Oliver's First Vacation

Oliver has done very well on his first vacation. We head home tomorrow and it's been a very busy week. Saturday we had 25 relatives at Mom and Dad's house and Oliver charmed them all. Sunday we were visited by Grandma and Van, which he loved. Jason and Krista stopped by and they got an idea of what it to come in their very near future after their baby is born this summer. Today we had lunch with Nancy and toured around Chewelah. Oliver slept for the tour, but we'll do it again when he is older and knows what is going on. I have more photos to upload, but here are a few. We hope everyone had a nice Easter!

Oliver Smiles

Easter

Here are some photos from Easter Day. Oliver got to meet his Great Grandma Garner, which he had lots of smiles and giggles for.

Oliver in the Easter Basket. He wasn't in the mood for photos, so we couldn't get a smile out of him.

Oliver and Great Grandma Garner

Great Grandma Garner, Grandpa Garner and Oliver Oliver enjoying Easter dinner with Grandma. On the menu, Rice Cereal.

Grandma and Rio, riding through the house

Shane and Oliver

Oliver's Baptism

Oliver was baptized on Easter morning at the Lutheran church I grew up attending. Here are a few photos.

Carrie, Keith and Oliver

Grandma Garner and Oliver
Shane, Ruth and Rio

Easter Eggs

Keith helping Rio color Easter EggsOliver checking out Rio's Easter Eggs

Oliver in the Easter Basket

Keith helping Rio hunt Easter Eggs

Oliver Meets His Cousin Rio

Oliver and Rio comparing foot size. Rio was amazed at how small Oliver's feet were in comparison.

Oliver showing Rio his toy

Buddies

Oliver's First Visit to the Easter Bunny

Oliver visited the Easter Bunny for the first time. We were in luck and there wasn't a single person visiting the Easter Bunny. It was perfect!

Oliver in Washington, Day 1

On Oliver's first day, we took a trip to Spokane. He sat on the Easter Bunnies lap, but I"ll have to scan that photo in.

Oliver, out to lunch! He is starting to hold his bottle on his own. I let him know that if I would have put my feet on the table when I was a kid, I would have been in SO much trouble. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa just thought it was cute. It must be nice to be the grand kid! Well, maybe at 5 months I would have gotten away with it too!

Oliver flirting with Grandma

Oliver in his car seat, ready to roll out!

Oliver's first sink bath. It was a little shocking for him at first, but he settled right into it.

Keith and our nephew and godson, Rio. It has snowed every day that we have been here so they had to go outside and test out the snow. It turned out to be good snow ball snow, which made for a lot of "guy" time fun.

Oliver's First Flight

Oliver had his first flight to Spokane yesterday. He did great! He didn't have any problem on the flight and just ate, slept and played for the whole 2.5 hours. After a long day of airports, airplanes and the drive to Mom and Dad's, he was ready for some naked floor time. It took him a couple of tries to get him to stay asleep, but we put him down again at 10:30, we didn't see him again until I checked on him at 6:30. I found him bright eyed and bushy tailed, ear to ear with a smile. I think we may have a traveler among us, YAY!!!!

Oliver having a little snack while we wait for the airplane to arrive.

Oliver getting in a quick stretch before having to sit on the airplane for 2.5 hours

Waiting for take off

Reviewing the safety rules

Keith called this "Tiger by the Tail!"

Shading the bright sun. This may be the last time we see the sun since it's snowing on the first day of spring in Washington.

Grandpa and Oliver in floor time. Oliver isn't quite sitting up on his own yet, so he needs a little help.

Grandma and Grandpa on the floor with Oliver

Oliver Photos

Here are a couple of new photos of Oliver this week.

This is Oliver waiting for us to finish getting ready for work so he can go to school. He usually just sits on our bed with a full belly, ready to roll. His new thing is to cross his ankles.

When Oliver gets home from school, his favorite thing to do is take his pants off and kick his legs on the changing table. His newest activity is touching his toes and pulling at his socks.

Big Night Out

Keith and I had a chance to go out last night to the Mammoth game and we took advantage of having Melanie babysit Oliver to go out on the town after the game. It was a much needed night out and we had a great time with friends. We met at the Blue Sky Grill in the Pepsi Center and on our way from the restaurant to the arena we ran into the mascot Woolly. (Get it, woolly mammoth). We HAD to get a photo with him. The game was a good time, but unfortunately the Mammoth lost. After the game we went to The Tavern Downtown where they play great dance music, including favorites from the 80's and 90's. It was a great night with friends topped off with some good dances to great music. On the way home Keith and I talked about how we missed Oliver. I don't know that he missed us much since he was sound asleep in his crib most of the time we were gone. He was happy to see us this morning and we had a great day shopping around. For Oliver, we topped today off with a bath, naked time on the floor, practice rolling over, jumping in his jumperoo, rice cereal and off to bed. By the way... he could care less about the rice cereal but we give it a try every now and then. He seems more interested in what we are eating than the rice.

Jen, Wooly, Carrie and Katie

Carrie, Jen and Katie at the Mammoth game.

Our season tickets are in row 4 and 5 behind the goal.

Keith and Carrie at the Mammoth game.

Carrie and Keith with a cameo appearance by Craig in the background, all at The Tavern Downtown.

I thought this was cute of Craig and Jen

Keith, Carrie, Jen and Craig at The Tavern Downtown

Father and Son Chat

Here are a couple of video of clips of Keith and Oliver that I thought were cute.

I call this one "Chicks on the Boat"

This is a small demonstration of Oliver's new found giggle

After a busy day at school, Oliver couldn't keep his eyes open for the 2 mile drive home

Father & Son Chat

Cute Tongue!

Class Photo

Oliver got his class photo back today that was taken last Wednesday. Of all of the pictures we take of him, you would think that he would look at the camera. Instead, it seems he is mesmerized by looking at Miss Alice and he's the only one not looking at the camera. What a funny guy! I guess we'll have to take more pictures of him so he's ready for next years photo, ha ha!! These are both the same photo, but I cropped the second one so it is easier to see.

Left to Right: Cody, Sade, Miss Deb, Oliver, Tatum, Addison, Miss Alice, Nicholas, Cadence

March 1st, Day of many "Firsts"

Yesterday was March 1st, and it truly was a day of many "firsts". I documented everything with my handy pocket camera that goes almost everywhere with me, but I won't bore you with every snap shot of our day. Keith had to take his car in for routine service, so we decided to take advantage of what was forecasted to be a beautiful day. We were expecting sunshine and temps in the 70's. Mother nature didn't disappoint us. The highest that I saw the temp gauge on the car get was 77!!! I think the official high was 74 at the airport, beating a record of 73. We were lovin' every minute of it. We took advantage of the nice day and headed to Wash (Washington) Park where we had lunch at Wash Park Grille and took a stroll around the park. The park was full of people enjoying the sunshine. We saw more dogs, bikers and joggers than we've seen all winter. People were out playing volleyball, BBQing, playing tennis and a few people broke out their bikini's for some sun bathing. It was such a nice day that Keith drove his car home with the top down. We topped off our Saturday with dinner at Jeff, Marion and Jin's house in Conifer. It was Oliver's first successful trip up in elevation. I don't know if he was more wide eyed to see Jin play with his fuzzy blue blanket and blue dog or to see their real life giant akita dog.

For our first day of March full of "firsts", we had many. Oliver's first visit to Wash Park and Wash Park Grille, first day that was almost too warm for blue jeans, Oliver's first road side diaper change in the back of the jeep, first day with the top down on the car, Oliver's first trip to Conifer, Oliver's first viewing of a dog that was close enough he could see it and Oliver's first March 1st, ever.

As the weather man predicted, we had a beautiful day yesterday and woke up to snow today. We are expecting up to 6". It is wet and sloppy outside and we have cancelled out day plans of going to the art auction to stay home where it is warm and cozy. We ventured out to the grocery store and that was a messy challenge in itself. Besides, Oliver had a big day yesterday and I think he could use a good nap today. Hmmm... a nap doesn't sound too bad for the rest of us. I'm sure Madalyn is already snoozing somewhere herself.

This was Oliver's first trip to Wash Park Grille. On the menu for him... cuddle time with Blue Dog.

I wonder if Keith's college buddies every imagined him pushing a stroller around?

Oliver was lovin' the fresh air and sunshine!

Still strollin...

We thought this was funny, a couple of guys carrying a keg, football and bottle of water into the park. The water fell off and they left it behind. I hope there is Coors in that Keg!

We were almost taken out by a gang of scooters!!! Not really, but we thought it was funny! Craig - Are you in that scooter gang?!

Before exiting the park, we took a couple of family self portrait's. It was a little windy, can you tell from the crazy lady hair?!

This is one of my favorites views in Denver, snow capped mountains with clear blue skies. I took this on the drive home

The sunshine was here one day and gone the next. This is what we woke up to this morning. We miss yesterday already!!!

I was right, Madalyn is well on her way into a deep afternoon snooze!