Barb Schrier Besch and husband Ron Besch held a family celebration in Bellevue Iowa on July 4th.   They were celebrating their 60th Birthdays this year, plus a 39th Anniversary.   Family attended from all around, as well as a number of friends from Bellevue and Dubuque Iowa. Earlier that day in Bellevue was the town’s annual Fourth of July parade, marred this year as a pair of horses ran wild with 24 injuries and one death.   National headline news including this article in the New York Times.   Nevertheless we had a great family celebration. Photos are here and there are videos on our Schrier family YouTube site too.

Later in the week Jane and Steve Kock moved into their new home in Glidden Iowa, a few miles from the former home in Carroll.

Bill, Wayne, Alexandria (age five) and Elle (age 6 months) drove out from Seattle to Iowa.   We called the trip “two men, a child and a baby”.   The kiddos did surprisingly well on the 1800 mile journey along I-90.   Kathy, Bill and Elle (age 6-1/2 months) drove back from Iowa to Seattle along I-80.   We visited the Glenn Viehmeyer (Kathy’s Uncle) Aboretum near North Platte, Nebraska.   Photos of the journey are here also.

One video of the Besch Bash is below.

Elizabeth Anne had her fifth month birthday on June 7, 2010.   We celebrated by rocking her to sleep and getting up in the middle of the night to feed her six ounces of formula.  

But she’s been making a lot of progress.  Today, June 10th, she had her first rice cereal mixed with formula.  We figured it was about time to feed her solid foods because she would just suck down a 6 or 8 ounce bottle and still be hungry.

In the last couple weeks she’s also started to roll over (front to back), her hair has gotten long enough to have a “punk rock” effect, and she’s become very verbal – cooing and talking whenever she gets the chance.   Teething has started, and she’s become a regular drool monster.

Elle sleeping in her Playpen.

She’s become very good at grabbing objects and (of course) sticking them in her mouth.   Some of her favorite objects are a cloth flower, a cloth butterfly, and a set of beads.  Gee, almost anything is fair game if it helps here solving the teeth – hurting problem!

But generally she is a very agreeable kid.   Still wakes up about 3AM or 4AM, but now that we are feeding solid foods, she might sleep longer.   Hope springs eternal with Grandma and Grandpa!