Favorite Memories with Jack (so far)

We just returned home from a weekend in Norfolk with Alicia's family. We had a great time celebrating the Fourth of July with family. One of the highlights was gathering with about 100 other people on July 3rd at my in-laws neighbor's house for a Fourth of July party. The "event" included home baked goods, homemade ice cream, sparklers and parachutes for the kids, the singing of the Star Spangled Banner, and a "homemade" 30 minute fireworks show in their backyard (which rivals many professional shows).

We decided to take Jack, which had us a little nervous because his normal bedtime is 7:30. And we weren't heading over to the party until about 8:30 or 9. But, we are so glad we took him because we had a blast. I helped Jack swirl sparklers and catch parachutes, and we all enjoyed homemade ice cream and cookies. When the fireworks show started, he initially looked amused but quickly became scared so we took him home. But, it didn't put a damper on the night at all, and we were talking about how glad we were that we took him and how much fun we had with him.

Which led to a discussion of our top moments or memories with Jack. So we listed our top five, and they are as follows (in no particular order):

• Halloween - This past year for Halloween Jack dressed up like a puppy and we went to his Grandma and Grandpa Smith's neighborhood and his Uncle John and Aunt Teresa's house. He was just so cute and happy, so it was a fun night for our little family.

• Hike in Estes Park - When I took classes in Ft. Collins two years ago, we went into the mountains in Estes Park during Fourth of July weekend and had an awesome hike around Bear Lake. At that point, Jack wasn't a very happy baby, so we weren't anticipating getting to do much with him. But he was so content and even slept most of the time (a very rare occurrence at that point in time), and we had so much fun! He learned to love that Baby Bjorn!

• Fourth of July Party - The whole weekend was a blast with awesome weather, grilling every night, and hanging out by the pool with Jack. And of course the big party that I talked about above. Here, Jack is sitting in the pool eating crackers. For some reason, he gets a lot of crackers at Grandma and Grandpa's house! I guess he has a lot of different people to ask and his aunts can't say no to him either!

• Jack meeting Wyatt for the first time - It was so exciting to bring Wyatt home after eight weeks in the NICU and we couldn't wait for Jack to meet him and see his reaction. And he just loved him immediately and is such a good big brother. It was a really special time for our family, because we were finally all together!

• Our drive to Orlando - We expected a chaotic 2o+ hour drive to Florida last summer, but the drive down turned out to be a really good family time for us. We had great driving weather, Jack was happy, and we broke it up to have good rest and fun along the way.