Thursday, June 28, 2012

Claire's 1st Birthday!

On friday-June 22nd- we celebrated the 1st birthday of our sweet baby girl.  I can't believe it has been a whole year since she joined us.  I love her more than words could possibly describe.  She is our whole world.  She is growing so fast and has learned so much in just one year it is crazy.  Here are some pictures from her birthday photo shoot.







 We threw her a little party- she devoured her cake!  We took her to the zoo because she loves animals- goes crazy with excitement when she sees them! It is so funny!

 My attempt at a cake- not as amazing as the image in my head but it still turned out ok!
 The zoo
A few fun facts of my one year old girl:
She is a crazy fast crawler
She can walk along the furniture, pull herself up, can push a walker, and stand independently- but not walking yet- soon i'm sure
She loves other kids- just wants to play with them
She is a pretty friendly little thing
Has a silly personality- just does the funniest things
Has a few words- not just babbles- they include: ma ma, da da, and yum yum- she says it whenever she sees food or gets in her high chair.  
She can sign "more", play peek a boo, wave, clap and do patty cake, and moves her hands to itsy bitsy spider.

Happy Birthday Claire



Sunday, June 3, 2012

Mount Rushmore Road Trip

We took a family vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota... Clark Griswald style.  We road tripped it about 10 hours and stayed several days in a cabin and took in the sites.  We had such a great time as a little family.
Mount Rushmore
Sylvan lake- so beautiful
Big Horn sheep
We made a trip to Bear Country USA- so fun- Claire LOVED the animals

Wolves- right next to the car- kinda scary


That is a bear asleep in the tree



Mountain Lions- also asleep in the tree

Claire bear lookin at the baby bears





 We next traveled to Custer State park and saw... more animals- a little bit more wild though than Bear County...
Buffalo- we bought Claire a stuffed one and its her favorite!

Really friendly donkeys.  They use to be pack animals to take travelers around the park but were set free a number of years ago- now they just are a wild pack that try to eat food out of your car

Needles Highway- crazy cool rock tunnels

We also visited the Badlands.  Really beautiful.  It reminded me of the Grand Canyon

Mountain Goats- Big momma and her babies



We visited the Crazy Horse Memorial- still in progress

We rode the 1880 train- it took us through the mountains.   It was relaxing and fun




Wall Drug- apparently its a big deal.  It was advertised for about 300 miles