4th of July in Greeley, CO

Unfortunately Amanda had to work on 4th of July, so Brooklyn and I spent the morning and afternoon together. We started the day by running in the annual Race against Cancer 5k race. It was wonderful weather to run and there was a huge crowd that lined the streets cheering people on. It was Brooklyn's first race and my first in Colorado. I did most of the work as she slept and I ran. We tried to stay afterward to watch the parade (which is the biggest parade in Colorado), but Brooklyn' bottle leaked all the milk out and then I had to use the bathroom. That's difficult to do when you're alone. I actually gave thought as to how quickly I could run into a port-o-potty and get out before anybody noticed a cute baby by herself in a stroller. Needless to say, we just walked home.



This was Amanda's first 4th of July outside of Arizona and my first in about seven years. So it was nice to actually be outside. For the most part the day was sunny but then the rain came in. I swear, every time I try to grill outside, it decides to rain. We spent some time with friends at the Longs' house and then made our way back home to grill.



Fortunately, the rain periodically broke and I was able to get the grill going, and we were blessed with a rainbow that, despite our excitement, Brooklyn seemed pretty uninterested in. Either way, it was one of the better 4th of Julys we've had, mainly because it wasn't 110 degrees like it would have been in Phoenix!

Brooklyn doing computer work

Brooklyn was helping daddy work on his dissertation!

Brooklyn Can Hold Things...

And we were visited by neighborhood ants

The First Father's Day

Today I experienced my first father's day. The family got me presents, made me breakfast in bed, and even got me an ice cream cake that had "Happy Birthday" written on it. Awesome. It was like my birthday. Still, it was kind of surreal but fun. I realize that I'm part of a very exclusive club, one that comes with many responsibilities. I love my family and I'm excited about being a husband and daddy.

A few funny stories

While I have a free second I would like to share some things that have made me laugh this past week. Here is story #1.
Quaylan and I were playing volleyball in the backyard. Due to the recent rains, the grass is long. And our wonderful dog, Kanye, doesn't like to poop when the grass touches her bum, seriously. Plus, the long grass makes it hard to see poop. Anyway, we were playing and Quaylan had reminded me to watch out for poop, but he was pretty sure he'd picked it all up already. After a good 15 minutes of playing, the ball goes over to the far side of the yard. Quaylan runs to get it and I go over to Brooklyn to make sure she is still ok (sleeping in the swing). I stand up and Quaylan is standing still, with a look of total defeat on his face. I say, "what's wrong," and he answers, "I stepped in poo...It is 100% on my shoe...I stepped in poo." Now I don't think he meant to rhyme his response, but he did, and I was dying of laughter. He continued, "It IS 100% on my shoe, it's not even on the grass!" And sure enough he was right, his shoe was covered in poo, and not one bit remained on the grass. To top it all off, the grass was too wet from previous rain for him to scrape it off. It was awesome!
Story #2 Quaylan decided to give Brooklyn an airplane ride this morning. As he's sitting on the couch he starts flipping her over. And she loved it! I was in the kitchen cleaning when I hear....uuuuggggghhhh! I look over and see the same "poo on my shoe" face on Quaylan, but this time, there is baby throw up dangling off his chin, and, yes, throw up IN HIS MOUTH! It was also all over his shirt, too! I cannot stop laughing, he looked like he was about to throw up too! I finally compose myself to help him and I can honestly say I've never seen him make funnier faces. It was awesome! Plus, the same thing happened to me the second week I began caring for Luka, so it was ok to laugh!
We are having way to much fun here in Co!

Trip to Sacramento - The Graduation

Last week we went to visit Sacramento, California and witness my little brother graduate from high school (yay!). It was also Brooklyn's first time visiting her grandparents home. All the family flew in from all over, Georgia, Washington, Arizona, Tennessee, and Colorado. She met so many people including her cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles, and her great grandmother. At first she got overwhelmed but she soon settled down and had a great time laughing and talking to her relatives. We even got to take her down to San Francisco to meet her Aunt Teri and Richard. We visited Pier 39, China Town and had dinner in North Beach (Little Italy). Then to cap it off, she got to see her Uncle Shonie's graduation ceremony. And she stayed awake for most of it! We then made it safely back home with Brooklyn staying awake for most of the plane ride talking to strangers. It was a very good trip. Congrats Naashon!

More pics from Sacramento Trip

More pics of the trip to California can be found on the Web Gallery.