Mile High Brennan

We had a great trip to Colorado - Brennan did well on the flight from SF, and I had enough time to get coffee before I had to get in the cab. After picking up our giant rental car (Yukon), we made the short drive to Boulder to see our friends, the (sorely missed) Dukes. It was so nice to see John, Suzanne, and Audrey again - they used to be walking distance from our place - and to have a chance to get to know little Grace better. They have a lovely place in Boulder - the deer agree - and Brennan thinks it's the nicest refrigerator he's ever seen. Anyway, he had a great time playing with Grace, and as soon as I sort through the video, I'll try to post a little clip of them in action.

We hated to leave, but we had important plans in Beaver Creek - a wedding! My cousin Kevin somehow managed to convince someone to marry him. This was my first chance to meet Kelly, and she is so beautiful and sweet I'm pretty sure there was some sort of Jedi Mind Trick involved - these are not the droids you're looking for, Kelly, and hey, by the way, we're getting married in September. While Mr. Chubbles did not attend all the wedding festivities - past his bedtime - he did get the opportunity to show off his new walking skills and torment Gangi Mary, Great Grandma Doris, and Bill with his new crabby toddler routine. As you can see in the last photo, it's still a work in progress, as he somehow let a smile get away from him...

Then, at the Denver Airport, he got a job:

We had a great trip, but traveling can take a lot out of you, especially when you're one (or when you're 38.) Luckily, when you go to Colorado you can blame a variety of ills on "the altitude". As in, Wow, I feel pretty loopy after drinking that glass of wine in the hot tub, must be the altitude; or, Usually he loves to let people hold him, must be the altitude. Bren's doing his best to get his rest, we've got more travels coming up next month -

Tahoe

Hi from Tahoe! Actually, we're home now, but we took so many pictures it took me this long to sort through them and pick the favorites. Here's Brennan at the top of the stairs at the cabin, his favorite part of our trip. He would climb up to the top, sit down, and laugh like a loon if we crawled up the stairs after him. More laughter ensued if there was even a threat of tickling. Sometimes he laughed so hard he fell over.

Another really fun part of the trip was new snacks. Now that he's the big 1 year old, he's interested in food of all sorts, especially the kind he can feed himself. (full disclosure: he gets mad if he sees me eating something and I don't share, so lately his palate has expanded to Rancho Gordo bean tacos, fleur de sel caramel donuts, and coffee ice cream - it's not really giving coffee to a baby if it's ice cream, right? I mean, just a few bites?) This is some sort of wine'n'cheese cracker from the fancy cheese store in Napa. Yummy!

Daddy said the cabin looked like the home of the Brawny Paper Towel Man. Bren's waiting for him to show, being a big user of paper towels. He also thinks paper towels are quite tasty.

Brennan's second-favorite part of Tahoe, after the stairs, was swinging. Sure, he can also do that just down the street, but it's nice to have a cool backdrop for your photo ops...

It's best when Daddy pushes, because he gets to go much higher than when Mommy does it.

Here's the amazingly clear blue water of Lake Tahoe. Also, Brennan's feet still resemble a potato with toes attached.

Finally, here is the overdue 12 month picture. I wanted to wait to post until I had the official stats from his check-up, and his appointment was actually about a week after his birthday. So the one year total is 22 lbs, 11 oz; and 31 inches tall - putting on 14 lbs, 6 oz, and 10 inches in one year!
It's next to impossible to get him sitting still now, so this may the last until I can communicate the importance of not taking a header off the couch. And here he is in motion....