Vacation and Birthday Party #1

In August, we took a family vacation to Branson, MO, with the Skala family. Laura drove down from Madison to ride with us; and Grandma, Grandpa, Andy, and Leah drove down from Minnesota together. After 9 or 10 hour car rides, we arrived to 100 degree temperatures. We spent a lot of time at the pool and Conor was not afraid at all. After falling under a few times while trying to wade through the kiddie pool, he was eventually trying to dunk his face in on purpose. We also went to a water park, went go-carting (Conor and Grandma watched), went out to eat a few times, played at the park, and played some board games and card games. It was a blast and we hope to have more big family vacations in the future.



Since it was the week before Conor's birthday and we knew that everyone would be unable to make the trip to Illinois for his "at-home" birthday party, we had his first 1st birthday party on vacation. Aunt Leah bought him a special individual cake, and after staring at it for a while, once we showed him how to dig in, he couldn't be stopped. Notice the large bites...must have been some good cake!!





He even wore a special hat (it says "the big one") and opened cards and presents.

Ping pong pros.
Grandpa helping Conor navigate the kiddie pool.
Grandpa reading with Conor before bed.
The men manning the barbecue!
Despite gobs of sunscreen, he even got a little tan!