxes and find what we needed (thank you Sarah J for helping me!) and headed back down south to Ames, Iowa where Brent and Sara were married. We spent the weekend celebrating and Jacob got in two days of pool time with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tom, Aunt Becca and Uncle Robert, and his cousins, Noah and Hayden. He banked some snuggle time with Grandpa and Grandma Sinclair and helped them celebrate their wedding anniversary and Grandpa's birthday.

Upon returning to Hastings, Grandma J arrived for the week. She hung out with Jacob while I drove around town (first stop - Chamber of Commerce) and found a fantastic chiropractor (more on that later), a place to buy Melly's and Luna's food, and the hardware store. We got more things put away and started settling in. We took Jacob to the falls (he thinks it's pretty great that he has his very own waterfall that he can visit whenever he wants) and managed to get lost on a little road trip and end up in Red Wing.

We couldn't be more excited to be here and we're looking forward to the next phase in the Sinclair journey.

A bittersweet, but mostly sweet, departure

It's 10:23am on Sunday, our last day of living in Rochester, Minnesota. Jacob enjoyed his rice cereal and pears for breakfast, while Mom & Dad savored buttermilk waffles with fresh blueberries, homemade maple syrup, and sausage (eaten in shifts, of course). With the rhythm of Jacob's breathing keeping pace on the baby monitor while he recharges his batteries during a morning nap, Nik and I have been talking about leaving Rochester, and while eager to leave and move on to Hastings we've been reminiscing some short-lived but amazing events that we've experienced while in Rochester.

Most obviously, it is here in Roch that the Sinclairs went from 2 to 3, with yet another January birthday added to the families long list of January births. Rochester will always be remembered as the town where Jacob was born, saw his first snowflake, ate his first spoonful of cereal and fruit, babbled his first "word", cut his first tooth, and went for his first walk (to name a few memorable moments).

Rochester is also where Mom started work in her new career as an esthetician, where Dad transitioned from an Air Force uniform to jeans and t-shirt (my uniform of choice by the way), and where Nikki later started a second career as full time Mom. It's where we lived in a modest town home sandwiched between a rodeo clown with an affinity for loud clown music and a sweet family of four with whom we traded pet sitting duties while one of us was away. Here is where Jacob felt his first chiropractic adjustment, and Scott went under the knife for knee surgery (Nikki says I completely over dramatized the event, but I still say that it was quite traumatic). Perhaps most notable, it is here in Rochester that we learned that when faced with life's challenges-reuniting after a long year apart, raising our firstborn, balancing needs of self, spouse, and baby-that even in the midst of those challenges we still stand strongly united when we look to God for our guidance and take time to appreciate these many experiences.

Rochester has been good to us, but it's time to move on. To new careers, a new house, a new church, and a city we hope to be calling home for a long long time. We will look back on our time here Rochester with many fond memories, and look forward to making many more a few miles north of here. Look out Hastings, here we come!

Jake and I made a quick trip to Bemidji last week. We got in a couple of nice walks but the wind was blowing so hard most of the week we didn't get out on the lake once. Despite the hurricane force winds we had a nice time relaxing and hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Ernie.

He cut his top two teeth so he had a couple of rough nights, but now that he's got them punched through he seems to be doing a bit better. I hope he starts crawling soon - he needs to exert some of his energy. He loves food - he's eating rice cereal, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, pears, applesauce, and bananas. He's very passionate about his food...maybe we've got a future chef on our hands.

Dog Days of Summer

Giggles

And then...

Here's what Jacob had to say about his evening with Sarah - it sounds like they had a great time while Mom and Dad were at dinner.

You'll also notice that he is saying something that sounds a bit like "da da"...this is new. I am quite certain that Scott practices this with him on the weekends while I am at work.

You, Me, and Pierre makes three

This past week has been jam packed. Our house went on the market on Monday and since then we've been running around, packing, fixing, cleaning, and organizing to make the house look presentable for that buyer that we are hoping will come along sooner than later.

Despite the chaos, we were able to enjoy an early anniversary dinner at Pierre's Bistro compliments of Sarah and Mike. We drove up late afternoon and enjoyed a long leisurely dinner while Sarah babysat. We didn't spend the entire dinner talking about Jacob - but with him being the center of our world right now we touched on the subject. As I was taking this picture of Scott I asked him what is his favorite thing about being married for 7 years. I'm not sure he answered.

Scott started his new job today, and other than the hour commute he is extremely excited about his new endeavor. We are looking forward to getting moved to the St. Paul area so that Scott isn't spending two extra hours a day on the road.

Jacob is as silly and cute as ever. He is eating carrots now - and for the most part seems to like them. Next week he will get to try squash, and then after he's tested them out we'll move on to some fruit. We aren't in too big of a hurry to give him the sweet stuff. If he has inherited his dad's sweet tooth then we're afraid he will never eat his vegetables again. He's been sleeping quite well - still up for at least one feeding in the night but it usually falls sometime between 2 am and 4 am. I'm used to the schedule now and sometimes I wonder if I am actually sleep walking to his room. He's doing some of the same antics as when he cut his bottom teeth, so we figure that the top two are on the way. He's sitting up well on his own, rolling around, and hanging out on his tummy more often. We think that he thinks about crawling (you can see in his eyes how desperate he is to grab Melly's fur) but no go yet.

All in all things are great in the Sinclair household. We are enjoying every minute outside that we can. Next week Jacob and I are heading up to Bemidji for one more visit before the summer ends. Hopefully the lake hasn't froze over yet so I can get some skiing in.

Back to the Olympics...Michael Phelps is incredible!