Denver Red

So, Parker and I are playing in our hotel room this morning in Denver, while mommy attends an all day conference. We flew in yesterday so Little Man could be near mommy for the weekend. I am here purely as the babysitter, but so far it's been fun. Just the boys hangin out.

One of the fun parts of travel is the ability to see old friends, which is what Parker and I are doing today. My good friend, Kirby, and her husband live in the area. The plan today is to do a little site seeing and hiking. Haven't tried out the hiking backpack yet, so this could be an experimental disaster. But we are going to try, regardless. I'm just excited to spend the day with my good friend and introduce her to the Little Man.

Pictures to come!

PLEASE SLEEP!!!

Holy cow, we have entered some weird dimension of crazy baby pretty much every night the past two weeks.

I believe Parker to be part Vampire, in that he is WIDE awake every night around 3-4am. It's insane. He is the most amazing baby all day long. But in the darkness of night, he's up, he's active and he's on the prowl.

The difficulty in the situation is the Little Man has been mobile now for three weeks. This means when he wakes up, he doesn't just cry and look around. When Parker wakes up, he rolls over, gets on all fours, sits up and says "alright world, I'm up and ready to play."

We'll see how it goes tonight. We just had a nice long day at the beach. Parkers first time to play in the sand. He had a great time. We had bought a little pop up tent (aka: a cabana) and set up shop just south of the Santa Monica peer, in what I will call the "family beach."

After a jog through Venice Beach, lunch in the sand, a nap, and dipping our toes in some cold water, Parker had his fill of the sunshine and we headed home.

Let's hope he sleeps through the night. 

Bonus, new videos uploaded, check it out!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Our second full day at Snowbird and a fun one it was. Beautiful weather, empty lifts and a fun afternoon taking it easy with mommy and the Little Man.

Overall, the trip has started out wonderfully, except for one minor fracture... literally.

Yesterday afternoon, Chery (Grandma) was taking her very first run now Chickadee, the bunny slope. I slightly out of control kid almost collided with her near the bottom of the lift, so Chery tried to quickly get out of the way, but instead got her skis crossed and ended up falling against a hard-packed snow embankment, hitting her left shoulder "just perfectly." After a ski patrol visit, a trip to the infirmary and a ride down to the hospital in Salt Lake, Mrs. Osburn ended up with a fracture to her shoulder, rendering her left arm useless. One additional note, Chery, like me, is left handed, making this even more frustrating.

Luckily, she doesn't need surgery. Instead, she is keeping her arm wrapped tight for the next 8 weeks, making many simple things difficult (driving, working, and holding her grandson).

One a lighter note, today is Mommy's 29th +2 birthday. We spent the morning on the slopes, followed by an afternoon nap with Parker and a little shopping trip. Jaimie took Hannah, Cole and Ambrea down to the pool to swim, while daddy watched the little man. We had a wonderful birthday dinner of lasagna (thanks Lisa) followed by a cake Richard and Chery picked up on the way back from the hospital. Mmmm, mommy likes chocolate.

About to hit the sack, feel free to comment and wish mommy a happy birthday! As Jaimie just said, "what a perfect day."

Vacation: The Blog

Nothing sneaks up on you quite like a vacation. It's one of those things that you love to do, but you are never really ready or prepared to leave home for a few days, change your surroundings, make sure the house and pets will be ok, etc. Nothing holds more true when you have a seven month old.

It's no longer just annoying when you forget toothpaste (as we did) or not pack enough pairs of underwear (which we've been known to do), it's downright game changing. Forget something you need for a baby and you go into lock-down mode until the item can either be secured or located.

Luckily for us, we didn't forget much of anything for Parker. However, you also learn one more new little item when traveling with a baby. You either (a) bring more stuff or (b) replace the things you would normally put in your suitcase for his things. "I'm sorry, daddy. You can only bring two t-shirts this year because I need my stuffed elephant and Tigger.

So, just to keep everyone in the loop, we flew into Salt Lake City yesterday for our yearly ski trip with Jaimie's family up in Snowbird. Jaimie, Parker and I arrived at the airport yesterday morning and then had a little "camp out" while we waited for the rest to come in from Austin. With ten of us in the shuttle fan, plus luggage, skis and snowboards and a grocery stop on the way up the hill, you could barely see out the windows. But, after a short ride up the Little Cottonwood Canyon, we arrived at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird.

I know I've said it before, but Parker is an amazing baby to travel with. Besides the flawless airplane trip, the van travel from airport to ski resort take us up to around 7,000ft. In the past, with nephew Cole and niece Hannah were babies, they suffered from altitude sickness as we travelled up the mountain. But, Parker did great and has been enjoying his first day being passed from Grandma to cousin to aunt to uncle then back to Pappa. 

I will be trying to do regular updates from the mountain, so keep a look out. And also, check out the newest photos just posted.

PARKER CAN CRAWL!!!

Yes folks, it's official. Parker is now an "on the move" kinda baby! 

While daddy was in San Diego speaking at a conference, mommy saw Poops crawl across the daycare floor. She cried, another mom cried... all was well.

Mommy called Daddy at lunch to let him know, who was very excited and bragged to a bunch of technology guys (who could care less) about how brilliant his son is. Lucky for daddy, this all happened the same day he was to fly home. EVEN luckier, daddy caught an earlier flight and was able to see Poops crawl across the floor (for the remote control) at home before he went to bed.

Daddy was so excited, that he continued to refer to himself in 3rd person throughout the entire blog. Poor, excited daddy.

OK, so check back and I'll have some photos to add very soon!