Father's Day

Ah, Father's Day. A day where we all get to tell our daddy's that we love them.

And what better way to do that than by posing together...

and wearing a "My Dad is Rad" t-shirt...

(These are the best I could do! In the second picture he's pointing during a round of the "I love you" game)

and (of course!) going to a monster truck rally! What, you didn't go?

I only have these two pictures of the rally because we only made it 30 min. They (JZ and my dad) went early, while we (mom and I) waited for CP to wake up. We drove to the outdoor racetrack just as intermission started. After the 20 min. intermission we saw one small truck race. Caden thought that was fun. Then the big dogs came out. They were stinky and LOUD. We had taken ear protection for Cade, but he wouldn't wear them. He just yelled. Not quite as loudly as the monster trucks, but pretty close. He was inconsolable so I packed up my stuff and GaGa and I took him home. Actually we went to play at one of his favorite places - the mall. All the way there he said, "All done big truck. Play mall." His daddy was so pleased to hear that one!

JZ did love his Father's Day gift. About a month ago I took Caden to a Piggies and Paws party. They made prints of his hands and feet and then an artist took the prints and painted them into pictures. The finished product is something that JZ will cherish forever (I hope!)

It's CP's sweet little footprint made into a guitar!

Being a daddy is a huge, awesome responsibility. Caden P is a lucky boy, he has the BEST daddy in the world. I thought that I loved JZ before, but watching him become a daddy has made me love him ten times more.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day to my daddy too - the only guy in the world that might rival JZ for the Best Dad title!

Wordless Wednesday

Biker Dude

For his big #2, CP received a super cool Strider balance bike from GaGa and Papa. We've struggled a little to get him interested in it. Actually, he has always liked the bike, the problem has been the helmet. He's been pretty sure that he did NOT need to wear it. I was pretty sure he DID need to. For the last few weeks we have been talking about every bike rider we have seen and cheering for every one of them that was wearing their helmet.

Success!

We started out by practicing on the grass

But we were quickly able to move to the sidewalk

He also got a chance to ride his hand-me-down tricycle

After all that riding, that bike needed a bath!

Hooray for a summer of bike riding!

Breckenridge

We just returned from a week long super-duper vacay in Breckenridge. I don't have many pictures or stories to share because we were all L-A-Z-Y. We slept, we ate, and we slept some more. We were able to squeeze in a little fun - playing at the park...

...swimming (his favorite part was kicking the bubblers)
...playing in the arcade (he takes after his mama in his skee ball skills. We were able to spend a long time playing, but he used the same ball the whole time!)
...eating ice cream
... singing (this is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." His rendition goes, "Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, taaar

...and a LOT of lounging
Multiply that by 7 and you see what our vacation was like. We did get some special visitors on Sat. Nana and Grandpa Kim came to spend the day with us - playing at the park, swimming, you know, the usual! The five of us had a two bedroom condo. Jeremy, Caden and I had the master and we stuck Caden's rented crib ('cause he can climb out of every Pack-N-Play known to man) in the bathroom and covered the opening to our room with towels. Hee hee, it was perfect! He slept amazingly (I mean AMAZINGLY!) well in his new "night-night room" and allowed us all to rest and relax. What a wonderful time to be with our family!

Botanic Gardens

Last week my friend, Sarah, and I took the kids to the Denver Botanic Gardens, which has an AWESOME kids area. Love, love, love. It was supposed to be a beautiful day so we hauled everyone downtown for a little flower fun. Well, they're two, so they didn't really appreciate the flowers, but they did love running back and forth across the bouncy bridge (they were very brave!)

and through the tunnels

and they (well, ok, at least one) loved turning strange objects into "bacuums"

By this point it was really hot (can you see poor Sophie's flushed face?) so we decided a dip in the river was in order

We were prepared with towels and extra clothes, but I must say I was unprepared for the "terrible twos" that erupted from my son when I told him it was time to go have lunch. Yikes, that was a humbling and very embarrassing experience. Luckily, he got over it very quickly and was happy to eat his lunch. Mommy really does know best!

I can envision many trips to the botanic gardens in our future - Caden is still talking about it today. He says, "Girls. Garden. Nakey bath," which, for the non-mommy set, means that he went to the botanic gardens with the girls and he took a nakey bath with them. He didn't actually do that last part, but he thinks any water is a bath and afterwards he did have to get nakey. I can see where he's coming from.

Happy Summer!