Columbus Day Weekend

We had a busy Columbus Day weekend. It's nice because Nick has Monday off since we works with the government, so we always get to have a lot of family time.

This year we were so excited to take Henry to the pumpkin patch. It's something Nick and I have done for the past two years and although Henry went last year, we thought he'd really enjoy it this year. He loves to be outside and this was the perfect day to do so.

We usually get to go on Columbus Day because Nick and I are both off work, but this year I wasn't, we went the Sunday before. We weren't ready for all the crowds but had a great time anyway. Henry's favorite part was the tractor ride out to the patch. He wasn't as excited as we thought he would be when we got out there. The ground isn't especially easy for a 17-month-old to navigate and he wanted to be held a lot.

We still had a great time and got a few good pictures! Enjoy!

Picking out the perfect pumpkin!

This is it Mom!

Not loving be in the middle of the field.

Very important discussion going on.

On actual Columbus Day we went to the zoo. We got a pass for the year and every time we've gone Henry has enjoyed it a little more. He seems to enjoy the other kids more than the animals at times. It was a great three day weekend and we were blessed with nice weather and got outside a lot.

Why are you making me sit on this turtle?

Watching the polar bear with dad.

What you can't see here is that there is a semi-circle of people looking at the gorilla, so Henry walked right up so that he would be right in front of everyone. He thought this was hilarious. he hardly noticed the giant gorilla behind him. He clearly liked being the center of attention. 

Henry's First Tailgate

With my work schedule it is difficult to get back to Columbia as often as we would like for Missouri games. Over the past few years the Kirkwood/Mizzou Tailgate has become quite the event. Luckily for us, Mizzou played at IU this past weekend and since that's only 2 hours from Louisville, we got to go and take Henry. 

The weather was perfect and thanks to a good friend we got to make the trip up there earlier than anticipated because I found coverage for my soccer games. So after breakfast we loaded up and headed North. 

We had great weather and got to celebrate the Tigers with great family and friends. Henry had an amazing time. He got to run around, eat junk food and see his ZouZou and Pop K. We can't wait to do it again soon!

Henry and his ZouZou. He obviously couldn't be bothered to put down his drink.
It's a tailgate, remember?

Henry and Pop K.  

He thought sitting in this chair was just the best. We stuck Chex Mix in the the cup holder and thought he was just the coolest thing ever. Until of course five minutes later he jumped out, ran around and ate a handful of mud. Parents of the year right here.

Again, too busy eating to take a proper picture.
No wonder this 16 month old is already in 3T clothing. 

With Jason and Jessica Engelbrecht. I've known these for basically their whole lives. So great to have grown up with such good friends. I love spending my holidays with you guys.
Missed you B and Jimmy!

As we neared our limit the only thing that entertained Henry was playing in this cooler and eating the ice. Most likely he was trying to wash the mud taste out of his mouth. 

Delicious cookies at the mixed team tailgate. 

Henry Gets a Slide

Henry is lucky enough to have a grandpa that is an amazing woodworker. He made Henry's beautiful crib and this summer he added on to Henry's swing-set. A few weekends ago Nick, his dad, and sister put together this beautiful tower and slide. Henry loves it and absolutely cannot get enough. We are so happy that we could get this done. 

Nick and Jen working on the tower.

Feeling the power of the nail gun.

Watching the train from the new tower.

Sitting with dad and watching the train.

The finished project.

With Grandpa Meyer and the finished project.

Las Vegas

So, went to Vegas awhile back and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. I was going to do a generic "Summer 2013" post but once I started talking about Vegas I realized too much happened to do that. So here we go...

At the end of June Nick and I headed out to Las Vegas for some sun and fun, oh and the National Athletic Trainer's Association Yearly Meeting. This was a trip we had been looking forward to for sometime. We had known it was going to be out for a couple years and had been planning the entire time to attend. Nick had never been to Vegas and I hadn't been since I was in high school. There was a lot we wanted to see and do but the things we wanted to make sure hit were Old Vegas (Freemont Street) and a show. 

On our second day we grabbed the bus with a couple of our friends and headed down to Old Vegas. The first stop was the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop from the History Channel's Pawn Stars. Overall the store was a lot smaller then we anticipated and smaller then it seems on TV. It was cool to walk around and see all the neat stuff they had. We'd just about made our way around when they announced that they were closing to film, so that was cool. Here's some pictures from the pawn shop:

Nick and me at the Gold and Silver Pawn shop.

One view of the pawn shop

Panoramic view of the pawn shop.

After that we headed to the older casinos to gamble and had a ton of fun. These tables were a lot less expensive and so Nick could play black jack longer and we could try more things. After we were done gambling our friends Matt and Sara decided to zip-line down the middle of the road that all the old casinos sit on. It was all a lot of fun and probably the best part of the trip for me. 

The zip lines and a view of the street and ceiling. 

           

 The next morning we went to a fantastic brunch buffet call the Wicked Spoon. It was in the Cosmopolitan Hotel and was so good. It was all individually plated items and everything was so good. I'd eat there again if I went back. Here's a picture in front of a really cool bar in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. 

 That night we headed out to the bar on top of our hotel. It had a great view of the strip but of course everything was insanely expensive. But it was fun to see the view and when you went to the bathroom you were even overlooking the strip from your stall. Weird but entertaining. 

From the bar at the top of our hotel.

So while on the West Coast we of COURSE had to to try In n Out burger. Nick had eaten before on trips out West with volleyball, I however had never had the experience. It was delicious. :) And we need some out here in the Midwest/South.

That night we bought tickets to go see David Copperfield and were not disappointed. It was an amazing show and is one that I would highly highly recommend to anyone. As my mom put it, it's just so Vegas. He was very very funny and is an amazing all-around entertainer. Since he doesn't really tour it's worth going to see him while you're out there. At dinner before I tried two beers that were off the beaten path for me. A wild blueberry and a banana bread. Both were SO good and I'd recommend to anyone. They weren't too strong and had just enough fruity flavor. Here's the beers and a picture of us after Copperfield. 

 Since it was our last night we decided to do a little walking around. We still needed a souviner for Henry (we had dumbly left the one we bought and other items sitting at a slot machine earlier in the day) and so we walked the strip a bit and ended up the Coke store. For under $10 you can sample different sodas from around the world. So as dorky as you may find it, that's what we did on Friday night in Vegas. We were exhausted from the week (it had been so hot) and this was something we couldn't do at home. Here's the sodas and labels that came with. The Beverly was the most disgusting. Most we finished but this one we barely sipped. 

Overall we had a ton of fun and I am so glad we were able to go. Thank you to my parents for watching Henry while we were gone. As much as were love him and were excited to get home, this wasn't a trip for a one year old.

Glad I finally found the time to blog about this. It was fun to look at all the pictures again and think about all we did.

Henry's Birthday Party

We are so fortunate to have so many people that came to celebrate Henry's first birthday with us. We'd really been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. It it always fun to get together with everyone and especially to celebrate our amazing little boy. 

The weekend, however, did not start out well. I was supposed to have baseball games to cover Friday night, but after it rained most of the day they got cancelled. I was so happy to have the whole evening to prepare for the party. But the rain we thought was a blessing turned out to be a curse. When Nick and I arrived home from work we quickly (but not quickly enough) realized that the drain on our walkout was clogged and we had 1-2inches of standing water on it. This could only mean one thing, our basement was flooded as well. The water had leaked in through the door and our entire carpet was soaked. I mean soaked. When you stood on it the water came up between your toes. So Nick headed to Kroger to get a Rug Doctor and my good friend Mindy came over to watch Henry while we quickly moved everything to dry land. Nick spent the next 4 hours running the Rug Doctor with only a short break for dinner. Thankfully his parents came down with another fan and a de-humidifier. It was dry enough for my brother to sleep down there on Saturday night. Luckily we are only going to lose one bookshelf (shelf only no books) and the carpet is all dry now and there isn't ant smell. Needless, to say this not how we needed to spend the evening with 20+ people heading over the next day.

But the show must go on and we had decided on a baseball theme for our All-Star. Many would think this would cause some arguments in our house. In case you don't know Nick is an avid Reds fan and I a Cardinals. So which would we choose? I mean you can't have both. Well I guess you could. But what it came down to was the Reds/Cardinals themed decorations, plates, etc were twice as expensive at Party City. So generic baseball it was. We had a great time and enjoy the pictures below. Thanks you everyone that came from near and far to celebrate. We are so appreciative to have friends and family that love Henry so much. 

The shirt that I made for the birthday boy.

The birthday banner I made for Henry. 

Our "concession stand" that had sunflower seeds, peanuts, popcorn and cracker jacks. 

The awesome! cake made by our friend Stacey. 

Singing "Happy Birthday" He loved it. 

Henry is 1!

Ok, this happened yesterday, we know. But I wanted to wait to post until we had his one year "stats." We went to the doctor today and he is looking great! Growing like a weed no surprise there of course. He is healthy and happy and we couldn't be more pleased. He is very close to walking and has even taken a couple unassisted steps, but overall he isn't that interested and is more concerned with going places quickly and that means on all fours. He says "dada" all the time and has said "mama" occasionally. He babbles a ton but nothing that really is discernible. He loves to stack things and put things away or together. He loves his bear, Mickey, trucks and being outside. He is the sweetest little boy and gives us kisses all the time. The adjective that is used to describe him most often right now is "busy." He's on the move and shows no sign of slowing down. 

Yesterday I had softball games to cover but Nick and Henry came to visit. I am very lucky to have a job where that is possible. We went out to St. Louis Bread Co. (or Panera if you so choose) for dinner. We also, of course did the obligatory cupcake and let him get it all over himself. It was a great day and we are excited for Saturday when we get to celebrate our little All-Star with friends and family. 

Below are his one year stats. Like I said, he's off the charts on height but that's to be expected. There's also a couple cupcake pictures. 

HENRY JOSEPH MEYER

12 MONTHS!

32 inches (100%)

26.5lbs (75%)

Henry and His Bear

Henry's first week we took a picture of him with this bear:

For the next 51 weeks we took a picture every week. Some weeks it was at the end of the week and sometimes we couldn't get him to sit still. We missed only one week in all that time and we put them together a video. I've been trying to imbed the video in this post but it hasn't been working, so here's the link to Henry and His Bear. It's amazing seeing them altogether in one segment. He has grown so much and it such an amazing part of our lives. He truly is a blessing. Enjoy!