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!

10 months

WOW! I am already 10 months old! Time sure flies when you are having fun and learning so many new things. Now that I am 10 months old I am starting to cruise along the furniture. I'm not too fast yet but I know it is going to be a fun new adventure. The other day mom helped me to climb a few stairs. They weren't too interesting though which I guess is nice for mom because she hasn't bought a baby gate yet. In the past week I have decided that I want to eat whenever and whatever mom is eating, even if I just stuffed myself with baby food. I haven't figured out yet that she tricks me with a lick of the clean spoon when she is eating brownies and ice cream though. I love to go swimming and splash around and I especially love to splash in the bath tub. I am still a good napper and I go to sleep pretty well at 8 pm. If I'm up much past that I start to get a bit cranky and my parents wish I was asleep;) I'm a great traveler, whether that is in the car or on a plane. I love getting together with my friends who are the same size as me. I guess that about sums me up for now.

Love,

Denzil

Studying with dad.

I think I want to learn about the brain.

The "sprayground" was tons of fun. Denzil loves the water.
Camping with mom and dad near Blowing Rock. It was great despite the inconsiderate neighbors. I guess they thought that everyone wanted to hear the same CD over and over that skipped. Oh, and that it is okay to slam doors and yell all during the night. Lesson learned-drive through the campground with your windows down to see who the noisiest people are and camp as far away from them as possible. Oh, and national forest campgrounds are great! It was only $3 to stay the night. The last place we went was $18.
This is the "wild and scenic river" that we passed so we got out to splash around a bit. The only bad thing about this place is that people are way to lazy to take out the trash that they brought in with them in the first place. Come on people! It's not that hard even if there isn't a garbage can up at the top. Suck it up and carry out what you brought in. Nuf said.
This is some delicious Dilly Bread like grandma used to make it. Denzil loved it! Oh, and I was eating my lunch when he decided that he needed to have some too.

Washington

Since we were already in the West, the last leg of our trip was a visit to Nana and Poppy's house. We were able to visit with aunts and uncles and cousins. We had a great time doing crafts, going to a baseball game, driving around with Nana, and just hanging out.

Makyla and Denzil loungin'.

Denzil decided that he loves dogs. My parent's dog isn't too keen on kids (he moves away from them rather quickly) and Molly and Tink (Nana's dogs) liked to lick Denzil's face but weren't too happy when he decided to tug a bit on their fur. But Layla, she was all about Denzil and he couldn't have been happier. She would come and lick him on his face and let him get up next to her and touch her and then she'd come back for more when he would crawl after her.
These jammies have a sweet cape too. I'm sure that will be more fun when he realizes it is there.
Drinking mom's smoothie at Costco. I didn't think he'd get much because it was kind of thick but he was able to get quite a bit of it to come out for him.
Skyping with Daddy. He got excited every time we did it. So cute.
Denzil was a very good listener while talking to dad on the phone.
DJ and Denzil are just 2 weeks apart. They had a good time playing but I'm sure it will just get better as they grow up.
Jaxon with a nice hit at his baseball game. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we were able to get out and watch him play.
Thanks Nana for the great time.

Lake Powell 2010

If you know me then you know that my favorite place on earth is Lake Powell. I would go there over anywhere. Ok, maybe there is somewhere else I might go but I love Lake Powell and I want Denzil to love it too.

Denzil did pretty well with taking good naps at the lake but he didn't want to sleep through the night without me having to pick him up a few times and even let him sleep with me. He had a great time with all of his cousins and the snacks that they happened to leave him on the floor. He even found a boston baked bean.
Lovely ladies enjoying some sun and watching the wakeboarders and air chair.
I landed that one but I let go of the rope thinking I was going to eat it.
Denzil got to play with dolls while he was there but he mostly played with Jack's "guys" and some balls.
What would going to a lake be like if no one tried to catch a fish. I think there were a few catfish caught and one carp. The carp was the best tasting of them.
Denzil got his first ride on the jet ski. Apart from getting the life jacket on (which he hated every time) he had a great time on the ride. He really liked going over the waves and jumping a little bit.
He was able to get a viral rash along with a fever. It didn't seem to bother him too much after a little Tylenol was given to make the fever go down but it sure wasn't pretty. That was one of a couple different illnesses that went around the boat. I caught the other one the last night we were there but I think we both caught the illnesses on a smaller scale than the others who had it first.


Thanks dad for taking us to Lake Powell for the last 25 years! I have loved every minute of it, even when the weather isn't great. I love getting together with my family for some nice relaxation and playing around in the water. It truly is a beautiful place.

Utah Trip

So my dad has 2 lambs named Chocolate Milk and White Milk by my niece Kate. We decided to change the one name to Creamy because I thought White Milk was too plain. They had to be bottle fed every day at 8, 2 & 8 so we had plenty of opportunities to feed them. They are sure cute and I'm sure they will taste delicious after they are sufficiently fattened up;)

The mark on Denzil's face came the day before we went on our long vacation. He was climbing on a plastic file box that we had in our room and he slipped and caught the corner.

A few of the activities that we enjoyed while we were in Utah was a trip to Jungle Jim's (small rides for little kids) where Denzil and his cousin Nicalee played together a little bit.
We went to Wheeler Farm a few times. This one we went to milk the cows. It was pretty fun but I wish that the workers weren't in such a hurry to get it done.

We celebrated Denzil's 9 month birthday. There was cake and ice cream and presents! Actually it was Nicalee's 1st birthday but they are exactly 3 months apart and since I didn't get a post done for his 9 months here is a snap shot of him at the party. He is getting so big and learning so much. At his 9 month appointment he weighed 19 lbs 5.8 oz and was 28 inches. I think his head circumference was 18 in but I don't remember for sure. Either way, he is a healthy growing boy crawling around everything. During our trip Denzil started tasting some of the things I was eating like pancakes, waffles, french toast, cherrio's, watermelon, cantaloupe, chicken, turkey, cheese, bread, and a berry smoothie from Costco. He has liked almost everything so far, except the cantaloupe, but we will keep on giving him whatever as long as he opens his mouth for it.

aMAYzing

Well, I have been a slacker but here is the start of several new posts to come. We walked to the Greek Festival in the middle of may to enjoy a delicious gyro lunch. I'd walk 1.75 miles to get one of those again. Yum. We didn't stick around for any of the other attractions but I'm sure it was basically the same as last year.

We have been enjoying a little bit of pool time around here too. Denzil loves splashing and kicking his legs around. I think we've got a water baby on our hands.
Oh, and eating paper never gets old. We just try to keep it out of his reach for the most part.