DIllon - 9 Months

Wow - can you believe that he is 9 months. Dillon is the happiest baby, but man does he want to be on the move. He has not figured out how to do that yet. I think it will be any day. DIllon has three teeth and the 4th on is popping through as I type! There is not a type of baby food that Dillon does not like, but he is not a fan of things with texture. We will work on that this month. Dillon loves to go on walks and goes crazy when we see a dog on a walk - even better was a trip to the pet store at the mall last week - he was in heaven. Another favorite thing is hanging at the pool which we will be doing a lot of this month!
Too cute not to share - after a long day of adventures it was just too much to make it through dinner!

Happy Father's Day - 1st Rockies Game

Payson was so excited to spend Father's Day at the Rockies game. And even more, he was not just going to the game with Todd, he was going with both Grandad and Pops. How cool is that! Not sure if Rockies games are totally Payson's thing, but he did get spoiled with many treats and when he just could not sit still any longer he was able to go join the thousands of other children that were on the playground at the ball park!
Payson's first game was against the Detroit Tigers, and the crazy thing is that for both Todd and Pops their first Major League Baseball game was seeing Detroit also!

It might be impossible to get a good picture of a 3 year old

Payson with Pops and Grandad!


My favorite guys acting goofy on Father's Day - Todd - you are a great Daddy!


Loving Dillon's Shirt - My Dad is the Man!

Running - a family event

After I had Payson I found one of the easiest ways to work out was to go on a run. I have never really enjoyed running, but I somehow have stuck to it. I have found that I am starting to enjoy it more and more, and one thing I really like to do is compete in local races. The broken wrist sidelined me for a few months, but I knew I had to get my post baby body into shape so I needed to sign up for something for motivation. I found a great 5k race that was not far from my house (and down the streets from my parents house) that seemed perfect for our whole family. This race was put on by Parents Magazine and their message was that everyone in the family needs to get out and exercise. After my race, there was going to be a Kid's Dash and Payson was very excited to participate. He was even more excited when I first told him we were going to be in a race and he asked what color race car would we get!
Overall the race went well, my time was better then I expected and it was a hilly course, I heard many people complaining about that at the end. Todd, Payson, Dillon and my mom were on hand to cheer me on at the end, and Payson was so excited he ran onto the course and ran the last couple 100 yards with me. There was plenty of food and play things for kids, and Rocky the Nuggets mascot came out to help with the kids race.

Getting our racing numbers...

My favorite running partner.


My favorite cheering squad

Payson giving "nucs" to Rocky

Running so fast

Victory Ribbon!

Summer Pool Time and Silly Payson-isms

The pool is officially open and it is impossible to get both Payson and DIllon out of the water. They both love it! Swim lesson in late spring were the perfect thing for Payson because he is like a fish in the water. I feel very confident with him in the water while I am floating around with Dillon. It is going to be a great summer. Here are some pics from this past week, we had a fun pool day with our friends Hudson and Grayson and then the next day we were able to go to the pool with cousins Susie and Porter.

Hudson and Payson in their matching Spiderman googles

Dillon and Grayson just floating along!

One thing that swimming does for sure is makes kids very hungry - snacks are necessary for all pool outings. Everyone loves swimming so much I was only able to capture their pics while snacking!




Now, nothing to do with swimming, but everything to do with Silly - I had to capture some of my recent conversations with Payson. He cracks me up with some of his thoughts and rationale.

Payson (while driving to the pool) - Is Miss. Emily following us?
Me - Yes, she is, but you know she is your Aunt, you can call her Aunt Emily
Payson - That is weird, Aunts are bugs

Payson is going to a fun summer session of classes at the church where he will attend preschool in the fall. When I picked him up the other day he was still painting a picture so I waited until he was finished to leave.
Me (in front of many other Moms and the teacher) - Payson, did you have fun today?
Payson - Yep, we learned about God.....Again

Ha, ha - I think I need to get this kid to Sunday School!

You heard it here first...Dillon's First Word!

We were eating dinner the other night and Dillon had a lot to say. Soon though he started with this word and kept saying it over an over again. Of course I was proud, but I knew i was not hearing things when Todd looked at me and said - well, it is official, there is Dillon's first word. The next morning at breakfast he started up again and I quickly grabbed my video camera to catch him in action.

1st Bowling Adventure - This is AWESOME

A friend of mine shared with me summertime deal where kids bowl for free. I signed Payson up thinking that on a hot day this will be a great activity for us to try. This past saturday was our first outing to the bowling alley. Todd was camping this weekend, so I was lucky to have Kirstin come up from the Springs to experience this first. Payson really had no idea what to expect, but he was excited to get bowling shoes and get ready. Check out these pics, can you tell he is excited.





I just want to remind everyone that I am on the mend from a broken wrist, so I was bowling with my right hand, even though I am left hand. But, considering I had bumpers up on our bowling lane, I probably should of gotten a better score! I know I am competitive, but until I got to the 9th and 10th frame Payson was beating me! This kid is an amazing bowler, almost broke 100 on his first game. Check out the video to see how much he loved it.

Check out the scoreboard!

Why Baths are Necessary

No real explanation needed for the following photos. Even dirty, Dillon sure is cute.





But, sitting in a giant rubber ducky is even cuter.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo might be the best zoo ever

This past week I decided to spend a Tuesday with my best friend Kirstin. Luckily she has been working her tail off and has some flexibility in her days! So Tuesday I loaded up the boys and took off for adventures in Colorado Springs. On the drive down I talked to Payson about some of the activities we could do, and as soon as he heard "at the zoo we can feed the giraffes" he knew that is what we should do.

We could not of asked for a better day - the weather was amazing and I really can not say enough great stuff about the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. They have a great jr. zookeeper summer intern program so there were many people on hand at most exhibits to answer questions. This zoo has many great things for the kids to play on and climb on, so it is perfect for a three year old with a ton of energy.

The day was great, but two things stood out in my mind as favorite memories. One, Dillon almost got licked by a giraffe, and two, Payson thought we were going to be feeding all the animals. When you first walk into this zoo you have the opportunity to feed the giraffes, the next exhibit are the pumbas. We were lucky enough to walk by when they were handing all the kids heads of lettuce to throw into the exhibit. Once Payson got done with that he ran ahead of us shouting "Come on, let's go feed the next animal. Mommy, do you think we will be able to feed an aligator?"


see - he is about to lick Dillon - how exactly would I clean that?





Pretending to be an elephant...

Swing time at the Park

The boys like to ride together on our daily walks to the park.





Nothing is better then swinging away at the park. Dillon is in love with the swings. As soon as we arrive he is leaning out of the stroller to have me carry him to the swings. Payson begs me to push him higher and faster, so I have quite a workout with both of them in swings. But, as you can see from the wonderful weather we had at the park, i would not trade this sort of day for anything!

This last picture has nothing to do with the park, but I had to share...Payson is reaching the age of not really needing a nap everyday. This statement makes me sad, I love his nap time. Anyways, the other day I told him to go up to his room and just play quietly. Twenty minutes later, this is what I found.