Lake Tahoe August 2011

Braydon and I flew to Tahoe to meet up with Mimi and Grampy Wilder, Jesse and Wendy and Dylan on August 6th. On the following Thursday Craig flew up to meet us and Kim, Rick and Jake came as well. We had so much fun!! Braydon was in heaven up there. He and Dylan were hilarious together. Braydon is 19 months old and Dylan is almost 15 months. Bray would try and hug her and tickle her and I think she would get irritated which made it that much more funny. Jesse and Jake were sooo cute with the little cousins, they played with them all day, taking them to the pool, playing ball and just running around.

Braydon went Kayaking a bunch which he LOVED. He would point and say "Boat!" and then run over to it and climb in until someone took him. He would chat the whole time he was in the Kayak pointing to the water saying "Fish!" and "Duck!" Bray and Dylan also went on a couple bike rides with us in the carrier behind the bike. They hated their helmets but overall had a good time.

We went sailing a couple times too which of course Braydon had a blast doing as well. We played music on the boat and Bray and Dylan would dance. Dylan does this dip thing with her body and Bray points his fingers and moves his arms up and down. They both have very serious dancing faces like they are concentrating on their moves.

Lake Powell

We went on a week long vacation with Grandma and Grandpa Schwarz and Aunt Cristin to Lake Powell. We rented an RV and drove there and stayed on a houseboat. It was a fun adventure and Braydon had a blast! He caught his first fish! It was a catfish. He is a born fisherman, once he learned how that's all he wanted to do. He also LOVEs boats and always wants to try and drive them. He will sit on Dad's lap and "drive" and if he saw dad's hand was on the wheel he would push it off as if to say "I got this Dad, I'm driving". He even says "I drive boat". He said "fish" a lot on the trip too. His other favorite thing to do was sit on the beach and throw rocks into the water. He calls them "Gocks". Every morning when he gets up his says "Nimi", "Caw" or "Buzz" and points to the TV. That means he wants us to put on Finding Nemo, Cars or Toy Story. Then he will sit in his little chair with his "Jujuce" and watch the TV attentively. When Dad would take off in the boat Braydon waves and yells "Buh bye daddy, Buh Buh Boat!"

We explored lots of cool canyons and stayed at several different coves. We fished and relaxed and swam. It was a great trip!

19 Months!

Braydon is a complete character! His personality shines through more and more each day. He is extremely active and loves to make people laugh. He talks A LOT now and knows what he wants. Here are some words he has added to his vocabulary:

Mickey

Pooh - for Winnie the Pooh

Car

Boat

Fish

Bob Bob - SpongeBob

Yes

Buh Bye!

Buh Bye Bubbles - He will say this when I'm draining the bathtub and wave to the soapy bubbles going down the drain

Buh Bye Co Co - He will say this when I'm changing his diaper, Co Co means poo poo in Portuguese

Gama - Grandma

Mimi - For Grandma Mimi

GG - For Great Grandma

Momma

Dada - He will use Momma and dada a lot together, he will say "Mama, Dada" when we are all three together

Nemo - For Finding Nemo, his favorite movie

Uh oh - This one is used a lot

Ga - For Monty

Go! - He will yell this at Monty when he's going something bad like barking or trying to eat food out of Braydon's hands

Jeca - He said his cousin Jessica's name when we were looking at a painting she drew him.

Pees - For please

Yes

He shakes his head no a lot when he doesn't want something

Duck - He LOVES ducks

Bee

Be Button - For Belly Button

Beach

Park

Bath

Bounce - for his Bounce House

Monkey

His latest thing is he'll grab your hand and lead you places he wants you to go and if he wants you to sit next to him he will pat the chair next to him and point, telling you to sit.

He also hates imperfections, if there is a smudge somewhere he will grab my hand and say "Uh oh!" and walk me over to it and point, expecting me to clean it up.

He will make his his mouth into an O and say "Ohhhh" when he sees something that amazes him.

He loves to wrestle with Daddy and is extremely ticklish :)

Determined to push buttons

Braydon was so determined to push the buttons on the fridge ice maker that he walked to the laundry room and grabbed the folding stool from next to the dryer. Then he unfolded it and walked it over to the fridge, put it down and climbed on it so he could reach the buttons. Smart and determined little 1 1/2 year old!

4th of July Weekend

It was a REALLY nice weekend in San Diego. 80 degrees and sunshine. We kicked off the weekend with a beach day with good friends on Saturday. We put an EZ up on the beach on Tamarack. Rich & Shelby, TC & Tamsin, Christine & Darrin, Aunt Cristin, Lauren & Jeff, The Younessi's and cute little Ava (2 1/2) and Jessica, Eric and Sophie (Braydon's stroller strides girlfriend, 17 months) all came. Braydon played in the sand with his friends and LOVED running in the waves. He is at home at the beach. He loved dancing to the music and eating chips too. He played so well with the girls.

After the beach we went back to our place and BBqed while Bray and Ava played in the bounce house. It was such a perfect end to a great day!

The next day, Cristin, Craig, Brady and I went to lunch at Casa De Bandini by the Forum shops. A Mariachi Band played "it's a small World" for Bray while he ate his quesadilla. He made the rounds, walking from table to table smiling a huge toothy grin and waving at everyone.

On Monday, the actual 4th of July, we got invited up to Laguna for the day by TC and Tamsin. TC's Godfather owns a beautiful condo on a private beach in Laguna called Laguna Lido. There was a cook there making tacos and a bouncy house that Braydon LOVED. It had a dinosaur in it. Braydon is such a beach dude. He was such a happy guy all day, playing in the sand, throwing balls, and he got to stand on a boogie board in the water with Daddy. At one point I looked over and Braydon was surrounded by a group of college boys swinging a ping pong paddle at a ball and all the guys shouted "Yay!" and would clap when he hit the ball. He was definitely the hit of the party :) We left Laguna at 7pm and Braydon fell asleep on the car ride home so we missed fireworks. It was such a fun weekend!!

Crazy Brady takes over Benihana

We went to Benihana for Braydon's first time last night and he took the place by storm. He began by running out to the water fountain behind the host desk and grabbed rocks and threw them in the water. From there we went to the bar area to wait for our table and he ran around waving to all the staff and climbing all over the couches.

Once we were seated we were served soup and Braydon decided to throw his porcelain spoon onto the Hibachi grill, shattering it all over the place. We had to move the entire table to another grill so they could clean. Once seated at the other grill he seemed to mellow out until he over hand threw his Thomas the train so it skidded across the grill and flew across the room. Holy moley he is crazy! We ended up taking everything away from him and scooting his chair a foot away from the table.

When the Hibachi Grill chef showed up Brady was highly entertained! He clapped and smiled and ate a ton of food along the way. When we left he waved at everyone along the way saying in his high pitched little voice "Buh Bye!"