Look Who's Walking!

I think my life just got a little more interesting!




This was from this morning. I took a video of him last night that was perfect and I was very excited to post it here but unfortunately I'm not a rocket scientist and I held the camera sideways. Mike was able to flip the video in the file but for whatever reason, when I import it here it's still sideways. I'm going to post it below even though it's sideways because I think it's a lot cuter. Chase is a man on the move now! He took his first steps about a week ago and now is taking them without assistance or prompting. Now we have lots of bruises and bumps to look forward to! Kaitlyn is so excited to see him moving except when he's coming at her to take a toy!

The kids spent Saturday night at Stacey and Bill's house and had a fabulous time. Kaitlyn couldn't tell us what she did while she was there except, "girl stuff". Poor Drew. He's so patient with her. Apparently she bossed him around a bit (maybe that was the girl stuff she was referring to???) and made him wake up at 5:30 which in his mind was the middle of the night! I'm glad they had fun! More importantly I'm glad they slept...Chase just cut his second top molar. ** He hasn't slept for us in about a week. I was terrified to leave him but I knew they'd be okay and it turned out better than I anticipated!







**For the record, I didn't notice the molar until last night. I wouldn't have knowingly subjected The Smith's to Chase's teething fun. :)

Vacation!

It's been a long time since I've blogged but we've been busy, busy, busy! Mike's been on vacation this week so we (in an effort to be cool and follow the trend) decided to do a stay-cation. It's just like us to be so with it (actually, we're cheap. Okay, I said it so the there's no need to feel awkward). We've been doing all the usual fun and entertaining things you'd expect anyone on vacation to do...Georgetown Loop train ride, Downtown Aquarium, Denver Parade of Homes and a trip to Costco (I wouldn't recommend the latter two). It's always dangerous to take Mike to Costco...you never know what you could end up bringing home! Once I got him past the LCD TVs I figured we were safe.

Yesterday's trip to The Parade of Homes could have been a nice day but ended up a total nightmare. First of all, there were eight enormous homes which, despite going on a Thursday morning, were very crowded. It was a little difficult to see the homes while carrying two kids (I'll spare the details on why they were being carried but they both weigh about 30 lbs. so it was a little tiring). I'm not sure why the trend in million dollar homes includes having separate upstairs areas that can only be accessed by different staircases. I can't say I'm a fan but I can say my thighs probably look better today than they did two days ago. We made it through four houses before I threw in the towel and headed to the car with two crying kids, an extremely annoyed husband and a $6 slushee. We should have seen the writing on the wall when we first got there and were nearly backed over by a slightly clueless woman in a mini-van. Again, I'll spare you the details.

Our trips to Georgetown and the aquarium were completely pleasant and memorable! The weather was beautiful in Georgetown (we were really blessed!). Chase is still saying "Bye bye Choo-choo". The only tears on the day were when I had to take away his lollipop because his shirt was soaking wet while we rode the train. Kaitlyn brought home a train whistle which she's really good at blowing and Chase got a cool new train book. We ended the experience with a visit to Beaujos for some mountain pie. YUM!

Wednesday's aquarium visit was great too. Chase got out of the stroller and walked a lot with help. He LOVED it. We had lunch at the restaurant in the aquarium next to the huge tank which is nice. After we left the aquarium we walked down to the downtown REI store and Confluence Park. It's really beautiful down there. I hope we'll go back on a weekend sometime soon and ride the trolley and take a picnic. I think the kids will really enjoy it. It's been great having Mike home this week. It's so much fun to do things like this with him.

Go Giants!!

These last two pictures are from Keller Regan's first birthday party. It was 100 degrees but the kids found ways to stay really cool!