Captain Cole Turns 1!

Our baby boy had his first birthday! I think his favorite part of the day was hearing everyone sing “Happy Birthday” to him. It made him smile…and the parents too.

Because of space issues with two large families, we broke up the celebrations into two. Both were special:

At the first family party, we enjoyed Grandma Sherrie’s Sunday dinner, birthday cake, and presents. Afterwards, Dave blew up balloons for all the kids. When it was time to leave, I found several of the kids jumping off furniture trying to fly with their balloons. I’m sure Grandma will appreciate hearing that.

At the second party, we broke out some pirate decor.

While everyone gave their undivided attention and laughter to Cole during his cake eating, he gave a, “Boo!” to all of his onlookers, followed by some giggling. He thought he was pretty funny and so did we.

Oh, Baby Cole. Where do we start? You’ve grown so fast in such a short time! You are ALWAYS happy, and everyone notices that. You love attention, especially from your daddy. Dogs, balls, watoo (water), and playing in Kate’s room are some of the things that you love most. You’ve stolen the hearts of your sister and parents. And you’ve made our world even brighter. Happy birthday, Biggest Boy!

Getting Our Cornbelly’s On

I think the sweet secret of Cornbelly’s has been divulged. Mayhem…that’s what it was; people everywhere!!! It’s apparently the place to be come October. Nevertheless, we relished in the pumpkin pandemonium with my brother Shane and his family.

Slides. Cole is now enchanted by them. He was all smiles at the top, but upon touching his feet to the grass…screams (angry ones). He couldn’t get enough of them!

The above monster is a sure-fire way for emptying out Kate’s tear supply. She’s always convinced she likes it, but right about when we’re weaving through its intestines, the tears always find a way out.

Sister, up in a cow’s bidness

The Outer Space maze was much better than last year’s. We zipped through it in a record 25 minutes! The line for the cow train, however…not so much. The wait took forever so we savored the moment when we finally got to ride.

A couple navajo tacos, kettle corn, and hot cocoas later…we called it a night. A rather good one at that.

Jackson

After Yellowstone, we partied it up Cowboy-style by spending an extra night Jackson Hole.

We drove through Grand Teton and awed at the jagged, snow-capped mountains. Once in Jackson, we checked in at the Lexington Hotel, where we enjoyed another sweet, discounted deal that my dad came across. Not only that, but they had a swimming pool (which the kids very much enjoyed), as well as a full breakfast bar, and a separate room for Cole (which Dave, Kate, and I very much enjoyed when it came time for sleeping).

We spent most of our time strolling Jackson’s Town Square; buying souvenirs, getting a bite, and of course, snapping awesome pictures like the following:

This is what Dave wanted as his souvenir (with Tail, of course). Alas, $34.95 IS a little steep for a single pair of underwear. He took one for the team and settled on a $6 Jackson Hole magnet instead. I think he should have gone for sexy undies, myself.

Here’s the whole clan again under the famed antler arches:

We also visited a very disappointing fish hatchery. But were we REALLY expecting anything amazing? Yes, yes I was. And I was sorely let down….

…but the little sea otters that lived just outside were pretty darn cute and redeeming:

And, before leaving town, we got suckered into the tourist trap, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum.:

Yep, Dave and Cole’s faces just about sum up how interesting the museum was

Jackson Hole, Wyoming: lovely, in a touristy kind of way.

Jelllystone

We road tripped it to Yellowstone with my parents and my brother’s family. Cole yelled from the back seat the whole way there. It was mostly painful. The only thing more painful was trying to get him to sleep in the hotel that night. We were pretty sure we were in for it.

Luckily, Junior shaped up. By the next morning, he’d had a change of heart and decided to enjoy the family vacation.

So here’s our hotel: The Three Bear Lodge in West Yellowstone.

It burned down a few years back (judging by old photos, this was probably a blessing in disguise—just sayin’). They salvaged all the wood they could and built much of the furniture for the rooms. It was very spacious and nice. And we even got two nights for the price of one; a very sweet deal.

Waiting for breakfast with 3 bears, and some stuffed ones too

So here we all are just moments before entering Yellowstone!  So exhilarating!!! This was Dave and the kids’ first time, and I hadn’t been since I was a kid so it was really a new experience for all of us.

The next few pics are of us enjoying a little geothermal activity:

The Artists’ Paintpots, a favorite

Old Faithful; turns out…she may be more “old” than “faithful”. She was about 7 minutes late shooting off.Midway Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin (I thought this place was really stunning)

We saw tons of animals:

The Bison certainly had places to be; we came across two different buffalo tromping down the middle of the road. It was all a little unnerving having a 2,000 pound, horned beast casually passing by our window.

Can you see it?

A black bear! I can’t believe we actually saw one!

The elk were the most plentiful. Near Mammoth Springs they hung out on the lawns of all the buildings; walking down steps, in between cars (scrape, scrape), and could be seen everywhere you looked. So amazing! Lyle certainly found his Zen!

Other sightings included a coyote, bald eagles, squirrels, geese and ducks.

And last, here we are in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone:

This is where “YELLOW stone” gets its name:

This is us at the top of the waterfall pictured below:

I seriously never would have guessed that a trip to a national park could be so much fun. Am I just getting old, or was it really that fun? I guess I can’t be too sure. But there really was so much to see and do that it made for a great trip.  I’d say Yellowstone was phenomenal.

The Brady Bunch Visits Hawaii

...or at least that's what Dave said about this picture.

We had our "other" set of children this last week, like our past couple of October's. Only one kid puked this time...so that's progress. And really, you know the kids MUST be enjoying themselves if their innerds can't even contain themselves.

Mini Cheerleaders

Friday night was cold, extremely. As luck would have it, Friday night was also when Kate and the rest of the Mini Cheerleaders performed during A.F.’s Football Half-time Fundraiser.

We bundled her up and I couldn’t help but think of this guy:

while looking at this girl:

Oh, such the cute cheerleader!

Mud, rain, and bitter coldness aside…all turned out well. Kate got to be coached by her cheerleader cousin, Cabrina, and performed alongside her two cousins, Bella and Cammie.

She even got to perform a dance to her favorite, Justin Bieber, before doing the cheers.

I think Kate may have been the youngest one there, but she was so cute and loved playing cheerleader for the night. And, of course, her parents’ hearts swelled with pride while watching her!

“Are we going to do any more cheerleading shows, Mom?”

“Not till next year, Sweetie,” I told her.

She was very much bummed. And rightly so.

Creepy Crawlies

We went to our first ever Family Night at the Dinosaur Museum. Grandma Sandra and Grandpa Reese came along for a night of buggy adventures.

Kate made a spider sucker, or at least watched the lady make it for her:

Cole and the dad swatted bugs (you know, manly stuff):

Kate found the centipede that was hidden in the museum. As her reward, she received a beetle (a gummy one); good thing, too…this little girl despises real bugs.

We wrapped up the night with dinner at the deli. Mine and Dave’s sandwiches both sang to us they were so good…or we were just starved. In any case, our night was great.