President's Weekend & Valentine's Day

Pres/Valentine's Day weekend was fun, busy, chaotic. Aunt Marcy, Uncle Stuart, Cousins Lily & Jack, Aunt Kelly and Stan all got into town Thursday.

Friday, our friend Erica babysat Jack and Casey so the rest of us could get ski Breckenridge together, while Lily took a full day lesson. Lily took a run on the bunny slope after her lesson to show off her new skills, pizza (snow plow) and french fries (parallel skis).

Saturday and Sunday we took shifts, skiing/riding Keystone and playing with Jack and Casey. Lily took another full day lesson on Saturday. Sunday she took on the bunny slope throughout the day perfecting her pizza and french fries on the bunny slope. Monday she was excellent enough to hit the greens with mom & dad at ABasin.

Monday morning, after Aunt Kel left to head back to Boulder for school, we went to Copper for some tubing. There were 5 different lanes and it was scarier than it looked. One of the lanes even had a jump! Lily went the entire hour, while the adults took turns.

Tuesday morning, Stan flew to VA, while the rest of us went to Boulder to see Aunt Kel's school and apt. We picked her up at the Business School after class, then went to Pearl Street for lunch. It was crazy windy that day, so we didn't do a whole lot of walking around. We checked out her apt, played a wild game of Twister, then headed back to Dillon.

The cousins enjoyed playing together all week. Casey and Jack learned to share toys and followed each other everywhere. They also slept in the same room and did very well. They were all very good at adapting to all the chaos. Lily had fun in the hot tub with the adults and making cupcakes for V-Day. Marcy and Stuart got tons of skiing in. A big difference from East Coast runs. I think we're all looking forward to next year!!

Lily, happy to be skiing

Aunt Marcy and Cousin Jack, hanging with a sleeping Casey

Kel & Tracy getting ready for a run

Cousins

Jack showing Casey the ins & outs of the exersaucer

Aunt Kel taking a break with Casey in the lodge at Keystone

The group (minus Marcy & the kids) at Keystone

Sisters playing twister...Jack & Casey assisting

SuperWoman Casey

Learning to walk

Cousins, Aunts and Uncles

Marcy, Stuart, Lily, Jack, Kelly and Stan all came to town Thursday night. Here is a taste of what we have been doing. More to come...

Aunt Kel with her nieces and nephew

Our first day at Breckenridge

Casey and Jack playing

deep thoughts

Our Own Little Mozart

It's been an entertaining week! Casey learned to play the piano. She has learned to make the kissing sound. We've been trying to teach her to blow kisses, but she hasn't figure that out yet. Just looks at us like we're crazy. However, when we make the kissing noise...she copies us by smacking her lips together. She's also very into clapping. When she picks up food from her tray and puts it in her mouth we've been praising her by saying "yay" and clapping...so now, every time she puts a piece of food in her mouth, she looks at us and claps. Very proud of herself.

She's still very busy, crawling all over the place, pulling herself up on everything and still touches everything she is NOT supposed to (fireplace, tv stuff and dog bowl). She'll crawl over to any of these, look at us, knowing she's not supposed to touch it. We'll do our normal "No, Casey." Sometimes she will throw her hands down into her lap, then do the routine all over again. Other times she disregards us completely and just starts playing with whatever she's not supposed to, with a smile on her face.

Marcy, Stuart, Lily, Jack and Kelly will be in town Thursday - Wednesday, so we'll def have more news and pix next week!

walking to lake dillon.
that yellow thing protects casey from the weather, so her cheeks don't freeze.
it folds over and covers the front of the stroller.

sporting her cute hat

rock star...takes after her dad

Clapping for the Steelers

Casey can clap now. Superbowl Sunday she was sitting on the couch with mom and dad and she just started clapping!! We've been working on it for a while now and thought she would never learn it:) Mark, Amy, Kristi and Erica all witnessed...and we got it on video. Speaking of the Superbowl...Casey wore her Terrible Toddler Towel Bib (compliments of Auntie Cousin Blair and Chad) very proudly all day...Yay Steelers!!

She has also started a funny face. She squishes her nose up and makes a sniffing sound (which supposedly Tracy did this when she was younger). Very funny! Peek-a-Boo is definitely a favorite game lately. She loves it when anyone plays it with her, but now she can do peek-a-boo all by herself. She will cover her face with a blanket or bib and then quickly remove it and smile.

Casey also figured out how to climb the stairs. I'm not sure we're ready for all this!

Other than all these new Caseyisms...The week was pretty chill. We went swimming again on Thursday with Sarah and Rowan. Casey is very comfortable in the water and is getting more and more comfortable on her back and being dunked under water. Maybe she'll be wakeboarding this Summer!! Most likely.

Saturday, our neighbor Blakely babysat Casey while mom and dad went to Keystone to snowboard with Mark, Amy and Kristi. It was a beautiful, blue bird sky, sunny day!! Sunday before the big game, we went on a hike to Lily Pad Lakes with Erica and her 2 dogs, Sage and Marley. Frisco was exhausted after the hike and pretty much passed out cold, snoring the rest of the day.

Casey and Frisco are definitely getting used to each other. Tonight, I was sitting on the floor with Casey in my lap and Frisco came over, laid down right next to us and put her head on Casey's legs...so cute!! Now if we could just keep Casey out of Frisco's food and water bowls. She loves pulling herself up on the raised bowls, dipping her hands in the bowls and looking at us, because she knows she is not supposed to be doing it.

We have a few pix and a bunch of videos...

standing up

enjoying the hike

family potrait...standing on lily pad lake

this was just a minute of her busy thursday night...she was like this for at least 30 min before bedtime...busy bee!!

this you get a little of the sniff, the tongue and her craziness...

Swimming Baby

This has been quite a week. The weather was warm and sunny until Friday when the snow arrived.

Tracy, Casey and Frisco went for a hike on Tuesday with Sarah and Rowan (born the same day as Casey). It was a beautiful day out and both girls fell asleep in the backpack on the way back. Wednesday Casey went to daycare. Thursday, Casey went swimming at the rec center with her friend Rowan. She loved the pool. She really liked to crawl around the 1 foot. She even went under water 3 times. Pretty funny wide-eyed look when she came back out of the water, but was smiling. After swimming, we drove down to Denver and stayed the night at Geoff, Sarah, and Kaelin's house. Friday we met Aunt Kel for lunch, ran some errands, then picked Stan up at the airport. We drove back up to Dillon in a snow storm!

Early Sat morning we headed to Aspen, with Kristi. We stayed with Ken & Stacy and their 7 month old, Isaac. Sat afternoon, while Stacy, Tracy and the babies went to lunch, Stan, Ken and Kristi went riding at Snowmass. There was a whole lot of new snow and they had a blast. Sunday, Ken & Stacy were kind enough to babysit Casey, so Tracy, Stan and Kristi could ride at Aspen Highlands. They had called in 9 new inches, but there was def more than that. The snow was incredible. Thanks Ken and Stacy for your hospitality.

We did not make it to the XGames this year, instead, enjoyed them on TV...

Casey has lots of new teeth. She has 4 on the bottom and 5 on top. All week she has been playing with her tongue...looking like a lizard. She has also been sticking it out when she's studying something or trying hard to do something (like pulling herself up).

enjoy the pix!

Casey & Rowan

Enjoying the water

eating lunch with Aunt Kel

Ken & Stan at Snowmass

Stan & Tracy at the Aspen Highlands bowl

Stan wiped out in the powder

Tracy, Stacy and Casey at the bar in Aspen watching the VT basketball game

Dads and babies watching the game

The Explorer

This week Casey learned some new stuff.

* She is crawling for real now and loves it! Which means she is exploring a lot more. She used to just stay in the living room and play...now she is all over the place. She even crawled over to the stairs last night and pulled herself up on the first step. We're not sure we're ready for this.

* She has started eating real food. She has tried pieces of banana, bread, puffs, avocado and turkey. She makes a funny face when she puts it in her mouth, but she keeps eating them. She is still working on picking up each piece and putting it in her mouth, but she is getting better at it.

* She drank out of a sippy cup. When she would actually get the spout in her mouth, she did finally figure out how to tip it and get the formula into her mouth. It was a pretty messy experiment though...formula all over the place.

* She also went on her first winter hike...

* She wore her first pair of tennis shoes (thanks Lily for the cute hand me downs). Ok kind of a stretch for a "first's" list...but she looked really cute in them:)

showing off all her teeth

family photo

casey enjoying the first half of the hike

the second half of the hike

There's No Place Like Home

After 3 days of driving, we made it back home to Dillon. Casey was an angel in the car and in the hotels. But she was definitely ready to be out of her car seat! Frisco was pretty good...still panting a lot, but we crated her in the back this time, so we didn't notice it as much. Stan made the trip back with us and is worked from home last week.

Our last week in VA was spent at Southside Tuesday night, Dec 30, where Stan's band, SML, headlined. Casey and Frisco spent the night with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Gail. Basically neither of them notice that we're gone and get a little confused the next day when we pick them up...like they aren't ready to leave!

New Years Eve was not so exciting this year...Stan & Tracy had awful colds/flu, so stayed in bed most of the day/night. TV coverage wasn't that exciting either...but we are looking forward to the New Year! Thursday night we all went over to Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's again to watch the Hokies finally win a bowl game! After a good night's rest, we were off to CO! With a stop in Casey, IL (how cute) and Colby, KS, we made it home early afternoon on Sunday, Jan 4. Lots of snow on the ground and temperatures in the teens!

Casey started her first day of daycare on Wednesday. She seemed to enjoy it and they seem to enjoy her! Stan and Tracy got to go snowboarding at Keystone that day! Thursday was Ullr Fest...the God of Snow. Casey was a trooper. We bundled her up and brought her to the Ullr parade in Breckenridge and hung out celebrating Ullr until 9:00 p.m. What a party girl!

Over Christmas, Casey started pulling herself up to standing position. And we even saw her crawl on her knees a few times, but mostly still army crawling. She is slowly getting used to real food. We'll give her pieces of bread and banana and puffs. She has figured out that they go in her mouth and she is supposed to eat them. This weekend she actually ate a few bites! She is growing more and more independent. She likes to pull herself up using the coffee table and then feels like she should be able to grab anything she wants up there. She is not a big fan of the word, "NO." She loves all her Christmas presents. We have them set up in the living room and she'll crawl over to the pile and play with pretty much everything! She is still a great sleeper. She takes 2 naps during the day and then goes to bed around 7:00 p.m. She wakes up around 7:00-8:00 a.m.

That's all for now. I'll try and get back to my weekly postings!

Ullr Girl

bundled up for the Ullr parade with Harriett

riding her car

SML at Southsides

daddy, teach me a song

Baby's First Christmas

Sorry no post last week! We have been busy since getting to VA last Friday.

Tracy, Casey and Frisco left Dillon on Wed, Dec 17, drove to Boulder to pick up Aunt Kel, then were off to VA, with stops in Kansas to sleep, Kentucky to visit Wes, Tricia, Colin and Leah, and WVA to sleep. We arrived in Burke Friday, Dec 19. Thanks Aunt Kel for keeping Tracy company...even if you did sleep most of the way;)

Saturday we celebrated an early Christmas with the WRIGHT side of the fam, because we were going to be in Roanoke Christmas day. Aunt Marcy, Uncle Stuart, Lily and Jack came over early to Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's house to exchange gifts. The rest of "Christmas Day" was spent making Christmas cookies and playing with presents and of course, eating.

After shopping and lunch with Grandma Gail, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Marcy and Lily, Sunday night Casey and Frisco got to sleep over at Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's house, while Tracy and Stan went into DC to watch the Wizards lose to the Mavericks with Dyani and Matt. Highlight of the game was that we sat directly behind the infamous Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavs owner). Even got a picture of Stan and Cuban with the blackberry (though it is a bit fuzzy).

Tuesday we went to visit Tracy's friend Dayna in Alexandria pre-baby...they just had the baby last night! On our way home to Herndon, we stopped for dinner and to celebrate night 3 of Hanakkuh with Aunt Marcy, Uncle Stuart, Lily and Jack.

Wednesday morning we headed down to Roanoke to celebrate Christmas with Gramma Lois and Aunt Lisa, Uncle Dave, Ashlynne, Morganne and Max (in town from Miami). We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Linda and Uncle Marvin's house. Auntie Cousin Blair and Uncle Cousin Chad were in town from Pittsburgh. Christmas was fun watching Casey play with her new car/walker, pop up thingy (that's the technical term) and basketball hoop and watching her cousins run around. She tried her best to keep up with them. She has become a very fast army crawler and has started pulling herself up onto her knees and to standing position on Christmas Eve. She'll be walking in no time! She smiles constantly and even giggles now when we tickle her.

We had a great Christmas week hanging with family!! We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year!

sporting her santa pj's compliments of grandma gail and grandpa tom

casey, entertaining grandpa tom and grandma gail

need a ride?

casey size comfy chair from aunt marcy, uncle stuart, lily and jack

casey and max getting to know each other

perfecting her dunk

frisco showing her xmas spirit

gramma lois and her grandkids

Wave Hi to the Snow

Casey is a waving maniac. It's actually more of a hold up the hand to say hi or bye and she doesn't do it on cue yet. When we come downstairs in the morning and she sees Frisco she gets really excited, smiles and waves to her now. Funny!

We tried the 2 nap thing for about a week and decided she's not quite ready...maybe in a couple more weeks. We did have to take the crib bumper off after Tracy found her pulling on it one morning.

She's getting 2 new upper teeth and they've definitely been bothering her. She is babbling a lot...today it was Baa Baa Baa and Maa Maa (which of course means Mommy). She's also starting to pull herself up more...she pulled herself up using the first step and she uses us to pull herself up.

Saturday our neighbor came over to babysit Casey while we went to Keystone, together!!! We got a couple hours of riding in before heading back home. Casey was a good girl for her first "teen" babysitter. Looking forward to using her more when we get back from the holidays. The rest of the day, Stan spent working on the rest of the window trim. It looks SO good! You'll have to come visit to see...

We got a big snowstorm on Saturday night. Woke to a good 6-8 inches on our deck. Tracy joined Colin, Geoff and Kristi for a half day at Vail. There was SO much powder! Literally up to our knees. We all realized we are def getting old and def not in shape!! Supposed to get more snow this week...let's just hope it's not on Wednesday...that's when Tracy, Kelly, Frisco and Casey are driving back to VA. Hoping the trip is uneventful!

HI

Snowboard date!

what? i'm not crawling towards the electronics...

the snowstorm

Little Drummer Girl

Was a pretty uneventful week, except for the snow. We got a lot of new snow and we went snowboarding a lot this weekend. Friday, Stan shredded Breckenridge in the morning, then Tracy went to Abasin in the afternoon. Lots of powder. Saturday, our friend Kristi was kind enough to watch Casey, so we could go ride together for the first time in a long time!

Casey has a bit of a cold and fever this week. This afternoon her temp was 102.2 so we took her to the Doc...weighs 17.1 lbs with a wet diaper on. Doc thinks it's just a virus, but we'll monitor her temp the next couple days.

We started her on baby food dinners this weekend, which includes meat. I think she's a little unsure about the taste, but hopefully she'll get used to it. She is still army crawling, no hands and knees crawl yet. She gets up on her knees and rocks a little, but then drops when she wants to move. She has learned how to pull herself into our laps and is interested in pulling herself up, she just doesn't know how to just yet.

Casey wants to wish her Uncle Dave a belated Happy Birthday and her cousins Jack and Ashlynne a Happy Birthday!!

our lil' drummer girl

watching the hokies win the acc championship game

enjoying her exersaucer...from below