Our First Family Vacation

We took a trip to Dana Point, California, where Joe's Dad has a boat in the harbor.  Taking 2/3 days to get there made it easy on all of us!  We drove to Albuquerque the first day and stayed the night, then to Flagstaff, Arizona and stayed the night again.  Then made the last haul to Corona and had dinner with Wylie's Great Grandfather and a few aunts too!  We finally made it to the boat and it was so worth the trip!  The next few days we spent just walking around the harbor, going to the beach and just relaxing.  It was wonderful!  We drove down to San Diego for one night and walked around Old Town, had dinner in the Gas Lamp District, then went to a dog surfing competition in the morning!  Joe graciously booked Wylie and I a flight home and he made the long drive by himself.  Wouldn't have been that bad except he got stuck in Flagstaff due to the highway being closed completely due to high winds.  The next day took even longer since there were so many trucks and other drivers.  It was the best family vacation ever! (well, we don't have anything to compare it to yet for us, but it really was great!)  Here are a few highlights from the trip...

West Texas Wildflower Drive

 So I was pretty jealous of my friends pictures of their kids in the bluebonnet fields....then I saw an article in our Texas Highways magazine highlighting Llano Estacado and a drive around Amarillo to see wildflowers.  It had a whole route to take, pointing out where the flowers would be, so I got kind of excited and Joe took the day off so we could go check out what the Panhandle had to offer.  Well, I'm thinking the article was pulled out of the archives, because it was nothing like it described.  Here is Lake Meredith where there were supposed to be a variety of wildflowers...

It was pretty funny, but frustrating all the same!  We continued on the tour to arrive at the Wildbluff Nature Center, which at first glance did not seem any better.  We paid the $6 to take the walk, despite the high winds, and managed to find a patch of some small yellow flowers, after the first stop where we felt it was fitting to take a picture of Wylie with just one lone wildflower...

After a long, but adventurous and fun family time day, we came home and Wylie topped it off with a little ride on yellow dog...

A Few More Firsts...

Sometime in mid-March (I thought the video camera would save the date!) Wylie started her army crawl/jungle dog/slither move!  It's crawling without lifting the belly.  I've done everything I can to try to get her to lift her belly, but finally gave up.  She's going straight from that to pulling up (which she did all on her own to the couch mid-April (about 9 months)!  She wants to walk REALLY BAD!  Also got on camera was her first move from sitting to belly, back to sitting up!  Once she figured it out she kept doing it, it was so cute.

I had a nice big confined area for her, but she realized she was being confined, so now she goes wherever she wants!!

She LOVES playing on her little piano...so all the Ritter family will be pleased!  Even Joe was surprised how much she enjoys it!

Easter came and I actually made her dress and was finished 24 hours before she needed to wear it!  That's a Patrick record I think!

We took a road trip to Dallas, the first since she used to sleep all the time...it was an experience.  Learned we need to time things better, but she still did good considering she was stuck in her car seat for 8 hours! 

On Thursday we had lunch with a college friend then went to the Ft. Worth Zoo.  I think she enjoyed it...as much as an 8 month old can!

May seem silly, but this was her first time sitting in grass!! It's still a little crunchy...

Daddy loves to hold her this way and she seems to be pretty comfortable!!

Joe used to not want to do the bath thing, but it's become their special time together and she LOVES it!

and finally...I happen to catch her standing up in her bed when she was supposed to be sleeping!

Vacation!

March was packed with a long trip to see Grandma in Dallas and then a whole week in Jackson, TN with Wylie's cousins!!  First stop though in Dallas, was shopping at Nordstrom!

Aunt Kat came to visit miss Wylie too and we went to the park for Wylie's first time on a swing - which she loved!

Then off to TN...we loved surprising Jake and Amelia with our visit!  And we surprised them too, when Papa and Grandmama showed up on Wednesday!  We enjoyed a lot of family time, we visited Amelia at school...

and watched Jake and Amelia perform at their recitation and celebrated Mimi's (Scott's mom) birthday!  We really wanted to go to the zoo, but the weather just didn't cooperate.  We had a great time though!

On our way home, we had a couple hour layover in Dallas, so Grandma got to come see us one more time! (this was the only pic we got this trip! oops!)

Camille got a lesson on the embroidery machine while visiting Fran and made a few new outfits for Wylie:

Back in the Shoe, we celebrated Easter a little early with some friends and kids at the park.  Wylie's first Easter egg hunt:

A REAL Photoshoot

 Wylie's Baptism taken by Beth Osterkamp; Gown by Carole Patrick.  Great work Grandma's!

Reading & Ropin'

I happened to walk in after a nap and this is how I found Wylie:

 what a smart kid!

Joe and Wylie in her new playpen with her rubber cow!

Attempted Photoshoot (February)

So, my mother-in-law is an awesome photographer and usually does Wylie's pics, but I had the urge to try myself one day and this is what I got...

and that's a wrap!