spring was in full swing once we returned to minnesota so we decided to get out and enjoy some sun before the mosquitoes crash the party.  mikey and daddy about to take off!   mikey’s holding on for dear life!  he actually loved the bike ride, it was the helmet he HATED.  it was three sizes too big, but they don’t seem to make a smaller one!   we rode to roseville central park (two blocks away from our place) and found some canadian geese kickin’ back in the grass.   phil went a bit closer and got a shot of the baby geese huddled together (the adult geese weren’t…

to celebrate mikey turning one year old, we got our pictures taken (again)!  gotta say though that i’m not too thrilled with the photographers at jcp.  and their service in general.  i really dislike how they push you to buy the ‘doctored up’ pics.  you should have seen the ones they tried to make us buy!  i’d be okay with them if they’re halfway decent, but don’t stand there and try to sell me something that looks like trash!!!  and i’m the mother talking here so it has to be a REALLY bad shot to make me think a pic of my son looks like trash!!!  i find i always leave there disgruntled. …

so after a great time visiting the folks, sam and jenny graciously let us stay with them for our last weekend in sunny so cal.  we got in town just in time to get ready for mikey’s first birthday party!  so very strange that the boy is now a year old.  whoa.  i didn’t really realize that while we were traveling. anyway, we had the party at good ol’ china gate!  being that this is the first dol i’ve ever been to, i was surprised at all the stuff there was to bring and do.  i seriously thought we were all just getting together to eat!  so i tried my best to…

my dad’s favorite thing to do with mikey:  FEED him.  he totally loved that mikey ate and ate and ate.  phil and i were a little shocked at the HUGE spoonfuls my dad gave him, but he did okay and i think that’s when mikey officially went off of baby food and decided he only wanted to eat what we were eating.  we also really enjoyed getting to eat our meals baby-free as my dad took over feeding duty the whole time we were there. surprisingly, my uncle (who’s never really been a baby person) totally fell for mikey too!  he’d come first thing in the morning asking, “where’s mikey?  is…

(man, it feels like so long ago already!) so we spent the third part of our trip with my mom in pismo beach.  here we are near the cliffs to watch the sunset.  it was sooo windy that evening! seemed like phil really enjoyed our rental car, a pt cruiser.  he sure took a lot of pictures of the thing!  i think he thinks it’s named after him.  hee hee.  it was cool though, the best part was that it was BRAND new when we got it- only had two miles on it! while we were at my mom’s place, we got to stop by and see my friend (from…