Happy Birthday, Jack - Part I

We officially have a toddler and a very independent two-year old. I guess the time has gone quickly when looking back, and I can't imagine life without Jack. We have so much fun together each day, whether it's building forts or building towers with blocks or just bringing every ball we can find in the house to the tennis courts to throw around.

Some of our favorite times are spent with our meetup group, North SD Babies. Jack and I have made some awesome friends in this group. This last month Jack and his friend, JR, celebrated their birthdays together. JR's mom and I had a Curious George themed cupcake party for all their friends. Here are a few pictures of the group. These kids are adorable together.

Time for Celebration

I'm slow to get things posted these days. No excuses... just pure laziness. I seem to enjoy my alone time when Jack naps these days. But I did not want to miss posting our big celebratory day earlier this month. It finally happened after knowing for a year. I got to "pin" my husband a Lt. Commander. We had a very small ceremony at work and then went out to breakfast at Wendy's. I know, I know... it needed more gusto than that, but when I did go out to buy things to decorate the house and dinner, CA had a major power outage that you may or may not have heard about, so we are still waiting to celebrate the big day. Here are some photos of the pinning ceremony at work though. Jared had asked his commanding officer, CAPT Jehu to lead the ceremony.

Summer Fun

One thing that's nice about having just one kid, is that you can easily pick up and go. And recently Jared has done a lot of traveling, so this last trip when he went to spend two weeks playing "army" in the desert, Jack and I headed north to Seattle to spend time with the Johnsons. What a nice break for me. Jack was thoroughly entertained by my twin nieces, Sarah and Rachel. Whenever he started to whine, I just asked him if he wanted to play with Sarah and Rachel and her cheered right up. I'm so glad they were just as entertained by him!

We tried to pack in a lot of fun things while we were there. But above all the swimming, ferry rides, lunch dates, bounce houses, and parks, Jack's favorite activities were camp fires for roasting hot dogs and smores (which we did twice) and of course, Grandpa's motorcycle.

We had a great time, but it's nice being home again. And we plan on staying put for awhile, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. More blogging to follow but for now we are off to a playdate.

Summer Vacation

We decided to relax this vacation and invade our families' homes in Utah and Idaho. We did pack both our video camera and regular camera, but they rarely made it out of the suitcase.

We had a great time helping my sister get her yard in at their beautiful new home. I only have two pictures of Jack from those few days at Teresa's house. We took a few breaks from the yard work at visited a few museums. Jack LOVES airplanes and so does his dad. Jack especially loved that he could touch these huge planes. If it wouldn't have been a 100 degrees that day, we might have stayed longer.

And even if I would have pulled my camera out more at grandma's house, we probably wouldn't get pictures different than Jack in the field with the horses. We couldn't keep him out of the field and he was not scared of those big creatures at all. And they seemed to like him too:)

(Yes, this is my baby laying in knee-high grass without a care in the world or a fear that a horse may come tromping by... )

(Holding on tight to Smokey's mane. Who needs a saddle?)

We had such a great time on our vacation. Jack especially loved exploring all the houses and playing with all the new toys. Perfect vacation for a one-year-old:)

The Strawberry Patch

A few Saturdays ago we decided to take Jack strawberry picking. Up until this weekend he ate strawberries every day--sometimes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well the thrill of finding strawberries and putting them in a bucket or eating them lasted about 5 minutes. He was then much more interested in finding all the mud puddles to squish his fingers in. And after that weekend of strawberries plain, strawberries in whip cream, and of course strawberry shortcake, Jack has not eaten another strawberry.

Family Fun in Florida

Yes, we are back in Florida. This makes two drips to the magical Disney state before Jack even turns two. Wish he could remember these fun times we are having. A few pictures will have to prove that we did take him on vacation:)

This time we are vacationing with the Johnson family. My parents started a tradition many years ago to bring all their posterity to Florida every four years to enjoy some good sunshine and fun-filled days at the Disney and Universal Parks. This year everyone was able to make it--all 34 of us. Can you believe that!?! I wish I had a picture of all us to share, but with that many people, it's hard to gather for a group photo in the midst of all the chaos. But I promise we all made it and had a fantastic time. So glad I could bring my little family to participate in the festivities.

The best part about the trip really is being with all my brothers and sisters and parents in one place now that we are all scattered. And it's fun to watch the cousins all interact--plus the older ones are great babysitters!

Animal Kingdom was probably Jack's favorite park. He loved all the animals and the safari ride. Too bad he was messed up on sleep and ended up passing out on his favorite ride, the Safari. One minute it was smiles and laughter and the next he was asleep in my arms.

We definitely packed it in. We made it to all the parks and found that afternoons and evenings work best. Neither Jack or I enjoyed standing in long lines in 90 degree weather.

Another great trip that we hope to repeat!

Happy Easter

We kept it low-key for Easter this year. We started our Easter traditions with Jack and he LOVED coloring Easter eggs. Especially when I brought out the stickers.

Jack must have been so excited for the Easter Bunny to visit because he didn't sleep a minute past 6:00am... or maybe that's just his usual wake-up time.... . He was pretty excited to get a basket full of trucks and bubbles.