Trista Turns 2!

Trista turned 2 today!  We had her birthday party at Palmetto Islands County Park over the weekend, and that was a lot of fun despite the ridiculously cold weather!  The kids all bundled up and didn't seem to mind too much.

Today Paul took off work early so that we could take her to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate.  Trista had been once before a few months ago and couldn't stop talking about it afterwards, so we were pretty sure she would enjoy herself again today.  It was definitely a hit this time around.  She had some pizza and really liked all the games.  

Here is also a clip of Trista singing "Happy Birthday" to herself today.  It seems to be the slow, lazy version since it was pretty close to nap time!

Kevin & Reagan's Wedding/Fun Times for Trista

We all had a good weekend! Paul and I went to Greensboro, NC for Kevin and Reagan's wedding, which was a lot of fun! Everything was really beautiful, and we had a great time hanging out with all of Paul's old Summerville pals. Trista got to stay home with Jeanne this time, so we know that she had a lot of fun too. Here are some pictures from the wedding as well as a few pictures I took of Trista last week.

There are a couple from the Park West playground, and one of her first chocolate batter spoon-licking experience. I made these brownies Trista likes that have spinach and carrots hidden in them (from Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook), but surprisingly Trista didn't seem to mind the veggies even in uncooked form! I guess chocolate has a way of canceling out the healthy stuff...

Trista Sings

Here is a video of Trista singing, which is pretty much her favorite activity these days!

The Fair

We had a good weekend after all the Halloween festivities too.  The weather was nice, so on Saturday we went to Palmetto Island County Park, where Trista had a good time running around, and we had a picnic. 

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the fair.  Trista was super excited to see the roller coasters and all the lights.  Things got off to a particularly good start because they were playing one of her current favorite songs ("Disturbia") really loudly at the swing ride as we were walking in.  Her favorite part was looking at all the animals in the petting zoo, but she did a couple of rides too.  Those had some mixed reactions.  She did NOT like the merry-go-round because the horses went up and down, but she sort of liked this little truck ride she went on later.  At first she kept telling me, "This is NOT good!"  Eventually through much encouragement, she decided it was fun after all.

Halloween!

Trista had a great time trick or treating  last weekend!  She didn't fully grasp the concept at first since every time we rang a doorbell and someone answered it, she just tried to walk right into their house.  After a while she got the hang of it though.  She also very much enjoyed her first taste of real candy!  We will have to remember that M&Ms will probably be useful bribing tools in the future.

T-Bone Ramblings - 11/6/08

Dear Diary,

I don't know how to type yet, so Dad agreed to help me here.  Things are going well for me right now.  I voted for Barack Obama and he became president.  My vote does count.  Daddy didn't vote though b/c he was in Key West.  That doesn't seem like a good excuse to me.  He may be gay.  Maybe that's why Jeh-neh calls him Paulie.  

I can't seem to stop singing.  I am obsessed with singing - Happy Birthday, Row Row Row Your Boat, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Rihanna, Britney Spears - you name it.  Lexie is on a hot streak of not pooping on the floor.  She has almost gone a full week now.  I'm so impressed.  

You know who's great?  Grandparents.  They entertain, they generally do what I ask/tell them to do, they buy me gifts on a very frequent basis - the list goes on and on.  It's getting to the point where they are buying me gifts at such a rapid pace that I think they're starting to buy me repeat gifts.  I think they are about to break the record Daddy set for the number of times he bought Uncle Jason that lame rock trivia game.  

Shot out to Anaya for organizing the sweet Obama victory party...  

Peace in the Middle East...

I'm out!

T-Bone

Marine Corps Marathon Weekend

Paul and I traveled to Washington, DC so that I could run the Marine Corps Marathon. The race actually went much better than I was expecting since I had had a lot of running injuries in the months before the race. Paul was an excellent support person during the marathon. He met up with me several times during the race to cheer me on, and he was even able to run along with me for miles 16-18 and miles 24 through the end. 

We also got a chance to go see Robyn and John and to meet their new baby, Carson. It was great to see them!

Halloween Party

We also had my Halloween-themed birthday party on 10/17. It was a lot of fun! We had a good turnout and plenty of creative costumes. Here are a few of our spooky guests. 

NYC

For part one of my extended 30th birthday celebration, Paul surprised me with a trip to New York City! We really had a great time. As an additional surprise, he arranged for Layla & Dustin to meet us there so that I would have a fun shopping pal as well as an enthusiastic dance partner at the clubs (other than Paul, of course – he too is an enthusiastic dance partner)! We stayed at the Hudson Hotel, which was really cool and in a great location. We did a lot of shopping, went running in Central Park, and saw a taping of David Letterman with Tina Fey as a guest! We also saw a mildly disgusting pizza eating contest in Times Square where the winner actually ate 47 pieces of pizza. 

Pumpkin Patch

Early in October, we went to visit the pumpkin patch at Boone Hall. Trista particularly loved the bunnies!

Welcome to our blog!

Because so many of you have been requesting new pictures of Trista, we thought that a blog might be the easiest way to keep everybody in the loop with all of our latest adventures.  We've had a lot going on in the past month, so we are starting with an update from October.  Hopefully you can expect to see updates every couple of weeks with all of the new things that are going on with us.  Enjoy!