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.

Trip to Missoula

We had cabin fever so we decided to head to Missoula to visit our friends Andrea and Seth and their little boy Maxsen. Patrick and Maxsen had a BLAST! They're only about 3 1/2 months apart, so watching them play together, chase each other and talk to each other was so much fun. Before we headed home we went to play at a big park with a carousel. Needless to say, when we got home Patrick was exhausted and so were his parents!

Dark Hair

Most of you know by now that I dyed my hair dark for the first time ever! Although it was a fun change, I think it will be going back to blonde shortly. It has already faded a LOT and I don't want to have to dye it all the time to maintain he color. So, here is the picture for documentation that I really did it!

Random Pics from February

We borrowed this sled from our friend Dayna. It is amazing and makes xc skiing with a little one SO fun!

Donny & Patrick playing on the stairs

Bengals Play-off Game

Dan & Cindy Steeley, Donna & Phil Parker, Zack Steeley

Grandpa Steeley

Donny flew to Ohio to see his beloved Cincinnati Bengals play in a play-off game on January 9th. Although the Bengals lost to the New York Jets 14-24, Donny still said it was an absolute blast. It was a trip filled with lots of family time...not only did he enjoy the game with his Uncle Dan (thank you for the game ticket Dan!) and his cousin Zach, he also spent a lot of time with all of his extended family in Dayton, OH. Patrick and I were really glad he got to go watch this game in person, but we sure were excited when he came home....we missed him!! Sorry the format of this post got out of order - I tried to fix it, but I decided for the safety of my laptop I should just leave it alone. One of these days the threat to throw the laptop out the window is not going to just be a threat! ;-)
Chad "Ochocinco" coming out onto the field.

The view from their seats.

Christmas 2009

We had a busy but great Christmas this year. We got up and opened presents from us and Santa (ok, so Donny & I actually opened presents Christmas Eve night - we're like little kids...we just can't wait!). Patrick was pretty excited about his new tool bench he got from Santa and the Mickey Mouse Choo Choo ("Mickey" is his current obsession) he got from us.

The Holiday Express "Choo Choo" that was supposed to go around our Christmas tree (we couldn't do that because Patrick liked to sit in the middle of it) was still his favorite thing. It was a sad day for him (can't say we were too sad) when it was put away for the season.
Then, Dad, Shelly, Uncle Tyler and Tyler's friend Neesha (sp?) came over that morning. We had a great time with them playing Wii (nothing like a good 2 on 2 tennis tournament to get the day going), laughing a lot and opening presents. Grandma & Grandpa Patterson gave Patrick a John Deere tractor, a tiny recliner for their house, and a John Deere tractor book.

Grandpa Patterson & Patrick have a stolen moment together. I wonder what they were talking about.

To end the day just right, Grandma J pulled into town at about 5:00. We were all so exhausted we decided to hold off on opening presents with her until the next morning. For some reason I forgot to take pictures that morning. Grandma J got us sleds, Mickey Mouse books, a Thomas the Train, and more Mickey Mouse books!!

I think it is obvious that Patrick (well, all of us for that matter) was spoiled this Christmas. We feel very blessed that were able to spend the holidays with all of our parents and that they are all such great grandparents.

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my dad & Shelly's house with our traditional Mexican dinner and songs around the bonfire. It was a lot of fun! We opened presents with Donny's parents that night because they were headed to Elko the next morning. They got Patrick a fun little laptop (so he can stop banging on mine!), some gigantic Legos (no choking hazards there), and a "Fridge DJ" - which is a fancy name for a radio that is magnetic. He loves them all of course!

It's hard to see in this picture, but Grandma and Grandpa Patterson got Patrick this adorable little recliner (we're sitting in it) so he can sit with Grandpa and watch "Mickey" (Patrick's current obsession) at their house.