We started off in Colorado, where we stayed with my Uncle Patrick and Aunt Kimberly for a few nights. We went to Daddy's cousin Kazy's wedding (where I took advantage of the quiet "vow" time to loudly express my opinions) and reception, and we even had a pre-birthday party for me! That was fun. My guest list included my uncles David, Patrick and Brendan, Aunt Kimberly, Jenny, Papa and Gramma Hill, Gramma Hill's cousins Jeff and Darren from Kansas, my great-uncle Ray and Paul (all the way from New Zealand)! I must be a pretty popular guy. Or maybe most of them were already in town for Kazy's wedding.
*** Slightly off-topic meandering ***
I've spent a bit of time pondering about what I'm supposed to call my various relatives. Gramma Hill's cousins are technically my "first cousins, twice removed". That doesn't roll off the tongue quite as easily as, say, "uncle". And then my great-uncle Ray -- he's Gramma Hill's brother, my Daddy's uncle. Why is he my great-uncle instead of my grand-uncle? Apparently "great" and "grand" are interchangeable in this case. And that's just a few people on the Colorado/Kansas side. I won't even go into what I'm supposed to call all of my relatives on the east coast and in Taiwan and Germany. But even though it's confusing, I'm just happy that I have so many people to call family!*** Back to the regularly-scheduled post ***
Anyway, as I was saying, we had a pre-birthday party with a killer guest list. Gramma Hill made me a cake and some cupcakes, but for once I was not interested in mashing my hands into my food and smearing it all over my face, even for a Kodak moment. Mama and Daddy tried to get me to taste the frosting or a bite of the cupcake, but I wasn't into it. I kept taking the cupcake out of my mouth and furrowing my brow at everyone as they watched me expectantly. After they finally stopped forcing the cupcake on me, I got to play with boxes, wrapping paper and ribbons! Oh, and there were even toys inside of the boxes! It was really cool. I could get used to this birthday thing.
I'm realizing that at this rate, this post is going to be about 10,000 words long. Which would be cool if I got paid by the word, but I don't. So I'm going to try to be a bit more succinct.
After the pre-birthday party, we spent the rest of our trip taking it easy. We stayed at Papa and Gramma Hill's condo for a couple nights, and Mama took me to Castle Rock to meet her good friend Kym. She's known Kym for something like 25 years (she can't remember precisely how long they've known each other...it's been that long)! Kym said that I'm the newest CACO, which apparently is a good thing.
We left for Utah on Thursday morning. Luckily, the plane was really empty so we got to take my car seat on board. It's SO much more comfortable (for everyone -- including Mama, Daddy, and any nearby passengers) when I get to ride in my car seat.
We were in Utah for Mama's friend Kristy's wedding. Kristy is Mama's best friend from high school, so she was really happy to see her. We went to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, but I didn't last long enough for the reception. My 6:30PM bedtime can make socializing a challenge.
One thing Mama and Daddy didn't think about when they put me to sleep in my crib in the hotel was that the last time we did this, I didn't know how to stand up. So they could just push the crib into a corner of the room and turn out most of the lights, and I'd go to sleep. This time, however, I'm a master puller-upper and stander! So once they put me to bed, I stood up and stared at them, trying to get their attention. They tried to ignore me, but c'mon...who did they think they were kidding? They were right there. I know they saw me. I finally went to sleep around 8:30PM, and the next morning Mama built a little barrier of furniture+sheets+luggage around my crib so that I couldn't see them.
Utah was really pretty, and we drove around the mountains to visit some of the resorts. We saw Alta, Snowbird, Deer Valley and Park City, although it's too early in the season for any of them to have snow. I hope we get to come back when they are open for skiing!
We left for home on Sunday, and were lucky enough to bring the car seat on board again. Originally, they said we had to gate-check it, but apparently it was too heavy to put under the plane so they had to bring it on board. They were planning to strap it into an empty seat, so Mama and Daddy asked if we could just use it instead. Oh, and I had to take my shoes off when I went through the security check. Because you never know what someone could hide in the non-existent leather soft soles of my Robeez baby shoes.
I'll try to post a couple pictures soon, but in the meantime, Mama's posted a bunch on Flickr:
Colorado
Kazy's wedding
My pre-birthday party
Kristy's wedding
Utah
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