Woody & Jessie

Patrick's newest obsession is Toy Story. He was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween, and if you ask him, he still is! Other days, he is Woody, Mr. Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, and even Jessie (that one freaks out Donny a little bit). He got the Buzz jammies from Grandma & Grandpa Pickles (Steeley) for Christmas.

Where have we been?!!

2010 was an incredibly crazy busy, fun, educational, chaotic year for us. Patrick turned 2 in March, I started school in April (doubled up) to finally finish the degree I should have gotten in 2005, my office moved to a brand new building, Donny & I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary, and I finished my degree in December! I have lots of pictures to share, but here are some to tie you over for now. These were taken at the Virginia City Christmas Party when Santa Claus comes to visit. I thought for surely Patrick would freak out on Santa's lap like he did last year, but he just sat there. I don't think he knew what to think of this Santa (to be honest, I didn't either), but he sure had a fun time dancing with his best buddy Seeley and listening to the fiddle players.

Random pictures from April through June

Hogle Zoo

For Mother's Day this year we decided to get out of the cold weather and headed to Salt Lake to see my mom. We took Patrick to the Hogle Zoo where he got to see the baby elephant, the giraffes and all his other favorites (and not-so-favorites) as well as rode the choo choo and the carousel.



On our way home, we stopped at a fun playground just off the freeway in Blackfoot, ID. It must have really worn Patrick out because he literally slept the rest of the way home, which was GREAT!

Easter 2010

Easter was fun this year since Patrick was old enough to dye eggs and actually look for them in his egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Pickle's house. Seeley, Holly & Les came to our house to dye eggs.

Patrick's 2nd Birthday

I know this post is REALLY overdue....afterall, Patrick turned 2 three months ago, but late is better than never! Patrick had a great birthday with lots of little friends. He got a "choo choo" from us, a sandbox from his Grandma and Grandpa Patterson (Grandpa Patterson made it for him), and fun sandbox toys from Grandma and Grandpa Steeley (aka Grandma and Grandpa Pickles). Grandma J was not able to make it to this party, but came to visit a few weeks later and brought him a fun barn with lots of animals.

Washington D.C. Trip

I had a conference in Washington D.C. from March 15-17th. I went with a friend of mine, Erin, who is also in Public Health in MT. We had a great time! We ate good food, visited our Senator's staff members in the Senate Building, met Senator Tester (D-MT), did a little shopping (of course!).....and oh ya, we also attended the conference!

We stayed in a really nice hotel (Dupont Hotel in Dupont Circle), but our room was tiny and the layout of the bathroom was really strange. The shower only had a 1/2 wall (seen below in the picture), so all of the water from the shower would literally flood the rest of the bathroom. In order to avoid electricution while drying our hair - we'd have to mop up all the water after every shower! Crazy.

I'm also pretty sure the hotel room was on a direct route to the fire station, because no fewer than 10 times a night were we woken up by fire trucks (sirens and all) went flying by. I'm so used to absolutely no noise (we have to create our own background noise by using humidifiers when we sleep) that I did not sleep well with all that noise in DC!

After building my own house - I have a better appreciation for the construction of buildings. This building (the Capitol) absolutely blows my mind. It is HUGE and it was built when the common conveniences of backhoes, cement trucks, etc. did not exist yet. Amazing.