Summer fun

Hello friends and family,

My lack of blogging is not due to a lack of excitement or things going on, but rather we have been so busy. I have been watching a lot of my baby Einstein videos and eating lots of Cheerios. I guess I have also been busy with going to Paul and Heather's wedding, getting my one year pictures at Kristi's and general partying with friends. I will post some of my one year pictures as soon as we get them. Mom and Dad are very excited to see how they turned out.

I also have a video that Dad recorded of my new trick of crawling. I still have a few things to polish up but for now it works as a means of getting around.

My crawling adventure (Short)


Paul and Heather's wedding was very nice. The ceremony was at Paul's parents' house in Conifer (up in the mountains outside of Denver). The view was breathtaking and the weather was perfect. They then had a reception down in Denver later that evening where we ate and danced the night away. We all had a wonderful time. Thanks for getting married Paul and Heather.

Rehearsing for the wedding made me tired. Good thing I have friends like Heidi.

Here we are on the wedding day.

We were tired after all of the dancing and fun at the wedding the night before.

The wedding fun will continue next weekend with Zach and Heidi getting married. Too much fun.

Last weekend we went to Colorado Springs and I met up with Kristi and had my one year photos taken. She is so much fun to work with. After the photo session they had a fiesta party where we all brought our favorite Mexican dish and you guessed it, partied. Dad had fun playing Badminten and cornhole.

Kristi really gets into this picture thing. She's great.

Jason, Lauren and Liv took a road trip with Lauren's family to CA for a wedding. This meant we got to have Boscoe's buddy Jet for a little while. I had to intervene every now and then and separate the two dogs from wrestling.

Who wants the toy?

I just want to say that I have my Dad wrapped around my finger. Do you think this picture proves that or what?

Thanks for keeping up with my Blog!

Love,
Lydia

Mountain fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Hello friends and family,

I looked over the blog entry from Dad and he did a pretty good job. Thanks for putting up with the advertisement of the Step Up Walk. I would love to have as many of you join us as possible for the walk.

I had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa in Winter Park last week. We had fun bumming around the little ski town.

A walk in the woods. Look at those nice wild flowers.

The slopes in the summer. Nice and green don't you think?

A beautiful rainbow down the main drag in Winter Park. There must be a pot of gold down there.

We road the lift from the parking lot to the ski village. I'm glad that I was close to Mom in the front carrier.

Hello everyone! Greetings from the Winter Park village.

These were some big chairs. Now Mom knows how I feel in the normal size chairs.

Mom continues to take pictures like this to embarrass me.

We had a rather large storm roll through on Monday night this week. There was a lot of hail and strong winds. Dad was a little sad that he lost the aspen tree but we are very thankful that that was the extent of the damage along with paint and leaves stripped by the driving hail. Needless to say Dad was a little late to work in order to clear things enough to get his car out of the garage.

That's all for now. I am very excited that my friends Paul and Heather are getting married this weekend. We are looking forward to it and I plan to party it up with all my pals. I'm sure there will be a picture or two that we will blog about.

I am also looking forward to a party with Greg and Kristi on the 1st of August. The plan is to get my one year photos done before the party. More things to look for on the blog. I'm a busy girl and Mom and Dad try to keep up.

I love you all and God bless.

A blog entry by Dad

Hello everyone.

Lydia has asked me to blog for her since she and Jackie are up with Grandma and Grandpa in Winter Park CO for a couple of days. I had to be at work this week so I was unable to join them for the mid-week fun. I am sure there will be a few pictures and a blog entry about the time in the mountains.


MARK YOUR CALENDARS! It's time for our second walk for down syndrome. The Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk (formerly know as the Buddy Walk) will be held on September 27, 2009. Please visit our team site at:

https://www.syssolutions.com/MileHighWalk/Main/MyTeam.aspx?Reset=Y

Here you can help our team out by joining our team for the walk, donating to our team, or signing up as a virtual walker if you are unable to make it out for the walk. If you sign up as a walker you have the option to do your own fund raising for the team. Your contribution in any capacity will be greatly appreciated. We walk to support our friends and family members with Down syndrome. Every step we take helps to carry out the mission of Mile High Down Syndrome Association which is to assure inclusion and enhance independence of people with Down syndrome.

Sorry for the quick plug about that.

I'm sure that Lydia would want me to post a few pictures about what we have been up to since the last entry so here they are.

My niece Liv was baptized on June 28th. Jason, Lauren and Liv pose for a picture with Laurens parents.

Liv is such a cute baby. Must come from Laurens side of the family. Just kidding bro.

Lydia has to keep me from saying things that may get me in trouble. Too bad she was not around for comment on the previous picture eh Jason.

I had Friday July 3rd off of work so we all headed to the community pool for some fun in the sun. Don't worry, Lydia didn't go back into the pool after her lunch.

Lydia had a hair do for the 4th of July that looked like fireworks. What a festive little gal.

A belated happy 4th of July to you all. God bless America!

I hope that I filled in for Lydia sufficiently and don't worry, she will be back for the next entry. I hope that everything is well with all of you and thanks as always for keeping up with our blog.

The big birthday finale!

Hi folks,
It's great to greet you and to feel like I'm officially one year old. That's right I've now had all the 1st birthday celebrations I can handle.... don't tell mom, because I know she puts lots of work into her cakes, but they're just too sugary and my two teeth just can't handle any more!

This was the practice cake Mom made in Iowa

This was the cake she made for the big bash at our house after she had some practice.

I had my last birthday party on Saturday at our house - it was originally scheduled for three weeks ago, but Mom and I were under the weather. We felt much better on Saturday and had a blast at the birthday bash!

Here are some pictures of the big day:

Here's me with my cake - I was nice and didn't stick my hands in it before everyone got a piece.

Here are some of my pals who made the journey to the party.

And here are some of their friends who came along - just kidding, this is the other side of the room. Sorry I didn't get a picture of everyone - I didn't know I knew so many people!

I really like all my new toys, but I think these guys had a pretty good time with them also.
Boscoe's starting to get jealous of all my great toys... Mom... Dad.... buy Boscoe some new toys, please (Boscoe had no influence on me when I made this request).

Wow, Daddy, that will look great on you, but did you see this great bow?!

Another gorgeous bow!

Since the party I've done nothing but play with the gazillion toys I received and try on all the beautiful outfits I got (I'm pretty sure dress-up will be one of my favorite activities in the future)!

This is me just hangin' out after all the hoopla.

To wind down from the party scene Mom, Dad and I headed down to Colorado Springs to spend Father's Day with Grandpa, Grandma, Jason, Lauren and Liv. We had a nice quiet time and enjoyed some chocolate cake parfaits that Grandma made for us.... yummy!

Hey Grandpa, thanks for warming my toes!

Well, blog at you all later.
Love, your one year old friend, Lydia

Iowa Birthday Trip

Hello friends and family.

I just returned from Iowa where I celebrated my 1 year birth anniversary with mommy's family. It was really great to see mommy's family and get to see many other friends while there. We spent a week at Lake Okoboji and Dad and I were excited to see the lake in it's unfrozen state. Dad and I have only seen Lake Okoboji in the winter time when we go there for Christmas. The weather was not very conducive to lake activities but we were able to manage a few days in the pool at the resort and took a boat ride around the lake. We took many walks and just spent a lot of time hanging out with the family. Below are some pictures from our time in Iowa.

Some notable events from our trip included my Grandma and Grandpa's 39th anniversary (there were even fireworks that night on the lake), visiting Aunt Joni and Uncle Barry's home in Mason City, having a visit with my Great Grandmother, and being around for Pastor Tim's farewell service and luncheon.

This weekend we will be celebrating my birthday again with my family and friends in Colorado since I was sick for the originally scheduled event. The weather looks like it should be nice and we are all feeling top notch. Look for an update on the blog about birthday party part II.

Where's my cake. This time I get to try some!

I tried some but Dad sure cleaned his plate fast. He must really like this stuff.

Maggie and Maddie help open a gift from Barry, Joni, Ethan and Erin.
Taking a stroll around Arnold's Park
By the lake with Arnold's Park behind us.
We took a boat ride on the Queen II around West Lake.
I told Dad that it looks a long way down and the water looks cold.
We found some Okoboji friends.
We got make use of my swimming lessons for one day in the pool. Dad must think he is a seal or something with that ball on his head.
Our last night in Orange City we cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire. I got my own chair but did not know how to use it properly. Oh wow!
This is one of those pictures that Mom and Dad want me to post even though it can be a little embarrassing for me.

Here are some cute pictures of me with my cousins.


Thanks for keeping up with my blog and making any comments that would be fun for me to read.

Love Lydia.

May's incredible events - not including my birthday party!

Hi everybody!
I know it's been awhile again, but I just want you to have lots of info to process each blog.

Well, since my last entry it was Tulip festival - for those of you unfamiliar, my mom's hometown of Orange City, Iowa celebrates its dutch heritage every 3rd weekend in May with parades and tulip displays. Well, this year I did not get to attend, but we had our own festival in the backyard. In our festival I got to be the Tulip Queen... Boscoe was on the Tulip Court just like Aunt Julie was a few years ago in the Orange City festival. Mom and Dad said that next year I will get to experience this delightfully Dutch time - I'm looking forward to it.

Here I am posing as the Queen - elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist (that's the tulip wave - try it out)

Mom told me she had never seen a tulip queen who was the same height as the tulips - that's what made me such a perfect candidate for queen!

After finishing this year's duties as the Tulip Queen, I spent some time relaxing with Koen (he's super Dutch) after a backyard volleyball party at our house - we had Mom and Dad's volleyball team, which took first place, over to relive their championship glory days on a Saturday afternoon.

Once the tulips met the volleyball, they had to come inside for safety's sake - then they met me!

Umm... Koen... that's where the knives are... Mom are you going to let this happen?!

Following the festival, the volleyball game, and the knife snatching came meeting my dad's good friend Nate. Nate used to work with Daddy, now he lives in New York and got married last weekend - congratulations Nate and Cathy!!

Nate and I getting acquainted.

Next, I got to experience the backyard a little - turns out that I like grass and the breeze/wind in my face.

Boscoe and I both like to gulp the fresh breezes.

To prepare for our big vacation to Okoboji, IA, Mom and Dad enrolled me in swimming lessons. I had two lessons and I cried a little the first time, but the second time I was like a pro. I was doing dives, the backstroke, and the butterfly - ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit... I can't do the butterfly quite yet.

Daddy helps psych me up for lessons.

I'd like to see you all try this trick - I held this posture throughout my whole first lesson. In lesson two I was so much more advanced that I only had to hold my feet for a little while.

Grandma - we are going to have so much fun with our noodles at Okoboji!

I'm a natural in the water.

Mom dunked me - I'm stickin' with Daddy from now on in the pool!

I experienced a pretty cool thing over Memorial Day weekend. I got to take my first plane ride.
We went to California with Scott, Andrea, and Molly. Scott, Andrea and Daddy went to hang out with Andrea's folks in San Jose while Mommy and Molly went to see their old roommates from college at Pebble Beach. I went back and forth between places and I'm now a seasoned traveller in California.

Here we are in the Denver airport waiting for the plane to San Jose, CA.

I usually don't get to watch much tv, but on the plane I watched lots. By the way, I was a superb traveller - I slept most of the flight and was pleasant the rest of the time.

Daddy, Scott and Andrea went to the Monterey Aquarium while Mom took me to hang out with her friends on Friday.

They saw some pretty interesting creatures while they were there - can you spot the sea horse?
Those of you who know Lyndsay and her family can refer to their blog to see similar pictures of sea horses.

Here are Mommy's roommates - they don't look a day older than when they graduated!
left to right: Molly, Mommy, Lyndsay, Mary, Tonja, Renee, and Charissa

Daddy, Mommy and I posing for a picture at Half Moon Bay - we had lunch there on Sunday before heading in to San Francisco.

It was a pretty cold day, but that doesn't stop these hardcore surfers.

We stopped for a photo by the surfers.
This is Howie (Josh to some), Andrea, Scott, Mommy and Daddy - I was in the car with Andrea's mom enjoying the heater.

Here we are in the city, Diann, Andrea's mom guides us with the map.

The little family on the San Francisco Bay.

Well, I know this has been a lot of stuff, but I hope you enjoyed it - I know I'm having fun experiencing all these new things with Mom and Dad.
God Bless!
Love, Lydia