June

June is a busy month in our family. First, we had Hailey's 5th birthday. Next, Lindsay turned the big 3-0, (I know I'm going to get in trouble for publishing that), and finally Natey just turned 1. Also, because it is an even month, that means we spent a couple of days at our favorite spot, the Shriner's Hospital, getting Natey's treatment. Which didn't exactly go well this month, but that's a story for another time. As if we weren't busy enough, we have had a nasty flu-like bug going around our house. We've had at least one ill person in our house for nearly the entire month so far. Miserable.

Back to the fun stuff, Hailey had a Rainbow themed birthday this year. She had a few friends over, Lindsay made a rainbow cake (rainbow both inside and out), rainbow ice cubes for the drinks, skittles as party favors, and well, lots of other rainbow things. We had the party in the backyard, and the kids played watergames for a couple of hours, and Hailey got lots of wonderful presents.

For Lindsay's birthday we took a day away and went to the Zermatt Resort in Midway. It was pretty fun, the entire place has a Swiss theme, we had delicious fondue and a steak dinner at the chop haus, and some really good pastries from the bakery they have on the property. We played a little tennis, threw some horseshoes, and even played some shuffleboard (that was a first, and I have to admit it was a pretty fun game). Anyway, a night away was very fun, (although Lindsay couldn't sleep in, and couldn't help worrying about whether Nate had kept his grandma up all night.) The kids of course had the time of their lives. They stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Bench. Hailey said it was the best, Grandma let them stay up late, and have ice cream before bed. Blake especially loved having cookies for breakfast. Grandma is so much cooler than us.

Natey's birthday was really just a pool party at Grandpa Brig and Grandma Gale's house. Linds went with a banana cake for this one (easily Natey's favorite food, he wakes up saying "nana? nana?" most mornings). A monkey theme went nicely with the banana cake. Natey loves water, whether it's the bath or the pool, he just loves it.

What a year he's had. We're so grateful for the progress he's made. The last couple of months he has been crawling everywhere, and is now pulling himself to a standing position, and as of yesterday, climbing up the stairs. Speaking of which, he snuck away from me while I was upstairs getting changed after work last night, and he tried to go down the stairs. When we heard him fall, and finally land at the bottom of the stairs on our hard wood floor, we thought for sure every bone in his body would be broken. After a few moments of Lindsay and I both trying to calm him down (while shaking uncontrollably ourselves), we could tell that he was scared, but not hurt. Really, when I think of how easily his arm broke when he was just a few weeks old, i realize what an absolute miracle it is that he wasn't seriously injured yesterday.

Just for good measure, here's a photo of Blakey at the chalk art festival this last week next to one of his favorite superheroes, the Green Lantern