Vegas and Shakespeare

This is a big mash of stuff, well, a lot of my posts end up that way, but this one feels really smushed together cause I have stuff from July til now, I've been a bad blogger...

Anyway, we had a pretty good summer; lots of visiting with family and friends and experiencing summer happenings in Reno and the outskirts. I think my only regret is not swimming more just because Evey is still not super happy with the pool, but that's ok, maybe it's a sign that we need to join the popular crowd and do swimming lessons (and we have some super cute suits and swim diapers that we've barely used! I'm sure this is really the reason behind my guilt;)

In July we took a very short trip to Vegas to visit Chris' family. It was less than 48 hours, no joke, but that's the beauty of being an hour's flight away. We had a bbq with family and basically just hung out, good times.

We flew on allegiant, which was super cheap but super cramped and the engine was super loud. We sat in the very back and the engine roar knocked her out, yay!

Grandma and Grandpa's stairs are so much fun! There used to be two metal bars here until they renovated a couple years ago, otherwise baby girl would not be walking across it by herself!

I'm interrupting these super cute pictures to note that I reeeeaaalllly need to post more often because scrolling through a million pics to get to old ones sucks butt (insert pouty face). Ok, done complaining, moving on...

Chris and I enjoyed Shakespeare on the Lake in August with our buddies Drew and Darren while the McLaughlins watched Evey, at night! I can say that the play watching and the Evey watching were both successful, and we got to enjoy a whole day with the McLaughlkns, so that made us al very happy.

Friends, wine, and food....I have to share an embarrassing story here: I made a huge thing of pasta salad for us to share and didn't try it til we got there. I've made this before, but when I tried it, it was super salty, disgustingly salty, and I had no idea why! I apologized over and over to the friends and bought dessert to make amends, even though they told me that wasn't necessary, but I'm crazy and must ignore my friends and buy them brownies instead (amazing salted caramel brownies, actually). Later in the evening it hit me; I accidentally put salt in the dressing instead of sugar! To be fair to myself, or not, we have unlabeled canisters on the counter and I was chatting with a neighbor, so there. 

Two happy parents, and spouses;)

I love my floppy hat, so here's my hat and the stage.

Like I said, the next day we chilled with the McLaughlins and had a wonderful time.

Thanks for reading and looking!

Staycation, Kiddie Pool Style

Oh yah, gotta love chillin in the backyard with the fam on a Sunday in he kiddie pool. This was a couple of weekends ago, I've got more to share from this past weekend, but I wanted to highlight this fun moment. Evey is not a fan of pools, it took a while to get this far, but it was still nice to relax a bit. We had wine and talked with a neighbor, good times.

The following Friday Chris and I went out, alone, say what?! Yah, it's a rarity, but we set up a babysitting swap with some friends once a month. We had a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory so we went there, naturally. 

The name of the cheesecake was Chris' something or other, so I made him pose with his namesake. It just so happened that it was German chocolate, his favorite, so it really was meant to be. Also on the menu was Evelyn's Favorite Pasta...we thought we'd escaped the wee one for the evening;)

 

So I have to go off on a tangent real quick: I put on a somewhat nice dress to go out and Chris wore what he wore to work, which consisted of slacks, dress shirt, and tie. Now I know The Cheesecake Factory isn't fancy, but I like to be a bit dressed up to go out on special occasions. We were undoubtedly the most decently dressed people there, and we definitely got some looks. Our waitress even asked if we were celebrating something special! Whatever, I'm all for looking good and feeling good, wherever I am, even if everyone else around me is wearing tees, shorts, and tennis shoes (and there's nothing wrong with that either!)

Anyway, the next week Evey got her 15 month shots. She did pretty well, it was only two shots this time as opposed to the four last time, and she got over it pretty quickly. The next morning she spiked a low grade fever, but a little medicine and that went away quick. After her shots we went to the park and the kid was all smiles-she loves the swings and the slide.

We then took her to The Discovery that weekend, and it was amazing the difference a couple months makes! She was interacting and having a ball. She loves to push buttons, and she spent a while doing that at Little Discoveries an, of course, she loved going down the slide.

The new Inside Out exhibit is wonderful, although we get more out of it than she does at this point.

She loved knocking down Chris' structures in Build It.

And the kiddie section in Spark!Lab is always a hit.

I'm going off on another tangent again, but I just wanted to share tangible proof that Evey no longer hates a certain crawling stuffed animal. It's adorable, she hugs all of her stuffed animals now, and then promptly tosses them to the side/throws them over the couch.

Ok, bear with me now, only one more story, I promise. To continue our crazy busy weekend, which included The Discovery, we also had a graduation party, an impromptu visit to Tahoe with our neighbors, and a dinner with friends! 

This was our first beach visit with Evey, and the kid was not digging the water, but then again, neither was I, Tahoe is just always butt-ass cold! Nor was she a huge fan of the sand, until she learned how to dig in it, then it was a-ok.

I'm so glad we've had all these experiences with her, even if she won't remember them, but no matter, we have way too many videos and photos to show her, so she'll basically be able to watch and look at her childhood in its entirety;)

Summer, Summer, Summertime

If you don't have DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince music stuck in your head after reading the blog post title, I'm not sure we can continue being friends! Just kidding, I'll overlook your lack of 90s awesome music references;) 

We just got back from a very quick trip to Vegas, like under 48 hours quick. But, I've been meaning to post about our little adventures we've had, so we'll start with those!

We went to Family Night at Artown a couple weeks ago with friends. We didn't stay for the play they were doing, it was a bit too late for the wee ones, but we enjoyed eating pizza, getting the kids spirit animals drawn, and just kicking back in the grass.

The fabulous Michelle Lassaline, aka Coyote, drawing Evey's mouse.

I love all of the different Artown offerings, and I'm hoping that we'll be able to do more of them next year.

With our huge baby group, we celebrated 8 babies turning one! All of their birthdays fall in May and June, so we had one big celebration at Idlewild park and ate sandwiches and gave each kiddo a cupcake. We lined them all up in birth order in their highchairs and sang Happy Birthday! After the park, we went swimming. It took Evey a bit to get used to the water, but she enjoyed it eventually:) 

It's amazing that our big group has been together this long; it's wonderful having friends with kids the same age!

We love going to the movies at the park near us and went last year when Evey was pretty new because she easily fell asleep, but we didn't think she'd be able to do the same this year, so we didn't plan on going. But, as we were taking a walk around the park with our neighbor, we saw them setting up for the movie and decided to stay. She didn't fall asleep until almost 10 because the movie was so loud, but she wasn't cranky, so I think we'll go to the movie this month too!

 

So I think I need an end of blog catch phrase, I've read my share of blogs and a lot of people have one. I'll have to think on that one...until then, bye!

Fourth of July

We had a lovely low key Fourth, sans fireworks. The day started off with errands, yay! But first I had to get Evey dressed up all cute for the Fourth.

We did some grocery shopping and went to the farmer's market by the Summit. After that we went to the nearby Starbucks to have a snack.

Evey and I took a walk and went to the park with the Dagermans in the early afternoon, it was pretty overcast, so that was nice. 

We then went to a neighbor's house  for a BBQ.

Gotta love the baby with alcohol photos.

No fireworks for us, she was out by 8, but maybe we'll try next year?