Great Reno Balloon Race

Man, I am so behind! We went to the Balloon Race a month ago! Whatever, I've got awesome pics to show for it, so it's all good. 

So, I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:45am to get ready for the races and we all left at 4:30 so we could get a good spot, or so we thought. We brought along Evey's stroller and wagon, neither of which is allowed on the field where we usually sit, so we had to sit behind the rope, which was already jam packed full of people! 

So, next year we will be leaving earlier, although I can't say we'll have less stuff, we might leave the stroller behind and just plop Evey in the wagon. So yah, 3:30 wake up call for everyone and a 4am leave time, woo hoo! I'm up for it, Evey's a morning person, I can't say that Chris necessarily is, but he's very easy going, so I think we'll manage! 

First on the ballon race docket was the glow show. A little segue way here, everything is always the same at the balloon races, ALWAYS, yet we always go and always take the same pictures, but we love it and now have a new person we can take along who will be experiencing it differently each year for a while, so that makes it even more exciting:) Anyway, so the glow show was great, and Evey seemed to be interested, at least she didn't act like she wasn't, and she wasn't pissy, so win-win!

Next up is Dawn Patrol where six balloons launch at, you guessed it, dawn! It's apparently tricky business flying a balloon in the dark, and they try their damnedest to stay close together, so kudos to the pilots!

After Dawn Patrol comes the Mass Ascension where all of the balloons lift off! It's awesome to be around a crap ton of hot air balloons as they fill up and fly into the sky.

 

Evey seemed genuinely interested and I have a great video of her pointing at the balloons and saying something quite observant in Eveyish (her language, of course), which none of us understand, so, alas, her wisdom and wit were lost on us.

Did you know that it's Smokey Bear and not Smokey the Bear? I leaned something new that day.

Love the balloon races, and we really loved the unseasonably warm weather which was great because we usually bundle up in many layers under many blankets.

Evey fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the car and Chris decided to ride the wagon down a steep hill at UNR. Yep, I made a video of him doing it and someone nearby asked why I didn't follow suit and ride the stroller down the hill...

We then went to Peg's for breakfast and waited a while for a table, and then for our food, which is typical for that busy joint, but it gave Evey time to scope out apartments (she said she was moving out when all of her teeth came in, we said she should probably wait until she doesn't need to hold our hands to walk). And then we all ate tons of wonderful food and went home for family nap that lasted two hours and forty five minutes; it was a good day!

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;)