Happy Birthday to Susu! Maxwell’s great-grandmother is just about the best there is!
Susu, we are so glad we got to visit you just last month and hope we get to see you again soon! We love you!
Aspen! Part 1
My mom, Maxwell’s GJ, is one special person. I knew I wanted to do something fun for her 60th birthday and I thought a trip to Aspen was just the thing! I have been to Aspen in fall in the past and I knew it would be a great place to take her. Considering she doesn’t get much fall in Florida, I suspected that she would LOVE seeing the fall leaves and breathing in the crisp, cool mountain air! My suspicions were confirmed the moment she stepped off the plane in Aspen…
Grinning from ear to ear! It was a FANTASTIC trip from start to finish!
The trip started out on Thursday with a bang – in the Denver airport we saw the former Bachelorette Trista with her husband Ryan and their two kids. Apparently their little boy’s name is Maxwell because it said it on his monkey backpack. I knew they were cool. Then we realized that Steve Forbes was on our flight from Denver to Aspen…our commercial flight. Not sure what that says about the economy! We later figured out that he was actually staying in our hotel. I think that says that we picked a nice hotel! 🙂 After arriving in Aspen, we were just walking around town, checking things out and who did we see? Ron Howard! Opie himself was sitting on a bench talking on his cell. Celeb sightings were a great way to kick things off!
Like I just said, our hotel, The Little Nell, was ridiculous. It was possibly the neatest hotel room I’ve ever been in. My mom and I each had our own room and I think we had enough room for 20 people between the two of us. Heaven! And this was our view of Aspen Mountain out the window…
Not too shabby!
Thursday night we had dinner at the hotel at Montagna and it was delicious. The hotel knew that it was my mom’s birthday and we ended up with free wine and dessert…nice!
The next day we grabbed a muffin from Paradise Bakery and took in this view…
The perfect way to start the day!
We then rented bikes and biked the Rio Grande Trail. It’s a 9 mile ride out to a great lunch spot called Woody Creek Tavern. The ride out is pretty easy and mostly downhill…which means the ride back is not quite as easy and uphill! We persevered though and made it with only a few stops! 🙂
Everything along the trail was just gorgeous…
and we even saw some guys fly fishing.
I used the self timer on my camera to take a picture of the two of us…
I think it’s a framer, don’t you?
After 9 miles, we finally made it to Woody Creek…
and I had this plate of yum for lunch…
Maybe, just maybe, that was part of the reason the ride back was a little more difficult than the ride there! We ended up taking a few breaks to take in the scenery and enjoy it all…we were in no hurry!
We then tried again with the self-timer on my camera and got a much better result!
Now that really is a framer!
We were so proud of ourselves for biking 18 miles! We celebrated later that afternoon with a cookie from Paradise Bakery and then had a great dinner (with terrible service) at Matsuhisa. Considering how badly I wanted good sushi (something that does not exist in B’ham), I didn’t even care about the super delayed sea bass that we ended up canceling. I think we were also too tired to care! We were back in our rooms by 8:30 and happily called it a night!
While I was gone, Robert was at home holding down the fort (with a little help from Susan on Thursday and Friday). Now, I know you come to this blog to see pictures of Maxwell and not pictures of me and GJ (but we are cute, aren’t we?!) so I’m going to show you all the fun pictures that Robert sent to me while I was away. Let me tell ya, when you’re missing your baby, there’s nothing better than seeing his smiling face come through in an email!
The boys had a big time while I was gone!
Tomorrow – hiking, the gondola and Maroon Bells! See you then!
Road Trip! part 1
On Friday of last week, Robert and I loaded up the (awesome!!) new car and headed to Arkansas. The reason for the trip was a baby shower, but it also gave us a chance to stop in and see the grandparents. Maxwell did fantastic during the ride. He slept a lot and enjoyed his favorite Baby Einstein DVD on the new player we bought. Technology is great.
On our way into Little Rock, we stopped through Searcy to see Maxwell’s Great Granddaddy, the original Max!
We had lots of fun checking out Uncle John’s new law office/airplane hangar. Quite a combo! Congrats to John on his first solo flight as well!
Granddaddy and Maxwell had a big time hanging out…
and doing a little reading.
Cara was there too and gave Maxwell some super nice birthday gifts that we played with the entire trip!
It was a great visit and I am so happy that Max and Maxwell got to see each other!
Tomorrow, on to Small Stone!
Party on!
After the cake smashing, the party continued with presents. Lots of sweet, awesome, generous presents from Maxwell’s sweet, awesome, generous family!
Robert and I got Maxwell this little push lawn mower…
and this is how Maxwell reacted when Dad told him he could now help him work in the yard…
Guess Robert might have to wait a little longer to get his yard helper!
I also got Maxwell this fun giant card…
that roared like an elephant when you opened it…
and apparently scared Maxwell to death.
Way to go, Momma. 2 for 2!
Other presents were a much bigger hit, like this ball bouncer…
Tickle Me Elmo…
and this fantastic personalized chair throne…
Fit for a prince! Maxwell’s favorite gift of the day though? That miniature red spatula in his mouth. It was a gift from GJ and Daddo and I don’t think he’s put it down since!
Maxwell thoroughly enjoyed the view from his throne…
and got a kick out of watching everyone else put his toys together for him!
By the end of the day, Maxwell had even mastered getting into his throne all by himself…
Oh so gracefully I might add! 🙂
Maxwell then got in some good snuggles with Aunt Jenny…
played, played and played some more with Katie and Anna…
and spent some quality time on Daddo’s lap.
Robert then kicked things up a notch and had some fun with the helium tank. Lemme tell ya, Robert talking like a chipmunk is HILARIOUS.
(Kids, don’t try that at home!)
Despite missing his afternoon nap and being surrounded by lots of activity, Maxwell was such a happy guy all afternoon. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to celebrate my sweet baby’s FIRST BIRTHDAY!
See you all tomorrow with the “official” 12 months photos! Have a great day!
A Birthday Party!
First, thank you for all the comments yesterday! I love hearing from so many of you and know Maxwell will get a kick out of reading them someday too.
Second, how about a birthday party?! To celebrate Maxwell’s birthday, we just had some of our immediate family over for lunch on Sunday…that didn’t stop me from doing a little decorating though! 🙂 My baby boy is only going to turn 1 once so I wanted to make it special, festive and fun for all!
Like all 1 year olds, Maxwell loves balloons. He also loves his friend Little Al (seen in our monthly photo shoots). So, when I saw this invitation…
it all just fell into place. Lots of balloons and lots of happy colors!
I ordered the Happy Birthday banner off of Etsy, made the centerpieces with candy and cardstock, and blew up all the balloons myself with a helium tank from Party City. easy!
I also made banners out of all of his monthly photos to display on our mantels. I think everyone loved getting to compare all the photos side by side and see how much he’s grown in a year!
The brick mantel had my favorite individual photo from each month and the living room mantel had all the Little Al photo favorites.
Maxwell loved having the fam in “his house” and getting to play with (almost) everyone. We missed Aunt Mess and Holland and Keath, Jen, Delaney and Nate.
Maxwell especially loved getting lots of grandmother love!
Along with the banner, I also ordered this cute birthday crown off of Etsy for Maxwell to wear. Let’s just say it didn’t go over so well.
Crown attempt #1…
Fail. The grandmothers sure got a kick out of it though! 🙂
Crown attempt #2…
Fail. Oh well.
We knew we couldn’t have a party without feeding our guests well so Robert and I cooked up quite a feast. Luckily I got to prepare my portion of the meal inside in the kitchen. Poor Robert had to sweat it out at the grill. It was worth it though!
You know what comes after the birthday lunch don’t you? Birthday cake!!
A smash cake for Maxwell and cupcakes for everyone else. All from Olexa’s and all really good. Like, ridiculously good. Yum.
Obligatory pre-cake family photo…
Thanks Jenny!
I had no idea how Maxwell was going to be with the cake but he quickly showed us all that he’s got his momma’s sweet tooth!
I couldn’t help getting in a little lick of that icing myself! 🙂
I then cut the cake up a bit for him and that’s when he really dug in!
A very happy birthday boy!
And a very messy birthday boy!
He even played patty-cake with his cake…naturally.
Love him.
We then tried for crown attempt #3…
Fail.
Little Al ended up wearing the crown for most of the party…
Success!
(please note how Little Al has a balloon around his trunk just like the elephant on the invitation. I was quite proud of that! It’s the little things.)
Maxwell might not have liked his crown but he loved his cake and that’s what matters!
The party continues tomorrow with presents, presents and more presents! It’s good to be Maxwell these days! 🙂 See you tomorrow!