birthday!

It's hard to believe it, but - as you may have guessed from the revised title of this web-log - our little Mae has now been a member of the human race for over a year (not that she was a dog or a duck or something before, mind you.)
We celebrated her birthday in grand fashion, first with an exclusive family-only celebration Thursday night (broiled chicken, rice, corn, and cup-cakes) and then today with a bursting, effusive celebration in our apartment complex clubhouse.
We had, counting ourselves, a good 25 people show up: friends, family, and well-wishers and good folk from around the community.
Maeby adored all the attention, and made sure to move to each corner of the room to greet her guests with squeals and pats on the knee and also to beg all of them for food.
She loved her cake - a beautiful creation Jenn conjured up - and ate a good four pieces before all was said and done.
Special thanks to any and all reading this who attended, helped, or were there in spirit.
Pictures:

Our little 1-year-old is a climber. Anything and everything that can be climbed will in turn be conquered by her.


See?



Check out those teeth. Five now.



Her cupcake - very excited.

She scarfed the whole thing in about 10 minutes. . .

. . and then sucked on the wrapper for another 15.

Jenn's cake -and my vegetable platter creation (it spells "Mae", if you can't tell - I would have done her whole name but I ran out of veggies)

Jayna the kitten (we had face-painting at the party)

About to get her cake

Chow-time.

She loved all her presents, and got plenty of help opening them from the youngster crowd.

This sock-monkey (from Rebecca and Jeremy) is now her favorite thing. Also, everything else she got (blocks, an awesome v-tech music station, alphabet blocks, clothes, a book, an ABC puzzle-mat, and some way cool wooden blocks)

With her mama.

new video: Maeby and Grandma

utah trip

We recently spent several weeks in Utah with Grandma Jurgens, playing at her house and then on a long trip with her to 4 different national parks.
Here are about a million photos from our time in Utah - mostly Maeby-centric.


Killing time in the Boise airport during a layover.





She got to play with Camber, our friends Nathan and Kristy's daughter. They got along famously whilst taking care of the cabbage patch "baby."

Having her first bite of waffle.

No matter how often we put her in the grass, she always crawls back over onto the cement. Even though her knees redden and she says "ow" in the process, holding one leg up and scraping the other along, she prefers that pavement for some reason.

She and Grandma are buds.

Opening up some early birthday presents.

She loves the toy phone but refuses to hold it up to her ear. Everything else - remote controls, stuffed animals, water bottles, etc. . . - go right to that ear as she pretends to jabber like her mama, but the phone remains in her lap at all times. Go figure.

Her she is chasing a peacock at the aviary. We intervened once they collectively closed the gap to about 3 feet.

Being laughed at by the Kookaburras.

With great-grandma Jurgens.

Feeding herself mashed potatoes

Not having it.

First night in the RV.

At Bryce Canyon - "wazzat?" she asks as she points at EVERYTHING.

Her first horse-ride.

Navigating.

Next, we stopped at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for a couple days.

This the view from our free, spacious campsite. I'm not going to tell you where this is or how to get there, but it was probably the single greatest campsite we'll ever find in our whole lives, and it was 100% legal, free, and isolated.

Another view. I don't think you can see it in this picture, but the east rim of the Grand Canyon was visible quite a ways below us.

Two new toys from the trip - both of which are loved voraciously.

Next we went to Monument Valley. Here, Jenn is receiving a traditional Navajo coiffe.

Petroglyphs.

This butte, in the background, is rich with family history. Ask my mom about gold-thieving sometime if you're interested.

Oh, and here's where the RV got stuck in the fine desert sand.

At Newspaper Rock, near Canyonlands NP.

Hiking with papa (don't laugh at me - I'm stretching.) She wasn't too sure about the carrier - but it wasn't a huge problem because she'd fall asleep within minutes every time.

I love that she's totally working that bottle in this picture.

Mama's turn.

She climbs EVERYTHING now.

See? Already gone. Now we're at Arches.

And that's all she wrote.

editor's note: sorry if this post was terse. It took a good 2 hours just to upload all the photos, and in my rush to get done with the thing, I may have sacrificed neccesary and/or expected exposition.