Cake and Presents

I really loved my party. I had lots of family and friends come and celebrate with me and it was lots of fun...but....a little overwhelming. I didn't want my mommy out of my sight. Needless to say, I got her attention by yelling and then everything was ok after that! My cake was really yummy. I watched my other friends who turned 1 make a really big mess with their cake, but not me. I just had little tastes so I wouldn't get my dress messy. I also received some really nice things...my mommy told me that people were very generous, whatever that means. Thanks to everyone...I had a great night.

My Birthday Cake

It was a very special treat to have my Great Gran fly all the way down here on my 1st birthday. She stayed up really late when she got here and made my birthday cake for me. I am one lucky little girl! I love you Great Gran.

Fun with Grandpa Canada

I was really blessed because my Grandpa came down to visit me and my family for my 1st birthday. We had so much fun playing in the pool, playing peek-a-boo and just chillin' out. Thanks for a great visit! I love you Grandpa.

I'm ONE today!

Can you believe that a year has already gone by? It's CRAZY! My mommy and daddy keep telling me that it's just not possible that their little girl is one year old! For me, I don't really know the difference. All I know is that I wake up every morning to a smiling face and lots of hugs and go to bed with awesome cuddles and lots of "I love you Taylor". It's a pretty sweet deal. In between, I get fed, my parents play with me, I sleep, I mess my diapers...well, you get the picture...life is pretty darn good.
So, to update all of you, I have still not got any teeth! Can't believe that at all...but, I do eat really well; I guess right now I'll just keep dealing with it. I have a few words that I love to repeat about a 100 times a day: puppy, baby, bubble, daddy, uh-oh and "HI" while I wave franticallly! I am not quite walking yet, but I sure do walk a mean streak behind my toys...I have bravely tried walking on my own, but after 2 times of walking 3 steps by myself, I figured it wasn't worth the effort quite yet. Soon, though, very soon! I can stand on my own and that's been pretty fun, but again, I'll just keep 'em guessing for a while longer. I get to have a really fun party on Saturday, so I'll update you after that...I can't wait to see my family and friends!

Trouble with a CAPITAL T!

Don't let my beautiful blue eyes fool you...I can get into trouble with the best of them! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to climb and would climb up a mountain if I could! I found out that the table in the daycare is pretty easy to get up and over....even when my mommy says "No"! My mommy was afraid I'd fall off, so she chickened out of taking a picture of me ON the table...but just by looking, I'm sure you get the picture! No sweat!

One of my favorite things....

One of my most favorite things is to explore the kitchen....my mommy put locks on most of the drawers and cupboards which is a real drag... BUT there are 2 that she left unlocked! So, I take full advantage of it and empty out the plastic cupboard and the wrapping and baggies drawer probably about 6-7 times a day. It NEVER gets boring!

My First Camping Trip

I had lots of fun last weekend! I went on my very first camping trip and I hope there's more to come in the summer. We drove for a pretty long time...but we saw lots of awesome scenery, so it was worth it. We stayed overnight at a place called Beartooth Lake (the 4th picture is Beartooth Lake). It was very pretty....but for some reason there was grizzly bear signs up. Not a great start knowing there is a bear lurking around! We heard bull elk bugling at night and then saw a cow elk in the morning by the lake and she was "talking" to her male friend a lot! I'm not sure if you've ever heard an elk "talk" but they sound really weird. The only problem with the trip was that it got REALLY cold at night...20 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 degrees Celsius). It's a good thing we had lots of blankets and I had a jacket, warm sleepers and a down sleep sack! It was weird sleeping in a new bed with my mom and 2 dogs (my dad was relegated to the other side of the tent trailer), but at least everyone stayed relatively warm. All in all we had a great night and I can't wait to do it again...but only when it's warm!

Montana Scenery

Montana has SOOOO many beautiful places to see. Yellowstone Park was ranked #3 by the Today Show (even though most of the park is in Wyoming). On our way down, my mommy took a few pictures because I was sleeping...she said she'd show them to me later. The first picture is going up Beartooth Pass...at the top you reach over 11, 000 feet. It's pretty cool going up all those winding roads! The second picture is of the "Grand Canyon" Montana...we didn't get to take a picture of the really cool part, but this turned out pretty well. The 3rd picture is of our "landmark" mountains, Pilot and Index...named because of the "index finger" pointing up to guide pilots and Pilot is named because he wasn't looking up at Index and slammed into the mountain side...so now it's called Pilot. The other pictures are of Old Faithful at the south part of Yellowstone Park. It's a pretty neat place because of all the "hot pots". It stinks like rotten eggs in some parts of the southern part of the Park because of the thermal activity.

Don't Feed the Animals!

The really cool thing about Yellowstone Park is that you never know what kind of wildlife you'll see. Well, bison are pretty much a given...my mom and dad call them park cattle, but as for other things, it's always a surprise. One of the rare sightings that caught people's attention and caused a road block was a grizzly cub. My daddy told me not to mess with him, because momma bear wasn't too far away! We also saw a bison on the road...he almost got hit by another truck. In a place called Mammoth, we saw a TON of elk...a little raghorn male, a 6x6 male and a whole bunch of cow elk and their babies. My daddy was surprised not to see the "big boy" with his herd because they very rarely leave them during mating season just in case another bull elk tries to take the harem. It was pretty cool to see all of these elk in one spot...too bad my daddy didn't have a hunting permit for the Park!

Fire in the Park

Well it's not everyday that you get to see a forest fire brewing in a major US National Park, but that's exactly what we got to see. Since they had the road blocked off for awhile to let the helicopter "bomb" the woods with water/fire retardant, we got some pictures! My mom was pretty excited to see this, my dad wanted to get through the roadblock and I wanted the windows closed so I didn't get smoke inhalation! Needless to say, they got it under control and we were allowed through after about 30 minutes.

Echo Canyon Kids Daycare

Well, this is my new playroom....I mean daycare. My mommy and daddy worked very hard on it and it really does look great! There are so many toys to play with that I don't know where to start. Mostly I like the blocks and the gigantic legos. My mommy said that she's putting some of the toys away in the box for a rainy day (like that will ever happen here...we've been in a drought for years). I guess I will have to wait until the "rotation" of toys happens to see what else there is. I have made a couple of new friends and I like seeing them a lot. They keep me busy!

Great Gran's Clan

Well my great-grandma got quite a treat because all of her great-grandchildren were in one spot at one time. Now that certainly doesn't happen very often! So...from L-R...Faith, Taylor (on Faith's lap), Shaylah, Declan, Graycen (on Declan's lap), Great-Gran and Gabriel. Great-Gran also came down to Birch Bay with us so that she could visit with me and my mommy before we came home. She played with me, sang to me, tickled me and gave me Eskimo kisses. Those Eskimo kisses were pretty funny!

Cousins

I had so much fun with my cousins! Not enough pictures though, because some people are missing. Anyway, I got to meet a lot of them for the first time and that was pretty neat. I also liked playing with them...especially because some of my cousins are not that much older than me and we could "speak" the same language. It was a lot of fun to play with everyone!

Fun at the Beach

I got to go to visit my Canadian family at the beginning of August and it was a lot of fun! We spent some time at my Grandpa's beach house in Birch Bay, Washington and I went out on the sandbars with mommy. I was listening to all the seagulls, watching other people and their dogs...but mostly I had fun digging in the sand and crawling around. I even tasted the sand a couple of times, but figured out that it doesn't taste very good at all. Anyway, I had a great time and that's all that matters!