Rocky Mountain Air

This week, I am on fall break and loving every second of it. We have really been wanting to get out of town lately and last Friday all the stars aligned...

Chris was asked to attend a conference for work in Vail and my teammate, Dan and his wife invited us to their cabin in Buena Vista. Chris is taking Thursday off so that we can head to the cabin and then we will drive over several of the Rocky Mountain passes to get to Vail. We are so excited and looking forward to the breathtaking views that I'm sure we will get to take in.

We'll be sure to update when we get back!

Watch Out World!

Sofia had her 1-year well-baby check-up yesterday and whoa Nelly has she grown! Here are her Super Sofia Stats:

• Height: 29.75 inches (65th percentile)


• Weight: 21 lbs 10.9 oz (53rd percentile)


• Head: 17 in (23rd percentile)

I was so proud to see that our little bug had grown. She is such a joy and was such a trooper while she had to get 5 (YES 5!) shots. The doctor said that she is nothing short of perfect. She really didn't have to tell me that...I already knew. :)

You can see where 4 of her vaccines were. The 5th is under her sleeve. Poor baby!

An afternoon at the park

Not much to write about today, but I had some really cute and funny pictures to share. We went to Central Park with Matt, Stacey, and Jake for a little swimmin' and playin'. Layla doesn't get swimming all that well so I had to toss her in. The swimming area has steps going in and a dock for the dogs to jump off of. This is a great way to tire out the dogs for a good afternoon nap.
This big field will sooner than later be the home of "beehive" soccer where all the kids chase the ball in a big swarm.
Sofia loved crunching the leaves in her hands
Here's Matt doing his best Brady Quinn impersonation.
Stacey is such a trooper! Elli and Piper will be here before we know it!
Sofia has discovered the refrigerator as well as her climbing abilities. "Dad...bottle or can?"

Way to go Mrs. Daniel

Yesterday Mrs. Daniel got a tremendous letter from her District Superintendent saying that he heard through the grape-vine(aka her Principal Tony) that she has been excelling in the district motto of dedication to excellence and inspiring the students, and that she was a highly respected teacher though out the district and a valuable staff member to her school. He also gave her thanks for her work in training the entire staff on a Teacher-Web-Page program called Blackboard. He also noted that he heard that she was invited to meet with other district teachers that have been working above and beyond the call of duty in an invite only after work meeting in which he was looking forward to personally thanking her. Only one other person (an administrator) in her school got this letter! Way to go Meg! We are so proud of all your hard work! Sometimes we all need a pat on the back...

We just love this girl...(and the ellipsis or colloquially dot-dot-dot)

Sofia has got a thing where she likes to take of my hat. Sometimes she takes the brim and plays peek-a-boo. This weekend she took one of my hats off of the couch and put it on her head and walked all around. (p.s. this pic was at T.G.I.Friday's last Tuesday for her birthday lunch.)
Man I am getting sleepy, too many birthday (hiccup) bottles...
Her hair is getting long enough to put into piggies! I dedicate this one to LKD and Pickles.
What a pretty girl in one of her birthday dresses. She was wearing some white tights, but they didn't stay on all day...
Gotta love the concentration and the toddler squat...

Passport to Snow

The weekends equal ritual between the Daniel and McSkimmin households. We rarely see a Saturday or Sunday without sharing a meal or spending time together. This weekend was no different. Yesterday, Matt, Stacey, Chris, Sofia and I headed out to the foothills where our friends Rob and Sarah live. They recently moved here from Ohio and are (of course) Ohio State fans. MSU played OSU yesterday, so we had so much fun watching the game (and Sofia in her MSU cheerleading gear) together. MSU put up a good fight, but let's be honest here, Ohio State is just waaaaay better. We hung around for a while longer to then watch the Cleveland v. Boston game 6. As the game progressed, our Denver weather took a weird turn. The temperature began to drop...and drop...and DROP! This is what we woke up to the next morning!



We had to laugh when we saw the snow because it reminded us of a comedian that we saw at Comedy Works when we first moved here. He said...
"Denver is America's best kept secret! The average temperature here is like 65 degrees yearround. Yet, when I told my buddies I was coming out here they told me that I was brave. I said, 'Why do you say that?' They responded with visions of cross-country skiing to the grocery store, wearing mucklucks from the car to the house, fur-trimmed hats, and snow mobiles and cat-crawlers as the only method for transport."

The crowd was rolling in the isles because this guy was SO right. However, when it is October 21 and we get 2 inches of snow and have national coverage because of the Sunday night football game and World Series-bound baseball team, it's no wonder that people think Denver is completely snowbound.

Anyway, moving on...
As some of you may know, I am heading to Jamaica in mid-December for my best friend, Marissa's wedding. Needless to say, I am sooooooooo excited!! Tonight, as I was cleaning up around the house and filing some items away, I decided to pull all my Jamaica stuff out and put it in a special envelope so that I wouldn't lose any of it. In the envelope I also put my passport. I started to giggle as I put it in there because I was 18 in my picture and look so young. I showed it to Chris who promptly responded, "Yeah, you finally look older than that. It took you forever!" I'm not quite sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, we had a good laugh.

The view from Mom...........

I'm just ending my visit to Meghan, Chris and Sofia......These five days have given me a great look at their family and their life in beautiful Denver. Sofia is energetic and so even-tempered, and Meg and Chris are great parents who are raising her with care and love. I'm proud of them! ( Sofia has almost mastered the E-I-E-I-O song, and I'm sure she'll call me any day to let me hear it!)

I'm also so proud of both Meg and Chris as they start to experience success in their work lives! Chris is obviously responsible for many critical meetings and decisions and continues to get feed-back that he's very much valued at MYC----That tells me his bosses must be very smart! On Monday, I visited school with Meghan once again and as always, was so impressed with her teaching skill---She is challenging her students to a very high level and it's so obvious that they want to work hard for her because her encouragement is really important to them. It's pretty much a blast at Sky Vista Middle School!

On Sunday, several friends came over for Sofia's birthday celebration----I saw how much Chris and Meg enjoy having people they care about in their home and how well they work together so that everyone has a good time. I'm so glad they're relaxed and happy and up-lifted by the support of their good friends here.

So.....I have lots of mixed feelings today! Sad that I'm so far away from their daily lives, but so glad to see how well they're doing and how strong they are together. We'll look forward to coming here at Christmas and already have some great things planned!

As my Irish husband would say, "Meghan, Chris and Sofia.... Until we meet again,May God hold you in the palm of His hand."
Love you guys,
Mom

It's my party, so I'll have cake and eat it too!

Today we had a little birthday party for Sofia and her friends at Casa de Daniel. We were joined by Debbie (Meg's mom), Matt and Stacey, Dawn, Meg's co-teacher Dan and his family (wife Lauren and sons Owen and Wyatt). Wyatt is in daycare with Sofia. We ate lots of food and enjoyed watching the kids play. We made Sofia pumpkin cream-cheese frosting muffins that she had two months ago when Wyatt turned 1yr old, and loved! My mom and dad even joined in by phone when we sang "Happy Birthday". Today was so much fun...I can't even imagine what Sofia's ACTUAL birthday on Tuesday the 16th is going to be like. Thank you everyone for the lovely cards and gifts.


Hey, this plate is clean, where is my cake?

Thanks to Andrea for the chair decorations, she loved them!



G-pa would love this no-spill mat!



I love all of the gifts!
Hangin' out with the boys, Wyatt and Owen.
Mmmm, my first cake!

Fun to be one! They sure got that right. :)

The first gift! Mom had to help with the opening...that is until Wyatt showed up!

Presents or that paper and boxes they came in...I'm not sure what is more fun?!?!



Sofia's First Birthday Serenade

ROCKtober

It is 1 a.m. and we just got home from the most incredible night EVER! Chris and our friends, Stacey, Russell, Andrew and Megan had tickets to the Rockies first home game of the NLDS and we were as pumped as ever. Our tickets were in the Rockpile - centerfield, bleachers...you get the picture. Totally uncomfortable and TOTALLY fun! The Rockies ended up winning against the Phillies 2-1 resulting in a sweep and movement into the NLCS. We have never had so much fun! The crowd was electric, the game was a nail biter and our tickets were only $10! This will truly be a night that we never forget. :)

Visual Confirmation

We discovered today that all the recent nights of little sleep and tears weren't for nothing. Sofia is getting tooth #3! It is the right, top, front tooth. Along with her much improved walking skills, she is turning into a REAL person right before our very eyes!

What a difference a year makes...

Can you beleive this was Meg exactly a year ago today?!?!? We took a trip down memory lane tonight and were looking through all of our Sofia pictures. We will put together a slide show for her birthday and post some pictures over the last year. It is amazing to think that last year today, we were 13 days away from the greatest gift God could give us. What a difference a year makes...

Yeah, Our Baby's Got Sauce

We filmed this on Friday night and Sofia is already walking even better! Last night she walked all the way from the kitchen to our bedroom without falling! That's like 25 feet! This is so much fun!

Now, if we could just get the sleeping through the night thing down...