Happy 2nd Birthday, Evan!!

TWO, already?! We didn't really have much planned for Evan's big day, because we hosted Thanksgiving the day before with a big group of friends. It was great this year to have the kids join us at the table for dinner, and we were so thankful to have such a wonderful group to celebrate with! It was a very late night, so we had a mellow morning on Evan's birthday and let the day take shape, which turned out absolutely perfect. We went for a hike in the morning at Red Rocks, spent the afternoon opening presents and eating cake (that mom baked from scratch!), and went out for pizza dinner with friends. Evan spent the day marveling over the present opening, and "returning" the Happy Birthday's to people. It started snowing in the evening, and we woke up today to a blanket of snow on the trees and a beautiful sunrise over the hills. All in all, it was really amazing to experience the past couple of days surrounded by people that mean so much to us, and have been such a big part of Evan's life. We are all so lucky to have so much support and love! Thank you all, for your good wishes, your time, your friendship and for spoiling Evan!

Energy to Burn

This is how we've been "hiking" lately (set to Evan's favorite song):

And pix from a post exercise/playtime lunch out - anywhere that has mac 'n cheese, blue jello and enough high chairs for our big group is a winner!

Back to Cali

This past weekend we were in CA again for nephew Jack's baptism. What a mellow & sweet baby he is! We had lots of fun visiting, having an early birthday celebration for Evan, and hanging out in San Fran. Evan is really a seasoned traveler, but mom & dad are exhausted from all of our trips - we're happy to be spending the holidays at our house this year!

Reflection

This time last year, we were preparing for Evan's 1 year birthday party - he could stand alone, take a few unassisted steps, climb up and down stairs, use about 15 signs and 12 words, and loved trying new foods. It's truly amazing to see how much he's changed this year! I couldn't even guess at how many words he knows, he loves running/jumping/spinning/marching, giving hugs & kisses, animals, music, hiking, helping us out with anything, his FRIENDS (he loves to name them all, or request who should come when we're going on an outing)...and tons of other things - the enthusiasm of discovering the world for the first time :)

I thought his first year was wonderful and exciting, but then he hit about 15 months and things REALLY got fun! He's so much more self-sufficient now, he's energetic and enthusiastic, and really fun to play with. He seems to be excited about the new baby - our friend gave us a really cute book about being a big brother, and it's one of his regular requests.

Here's some recent shots - I managed to catch a shot of him somewhat close to a butterfly at the Butterfly Pavilion, but it definitely wasn't his favorite outing. After he got dive-bombed upon entering the room, he wanted nothing to do with the "scary" butterflies!

Chicago

What a fun time we had visiting our friends, the Muller's, in Chicago. It's been so long since we were able to get together, the kids were just babies! It was nice & relaxing, and we even survived the flight without a seat for Evan...although not recommended.

Happy Halloween!

I really want to post a little video of our fun Halloween festivities, but our computer is on the brink of death (hence the very few blog posts, as well) - so if I don't throw it to the mountain lions before we can actually fix it, I'll post soon! We had a great week running from one fun activity to another, and still managed to revamp Evan's costume last minute. He wanted nothing to do with most of the accessories to his original. He thought trick-or-treating at the Children's Museum was a blast, once he figured out that he just had to say it and people gave him CANDY! We also did a hike in costumes (aka: chase the toddlers thru the woods), went to an afternoon party and got lots of trick-or-treaters. Phew.