Just when you least expect it....

Speaking of the Minnesota State Fair (see 9/11/07 post below).... As I mentioned, Ella loved the little kids' carnival rides, especially the purple race car. We also put her on this garishly cute little choo-choo train, since she rode one earlier in the summer at Como Park and LOVED it. This one had an African safari animal type theme, and she was very excited to ride in the car that had the giraffe on it. (One of her favorite animals-- also stemming back to the highly influential Como Park Zoo trip, when she got to be practically nose-to-nose with one of the beauties there). But I digress...take a look at how excited she is to be riding in the giraffe car here....

And here.....


So just imagine the shock and sickening feeling we had when we saw that THIS was the image painted on the side of the car that our gorgeous, brilliant, resilient, smart-as-a-whip Ethiopian toddler was sitting in...


Yep, yep, your eyes are not deceiving you, it is exactly what it looks like, all right: the incredibly racist cartoon of the savage African tribesman, lazily napping while his 'dinner'- the bumbling white explorer escapes from his big cauldron. Complete with bone-in-the-top-knot, no less.

Speechless, sad, and nauseous too.

Summer Recap

The wind picked up this afternoon, and blew in the crisp air of autumn. Summer is over. We had a great summer with Ella-it's been so much fun to see her dicover new things.

Like swimming. I actually feel a bit guilty- I'm a terrible mom- because we didn't get this child into a swimming pool until practically the end of summer. She is crazy about everything related to swimming and the water (including her beloved bathing suits).
Ella's first pool experience was the last weekend in July or so, when we attended the Ethiopian adoptive families celebration in the St. Paul. We stayed at a hotel where I got to meet several 'forum buddies' - women who are also ET adoptive moms and their amazing kids, and got to catch up with a few of the folks we traveled to ET with back in December. SO great to meet these extraordinary families, and to see how everyone's kids are doing! (Did I take pictures? No. I was too busy keeping track of my wild child to pull the camera out, except once, when I got a shot of E. up on the outdoor stage during the Ethiopian dancing. She's not even dancing. She's pouting, as I recall...)

Back to the swimming-- she got to do a lot of it during our two week trip back to Montana. We spent a week in Chinook with Kent's folks and various siblings and their families. Here she is with also-2-year old cuz, Nevana. Such cuties!

Here, cousin Nathaniel doesn't seem to believe Ella's fish story....

Those Dolezal love to do the BIG FAMILY thing: we had 7 kids in the house, 4 of whom were 3 and under! Getting out the door was pretty much like this:

We then spent a week in Bozeman with my brother Chuck, his wife Ann and the World's Greatest 1st Grader, Annika. The girls met back in March, and got along very well, considering they're both only kids, and we were still in the first few months of attaching with E. (A bit of a problem with jealousy there...). But this time, just a few months later, and the girls were just great together. Ella ADORES Annika, and followed her around everywhere, imitating everything she did. Annika was super-patient and a great big cousin! Here are some super-cute pics of the Goggle Girls. And look how cute they are in their pumpkin helmets...

And finally, a few pics from our day at the Minnesota State Fair a week or so ago. The amusement park rides for teeny kids was a big it overall, and she found a ride she loved even more than Pronto Pups-- the race car ride! I love her two-handed steering here and the rapt expression, her silly grin and then, the ride ending, she signaled "more" as the car came to a stop right in front of us.

In other big news.... Kent began his master's program at the Hubert H. Hmphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the U of M, so he's driving in to the Twin Cities at least 3 times a week. It's not a bad drive- a straight shot west on 94 to MSP, but it takes up to an hour and a half, depending on city traffic. Just two weeks in, and he's so excited by his courses, the dynamic and fascinating instructors, and his fellow grad students. He IM'd me the other day from the grad student lounge at 'the Humph'- he was so excited to tell me how plush it was, and how you need key card to get in!