Mimic and Peeeze

Sorry for the delay. We were camping all weekend, then the flu bug hit. We're all slowly feeling better.

We camped at Turquoise Lake in Leadville, CO this weekend. This was our annual camping trip, planned by Kristi. We had a big group, a handful of kids and pretty good weather. It poured with thunder and lightening Friday night, but Casey slept right through it. She was a great little camper.

Casey now says "peeeeze" while doing the "please" sign. She is also starting to say "all done" with the sign. We've been practicing our counting and though she doesn't actually say numbers, she makes noises like she's counting with me. We've also been singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes." She's got head down pat...says it over and over while putting both hands on her head, she'll touch her knees and toes every once in a while after the head. The shoulders are completely lost on her.

She's learning to put her shoes on by herself. Has gotten pretty good at getting her crocs on. Her teva's and tennis shoes are much harder and she gets very frustrated with them. She's been very busy playing her drum, pretending to eat her plastic food and drink from her tea set, sitting in her big green chair and playing with her cars. The other day she sat for 5 minutes putting a "Little People" guy into a cart, grabbing the little tab on the front of the cart and rolling it back and forth until the guy fell. She would then set him up and do it all over again.

Lately, she has been mimicing what I do. In the bathtub, she'll rub her hands together then act like she's washing her arm or her hair. When I give her a tissue, she'll either wipe her nose with it or start cleaning around the house...sometimes she'll do both with it. Yesterday, she used her sippy cup to pour drips of water on my leg and on Frisco and then would use the tissue to clean it up.

Tonight, while eating dinner, her nose was running, so she kept rubbing it. After a few minutes of rubbing it, she finally sneezed and out of her nose came a spaghetti noodle. Luckily that was what we were eating for dinner, so it wasn't completely random...

Again, sorry for the delay...enjoy the pix.

view of turquoise lake

view from our hike

casey's camping pj's

trying on mommy's hat

eating some eggplant

casey and frisco taking in the view

casey found her toenails...was picking them all morning

all suds up

casey and rowan in their matching robes after swimming

Character

Casey is quite a character. She is talking a lot, playing a lot, eating a lot and learning a lot. I went a little crazy this week at Target and bought her some new toddler toys. She is very into her new tea set and plastic food. She loves acting like she is eating and drinking and really likes to force the cup or bowl on me or her stuffed animals. She also got some big lego blocks and learned to pull them apart AND put them together. She is still using her signs (all done, please, more), but is starting to also mimic us and says the words now.

The beginning of the week started out a little scary. Casey slept in on Monday until 10:30. When I went upstairs to get her, she just laid in the crib staring at me, no smiles, no talking. Something was obviously wrong. Her head and arms were shaking, so we made an emergency trip to the Doctor. Fortunately, after she had something to drink and eat, she was feeling much better and starting acting a little more normal in the car on the way to the Doc. Her vitals were excellent, so we're not really sure what happened. She was lethargic most of the morning, but after nap, she was back to normal. We think maybe she was dehydrated. We're keeping an eye on her and will have her checked again at her 15 month appt this week.

The rest of the week Casey was her happy, cheery, busy self. She swam in her pool and played on the playground a bunch...she has now perfected the slide. She can go down in sitting position, turns herself onto her belly in mid-slide, scoots herself off and heads right back to the steps for another turn.

Daycare was good on Wednesday. She had a little anxiety when I left her, but was soon off playing, and though she only took a 35 min nap, she had a great day! Thank goodness!!

This weekend Geoff, Sarah, Kaelin (2 1/2) and Graham (3 months) came up to visit from Denver. Casey had fun watching and following Kaelin around and checking out Graham. We took out our new canoe on Lake Dillon...Casey did not join, but got to play on the playground, which was def more fun for her.

Enjoy the pix!

she has learned to say, "cheese"

posing with her bear

playing in the pool

mommy and casey

playing with frisco

showing Graham the ins and outs of the playmat

Word

We're back in Dillon! Casey had a great time in VA. She was the perfect road trip companion. We got back Friday, woke Saturday and went on a 7 mile hike on Ute pass, up to Horseshoe lake where our friends, Kate and Kristi were camping. Casey had a blast riding on Stan's back, but Stan was definitely sore the next day!!

While in VA, we had lunch with Dyani and her 5 month old little boy Harper on Wednesday, went to the pool with Aunt Marcy, Lily, Jack and Gramma Gail. Grampa Tom and Gramma Gail took Casey to Burke Lake park to ride the train and carousel. The weekend was spent in Roanoke with Gramma Lois. She loved playing on the rocking horse and playing with the old school ball popper and the tea set. We also made it down to Blacksburg to visit with Sweets, Mary Ann and their 2 year old girl, Ellie. Casey had a blast playing with Ellie and all her cool toys...can't wait to get back this fall for VT games:)

Casey is starting to use real words and mimics us a lot. She says ball, hi, boat, fish...stan even got her to say, "bobber" while teaching her the ins and outs of fishing.

Casey's back molars are starting to come, which is our excuse for her clingyness lately. Or could be the constant traveling?

Sorry for the missed blog last week, but here are a lot of pix from the past 2 weeks.

rocking Jack's trike

Jack and Casey ready to head to the park

she loves the slide

chauffeuring Lily and Jack around the playground

riding the carousel at Burke Lake

hanging on the train with Grampa Tom and Gramma Gail

rockin' with Gramma Lois

having lunch with Ellie in Blacksburg

watching frisco eat dinner in the hotel room

what a view

learning how to fish

Lake House

Tracy, Casey and Frisco left Dillon on June 26th and set off to VA. We arrived at Grampa Tom and Gramma Gail's lake house on Friday, June 30th. Casey was a great road tripper!!

We played at the lake with Grampa Tom, Gramma Gail, Uncle Stuart, Aunt Marcy, Lily, Jack, Aunt Kelly, Alex, Alli and Davis until Sunday July 5th. The weather was perfect the entire week!! Casey had a great time playing with everyone and with all the toys! She rode on the seadoo; she rode in a float behind the seadoo; got in many rides on the pontoon boat; couldn't get enough sandbox time in (that was probably her favorite toy); and was quite the water baby (she even started blowing bubbles in the water). Can't wait to get her up on the wakeboard! Casey also enjoyed the July 4th fireworks on the lake. She was a little startled at the sound of the first one, but after the initial shock, she laid back and enjoyed the show.

Frisco had a good time at the lake too...lots of swimming, eating and sleeping. The good life!

We're up in Northern VA for the week. We visited Jessica and her 2 boys, Hunter and Jake, on Monday; went to the pool with Kris and her 4 kids, Emilia, Erin, Ellie and Evan, today. We're keeping busy out here on the East Coast.

Casey wants to wish her cousins Morganne and Max Happy Belated Birthdays!!

Aunt Marcy, Jack, Lily, Tracy and Casey

fun in the sandbox with Lily

pontooning with gramma and grampa

mmm...corn on the cob

riding the seadoo

cousins

you may see this again in december...

riding the hot dog on land...wild ride

hanging out...

One Weekend @ Home

After a week at the beach, we got to spend a week at home, before our next trip to VA for a few weeks. Tracy, Casey and Frisco will leave Wed to drive to VA.

Casey spent a couple days at daycare last week. She isn't enjoying it as much as she used to, but we believe it's because when she moved to the 1 year old room, they only take 1 nap and she just can't handle the day without a morning nap. We're going to try and work with her a little bit, daycare will let her take a nap in the morning and we are going to try and work on 1 nap a day (going to be rough!!).

Casey has started using a fork/spoon with some of her meals. Definitely not all the time, however, she does eat more when she uses a spoon. We have to assist her in picking up the food and guiding it to her mouth, but she is getting better at it.

We got a hike in with Sarah and Rowan, went to the Frisco BBQ on Friday, Aunt Kel came by for a quick visit Friday night and then again on Sat. Sunday we enjoyed a chill Father's Day on with lunch at the Dillon Dam Brewery and Happy Hour at the Tiki Bar with Mark and Amy.

Happy Father's Day to all you cool dad's out there. Casey wants to wish her cousin Morganne a Happy Birthday this Thursday!!!

Casey hanging with mom

"I'm so hip!"

not a bad view

Emerald Isle

We're back from a beautiful, relaxing week at the beach.

Tracy and Casey flew to Raleigh Friday night, Stan drove down to Roanoke to pick up his mom, Gramma Lois, then headed down to Raleigh to pick us up. Saturday morning we headed to Emerald Isle, by way of Harriett's parent's restaurant in Rose Hill, NC...best lemon blueberry meringue pie...mmm. Lisa, Dave, Ashlynne, Morganne and Max arrived Saturday night.

Casey LOVED the beach. We started her off slow the first day, by sitting her on a towel. She sat there for a few minutes, started playing with the sand and that was the end of being "cautious." Casey crawled all over the beach, straight towards the water, sat on the shore as the waves washed up on her, she would splash and laugh.

Casey is also a complete walker now. She started off the week with her regular few steps, fall, get up, few steps, fall, crawl. Ended the week walking like a pro. She had to keep up with her cousins!!

Enjoy the pix and video.

taking a walk on daddy's shoulders

gazing at the ocean

our little beach girl

hanging with gramma lois

playing in the sand

uncle dave feeding the two little kiddos

cousins

having fun on max's boogie board

taking it all in

@ the beach

Sorry no post this week, but we're on vacation! And though I could do it from my blackberry, I'd rather not, since I'm on vacation!

Check back mon for a recap and pix from our beach trip to emerald isle, nc.

Casey loves the sand, ocean and playing with her cousins!

It's Time To Go Racing

Memorial Weekend was spent in Charlotte, NC for the Nascar Coca Cola 600 Race. Tracy and Casey flew to VA the Thursday before Memorial Day. Stan picked us from the airport, then we were off to Roanoke to drop Casey off with Gramma Lois for the weekend. Friday, we drove on down to Charlotte to meet up with our annual Charlotte group, including Jessica & Craig, Jessica's dad, Pam, siblings Ashley and Nick and friends Tony, Mike and Chris.

It was a rainy weekend. We tailgated all day and for the most part the rained stayed away and it was just overcast, but each night, when it was time for the race, the rain came down hard. The Saturday night race happened, all but 30ish laps. Sunday's race was rained out and rescheduled for Monday. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay. It ended up being a stop and go race anyway because of the rain and they ended it early, so we're kind of glad we didn't stay.

Casey had a fun weekend with Gramma Lois. She showed off her walking and cuteness to everyone who came by to see her.

We headed back up to NOVA for the rest of the week. Tuesday we visited Gramma Gail and her bowling team. We got to have dinner with Dyani, Frank and Harper on Wed night. Thursday night we ventured to Matt and Kelly's new place on the Potomac River. Friday was picture day with cousins Lily and Jack. Unfortunately, Jack was a little under the weather, but I believe the photographer did get a few good ones of Casey. We'll post them when they arrive!

The flight back to CO Casey slept the entire flight on her daddy's lap. The weekend was filled with house chores. Casey did play with her sand and water table Sat and Sun morning. She swam in her pool on Sunday. Sunday night at dinner she took a bite of chicken and started screaming and melting down like she was hurt. When she finally started calming down, we were fishing the chicken out of her mouth and saw that her bottom right molar had popped through...I would be screaming too!! She has been walking around like crazy. Still a little unsure about it, but can take a lot more steps before falling. She'll be a pro in no time.

We head to the beach with Stan's family on Friday for the week...so we'll be posting from Emerald Isle, NC next Monday!!

hanging with Gramma Lois

sucking on a knife during a tea party

at the track Sat night

in the rain before the race

we visited Great Gramma Katie while in VA

Casey and Harper

sporting some new shades