Magic Show

For Derrick's work Christmas party we went to his boss' house for a steak and potluck dinner. There was probably the biggest variety of food that I've ever seen at one table. It was so good!

At the end there was a magic show put on the boss' brother. After throwing cards to the audience I had the "lucky" card and was the participant who got in the box. Derrick started video taping part way through the trick. I think the video speaks for itself. Enjoy!

This little guy turned 5 months old on Dec. 1st.


In honor of turning 5 months old Zach got to try rice cereal for the first time. We let Zach suck on one of his spoons in order to help prepare himself for this "momentous occasion" while I made up the cereal.


Having your first taste of semi-solid food on a spoon can be a bit confusing.


True to form, Zach eats as much rice cereal as we give him. I think he'd eat anything we gave him. At first Zach's tongue just pushed the food back out as he tried to eat it unless we kept the spoon in his mouth until he swallowed. Zach is needing less and less help as he's getting practice.

Other fun things with Zach: he blows spit bubbles, makes more sounds, puts everything in his mouth, shares his impressive amounts of drool with us, pivots on both his back and his front, loves to play standing up (with lots of support), has more hair again, smiles more and laughs. We love our Zach! He is such a wonderful baby and makes us so happy!

Lappy Fixin

So recently the hinge on my laptop broke. Sad but true. It really had been on its way to breaking since I bought it on ebay a year ago. For some things the time will eventually come. But a few weeks ago the one side came completely off. I tried at first just throwing some JB Weld in there, but it only lasted a couple hours. Then I got all excited and thought I would be able to buy a new laptop. I looked around a lot, and then fortunately (or unfortunately?) a guy in my class said that I could probably find a replacement hinge online. We got to lookin and had a cheap fix within 10 minutes. This afternoon the piece came, and tonight after some screwing, soldering and some more JB Weld just to be sure, I now have a working hinge again. Woohoo!

Out with the old and in with the new.

1st Time Mountain Biking

So my father-in-law loves mountain biking and goes every chance he gets regardless of weather conditions. After making various trips to the Bowen home over the past two years we decided that I needed to try mountain biking for the first time.

We drove to a trail called Rustler's loop. Derrick, Dad Bowen, and I got on our bikes while Zach and Mom Bowen walked part of the trail.


I was nervous at the beginning and then during several of the more rocky and steep parts of the trail but had a lot of fun. I received several bruises as battle wounds from getting bucked around on my bike and fell over once. I guess it could be an early birthday present to my father-in-law to say that I'd be happy to go biking with him again sometime... though I definitely would need more practice before doing anything more technical. It also wouldn't hurt to get in better shape :).

Bringing up the rear

Posing as mountain bikers

We survived! (and got back before dark)

Happy Baby

Over the last couple of weeks Zach has started laughing. I can't get enough of it! I was finally able to catch the end of a laughing episode on video when he was playing with Grandpa Bowen (Nov 28). Enjoy!

Here's another laughing video I got of Zach 2 days ago. Apparently I make weird sounds and say dumb things to try to get him to laugh.

1st Driving Lesson - Nov 28

On Black Friday we went shopping with my family at the outlet mall in Silverthorne. I asked my dad to hold Zach for a second while I got Zach's clothes out of the diaper bag and this is what I found when I looked up. I guess we're starting him out young.

Hiking or Should I Say Bushwhacking? - (Nov 26)

After spending the morning taking Zach to visit Grandma Bowen's 1st grade class and watching Twilight, Derrick wanted to take us on a hike through the canyon area behind his house to the Colorado River. We got Zach bundled up and then started off.

I think for about half of the time we were bent completely over ducking under trees or climbing over fallen ones. We also had to jump a small stream both ways. This was difficult with Zach in the backpack. I had to be careful to keep him from falling out of the pack and from getting attacked by all the tree branches. Trying to cross a stream with an 18-19 pound baby strapped to you is also no easy feat. It made for a good adventure though and it was fun to see the river and a bunch of eagles' nests near it.

Here's a dark, cell phone picture showing off the tree full of eagles' nests.

My handsome husband showing off the landscape near the river.

Cousins

I think everyday we were in GJ Zach was able to play with his cousin Ryan. Their playing is understandably limited but at least Zach stayed awake most of the time. There were a few times Ryan tried to squish Zach and grab his face but Zach survived pretty well. Here are a couple of pictures of the two cousins that Derrick's brother Tyson took and posted on the Bowen family blog:

Playing with Tyson's Wii motes. Looks like Ryan has it figured out a bit better than Zach does.

Zach loved these sea creatures. Apparently they taste great...or Zach's in the process of teething.

Thanksgiving Break

We had a really fun Thanksgiving break. It was so nice for Zach and me to have Derrick free from class and work from Monday after work until the next Monday. We love having him around! We were at Mom and Dad Bowens' house in GJ for most of that time but did make a short trip to visit my family at a cabin 3 hours away in Leadville. We're so grateful to have family within easy traveling distance!

We weren't very good about pictures during the trip so we'll need to get some of the ones from Grandma and Grandpa Bowen. We did get some pictures that I want to blog about but I'll separate those into different posts for easier reading.

Family Pictures - Nov. 1

About a month ago our friend Ken Ross from the ward took some family pictures for us. We went to the Provo temple grounds and love how they turned out. Ken did a great job!

Here are a few of my favorites:

I love that Zach is randomly pointing in this picture

I've Been Slacking

Sorry to anyone who actually reads this blog that I've been such a slacker at blogging. With the holidays there's just so many other things to do! Still, I've got lots of things to blog about so here comes what will hopefully be another bunch of posts :).

New Theme!

Jen has been buggin me for a bit to update the visual style of our blag. So we picked something a little piratey. Enjoy!