Utah Trip

Brooklyn and I were able to fly down to Utah last week for Trenton's graduation. (Poor daddy had to stay home for school). So many memories flooded back as we drove down the streets and saw all the places we had come to love during our time in Provo.

Highlights of the trip:

• Brooke's 1st plane ride. She did really well, and people were so nice to help out. She actually took a nap on the airplane, which is simply amazing because it is nearly impossible to get her asleep not in her bed or in her carseat.
• Seeing Uncle Trenton and Aunt Sam, and Uncle Tyler. They sure love Brooklyn and she is lucky to have such fun uncles/aunt.
• "Swimming" -- Ok, this was more like a traumatic experience for Brooklyn, but whatev. For some reason, when she saw the pool, she started screaming and shaking. But being the good parent/grandparents, we put her in the water anyways. (And oh my gosh, I have an obsession with baby swimsuits..cutest things ever! Brooklyn might just have 3..) After about 20 minutes, she finally kinda looked like she might sorta be enjoying herself (aka small splashes and half smiles :) But then the next time we tried, screaming and shaking. I thought we had made some ground, but maybe not so much. She LOVES bath time, so not sure what the deal is with pools, but we really gotta get over this fear before summer...
• Lots of eating...always too much of that, especially when visiting a place that has some of our fav ever restaurants! (Cafe Rio, Zupas, a new fav..Cafe Pesean)
• Shopping in Park City -- My parents rented a condo in Park City so it was fun to stay up there away from the busy-ness of Provo and to relax.
• Trent's graduation (of course...since it was the reason we were there :) We are proud of him!
• Brooklyn's newest trick---WALKING! Brooke took her first steps the night we got down to Provo. (Daddy was a little sad she waited until he wasn't there)..she took several steps while being highly coaxed (holding a cell phone out for her is good motivation to walk apparently).
  
• Trenton's graduation--It was fun to watch him walk, and to celebrate with him! I think graduation's are so exciting! We took lots of pictures and ate lots of good food in Trent's honor. Congrats Trent!
• Visiting Timpanogos Hospital --I took Brooke in to see the nurses who took care of her. They were thrilled to see her, and took pictures of her. We told them that they did good work and Brooke has been healthy and happy since leaving the NICU.
  
• Seeing Brooklyn's Great-Grandpa Barnes -- On the way out of town, we stopped by to say hello. Brooklyn waved and smiled at Grandpa, and he even smiled for a picture!

We rode home with Grandma and Grandpa and Brooke did really good in the car all day. The last hour was a little rough (we were all ready to be home), but overall, it was a great trip and a nice get-a-way!

Please come warm weather!!

Brooklyn loves pounding on the keyboard (which may explain why our computer has some weird things going on), so as I was starting this post, she came over and made her contribution. xWerqsxsxxxx56/TGRzdx$#aF--There you go, Brooke's first blog post! Always wanting to be in on the action!

Brooklyn is officially 1 year, 1 week old. She's probably thinking 1 year old isn't all it's cracked up to be. She celebrated her new age with another ear infection. Seriously, I think having a sick kid is the saddest thing. It's pretty easy to know when she's sick because she is M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E and fussy..not her norm at all! Needless to say, her and I have had spent some "quality" time together in the middle-of-the-night. Thank heavens for antibiotics! And since we're going to focus on the good, here are a few pictures of the week!

Brooke got a birthday package all the way from Poland! Uncle Troy sent Brooke lots of chocolate, and even told her she doesn't have to share with us..spoiled!


Lots of baths! She always loves herself a bath.


Posing for some pictures. Thanks Natalie for the adorable dress!!


And playing with her new picnic table from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves it! And we can't wait until it's nice enough to play with outside!

Brooke turned 1 on April 1!

April 1st was no laughing matter just one year ago with Brooklyn born almost 2 months early. But this year, the mood was much different as she had us all laughing at her cuteness! She was quite the entertaining birthday girl, clapping and throwing her hands in the air while "opening" (or while we opened) her presents! It was so much fun celebrating with family and friends and she was very spoiled!

The Birthday Girl!
(Thanks for making the cute skirt nana!)

The party theme was "Brooklyn's 1st Birthday Safari." We had so much fun planning the party details, but the best part of the night was watching Brooke have so much fun. She thrives on attention and was full of smiles the whole night!
Thanks grandma for all your help!! We would have never pulled it off without you! (The cute jungle cupcakes were thanks to grandma :)

She received so many cute clothes and fun toys. Thanks to everyone for coming!

For the first five minutes, she seriously picked at the frosting on her cake with 2 fingers! She has never eaten so dainty before (of course it's when we want her to dig in and get dirty!) Grandma shared lots of ice cream with her (maybe she's more of an ice cream kind-of-girl), and then she played in her cake for a while. She did enjoy the sugar, and we were glad she wasn't sick afterwards!

We have had the most fun year with this little bundle of energy and we are looking forward to many more birthdays!!! We love you Brookie babe!