Mark & Ashley’s Blog

 Does anyone else out there remember being in love with these things? Ah, the memories of carefree summers spent running around in the back yard catching rocks in the bottoms of your sparkly pastel jelly shoes! Let’s face it, Jelly shoes were just “it” when we were in grammar school! I thought they were like the one-hit wonders of the 80’s never to return again…but they’re back in full force. Ginger brought Elise a pair of her very own clear sparkly Jelly Shoes when she came down for a visit this weekend…so great. The touch and even the smell of them floods my mind with memories…good times, good times…. glad Grandma could pass the Jelly-torch on to Ellie :)

Jelly Shoes

Summer is offically here in Durango…yea!!!! And the river is running so high! Mark and some friends took the first raft trip of the year down the animas and the babe and I sat at the Smelter rapids to take some shots as they cruised by. The only thing is that I had just barely gotten there when here they came! The river was running so fast they flew down the river and I barely got there in time to take a video…crazy ;) …but non-the-less here’s an o.k. clip from the side:

And my oh my…little Elise is growing up…5 months and acting like a big girl! She sat up for the first time (well for a couple of seconds ;) ) without help. I wasn’t expecting it to happen and it did! wow…guess I’m a new mom! HA!  I was jazzed! She’s growing sooo fast! Check it out:

We’re moving again. Mark and I are going to watch over my mom’s property while she goes to the School of the Supernatural at Bethal in Redding, CA. So we’ll get to spend a year doing a whole lot of gardening staying in her cute little cottage.

Ellie just went for her 5 month check up and is doing great. She’s in the 98th percentile for height…no surprises there..and 25th for weight..the little bean stock! :) And Dr. Pahkididn’t hear her heart murmur…Praise God! For those of you who don’t know we had to get a bunch of tests done on her heart about a month after she was born. They found that she had a moderate VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect). The cardiologist, however, said that her body was handling it well as he saw no abnormalities but wanted to keep checking on it until it either closed up by her 2nd Birthday or would need to be surgically closed. So tons of people have been praying for her heart to heal. And prayers for us to get insurance for her (as we’ve been denied due to her VSD).

And praise God at her last visit Dr. Pahki couldn’t hear her murmur at all. It would be a total miracle if it really closed up in such short a time…so we’re scheduled to have the cardiologist look at it again! She also got accepted that same day by an insurance company who will cover her completely! So I feel soooo blessed and taken care of this month!

Mark’s been working hard as always at Dgo. Joes. Their 6th location is finally coming into fruition in Farmington. He’s working hard on that and on all the changes their doing to the company logo, look, drink names etc… They’ve completely remodeled the original store and it looks fantastic!

I’ve been enjoying being home with Ellie. We’ve been out in the sunshine everyday on runs, gym classes in the park, and a little swimming…she’s such a great baby. We are so in love with her. I’m sure every parent feels this way…but I just keep thinking, “we are the luckiest parents in the world…we got the best baby!” She is so mellow and happy. She loves just hanging out with us, or going out with friends. She’s learned to smile and is just smiling at everyone now! SOOO cute!

Much love to you all!