Monica's Birthday

Howdy all!  Monica's birthday was this past week, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Her parents were still in town (they came out for the temple open house I talked about last week) so they watched Brooke while we had a night on the town!  Or should I say, a night on the driving range?  We went to a place called Top Golf, and it was a lot of fun, but more on that later.

This week we've had some chilly mornings, so we've tried to extra bundle up Brooke for our runs!  Usually she ends up pulling down her blanket some so her arms are free, but it turns out if you use the blanket to hold toys right up to her mouth she'll happily sit there.

 We also had Brooke's 9 month checkup this week (on Monica's birthday).  She got shots and had to get some blood drawn.  The appointment unfortunately started right at nap time so she was crying approximately the whole time.  And the shots at the end definitely didn't help the mood.  At least she got a really cool band-aid, which the doctor told us to take of before we left so she didn't pull it off in the car and eat it.

 I also got new business cards at work because they changed the engineering job titles.  It was a good thing too because I had used a lot of my old ones.  Here is what I had left from the first box I got when I started.

 Yup, I only had an over flowing box left.

So for Monica's birthday we went to Top Golf. It's like a driving range with colored targets to shoot for.  Each golf ball has a chip in it, so when you take a shot it knows if you get the ball in one of the targets.  There's a computer screen that you select games on, and then in the game it will tell you to try to get the ball in a certain color, and you get points for getting it in that color and lose points for hitting it in a different one.

It was a lot of fun and we definitely want to go back.  It's much more "golf for everyone" than a traditional driving range.

Here's a picture of Monica rocking it.  You can see her ball up in the air even!

 And here's me, probably hitting it into the wrong hole.

 On Saturday I started working on our food pantry again.  First thing first was to put the backing on it.

 Then it was time to make the doors.  I started with the little doors at the top.  First I assembled them.

 And then it was time to install them.  I think they look quite good for my first time!

 Then it was on to making the big doors.  I'm not really sure how this happened, but we bought one too few 1x3's, so I could only make one of the big doors.  I couldn't hang the door either because I need them both to make sure they're evenly spaced.

While I was out working on the pantry Monica was inside cleaning up the kitchen.  This, in part, meant going through old food and throwing stuff away.  She decided we had some sun flower seeds we didn't need anymore and deftly threw them on top of the trash can... (in my defense- the motion sensor on the trash can isn't working right, so it should have opened and didn't!)

 This morning we went out for our traditional Sunday morning walk, and there was a spectacular sunrise!

 And Brooke sure looked cute too!  Even though I couldn't get her to smile.

And that's the week! Hope everyone is doing well!

3rd Anniversary

 Well, to start out, here's Brooke wrestling a lion!

 For our anniversary this year Brooke decided to she would take a single 20 minute nap...  This resulted in screaming and crying all day long.  I rushed home from work to try to help out, but our plans for the night were shot!  Brooke was in no mood to go do anything... sigh.  In the end I ran out and picked up some Greek food for dinner, and stopped at the grocery store to get some ice cream, and surprise flowers!  It ended up not being a total loss of a night, but not what we had planned.  The sad part was that we didn't think to take any pictures...

On Friday we decided to retry our plans, and this time Brooke was a great baby!  So when I got home from work we went out for Thai food at IndoChine!  Brooke had a great time!

 We let Brooke try our curry too.  Mine was a little spicy, and Brooke had no clue what to do about that.  She stuck her tongue out scrunched up her face and breathed out hard trying to get it off!  She was much more accepting of Monica's curry, which wasn't spicy.  Curry is not a taste she's had, and her first time having it she did not seem to be crazy for it... but we'll bring her around!

 Next door to the Thai restaurant is a cupcake place we wanted to try, so it was time for dessert!

 4 desserts to be more exact!  The cupcakes were very good!  We got the two Monica got (the average reader probably won't see this because Monica will probably delete this out and put in the names, and a Sweet and Salty and a Nutter Butter cupcake.

On Saturday Monica's parents came out for the temple open house in Ft. Collins, and we went through with them.  It was cool to walk through the new temple, and there was a lot of cool wood/glass/stone work in there.  They even had a little spot set up were they took a picture for you.

 After we went to a place called Tom & Chee, which specializes in tomato soup and grilled cheese.  I, obviously, took advantage and ordered two sandwiches.  My lunch sandwich was a macaroni and cheese grilled cheese sandwich with a soup dipper, and for dessert I got a strawberry lemonade doughnut grilled cheese!  I would highly recommend Tom & Chee!  And the doughnut grilled cheese sandwiches are wonderful!

 I spent some more time working on our food pantry/bookshelf yesterday as well.  It's now a little less bookshelfy, and now more bookshelf with a border to attach doors to-y.  Now I just need to make some doors and attach them!

 This morning we went on our weekly walk with Brooke.  We walk over into the new neighborhood that's being built, and go check out the progress at the park.  These aren't new, but I just thought to take a picture today.  They have some of those little things you sit on and they flip back and forth.  While these things can be fun, the ones at this park are probably the ugliest ones I've ever seen!

 More specifically this one!  First off, what he heck is that supposed to be?  And second, do you really think some 2 year old is gonna want to get on that?

And with that image imprinted in your mind, I guess we're done!  Have a great week!

See ya Summer!

Hello hello!  Despite Monica reminding me several times last week I still didn't end up writing a blog post... my bad.  Reviewing pictures from the past two weeks though would indicate that not too much happened.

Two weeks ago we put Brooke in a nice dress for church and 8 month pictures.  This may be the only picture that was taken... :)

Brooke has an elephant that plays music for her while she goes to sleep.  It can also shine stars on the ceiling as a night light.  She loves playing with it.  She's learned the little yellow things are buttons, and she'll lean down and knock on them until she pushes them, either turning on music or shining the light in her eyes.  If it's the light button she's pressing we'll turn it off so she isn't staring into the light, and then she'll immediately lean forward and hit it again.  It's a fun game to play.

Over the past two weeks for the most part we've been watching the Olympics.  I've watched a lot of different things, and I think it's a shame that handball isn't more popular!  I was also fascinated watching the table tennis players!

Yesterday was Parker's So Long to Summer race.  Monica and I ran the 10 K.  Here's a picture of us after the race! We didn't bring Brooke because I wanted to try to get a medal, and Monica hadn't trained pushing the stroller. And it was during her nap time.

When we first talked about running it I went and looked up the results from last year and was pretty excited to run it because I thought I had a chance of placing in my age group.  I did a little better than anticipated and ended up being the first overall male to finish the race! Here's a link to the race results: results

Sadly my medal is "broken"  The front of it is blank.  There's supposed to be a little insert with the race logo on it in there.  Luckily I noticed at the race and went and asked about it.  They said they'd get on it, and if I didn't hear from them just to contact them about getting it fixed.

Michael and Oriah were in town visiting various family and stopped by yesterday.  It was fun to have them over and see how Jonathan and Cameron were doing. Of course we had some victory gelato when they came!

With that I think we're all caught up on recent events!  Hope everyone is doing great!