wedding bells

i went to the gym this week for the first time in a long time.  when i said spelled my last name at the check in desk, "k-e-h-r," the sweet worker burst out, "are you parker's mom?" to which i smiled real wide and nodded.  the girl shared that parker was her favorite kid and another girl lit up and sincerely echoed, "i think parker is everyone's favorite" (see james going to the gym for 2 hours every morning).  i almost asked them to be my new best friends but just said thank you and walked into the dressing room.  it might have been the highlight of my week.

then at work today one of my friends told me that i was like a barracuda, which negated any warm fuzzy feelings from the gym. i replied that "i'm not sure how to take that and don't think it is a good thing."  she told me that it was meant as a compliment and that at least the sharks would not eat me.  hmmm...  the sad thing is that i think there is a lot of truth in the statement.  i'd like to think i take initiative, get the job done, am aggressive, etc., but i sometimes am a little too demanding and argue my points without enough sugar on top (or any sugar).  at the same time, i can be very encouraging when people do a great job and put forth extra effort, but i am working on being less of a barracuda.

anyway,  it seems like our life is weddings, baby showers and baby birthday parties these next few months, and i love it. here's our mini calendar of events:

last weekend: james' cousin's wedding in columbia & dylan's 1st birthday party in our neighborhood, check! (they had no alcohol at the wedding but a keg at the kid's 1st birthday, hm...)

this weekend: melissa's baby shower & lydia's wedding!  (work friend)

aug: jack's 1st birthday (monkey theme!) and hailey & austin's wedding (gym friends)

sept: jinger's wedding in denver!  family vacation!

october: heather's wedding in kansas city (best friend from high school...am a bridesmaid so must lose weight) and kirena & jamison's wedding (jbu friends)

november: courtney's wedding (work friend)

(next june-sister's wedding!!!!  can't wait)

time to order some presents from etsy!  love yall and happy weddings!

mile high

our life is not all fun and vacation, but it is summer time and so tonight's post is all about denver.  even though james and i've made trips to kansas, wisconsin, missouri, cali and florida this year, this is truly our first official kehrli family vacation!!  (can you tell i'm excited?)  i love planning, so we have a (flexible) itinerary  with plenty of time for parker's naps (11am-2pm blocked out each day) and full intention to be back in our hotel room by 8:30pm every night for the sake of p's routine.  knowing that it can be a faux paux to talk money, i've gone back and forth about whether to share our budget.  however, there is a big difference between sharing annual incomes (which james and i've vowed not to do on the blog or IRL) and sharing a trip budget (which i think can be semi-helpful for others), so here goes our 5 day/4 night budget:

flights: $320 (parker still flies free!)

hotel for 4 nights: $220

rental car for 2 days: $100

food: $250

entertainment: $75

TOTAL: $975

we've already booked and paid for the flights and hotel, which makes the actual expense in september easier on the wallet.  below are the trip details!

1. denver aquarium.  i've heard great things about this place and since it is right by our hotel, it should make a great activity for a 1 1/2 year old (who is still free to almost everything!)

the rockies have an afternoon game while we are in town, so we are planning on hitting up the $4 rockpile seats!  i went to several rockies games whil living in denver and loved them.

our hotel: the sheraton.  we really wanted to stay downtown because i love the 16th street mall, and we can rely on public transportation the first 3 days (as well as many restaurants within walking distance), so this hotel it is.

the hotel recently recently completed a $70 million renovation including this rooftop pool, which i cannot wait to hit up (and am sure parker will love!)

and last but not least, i'm hoping we have time to go to the denver zoo as well.  the aquarium and zoo might be too many animals for one trip, but i can't decide which one would be best so right now they are both on the agenda (james nixed the water park idea because parker is too young to truly enjoy).

saturday night we are going to my friend jinger's wedding with some of my old intern friends, and hopefully we can meet up with some jbu friends as well!  apparently denver is our favorite city to visit because we've gone there every other year for a while.  here we are in summer of 2007 before going to cirque de soleil (we look so young!)

feb. 2009: out to dinner with jbu friends in denver!  (technically p's first trip to denver as i was 7 months pregnant)

i still think if there was one city i would love to live in it would be denver. if one of our families lived there the decision to move would be easy.  i love love love denver and colorado!  so beautiful, laid back, and tons of  outdoor activities to stay in shape.  maybe one day i'll move back.  until then, sweet dreams and love you all!

babysitter swap

below are a few pictures i snapped while hosting our neighborhood babysitter swap the other night (best idea ever!).  the night we hosted i just had 4 lil' munchkins. i put a bowl of grapes on the ottoman and they went to town!

playing with all the fun toys...

the boys climbed all 17 stairs in our staircase 3 times!  talk about some good exercise. 

i'd highly encourage all parents to find a group to "swap" with. we have 5 couples who rotate watching the kids every other saturday night so we are guaranteed 2 free date nights a month. and i really love hosting all of the kids and structuring activities for the toddlers.  yay for friends with babies! :)  love yall.

bff...ffff :)

i have 2 goals for the next 13 days while parker is at his grandparents' house:

1. blog everyday

2. lose 5 lbs

i can't promise my blog posts will all be long and deep, but if nothing else i can post a daily photo.  today's pictures are of some of my very best friends in the world.  going to san fran with them was just what my soul needed.  since we've all been super close since 7th grade, we are completely open, honest, real and unconditionally loving (it's too bad i have no photos on my computer of us in junior high...we'll work on that).  even though only one of you reads my blog, i still love you all to death!!

more california pics to come in a trip review.  hope everyone is having a fabulous monday!!!

15 month old food ideas??

parker is going to stay with his grandparents in wisconsin for a week on thursday (which we just randomly decided today).  i am frantically trying to put together a suggested meal plan for p.  not that i am some kind of controlling parent (well maybe just a little), but more that i want them to feel prepared and to have an idea of his likes and dislikes.  actually i think i am too laid back about most things and i don't really care what they feed him as long as it is healthy.  in brainstorming parks' favorite foods, i've realized i do not diversify his meals enough.  he is a little too old for jarred food, but he still enjoys gerber's 3rd foods (especially lasagna!):

he also really likes fruit cups.  even though fresh fruit is better and i try to buy it as much as i can in the summer, these are super convenient and usually come in "natural" or "no sugar added" forms:

other than that, he loves GRAPES, bananas (usually), applesauce, crackers, bread, pb&j, cereal, chicken nuggets, cheese, and avocado (which is growing on him.  i usually sneak this with a jarred dinner food and he eats a whole mashed avocado and jar of food in one sitting.  i just researched avocados and that is a ton of food for one toddler meal, so i might cut back to 1/2 avocado in one meal--i just hate watching it brown in the fridge).  love avocados!

it is late so i will leave you with a video of parker chowing down on a banana.  love him.  if yall have any ideas of good foods for 15 month olds, please share!!  thank you!

video: parker learning how to walk!

parker finally learned how to walk at 14 1/2 months!  even though my biggest milestone goal was for him to walk by 12 months, 14 1/2 months is perfect, too!  every baby develops on their own timeline, and i enjoy telling other moms that parker was a late walker and their late walkers will be just fine! 

parks was sooo funny when he learned how to walk.  one day he would not let go of the couch, the next he looked a drunk (see video below) and the next day he was an expert walker!



in other news i had a wonderful vacation with my girlfriends in san fran, but i am still trying to catch up with emails and am feeling a little overwhelmed.  here's to a great weekend of relaxation!!  love yall.

disappointment

i'm not 100% sure why i'm writing this post because my behavior this weekend was nothing short of embarrassing, but if i just post a bunch of pictures of our family and friends swimming and grilling out, it just doesn't seem right. 

last week our friends' texted james and invited us to a lake cabin for the weekend (the cfo of jb hunt's lake cabin actually).  i was really excited and since we'd already made a few plans with other friends, we decided we would try to go out saturday night and stay until sunday evening.  during the day on saturday we were going to go boating/tubing/wakeboarding with my boss and his wife (sidenote: after working at our company for 11 years, my boss put in his two weeks last monday and i cried at work in front of all of the other managers.  [and no, i am not having an affair with my boss]). it rained all day saturday so we decided to take a rain check.

i was not super disappointed because the next day we were going to the lakehouse, with jet ski's among other fun toys.  sunday rolls around, we anxiously fill our car with towels, swimsuits, food, etc. and head to church, ready to hit the lake right after the service.  in the middle of the sermon james received a text from our friend saying the weather channel was predicting rain.  we didn't care because even if it rained we would love to get away and play games inside the cabin, so we said we were still in.  ten minutes later our friends cancelled.  when we got home i looked at the radar map on http://www.weather.com/ and there was no green!  none. 

this is when i start to get frustrated.  i know weathermen are not always correct, but seriously, are we adventurous or not?  all i wanted to do the whole weekend was go to the lake, and we had other friends invite us boating sunday as well, but we turned them down because we were going to lakehouse (which by the way this is the first time anyone has invited us to the lake this summer.  we really have no connections).  james told me that i was acting like a spoiled brat (and even though i was), i got mad at him for the comment.  he doesn't know that going to the lake is special because it reminds me of my childhood when we went to our lakehouse every single weekend.  he suggested we go to the pool instead and i said something about how we go to the pool every day and that is not exciting for the 4th of july.

so i picked up the keys and drove out of our house.  i needed to get away and decided the pool was my best option so i could at least get a little sun.  our usually overcrowded pool had NO ONE in it at 12:30pm.  no one.  you know why?  BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS AT THE LAKE!  then i just lost it.  i started crying and sat by the sat by the side of the pool feeling sorry for myself until i received a nice text from james validating my frustration and giving me the freedom to have as much time to myself as i needed while parker napped.  for some reason i could not get over the expectations i'd set to go to the lake. 

it's moments like these that i am ashamed of and hope to prevent in the future.  i'm sitting here crying that we have to go to the pool instead of the lake for 4th of july while there are people all over the world in much, much worse situations.  the same thing happened a few years ago when james got me carnations instead of roses for valentine's day (i cried and it ruined the whole night).  while these two events make me sound like a horribly ungrateful person, they remind me that i need to constantly focus on what matters most--people.  i am blessed with a wonderful husband and awesome son.  we were all together for the holiday and that is all that really matters.  i need to let go of expectations when they do not come through as planned and be more flexible.

we ended up going to the pool with friends, eating dinner with our neighbors (who smoked some DELICIOUS brisket), lighting fireworks and watching the sky light up all around our neighborhood with various shows.  it was a good day and even though i had a chip on my shoulder throughout the afternoon, i can finally say that i am done with it.

going to san francisco tomorrow helps a little bit (bring on napa valley and the spa!).  for real, though, i am going to work on changing on my attitude when things do not go the way i envision them.  recognizing that i can be extremely selfish is the first step to changing, right?

of course i couldn't leave for vacation without one sweet picture of my baby celebrating the 4th.

hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and your attitudes were better than mine! :)