7 Weeks Old

Well Brooke turned 7 weeks old Thursday. She got her shots this week so she's been a little fussy but not too bad. We've even got to take her out to dinner a few times and she sleeps right through it. She's been to Bugaboo Creek, Abercrombie's and Margaritas so far. Last weekend we went to visit Grammy Betty again and she was wide awake this time. I hadn't posted the pictures yet because they were on Jen's camera and not mine but I loaded them up so there's some from that and a few other things here too.

Mount Jefferson 6-28-2008

This Saturday Travis, Mannie and I hiked up Mount Jefferson. This was Travis's second hike and Mannies first so we took a rough but fairly short (2.5 miles) trail up Mount Jefferson. Travis is a natural at this already, he climbs up the rocks like a mountain goat, and Mannie got right up them too. At 5712 feet high it is the third highest peak for 1000 miles. The other two are Washington (6288) and Adams (5799) on either side of Jefferson. After that you have to go to North Carolina or South Dakota to get and higher up. The thick clouds stayed below the notches all day so we were relatively in the clear for most of the day except near the summit, where we got nice views of the inside of a cloud. We didn't get to see all the great views this trail provides but we got some good breaks on a mostly overcast day and we got the best weather in the White Mountains all day. The rest of the place was socked in and raining from what we saw going up. It was a great day out there, to see more pictures from the hike, and a few from last summer when Jen and I did this on a nicer day, click here. There's also a short panoramic video from Monticello Lawn below.

Happy Birthday to Jennifer!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I think that's what she was trying to say here. She was awful happy about whatever it was. Her beautiful mommy turned 28 today. We had dinner and cake with the family at our place and there's a few pictures here, mostly just of Brooke but a few from the party. Her baby acne is going away now and she's getting chubby little legs. She has her 6 week check-up this week and we're interested to see what she weighs in at now. Not much else exciting around here. We went to brunch at Jen's old restaurant yesterday because the weather was too bad to go for a little hike. Then we just hung around. For those who haven't heard there's a rare bird nesting in the big city over this way, the Mississippi Kite. It's amazing how many people come to see it with giant binoculars and cameras. I haven't driven by the tree it is nesting in without at least 4 cars parked along the street. I'm not much of a bird watcher but I've seen it twice. It really zigs and zags in the air. I'm going to try and get some pictures but it's a quick moving bird. Stay tuned...

Six Weeks Old

Well it's already been six weeks. Hard to believe but time sure does fly. She's noticeably bigger to us and seems to be going through a growth spurt for the last few days. She'll have her six week check-up next week so we'll see exactly how much bigger she's gotten. For now it's just more of the same. Some sleepless nights mixed in with some decent 5-6 hour of sleep nights. She hasn't slept well on Thursday nights so we're prepared for the worst tonight but maybe we'll get lucky. Jen's birthday is Monday so we're going to try and find something we can do with her this weekend if the weather's good. That's about it for now but there's a few pictures here from the last few days and a video below of her chatting with Anne this week.

Happy Father's Day!

Well I hope all the Father's out there had a great Weekend. I know I did. Saturday we went to Travis's big graduation cookout. For Father's day Brooke slept well so we all got to sleep in, then we went out to Petey's for luch with my parent's where I had some lobster's. After that we went and visited with my Grandparent's and had some chinese food and watched the US Open for a bit which had an amazing finish for Tiger yet again. Then we went to Jen's Parent's and watched some of the Celtic's game and had a little pizza and an Italian margarita. A pretty full weekend and I enjoyed it all. If you want to see pictures from it click here or on the pic.

On a sad note Brett and Carey had to put Yogi to sleep this weekend. He was a good dog and they gave him the best life a dog could possibly have for a few years. We'll all miss him.

Here's a video of Brooke "talking" to us and smiling.

And here's one of a sneeze I got from her while trying to make her talk.

June 7 & 8; Busy Weekend

This Saturday Brooke got to go to a cookout at Jen's cousins house. He's leaving for Iraq soon and before he leaves he had a huge cookout for the whole family. Lots of great food and lots of new faces for Brooke. She finally got to meet the relatives from her Grammy C's side of the family. You can click the picture or there's more pictures of that here.

Sunday Ryan, Travis and I climbed to the top of Vermont. Mt. Mansfield is the highest mountain in the state at 4393 feet high. Middle of the road by White Mountain standards, but it rises well above treeline. It is also home to Stowe ski resort, an auto road, a TV station and lots of antenna's. Despite all this the trail we took the Long Trail out of smugglers notch and it was pretty rough and well isolated from the development until the top. We climbed up the "Chin" and walked over to the "Nose" and then down. Apparently the mountain looked like a face lying down to someone a long time ago so the summits are named for the forehead, nose, chin and adam's apple. Travis finally took me up on my offer to come hiking with me for the first time. I hope he had a good time and joins me again. For Ryan and I it was another of the New England 4000 footers, our next goal since the White Mountain ones are done. Click the pic or here for a lot of photo's. There's about 120 here so you might want to grab some popcorn for this one. When you finish with that there's a panoramic summit view video and another short hiking clip from the ridge below.

And while we were hiking Brooke was keeping cool at her grandparents house with her cousins. There's a few more pictures from that here.

4 Weeks Old

Brooke is four weeks old now. In the last 9 days she gained 1.3 pounds since her last visit to the doctors. That was the most they'd seen in a 9 day period for a baby so I guess she's eating well. She weighed in at 9 pounds six ounces and doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon. She's still a night owl but both the grammy's have been comming over to sit with her so we can take some naps and try and get on track with this sleeping thing. As you'll see in the pictures she's getting baby acne and projectile vomiting too (I haven't got an action shot of that yet). It's a real treat to see. Other than that it's been a boring few days with the rain but here's a few pictures if you'd like to see her newest ones and for those of you who claim they love the sound of a crying baby enjoy the video below.

Trouble sleeping at night :-(

We'll we knew it was too good to last. Lately Brooke is turning into more of a night owl. Our good little sleeper now likes to be awake most of the night more and more often. She likes to be held or rocked and she'll fall asleep but the second that stops she's awake and fussing. If we could reverse her sleeping and waking hours that would be great. Any ideas? Feel free to come and visit anytime as she usually falls asleep when company arrives too, especially the grandparents. Here's some pictures from a rather uneventful 3rd week with her.