Journey to Jacksonville

Last weekend, Oliver and I travelled to Jacksonville, FL to celebrate my friend Jenni's 40th birthday. Her husband is in the Navy and he was out of town for a few weeks, so Anne, Kim and I flew in to celebrate with her. I met them all when I lived in Fallon, NV in the late 90's and into 2000. Oliver was a champion traveller and did quite well with the airplane ride, time change and a whole new group of people.

First thing Saturday morning we took the boys to the park.

Oliver is LOVING the swing!

Slide Time!
Carrie, Oliver and Jenni's 3 year old son Kaden

Jenni's turn to take Oliver and Kaden down the slide

Jenni and Oliver

Oliver by the pond


This photo cracks me up!
"Ya, I know you're just a stick. You can't fool me!"



"I think I'll use this stick to poke this bushy thing"



Saturday night we all went out for shopping and dinner to celebrate Jenni's 40th birthday.

Here is Carrie, Jenni, Kim and Anne
Happy 40th Jenni!!!
Where does the time fly?

Make a wish!

On Sunday we went to St Augustine for some shopping and lunch.
Here, Kaden and Oliver are getting ready for some fish and chips. "Oh, Mama, these are THE BEST crackers EVER!!!"
"SO GOOD..."
Carrie and Oliver by the Atlantic Ocean
Oliver is clearly done having his picture taken.

PJ Time!
Kaden and Oliver sharing a chair. Isn't amazing that a plastic spoon can be so entertaining? What do you get when you mix a curious three year old boy, red finger nail polish and a house full of women... a red finger nail, of course!

Oliver sharing smiles!

Four Top Teeth!!

Break out the baby book... Oliver has FOUR top teeth!!! I was scoping it out tonight to see if shy #3 came in and he has one on either side of his top front teeth. That makes four new teeth poking through, front and center. His bottom two have come in strong and he has been referred to as a Jack-O-Lantern by complete strangers. How Funny!!

Two Front Teeth

I was at Babies R Us last week and they had the cutest shirt that said "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth". I thought it was perfect for Oliver but they didn't have his size. Good thing because his top two front teeth came poking through on Friday. We were on the airplane from Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth (destination Jacksonville, FL) and as he was admiring the light above my head I noticed that as I looked up at him he had three top teeth poking through. By the end of the weekend, his front two teeth were poking through very clearly, but the third side tooth went back into hiding. YAY OLIVER!!!!

I have quite a bit to update from our trip and the Madonna concert that I went to on Tuesday. I'm hoping to get to that tonight or tomorrow.

Spaghetti Dinner

Grandma Garner, these photos were taken with you in mind. You had once said that you can't wait to see Oliver eat his first spaghetti because you knew it would be a big mess, which you know drives me crazy. Oh, how far I have come with accepting messes, ha ha!!! Now, we just sit back, take photos and wish we had a dog to clean up the mess. Since we knew this dinner had the potential to be everywhere and stain his shirt, he went shirtless for the big event.

Here is Oliver just starting dinner. Notice the talent he exhibits with spaghetti sitting on his nose, perfectly.

Oliver is getting quite good at using his sippy cup at meal time.

Yes, this photo moment resulted in spaghetti sauce on the camera, but I couldn't believe how well the photo captured his bright blue eyes. Yes, they really are THAT blue!
"I Love Spaghetti!!!"

"GET ME OUT OF THIS CHAIR AND QUIT TAKING MY PICTURE!"
The big reveal.... Did he miss his mouth or was he hiding this spaghetti under his tray for a midnight snack?

Spaghetti Dinner

Grandma Garner, these photos were taken with you in mind!!! You had once said that you can't wait to see Oliver's first spaghetti Dinner since you knew he would make a HUGE mess. Of course, he did. He loved it!!! Here are a few photos to capture the big event.

Is this talent, or what? Spaghetti balance on his nose.

Oliver is getting pretty good at using his sippy cup with meals.Yes, this photo moment resulted in spaghetti sauce on the camera, but I can't believe how well the photo captured his blue eyes. Yes, they really are THAT blue!

SO Happy to have spaghetti for dinner!!!

SO Ticked to still be in the high chair just to have another photo taken.
The big reveal of what is hiking beneath the tray. Did this miss his mouth or was he thinking he could save this for a midnight snack. Oh how a dog would be nice for nights like this. Thank goodness for the good 'ol broom and dust pan.

Shorts in November

Keith had to go to work this afternoon, so Oliver and I went to the park. Yes, you are seeing this correctly, we were wearing shorts in Denver in November!! WOO HOO!!! It was in the 70's and quite toasty so we put away the warm clothes for the afternoon and put on shorts. Maybe we were preparing for our Mother/Son trip to Florida next weekend.

Higher, Mom, Higher!!!

I LOVE TO SWING!!!!!

(coming from the kid who hated his swing as an infant)

Roxborough Park Hike

This morning we took advantage of the warm weather we are continuing to have and we went for a hike at Roxborough Park. The state park is just south of us about 15 or 20 minutes but we have never been there. It was beautiful and it was a perfect hike for a Sunday morning.

Lyon's Overlook

Keith and Oliver enjoying the view, and the wind! The two crazy guys love the wind and it was quite windy at this high point.

I just liked this tree, so I took a few photos of it.

Mush, Dad, Mush

Which way should we go?

Looking back toward Littleton

Keith and Oliver playing in the willows.

Photo Day

Saturday we took Oliver to Kiddie Kandids for his one year photo and a family photo. We have cancelled our appointment twice because of colds. We thought we better get this photo in this weekend or he'll 18 before we get to it. OK, not really. He wasn't as easy going as he has been for photos in the past, but we got a couple of decent ones. It probably didn't help that he didn't really like the photographer and she had a super high pitched (nearly annoying) voice. I know that may be mean, but when you are one, I guess you become opinionated too. By the time we got to the family photos his patients was gone and he was done being a super model. We got one photo before we called it "good enough". Here are two from the excursion.

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween!!!

Last night we took Oliver out for trick-or-treating with some of the neighbors. We all got together at one house and then we headed out from there. We were having "Freaky" warm weather in the 60's in the evening. We didn't even really need a coat. It was perfect for the kids. Oliver borrowed a dragon costume from my friend Ann Marie's three year old son Mathew. Well, it is a dragon or a dinosaur? I keep going back and forth. Since it is green and red, I'm thinking dragon. Here are a couple of pictures in the lawn before we headed out for trick-or-treating. I wasn't sure that Oliver would be up for photos later in the night so I thought I better get them in early.

Oliver scoping out the polka-dots.

There were several families hanging out together last night. I just had to take a picture of some of the guys bringing up the rear of the pack.

Here is Keith, Chris, John and Oliver strolling in the back, obviously enthralled with whatever John was talking about. He even had Oliver's attention.

When they saw I was taking a picture they opted to pose.

Just as trick-or-treating was coming to an end for us, Oliver closed his pretty little eyes to sleep.
Self portrait.

Since it was such a nice night, the neighbors moved their snack portion of the party outside in the garage. We parked Oliver to the side and he snoozed until 9:00 when he let us know he wanted to go home.