Land of the free

We went to Owasso on Friday the 2nd to visit with family.  Owasso was having their Independence Day celebration that night so we brought our blankets out and found a spot where we could watch the fireworks.  The fireworks started around 9:45.  Eli fell asleep on my chest around 9:47 :) 

On Sunday we went to the 4th of July celebration in Yukon. Our church volunteers to serve ice cream and watermelon during the evening before the fireworks, so Andy helped serve and I chased Eli around for a couple of hours and then we settle into our chairs for the fireworks display. They started around 9:45. Eli was asleep on Andy's chest around 9:50 :) His normal bedtime is around 8:30, so staying up until 10 was a lot to ask of a 1 year old, especially twice in the same weekend.

Eli playing with his friend Sydney.  That large wet area on his shirt is mostly watermelon, and probably a little drool.

Kerrington chewing on her awesome glow bracelet.

I. LOVE. THIS. PICTURE.

Eli's 1 year photos

Dallas trip

Andy and I were feeling the need for a short little vacation, so we drove to Dallas.  We left Friday after work, stopped to feed Eli --twice.  dinner in norman and then pre-sleep nursing session around 830) and after sitting in ridiculous traffic we finally made it to our hotel around 1030.  Saturday morning we picked up IHOP, hung around the hotel until after Eli's morning nap and then headed to the Dallas World Aquarium. I am sure it was a great aquarium, but it was sooooo crowded and the walkways were so narrow that navigating the place while pushing a stroller was no fun.  We let Eli nap in the car on our way to our next stop....IKEA. woohoo.  I don't know what it is about that store.  Lots of their furniture is not at all my style, but I just LOVE looking at their room setups, and their kids stuff is so fun.  We wandered around for awhile, purchase only a few things and then headed toward home.  Two stops later (dinner and nursing session again) and we made it home around 10:30.  It was a quick trip but was just what we needed.  A little break from our ordinary routine and some time together as a family.

barbara manatee

eli was pretty fascinated by the sting ray

check out that kid's milk belly

watching the penguins swim

letting Eli wiggle a little before we stuck him back in the car

Summer fun

Eli has really been LOVING outside the past few weeks.  Anytime we let the dogs out he heads for the back door.  "side!" "side!" he says...meaning "take me outside now please!"  We bought him a little pool from wally world earlier in the summer and he loves it, but so do the dogs.  A few weeks ago Tucker decided that he was way too hot to be outside and dry so he plopped himself down in Eli's pool.  Funny and a convenient way to cool off our pups, but it does not keep the pool very clean for very long. Oh well, it is all in the name of family togetherness, right?

Oh yeah, and Eli is walking now :) What a big boy.

that's a bull

The evening of Eli's birthday, after the party was over and Eli had napped, we hopped in the car with our dear friends the Jesters and drove to Hobart, OK.  Why? Because Dane was going to ride a bull.  Dane is one of the young adults in our church who looks for opportunities to cross things off of his bucket list.  For some reason riding a bull was on the list, he knew someone and was able to get it set up and we were invited to be witnesses.  We couldn't miss this. 

DANE

VS.

BULL

check out that snot.

waiting for dane to get killed

safety gear? check.

oh, ok.  he is seriously going to do this.

ahhh!

oww. We have video, but I think it will take forever to load so just pretend like you got to see it.

So Dane's ride lasted maybe 4 seconds, and then it took 45 minutes to get this bull back into the chute to get him loaded in the trailer.  He was a young bull.  He didn't know the rules yet:  let someone ride you for a few seconds, knock them off, then get back in the peace and quiet of the trailer. He will figure it out someday.

So after all the excitement of the bull ride and watching them try over and over to rope the bull and get him into the trailer, the kiddos got to ride a horse!  Well, not really ride, but sit on a horse. 

He really wanted to pull some hair.

Kerrington loved it.

Such a fun evening!!  Thanks, Dane, for risking your life for our enjoyment!

no excuses and a first birthday party

I haven't blogged in forever.  Blogger has changed and it will take me a minute to get the hang of their new photo uploading, etc. so bear with me if things get messed up with this post.

Eli turned 1 on June 12th. We partied at our house with friends and family.

Lots of fun was had by all, especially this crazy kid :)

We had a contest to guess how many Cheerios fit in this huge jar.  No one came even close.  This was only 2 boxes, but was over 15,000 Cheerios!!

Ame and her special husband, Mike. aka my brother.

Eli and Uncle Mike

Jackson and Tucker.  Kids just love this dog.

Eli and Randi, our supernanny.

Friends

small tantrum...probably after I told him he couldn't play in the dogs' water bucket.

I made Eli his own cupcake (extra large with lots of icing and sprinkles).  At first he just picked up handfuls of icing, then Andy showed him that there was cake inside.  He dug in pretty quickly after that.

As Eli began really digging into the cake, Parker, my 3 year old nephew burst into tears. We were all a little puzzled as to what had upset him, then Mike finally said "There is more cake.  Eli doesnt have the only cupcake.  There is a cupcake for you too."  Parker settled down quickly after that.  I guess the thought of his cousin getting all the cake was just too much for Parker to handle.

 if you look closely at this picture you can see his fangs :)  he has all 4 top front teeth now, but I loved the fang smile while it lasted.

Eli decided that Grandma needed to try some of his cupcake, so he very thoughtfully pulled some partially chewed cake out of his mouth and offered it to her.  She ate it.  That is a good grandma.

So there were lots of things that I loved about this day, despite the little hint of sadness I felt every time I thought about how my little boy was not actually a baby anymore.  I loved watching him dig into his cake and smear it all over his face with no regard for cleanliness or manners--just pure joy and sugar crazed face stuffing.  I loved how he had way more fun crumpling wrapping paper and waving gift bags around than he did actually playing with his toys.  Now that all the paper is thrown away, he loves his new toys :)  I loved his face while he listened to everyone sing happy birthday.  It was a great day celebrating our sweet little boy and how he has grown in the past year.  And just for the record, I DID make it through the whole day without crying, though I was pretty close a couple times.