Amelia Rocks Allenspark

We have been continuing Amelia's first year tour of the US and our latest trip took us to Allenspark, Colorado. Growing up my family spent at least two weeks at the cabin every August. So many wonderful memories from the Evans family have taken place in and around the cabin. Joining us at the cabin were Auntie M, Papa and Amelia's Great-Great Uncle James and Great-Great Aunt Vivian. Amelia loved her first trip to the mountains and is ready to go back during ski season! Here are some highlights including, get excited, a VIDEO!:

Amelia read the Sunday Times cover to cover. Her favorite part was the mattress ads.

Helping dad with his mountain golf game. And yes, he is aiming for the tree. We have to get a little creative with golf "holes" in the mountains.

Playing a round of cards.
A true mountain girl in her fleece and crusty nose. Of course her friend Mindy made sure she would be a stylish babe in her Patagonia!

Amelia - the spoon is for stirring not eating.
We decided that a small mountain town's 4th of July parade is a great way to spend a holiday.
3 generations of Cheney's have been born in Chicago. Amelia's Great-Great Uncle James Cheney was born at Cook County Hospital in the 20's, Papa (David Cheney) was born in the Pulman neighborhood in the 40's and Amelia at Prentice in the 00's!

and give it up for Kansas and the ladies born there!
oh yeah, and for the guy born in Illinois. Mark and I just celebrated our 2nd anniversary but the real congratulations go to James & Vivian on 62 years of making each other laugh. Amelia isn't fortunate enough to have Great Grandparents but she is blessed to have James & Vivian.That's right, Amelia's onesie says "My Aunt is Crazy."

and finally Amelia enjoyed the mountain breeze blowing through her couple of hairs.

Happy Father's Day!

I thought this would be a good time to make my first appearance as author of a blog posting - in case you haven't noticed, Whitney has done all the rest.

Amelia treated me very well on my first Father's Day. She began her weekend of pampering me by making (with some help from mom) my favorite breakfast food - biscuits and gravy - after we returned from our swim class. The biscuits were specially made in the shape of stars.

After breakfast, we went to a picnic in the park where Amelia got to play with a lot of new friends.

Later in the day, I tricked Amelia into letting me open my presents a day early. She got me a new book, a fancy shirt and a sage plant.

Finally, on Father's Day, we went up to Grandma Ginnie and Grandpa Tom's house to have breakfast with them and Uncle Tomme, Aunt Bobbie and Georgia. You might be able to tell that because it was Father's day, Whitney let me pick out Amelia's outfit - and the Cubs won their fourth in a row.

All in all, it was a perfect weekend to celebrate my first Father's Day, I can only hope the rest are as good.

Future Poet?

Amelia loves e-mailing as she has so much to tell people. Watch out Great-Uncle Dan, Amelia might take your place as the family writer.

Sweet Potatoes Anyone?

We started off on the path of "natural" parenting and decided to keep going now that it is time for solid foods. With how much Amelia's Papa loves to cook it seems only natural that he gave her her first cookbook complete with the thoughtful handwritten note, "never settle for second best." So far we are having a lot of fun making recipes such as sweet potato puree from "Cooking for Baby." However Amelia doesn't seem to be appreciating our efforts as her ideal solid food menu is: breakfast=mashed banana, lunch=pureed banana and dinner=crushed banana.

Then again maybe it is just us because when Grandma Ginnie came to play Amelia had a ball eating sweet potatoes!

Aqua Baby!

Amelia and Mark went to their first Aqua Babies class this morning. Seeing how a)Mark has been known to swim a lap or two and b) Amelia was banned from bathing in the sink a few months back because she splashed all the water out of the sink it comes as no surprise that she loved the pool. Her little legs were kicking away the entire time. I went to watch and got a good laugh out of Mark. The instructor had them get in a big circle so they could "swim" around and sing "The Wheels on the Bus." Mark looked up and me with a very concerned look and mouthed, "I don't know the words." Mark might be a great role model for swimming but clearly he needs some work on his baby songs.....

Welcome to Kansas!

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Lawrence. As always our trips to Kansas are filled with friends and family and our only complaint is that it was too short. Thank you to all of you who came to meet Amelia and to those who hosted us. Some pics of our weekend:

Reading Dr. Seuss with daddy.

Playing in the grass with friends Evan and Irelyn. Check out the amazing Hungry Caterpillar quilt. GranAnn made it as a surprise for Amelia.

Enjoying life as the newest Kaiser.

Chilling with Auntie M,

GranAnn and

Mom!

Happy Mother's Day

I couldn't have asked for a better first Mother's Day. It was a wonderful morning for a jog and I came home to:

homemade French toast with lots of berries (my favorite), fresh squeezed orange juice and

Amelia opening my gift.

Our afternoon took us to Waukegan for some QT with Grandma and Grandpa Lang.

Amelia decided there was nothing more enjoyable than "talking" to the cute baby girl she saw. Grandma Ginnie spent Monday morning cleaning finger prints off of her mirror.