August Catch Up - Part 2

We celebrated Derrick's 25th birthday. He requested strawberry shortcake made from scratch using the Jones family recipe. This has become a tradition since he's requested it all 3 birthdays we've been married. Melissa and Nate joined us for hanging out and eating dessert. It was a pretty mellow celebration this year.


Zach fell asleep while sitting in his high chair for first (and only) time. What's crazy about this was that the day before I had made a comment to Derrick about how I never thought Zach would do it. I guess fighting me with nap times and transitioning from 2 naps a day to 1 is enough to wear the kid out.


Derrick redesigned the website for CleanTelligent (the company he works for). It was a really fun project for him. To see it go to: http://www.cleantelligent.com/. It's more impressive with a before and after but it still looks good :).

Nate and Melissa moved a couple blocks northeast of us and we spent a lot of time helping them move and clean their apartment. Zach added to the fun by climbing on, getting into, and trying unpack everything.

August Catch Up - Part 1

Derrick finished up his internship with Dish Network and we moved back to UT. Derrick's parents picked us up from my parents' house and helped us get all of our stuff back here. Zach handled the car ride pretty well. It really helped that we took 3 days so we had a break to just play with Grandma and Grandpa Bowen.


While in Grand Junction we got to tour the big dirt hole in the backyard (Derrick's parents are extending their bedroom and adding a basement to their house), go mountain biking (Mom Bowen watched Zach), and go to a wedding reception which led to us leaving Zach's booster seat in the trunk of the car that didn't come with us to Utah :(. More to come on how that worked out okay.

For mountain biking we rode Mary's Loop and Horsethief Bench Loop. It's rated as "intermediate" and was pretty scary/exhilarating at times. It's a hike and bike trail so at the part between the loops we had to carry our bikes down a pretty steep trail. There were great views of the CO river...though most of the time I was focused on not dying :).



After getting back to Utah we realized that we were missing Zach's booster chair. While unpacking, I was walking upstairs and overheard a conversation about a high chair. One guy was asking another if he needed a high chair for his kid. The second guy didn't and the first guy explained that someone in the ward had found a high chair left by the dumpsters and moved it by the laundry building since it was in such good condition. We went to check it out and ended up bringing it home. It was exciting to not have to buy a replacement and the timing was amazing! We cleaned it up and it works great!

Na na na na na ...

BATMAN!!!

On the evening of 7/31 Zach had his first adventure wearing his Batman jammies. He ended up losing his pants for awhile so they could be hemmed several inches.

July Catch Up Part 2: Babysitting

From July 22 to Aug 1 Derrick and I stayed at my aunt and uncle's house to "babysit" their 3 youngest kids while the parents were in Japan picking up Andrew from his mission. It was really an easy job since the kids are amazingly well behaved and the youngest is 11. I was amazed on Saturday night when Matthew asked Derrick and me if it'd be alright with us if he prepared a FHE lesson for Monday. Talk about impressive for a teenage boy.

The week and a half consisted of:
- Two trips to Chick-fil-a to take advantage of the free smoothies and then sandwiches for dressing up in Hawaiian and then sports attire. Zach was dressed up too and got the free stuff but got to eat a stuffed animal cow while Derrick and I ate his smoothie due to his dairy food allergy. He didn't seem to mind sharing since he got some of the whipped cream. He did have his first experience playing in the play area of a fast food restaurant.


- Friends and family day at Dish Network (place of Derrick's summer internship). We were the only ones there with a baby. You know you're not in Provo anymore when...
- Derrick getting home earlier. During this time his daily commute was shortened by 45 minutes each way.
- Trips to the park.
- 3 BBQs for 3 consecutive meals (exluding 1 breakfast).
- Trip to the movie theater to see the 6th Harry Potter movie.
- My cousin's daughter Leah's 1st birthday. My parents came up from Boulder area for this as well. We found out that Zach loves swimming and is only content in the baby pool for about 5 minutes total. He kept charging back towards the big pool if we ever tried to get him out of the water. Zach loved waving his arms through the water when we dragged him through it (he starts doing it at the end of the video).

- Lots of effort to keep Zach from breaking things. He'd climb up on EVERYTHING. The middle picture below was taken after went to check on Zach after hearing some notes on the piano and seconds before he decided to climb up and stand on the keys to play with the breakable decorations on top of the piano. How does a 12 month old know how to climb up on top of a piano? Zach also decided to try to rearrange the kitchen by repeatedly emptying all the cupboards and drawers he could reach and emptying an entire box of plastic baggies.

- Long nights. Zach didn't sleep well the entire time and would often end up in bed with Derrick and me.
- Many movie nights.
- 2 Game nights with a bunch of teenagers from the ward.
- Two shopping trips to Plato's Closet - I love that store.
- Lots of sports. I stayed home with Zach twice while Derrick, Ashley, Matthew, and Nathan went to play basketball at the church.

- Lots of Zach following the bigger kids around. He especially seemed excited to see Ashley when she wasn't at work. I love how one time he carried his snacks and went to sit by her while she was doing some chores. Those of you who know Zach know it's not common that he chooses to just sit. Zach was in heaven with so many people to play with.

- Brian Regan - The Blaylock kids had never even heard of Brian Regan before. We corrected this so Ashley wouldn't end up at BYU this fall without knowing who Brian Regan is :).
- Intense cleaning and then making signs and desserts for when Andrew returned. The two big signs were a huge sign saying Welcome home in Japanese kanji that I made and a candy gram the kids made. Other decorations included balloons, streamers, and smaller signs stuck in the grass.

We had a great time hanging out with some of my cousins I haven't seen very often since I left CO for college. It was also very nice to be able to return to my parents' house and have Zach sleep in his bed again so I could sleep again.

July Catch Up Part 1: Casa Bonita

One classic place to visit while you're in Denver is the restaurant Casa Bonita. The food isn't great (it's been compared to a step above TV dinners) but it was a very exciting place to go when I was little. Derrick had never been so we all went about mid-July.

The lovely pink building:


There's a lot of line waiting at the beginning. Zach managed to entertain himself by playing on the dirty floor. Hurray for hand sanitizer!




For the meal we were seated in the room where we a magic show was going on. It wasn't very impressive but Zach loved it. He was focused on it and had fun waving his arms all crazy throughout the show.


Sorry, this is a terrible picture but if you look at the bright part of the picture you see the performers. During these shows at least one of the characters is always pushed off the ledge by the waterfall into the water below.


Black Bart's Cave is a must see at Casa Bonita. This place was so cool and scary when I was little. Now it's surprisingly short.


You never know what you'll find in caves...


Cheesy puppet show. Zach is the kid running around in front. He never stops moving :).