It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

For Olive's first birthday we had a bunch of friends over to celebrate.  As usual with all the kiddos running around it was chaos but we loved every mintue!  I'll tell you who didn't though, the birthday girl.  She was crabby all day and wouldn't eat her cake.  Oh well, I guess you win some you lose some.  : )  I think everyone else had fun so here are some pics I wanted to share!

Playing in the living room.

At least her outfit was cute!

Joel on the grill.

She did eat a few beans.

Yum, beans.

Well, she really didn't want to try it.

Luckily we had others who really wanted it!

Someone's happy!

Blowing out the candles.

We waited until the next day to open presents and Olive had a lot more fun with those than she did with the cake!

Presents!

On Olive's actual birthday we gave her a cupcake and she really liked it, who wouldn't!  Baby's first sugar!

Yay cupcakes!

Yum

Maybe she will enjoy her second birthday more?  ; )

Santa Fe - June 2014

During our visit home Joel, my mom, Olive and I took a few days to visit Santa Fe.  We had a blast as usual.  The car ride was easy even though we were nervous about Olive being in the car that long, she think 15 minutes is a long time!  Olive absolutely loved all the food (no surprise there) and we were even impressed that she like the green and red chili.  We mostly just hung out and ate a lot (also no surprise) but we did make it out to Tent Rocks for a hike one day.  It was hot but we really enjoyed it.  Olive was a trooper and happily rode in the hiking back pack the whole time.  Everyone on the trail stopped and commented on what a great hiker she was.  She was definitely the cutest hiker on the trail!  Here are a few pics we took on our trip!

Picking out which tapas she wanted.

Walking to dinner.

Matching shoes for our hike.

Olive reading the map on our trip, what a good navigator!

Family pic!

Tent Rocks

Winding through the trail.

Mom took a (short) turn carrying Olive.

We made it to the top!

Cooling off after the hike.  

That about concludes our trip home.  We had a blast as usual and can't wait until next time!  My next post will be Olive's 1st birthday party so stay tuned!

Nicole's Wedding Festivities!

My life long friend (and Olive's Godmother) got married while we were home and I had the privilege of being her matron of honor.  She had such a great group of girls for her bridesmaids and I had the best time getting to know them.  

I hosted a mountain weekend bachelorette party and we had a blast.  Things have changed a bit since I got married, so instead of Thunder from Down Under and clubbing in Vegas (yep, I was only 23 when I was engaged!) we thought a slower paced, more relaxed weekend would be the perfect way to celebrate Nicole's last days as a single lady.  We started the weekend with a dinner out and some fun bar games.  We bought dare card and realized that we were all too old (sober) to actually go through with any of them except Nicole did do one that seemed easy.  It was take a picture with a married man, easy peasy.  The next day we went shopping and then painted pottery.  We each made an appetizer plate and Nicole painted a platter so she will have a matching set to remember the weekend by!  Nicole loves painting pottery so we though this would be fun and they even had wine and snacks for us so it was a nice party!  Our second and last night we stayed in and had a little honeymoon/ travel themed shower for Nicole.  She got some really fun travel stuff and maybe a few pieces of lingerie ;).  The girls all pitched in and we bought matching PJs and I got us all stuff to do foot soaks and have a little spa party at the same time.  It was such a fun weekend and a great way to get to know each other before the big day!

Goodie bags for the girls

Decorations for the weekend

Painting Pottery in Breckenridge.

Opening her shower presents in her cute PJs

The rehearsal dinner was held at the beautiful Golden Hotel, right on the river.  What a wonderful night to get everyone together and start the weekend celebrations.

Colin and Nicole at the dinner

With the bride on her last single night!

Hubby lookin good.

The wedding was held in Nicole's parents backyard and it was totally transformed.  They spent weeks getting it ready, including building a pergola for the big day.  It felt like you were stepping into a park, it was so beautiful.  I even joked they could rent it out for future events.  The bridesmaids got ready in the house and the boys came over just before the ceremony.  The day of I didn't get too many pics (we were busy!) but if you want to see more here is the link http://aliandgarrett.pass.us/nicole-chris/c-7HKDR1281442  The photographers were very talented and there are some wonderful pictures.

The bride getting ready.

Wedding party (from the photographers).

Party time!

We had the best time celebrating and I am so glad that I got to be a part of Nicole and Chris' big day!

Our trip home - June 2014

As usual our visit home was wonderful, catching up with friends and family and getting to show off our super cute little girl.  I will share our trip to Santa Fe and my friend Nicole's wedding in another post so for now I will just show you a million pics of everything else that we did.

Olive settled right in to my parents house and loved harassing the dogs.

We spent a lot of time in the mountains.  When we first got home It was freezing and rainy and Olive was not too excited about the weather.  She really enjoyed the mountains though and loved hiking everyday.  

Driving in the rain to the mountains.

Country girl!

Red neck baby.

So much rain.

Skeptical of the cold.

Harassing the dogs.

Playing with new toys at Grandma and Grandpa's

We got to catch up with so many friends when we were home and had a great time seeing them.  We saw our good friends the Wegman's and their cute little boy Noah.

Seeing Noah.

Just let me taste you finger for a second.

We also got to catch up with Olive's God Father with dinner up in the mountains.  It was great to see him as always!

We spent some time at the pool, Olive loved the fountains of course.

We even went to the pool with my good friend Taylor and her little boy Cohen.  Olive really wanted to play with him but she couldn't quite keep up!

That about sums up our days at home, I will share with you the rest in my next post!