2 Birthday Parties for a 1 Year Old!

Quinn was one lucky lady this year celebrating her birthday TWICE!  We were able to celebrate on her actually birthday (July 1st) with just our close family and then again on August 1st when my sister was in town with a bunch of friends! I had so much fun planning and decorating for the parties.  Not sure I'll do 2 every year, but as I told Tony - it was her golden this year!!  Quinn was so spoiled with great gifts and lots and lots of attention.  I don't have all the pictures I want as they are still on my stateside phone.  I hope to remember to post more pictures when I get those back - which hopefully I can!!

July 1st party:
My cousin Kelsey helped tye dye a shirt for Quinn and we put a "1" sticker on it.  It turned out pretty cute!  She thought she was pretty big stuff being a new walker and all on her birthday.  She even (demanded) got to sit at the "big kids" table.  We had a lot of fun opening presents and listening to toddler jams on the radio :)  It was a cold night to be outside believe it or not!

 

Grandpa Wally 

Quinn & Grady playing ball.  Sort of.

Gracie

August 1st party:

What a fun, fun day.  Everything went smoothly leading up to the party and the kids had a pretty good time!  I surprised all the kids with pony rides in the backyard.  Some were scared (Quinn being one) and others loved it!  My little nephew Grady was the first in line and I think rode about 4-5 times :)  He was so darn cute on them.  There were about 20 kids there which kept everyone on their toes!  

Grady and Amanda

Ivy and Grandpa Rog.  Look at that sweet smile :)

Grandpa Rog helped with all the rides.  He was great and the kids did awesome!

Amanda

I was wondering where this little frosting monster went - and I spotted her under the table rubbing all the frosting from the leftover cupcakes over her dress!  I don't even think she ate any of the frosting :)

Opening presents!! All the girls were in heaven.

More pictures to come!!! 

Grandpa Rog.

Where to even start writing about all that has happened the last couple weeks!  It's been way too long since I wrote my last blog post.  this one is dedicated to my dad.  He is the most easy-going, best dad I could ever ask for.  He never complains and never has anything negative to say.  I was so glad to have him with us on the way out to Okinawa and for an entire week.  We are going to miss him so much!

Working backwards...

Today (actually just an hour ago) my dad left from Okinawa.  He was here for a week and we had such a nice time with him.  He had an abundance of fresh fish, he went on many, many walks (I calculated a total of 35-40 miles this week), played cards, drank wine, drank beer, a little shopping, and just simply enjoyed every minute of his company.  Our flight over to Okinawa was interesting.  Not sure what else to say about it.  What I do know is that I am very excited to not be doing that flight ever again.  Mom and Mary dropped us all off at the airport on Tuesday morning Aug 4 and that was the start of a loooooong 22 hours.  All the logistics went without a headache for the first time in awhile, but we were all very exhausted.  It was about 2am our body time when we got to Tokyo and we still had to grab our luggage, get through immigration, shuttle to the other terminal, and wait for our domestic flight on JetStar.  That all took about 5 hours... with no sleep.  Quinn was on her 78th wind at that point and acting crazy, but very happy. She crashed hard right before we left for Okinawa and was in and out of sleep for the 2.5 hour flight back.  It is so much worse coming to Okinawa than it is leaving.  There's something about getting off that long flight knowing you have 5 hour layover only to get on another flight - short or not - that stinks.  So my dad is heading home now - but I think he'll be just fine.  No kids to worry about, all the beer/wine he wants (Delta is awesome) and as many movies he wants to watch!  Lucky guy :)  Here are a few pictures of our 24 hour travel day and time in Okinawa.  We sure miss him already!!!!

Unfortunately, we were not able to get an extra seat for Quinn.  The next best thing was the aisle with more leg room so she was able to lay down and sleep and play with her toys.  She did pretty well with all of it.  For about 2 hours she kept wanting to get into the aisles, but I needed to get the blood flowing again anyway!

This was in the Tokyo airport waiting for our domestic flight to Okinawa.  At this point Quinn had slept 2 hours in about 20 hour span of time.  She was running all over the place!  Oh, if you look closely that's her with no pants on.  She had 4 messy diapers on the long flight and went through a pair of pjs - and spilt water all over her other pair.  Lesson learned - you can never bring enough pjs on a flight!

DADDY!!!!!! 

Of course we need to have a beer after no sleep and 24 hours of travel with a small 13 month old toddler.

First day back home.  Her jet lag (which means my jet lag, as well) took about 4-5 days.  I think we are snapped back into our routine now!!

First morning at home having breakfast with Grampy.

Now on to our fun time here in Okinawa!  I'll let the pictures tell the story about how much fun we had!!!

Sushi on the floor!

Great helper at the commissary :)

Hi Quinn!

Dad's tennis lesson :)  He has a new backhand!

Happy hour friends.  Missing in photo: Liza and Roger

Morning that Grandpa left.  He had 2 carry-ons and that's it!! 

WE LOVE YOU GRANDPA!!!!

Lake Life @ Lenningers

I always think the 4th of July should be spent on a lake somewhere so that's exactly what we did at Lenningers this weekend!  When we got to the house Quinn was still napping in the car so I stayed in there for a bit longer and was appropriately offered a cold brew by Dave (my brother-in-law) as I waited.  I was in the driveway for about 30 seconds before the 1st beer was open.  I'd say that's a good start to the weekend!  We went for dinner that night by boat and all the kids did so great!  Friday we spent some time at the pool, had a fantastic lunch that Erin and Dave put together, and played a lot of ball outside.  Quinn was exhausted!  We ended up leaving Friday afternoon as Erin and Dave had a double date planned and Kylie and Andrew had their own date up in Wisconsin Dells, as well.  When we left Friday afternoon, Quinn was out cold in about 15 seconds.  Sun, water, and cousins can sure wipe a little girl out!  :)  Such a great couple of days.  Thanks Lenningers!

 

Quinn, Ayden, Kate, & Collin.  I'm sure Erin will post much better pictures of these 4 so be sure to check her post!!! 

 

Quinn & Kylie

 

She loved it!

 

Grandpa & Quinn, Erin (Tony's sister) & Ayden (5 1/2 months)

 

Grandma Brown & her girls

Happy 1st Birthday, Quinn

Dear Quinn,

Well, I decided to follow my sisters lead and start writing you letters on your special day.  Today was your golden birthday and we had such a fun time celebrating.  I'll write a separate blog about your party we had tonight another time...but for now, I want to write about all you are doing these days!

Dad actually wasn't able to be here for your birthday this year.  He's in Australia on an exercise and we are back home at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a few weeks before returning to Okinawa.  I know you are missing him as much as I am...but we will have to celebrate extra hard when we are all together again!  Every time I talk to him he always tells me how much he loves and misses you.  We are 2 very lucky ladies to have that guy, aren't we!!!??

For the past month you have been taking steps, but you decided just 2 days ago that you were ready to walk everywhere with no help!  You still like to hold fingers so you can get to where you need to go faster, but for the most part you are one independent girl on a mission.  Speaking of independent girl, you know exactly what you want, when you want it - and for the most part you know how to get it, too.  You love watching kids (especially your cousins) and have already started acting like one of the "big kids".  It's pretty cute, but please just wait on that part!  I'm not ready for you to grow up too fast!

You have 7 words right now "ice" (eyes), "ah duh" (all done), "ma ma", "da da", "hahhhhh" (hot), and "ssssss" (shoes).  You are taking two naps a day for about 60-90 minutes each.  I can't remember the last time you ever reached that 2 hour mark!  Hopefully it's in our cards someday :).  You are doing SO much better with people you don't see on a daily basis.  You've been surrounded by a whole lot of people back in Decorah that love you to pieces and I think it's "broken" you in a bit.  You play pretty well by yourself, which makes me really happy, however, you also put just about everything in your mouth so I get worried when I don't watch you every second!  We've had to take small pine cones, wood chips, rocks, and tape out of your mouth numerous of times.  You love your bath and have really been into your babies lately.   Grandma Huinker just bought you some play bottles and you love to feed your babies. It warms my heart.  You are still getting up once or twice a night, taking whole milk before naps and bed, and nursing once a day.  I have no complaints about your sleep these days because we've come so far BUT I am so excited to have you sleep through the night sometime!! :)

I could go on and on about you, Quinn.  You have brightened every single day of ours (even the rough ones) and we wouldn't change a thing about you.  Love you.

Mama & Dada.