29 years ago...

a lovely lady was at the hospital getting ready to give birth to a totally awesome baby girl and watching the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. It's kind of crazy to think that it has been that long since that day but oh the fun I have had. I still feel like I'm about 20 or 21 though. I had a nice birthday spent with Denzil shopping and then we had a nice Mexican dinner and ice cream with Kris that evening. Birthday's definitely aren't as cool as they once were, and that isn't because I'm sad I'm getting older, but it is nice to have people remember and send their wishes. It is exciting to think about what is in store for me in the coming year.

Washington DC

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to DC for the weekend. If you remember, Kris did some research last summer about hardware to help with "hammer toe." Well, they submitted his stuff to the Foot & Ankle Society and they had their meeting in DC so Kris was able to go to it and took us along for a weekend away. The meeting was in the morning and part of the afternoon so Denzil and I went to the National Zoo one morning. It was great! Denzil seemed to see a lot of the animals and didn't fuss at all, except when I walked through the misters when he was trying to sleep. We were able to see the orangutan up close, a baby gorilla, panda bears and a whole bunch of other animals and sea creatures. That evening we went over to the historic Alexandria and walked around town, ate Thai food, and had some ice cream. Oh, and I just have to say thank you to Russ and Sara for introducing me to putting a blanket or something over the top of the pack n'play. It can be hard to put a kid down in a hotel room when he can see you and wonder why you aren't playing with him but the blanket did the trick (of course we left one part uncovered so he had fresh air). The next day was rainy so Denzil and I just hung out and had breakfast and then he took a nap. When Kris was finished we went to Arlington Cemetery and watched the changing of the guard and visited my great uncle's grave. Then we went to the Iwo Jima monument and drove home. It was a great weekend and almost made me want a king size bed.

11 Months

Now that I am counting down the days until I turn one, let me tell you about me this past month. One thing I love to do it climb. I climb on the fire place, the baskets, my toys to help me climb onto the couch, mom and dad, the stairs (with adult supervision), basically anywhere I can get before mom or dad catches me. I like to climb over the couch and land on the blankets in the corner, climb into the toy box, and climb on tables (I do this at restaurants if mom and dad aren't smart enough to put me in the high chair). It is so much fun! I laugh a lot too. I'm pretty ticklish on my ribs and I just like to laugh when mom or dad laughs with me. I love the pool and it has been pretty hot here so we go often. I love to play with my friends and climb on them. I haven't gotten any new teeth in the past few months, I still have 6. I love to eat Mexican food and it's a good thing too because we eat it at least once a week. I can stand on my own for a few seconds and I'm cruising a lot more. I love to read stories, my favorite part is turning the pages. I'm getting so big now and I'm excited to learn new things every day.

Love,

Denzil

4th of July weekend

Since the 4th was on a Sunday we were able to celebrate all weekend long since Kris didn't have school on Monday. We were debating whether to go camping or not but at the last minute decided that it would be too crowded and we wouldn't be able to get to where we wanted to go until late in the evening decreasing the chances of finding an open spot. So, Saturday we went and had waffles and water baseball at our friends house. Denzil had a great time playing in one of the little blow up pools. I forgot to bring swimsuits for us all so he was the only one who got really wet.

After that we went to Denton for the Old Threshers Reunion. I don't know if you recognize these guys but they are the Riders in the Sky who we saw almost 2 years ago at Tweetsie. We just listened for a few minutes but they are kind of fun.

It was a place filled with old tractors, part of an old plantation (some old buildings like the kitchen, smokehouse, corn crib, black smith shop etc), draft horse demonstrations, horse pull, and some expensive not always the best fair food (at least the place that we picked). We had a great time despite the heat.

For the evening we went to someone's house with our friends and watched some private fireworks. They were pretty great except for the one that tipped over and started shooting fireworks in our direction. Needless to say, we ran pretty quick and then we stayed farther back to avoid another such experience.

The Great Smoky Mountains

Ok, I know this first picture isn't of the Smokey's but it's too cute so I had to post it. I told him not to climb up there and just a few seconds after I snapped this photo he pulled a book from the shelf and fell backwards. He hasn't done it since though so maybe he learned his lesson.

We went camping in the Great Smokey National Park a couple weekends ago with our friends the Jackson's. Rachel and I took the kids down early in the day so that we could try to get a campsite at Big Creek campground. It was a pretty uneventful ride down but it did take a little longer than anticipated due to construction on I-40. I don't know how long it is going to take them to make them feel like the rocks aren't going to fall onto the road again but it sure seemed a bit ridiculous to me. Maybe someone from Utah should come out here and help them out so it doesn't take them forever. When we go to Big Creek it was full so we had to go to Cosby Campground a few miles away. Cosby is HUGE with over 160 campsites so we were able to find 2 spots right next to each other and set up camp. Kris had all of our stuff in our car that he and Garett drove down later that night. By about 10 pm the boys still hadn't arrived and we were getting just a little bit worried. They showed up after 10:30 and they apparently were in traffic at the construction for well over an hour.
This is my genius of a husband, using plastic bags on his hands to prevent getting sausage gunk on his bare hands. We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs and sausage. Denzil ate almost a whole pancake by himself.
Then we took down camp and were on the search for a place to play in the water. After a long "1/4 mile" hike we found a great place to play. The boys found a crawfish which was cool but we didn't get a picture. They also tried to catch some little fish in their hats but weren't successful.
We jumped into the water from a little rock. It was pretty chilly but oh so refreshing.

Denzil has been giving me "kisses" lately and we fortunately caught one on camera. He is such a cute little guy!
I can't wait until we can go to the Smokey's again. There are so many places to see and so little time to see them in. Oh well, we will have fun trying!