Favorite Things

Collin loves to dance. If any kind of music comes on, he will immediately start rocking his head back and forth, or bounce up and down if he's standing. Doesn't matter what kind of music, he likes it all. Rock, pop, music from toys, hymns at church. . . he just can't keep his body from dancing! He also LOVES it when Rob or I dance with him. Let's just say there are a lot of embarrassing dance parties in this house. 

I took this video over a month ago and we think it's so funny. He was sitting there, playing the same song over and over, and rocking to it expressionlessly.

He is still trying to decide whether his future career will be as a dancer or a percussionist. He loves to play the drums, and hits anything with a surface.

He has also become quite the socialite. He loves playing with other kids. I love going to get him from the kids club at the gym and watching him play with other kids. I recently found him sitting with 2 big boys (2-3 year olds) playing cars. Then yesterday, I found him with 2 girls, playing with dolls at a dollhouse.
He always has lots of fun with his friend Avery. This is an old video, from almost 2 months ago, of these two taking turns screaming. Sorry about the shaky video, it was a left-handed attempt at recording while holding Collin.

 And one more of these 2 cuties.

Collin is growing up so fast! We love his personality. He has been so funny at night when we put him to bed. As soon as we put the blanket over him, he pulls it over his head and plays peek-a-boo a couple times and cracks up every time! Then when we leave, we think it's funny to listen to him through the baby monitor. He will keep pushing the button on his gloworm over and over, making it play music, for 10-15 minutes most nights before going to sleep. We wonder what he's thinking about in there. But we're just happy that he is okay with being in his crib and can get himself to sleep after spending a few quality minutes with the gloworm.

New York City

     So after spending the weekend in Pennsylvania, Danielle and Derek were kind enough to watch Collin for 3 days while Rob and I took a little trip to New York City. We rented a car and enjoyed the scenery for the 5 hour drive. It was our first overnight trip without Collin and it was so much fun! 

     We stayed at a hotel in New Jersey, and took a 15 minute bus ride straight into the city each day. We saved money this way (and had to keep reminding ourselves of this as we settled into the slightly gross hotel and neighborhood). However, what the neighborhood lacked in cleanliness, it made up for in its diverse wildlife. When we were walking back from the bus stop one night, we saw a raccoon cross paths with what we thought was a cat. . . but then after getting (way too) close to it, realized that it was a skunk. 

     We arrived at our hotel Monday afternoon, checked in, and went straight to the city. We wandered around Times Square and walked to the Empire State Building, then had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Then we went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway! We had been so excited to see it for so long, and we loved it! 

Times Square

Times Square (Phantom billboard in background)

Empire State Building

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Phantom at the Majestic Theater

     Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed for Rockafeller Center for the Today Show! We stood around in the audience, and waved when the cameras came around. We were on camera waving at one point. During part of the weather, Al Roker stood right in front of us so we could be seen behind him too. Every once in a while the reporters would come out and talk to people in the audience in between segments. Al Roker shook our hands and Ann Curry came and talked to us for a few minutes. It was lots of fun to be there for the show, and to have our few seconds of waving on TV!

     After the Today Show, we headed to take our ferry to the Statue of Liberty that we had booked in advance.  We had tickets to go up to the pedestal and museum inside. I don't remember exactly how many stairs it took to get up there, but it was at least double the RB stairs at BYU. :) From the pedestal, we had a good view of New York City.

Actual size of her foot (in the museum)

We are mostly covering the view of NYC, but it is there.

      After the statue tour, we wandered around Wall Street and got some lunch before going to see the Ground Zero Memorial (which we also had to get tickets for in advance). The memorial was really beautiful. We kept imagining how crazy it must have been on that day, in such a busy city, for such a scary thing to happen right there. Skyscrapers make me a little uncomfortable to begin with, and the thought of the two of them collapsing in the middle of the city is terrifying. And we imagined if we were on the crew that had to dig through the rubble, find people to rescue, and clean up the endless mess. Where would we begin? It was hard to imagine what the city must have been like after 9/11, and amazing all that has been done at ground zero since then.

Wall Street

New York Pizza- just as greasy as we'd imagined

Ground Zero Memorial

     After that, we went to Times Square for some delicious New York Cheesecake. We went to Junior's, which we've seen on the Food Network and it was divine. Then, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge and took a little walk on it. We had some dinner and walked through Chinatown and Little Italy. It was dark by then, so we ended our sightseeing for the night.

Brooklyn Bridge

     Wednesday morning, we took a little walk through Central Park. It was nice and pretty and we wished we could have had the time to go for a run like so many other people there. It would be fun to live close to such a big park like that.

     Our last stop in New York was the Manhattan Temple. We were so glad we were able to go there. It was such a cool experience. It seemed out of place in the loud and busy city, but as soon as we walked through the doors, it was silent and peaceful.

We loved our New York trip! We missed our baby so much, and couldn't wait to see him again, but we were so glad we could make this fun romantic trip alone!

Weekend in PA

After Collin's birthday, we stayed in Indiana, PA for the weekend and got to see some fun surrounding places. We went to Punxatawney, home of the famous groundhog Punxatawney Phil. We stopped by Gobbler's Knob, where the festivities happen each year on Groundhog Day and they determine whether Phil sees his shadow. We also went to the library to see Phil himself!

Phil's cupboard

There were groundhog statues like this all over town

Spencer, Collin, Ethan

After Punxatawney, we visited a little Amish town called Smicksburg. We stopped at the stores there and bought delicious fudge!

We passed several of these and the Amish people smiled and waved every time.

Collin just loved playing with his cousins! Bryce walked around talking about Baby Collin all day, Spencer and Ethan provided lots of entertainment for him, and Meagan (who I realized I didn't get any pictures of) was the best at making him laugh.

There was lots of light saber fighting going on.

Rob took Collin and Bryce on a jog

So many fun toys!

Bryce, Ethan, Collin

Cute brothers Ethan and Spencer

He liked riding in this wagon

Lasagna one night. Had to get a picture

Collin was obsessed with these fridge magnets.

We all had a great time in Pennsylvania!

Collin's 1st Birthday!

We are the proud parents of a one-year old! We spent Collin's birthday at Danielle and Derek's house in Pennsylvania. Collin had fun playing with his cousins all day and we had his party in the evening. 

Birthday boy

First balloon experience

Love this boy

He ripped the paper a little, but mostly needed help

His train cake

First he ate the marshmallows off the top.

No need to use hands. This is much more efficient.

After

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since Collin was born, but at the same time it feels like he has been in our family forever. Here are a few things we love about our boy:

• He is ticklish and always laughs when we tickle his neck, tummy, feet, and legs.
• When we are holding him, he'll rest his head on our chest, but only for a few seconds. If he's playing, sometimes he'll crawl up to me, rest his head on me for a few seconds, then quickly get back to playing.
• He loves people and will usually smile for them.
• He giggles when I brush his teeth.
• He loves being chased up the stairs! If the baby gate isn't up, he goes up a step or two and waits for one of us to follow him. As soon as he sees us, he screams and crawls up as fast as he can.
• He dances all the time! Whenever some kind of music comes on, he starts rocking back and forth. 
• He likes to take all our shoes off the shoe rack and does this several times daily. Same with the DVDs.
• If he has a binky in his mouth, and he finds another on the floor, he drops the one from his mouth and takes the new one. Sometimes he'll keep switching.
• He claps his hands all the time and laughs when we clap ours too.
• He likes emptying the kitchen drawers whenever he gets the chance.
• Lately, he shakes his head wildly side to side a lot when he is excited, and while crawling fast.
• Also when he's excited and standing up, he bends his knees and "jumps" them back up over and over.
• He sleeps with his bum in the air sometimes. We've seen him wiggle it up and down while sleeping, and it is the funniest thing in the world.
• He smiles at us when we go to get him from his crib in the morning or after a nap.
• When he's eating, he tries to pick up small foods like cheerios by touching them with his index finger. And usually his fingers are sticky enough that it works.
• Some of his favorite toys include straws, toothbrushes, baby forks, and popsicle sticks.
• When the front door is open, he tries to make a run for it.
• When we put him to bed, he'll usually give a little giggle when we tuck the blanket around him, and then stay quiet when we leave. He goes to sleep so well most of the time.
• He loves bath time and smiles big when we take him out and wrap him in the towel.
• He has the best laugh, and always laughs when he hears other people laughing.

We love this boy! He makes us laugh every day.

Washington, DC!

 We finally made our trip that we've been talking about for years! For this 2-week break, we got to spend time in Washington, DC (where Rob served his mission), Pennsylvania (to visit Danielle and Derek's family), and New York City (for a fun getaway without Collin). We had a blast! We have tons of pictures that we'll have to split into a few blogs. We'll start from the beginning!

Our flight to Pittsburgh wasn't too bad. When we got on the plane, the stewardess asked if we wanted to bring Collin to meet the pilot. We talked to him for a minute and got a cute picture!

We arrived late at night and Derek kindly picked us up and brought us to their home in Indiana, PA. We spent Sunday there then left for Virginia Monday morning. We went straight to the Arlington National Cemetery and met Diana and Vance, who drove up from North Carolina to come to DC with us! Collin and Vance had never met before.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier- my favorite part. We caught the end of the changing of the guard.

JFK and Jackie's graves, with the Eternal Flame.

After that, we headed to Vienna, VA, one of Rob's mission areas, and had Nielsen's Frozen Custard. This was one of his favorite places to eat on his mission and it was delicious.

 We drove through another one of his areas, Herndon, and saw where he used to live. This is the bridge outside his old apartment.

After touring mission areas a little bit, we headed to Diana's friends the Brands' house in Maryland where we spent the nights while there. They were so hospitable and helpful, and it was so nice to not have to pay for a hotel!
On Tuesday, we went into DC. We drove to a parking place at a metro station and went from there each day. We started by checking out all the monuments on "The Mall." It was really rainy that morning, but luckily cleared up after lunch.

Cute Collin on the Metro

Washington Monument

Representing Oregon at the WWII Memorial. The rain was fitting.

The White House!

These boys were troopers in their strollers all day! You can kind of see the Washington Monument in the background.

The Capitol Building

Me and Abe. He is my favorite.

We also went to the International Spy Museum that day. It was so cool! It was Rob's favorite museum that he had been telling me about for a long time.

Later that evening, we went to my Aunt Patsy and Uncle Tim's house to have dinner with them. They took us to a fun children's park in their neighborhood and got some delicious Peruvian chicken for dinner.

Collin enjoyed swinging at the park!

On Wednesday, we went to lots of museums. We started at Ford's Theater where Lincoln was shot. Because of difficulty parking at the metro station, we were too late to get into the actual theater, but we looked around the museum and it was pretty cool and slightly morbid. . . they had the gun that killed Lincoln as well as a bloody pillow that he bled on after he was shot.

Some of you might know why I like this picture.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe which was right next door.

Then went to the Holocaust Museum. This one was the most interesting to me. I was glad we could spend some time there, even though it wasn't the most happy place.
We then quickly made our rounds through the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of American History, and the Air and Space Museum. We also went to the National Archives building where we saw the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights!

Natural History

Natural History- the Evolution room was really cool!

Natural History

The Hope Diamond- Natural History

Air and Space Museum

Julia Child's kitchen- American History Museum

We went back to the Brand's house when we were done and they made us a delicious dinner. So nice.
Thursday morning Rob and I woke up super early to go to the temple. The DC temple is special to Rob and he has been telling me for years that he will take me there some day. We were so glad we could go together, and thanks to Diana for watching Collin for us! Even though we left really early, we underestimated the distance/ traffic by about 2 minutes and didn't make the session. We did sealings instead, which turned out to be perfect. We got to take our time walking through the different rooms. One thing that I liked was a big painting of the Founding Fathers appearing to President Woodruff, fitting for a temple in this location. The temple is so beautiful. My favorite Celestial Room so far.

We were heading back to Pennsylvania that day, but we decided to stop at the Zoo on the way, since we had heard it was a really good one. We went through it pretty quickly and some of the cooler animals weren't out at the time, but it was still a fun little stop. Even if we hadn't seen anything else though, Rob got to see the Anaconda, so it was a success.

We stopped by a frog statue to take a picture of Collin and found this on top.

We thought it was garbage so I was about to throw it away. But then inside. . . 

5 bucks! It said it was an "experiment in random acts of kindness."

Look at these precious snuggling monkeys!

Rob loves driving in the city traffic, can you tell?

That's the end of the DC trip! Hopefully the rest of the trip will follow soon.