4 Months? Dang boy.

This is Max at 4 months old. I can't believe that this precious human has been in my life for four months now. It seems like he has been around forever. Every day while I'm at work I find myself staring at my cell phone wallpaper and laughing at his cuteness. I can't wait to get home because I know that the second Max sees me, no matter what mood he's in, he is going to bust out a humongous smile. Happy four months kid...you rock.

Skillz to pay the Billz

Max has a new trick.

See that orange ring? Well, Max figured out that if he concentrates really hard, he can reach out and grab it. And once he grabs it, he can pull on it. And when he pulls it? Well...music. He is loving his new learning.

Just one step closer to me teaching him to pull my finger. YES!

Hooray for Hannah! Hooray for Spring!

Why is Max dressed up so cute on this spring day? Cause he's been invited to his very first birthday party ever!

Precious Hannah asked Max to come up because she had heard that Max gives boss gifts. Max tried to live up to that name, but only time would tell as Hannah ripped open her bag to check out the prize inside.

What the frizzoodles is this thing?

Seriously mom? Get that crap away from me. Nice Max...try again. Then we heard that Hannah cried when she saw the bike her dad gave her for her birthday, and we didn't feel like the gift was a failure.

Super precious take home gift - Max is now going to grow his very first grass.

Hannah has lots of cute friends, like Caitlin here. We were all invited to go up to the Chicago Botanical Gardens and it couldn't have been a better weekend to go. The weather was great, spring was in the air, and we were psyched.

This is how Max spent most of the day - strapped to my chest. He just recently decided that he doesn't hate the bjorn thing, so we decided to take advantage. Don't worry, I'm not giving him the pinch of death...I'm helping him work his neck muscles.

The Shulls also came up to party. Their daughter's like, "hey, yo, check it. Yeah, I'm cute and you know it."

Like I said, it was a great weekend to hit the botanicals. The flowers were all a bloomin' up in the trees.

It's also a great place for kiddies to explore stuffs...like greenery.

And Japanese gardens.

To climb on all sorts of rocks.

And sniff super big, purple flowers.

And just walk around enjoying nature while flaunting your skinny jeans.

There was stuff growing all over the place. I guess you would expect that at the botanical gardens on May 1st.

The birthday family - always precious, so loved. They know how to throw a party.

Max got so tired and fell asleep. He deserved a nap - too much birthday as the Bernstein Bears have said.

Flowers, flowers everywhere. I guess you would expect that at the botanicals in the spring.

Tulipa Spryng...and people say its hard to understand Latin.

Did Max have a great time at his first birthday party? I think this face says it all.

Welcome To Dell (Alternative name: Go To Dell)

So last weekend Caitlin and I set out to take a weekend adventure. If you have been our friends for a few years, then you know that Caitlin and I try to take a wacky, wintertime adventure every year. First year was Lizzie Borden. Second year was Philadelphia (-20 degrees) to see Edgar Allen Poe's house. Third year was to go to an ice sculpting competition in Lake Geneva. This year - Indoor Water park Excitement at the Wisconsin Dells! I can't tell you how excited I was (possibly because when I get excited I saw naughty words), but lets just say I couldn't freakin' wait. Finally the weekend came.

We got up there late on Friday night, after a 3 hour ride turned into a 6 hour ride with an upset Max and a slight car wreck in Milwaukee. But we made it. After a dinner with the Wortley's at Culvers, we went straight to bed in anticipation for the big day ahead of us. Upon awakening, we went over to the Burgon and Ward's pad to for breakfast crepes!
Guess what - at 8am all the babies were awake! Big surprise. Jane was super psyched like me to take on the day.

Sometimes the boys just have to revel in their precious babies. Max has all types of chicks in his life - like Ella and Jane here. He's always hanging out with older women.

You'd think that is a donut that Ells Yeah is eating, but its plastic. Weird taste in food - but whatever!

Is this my kid? YOU BETCHA!

Oh yeah - crepes. Yeah, as you can see above they were amazing. We had all the right toppings to make them taste like candy.

I learned on this trip that the Wortley's have a whipping cream dispenser. It was fantastic. It's like you think you know a person and then boom, they whip out their whipping cream dispenser.

Hims? Yeah...hims is adorable with his little monster outfit.

You know what is really hard to do? Take candid shots - especially with a big camera. Everyone always wants to pose or get awkward...but I think I got a good shot here of the Wortley's laughing their butts off. Man, they are the life of the party. Or maybe it was Chris just off screen doin' his wacky thing. Well, the funniness was over and it was time to hit the water parks in a big way.

The girls were brave with the water, but Max chose to stay away. He felt the warm indoor air, heard all the noise - and he was out.

Question: did I have fun? Um, what do you think. The first water slide I went down, I screamed like a little girl, squealing to the very bottom. I forgot how much I enjoy water parks. I used to go to Wild Waters in Boise with Mikey like every week growing up - I miss those days. I don't think I have been to one since Freshman year. Its been too long.

Baby boy woke up when we got to the wave pool and I spent some quality time with hims. I can't wait to take him into the water. Unfortunately, there was like 9,000,000 gallons of chlorine in that water to dissolve all the kid urine (and the adult urine - don't judge me!).

We literally kicked it for 8 hours at the water park (note Max is fast asleep again in his car seat). It was great. Then the Wards and Burgons left for home - but the Wortley's stayed on for another night with us in the Dells. We went out to dinner at had fried cheese curds and blue cheese burgers (heaven). I slept good that night - and surprisingly Max did as well. The water park wore him out.

The next morning we went to The Cheese Factory - which funny enough was a vegetarian restaurant that really didn't serve too much cheese. This place was wildly amazing - one of my favorite vegetarian restaurant of all time. Caitlin was also pleased.

That's polenta right there people - the grain of the Gods. Okay, actually it is the grain of the poor, but still. Delicious.

You already saw our cute family picture from the restaurant. Here is another glimpse of how much we love this kid. He is smothered in it...probably to a point that he gets annoyed with us.

After breakfast/lunch we went to downtown Dells (population no one) to see the craziness. We started it off with Dairy Queen blizzards. The thing with the Dells is that it is a freakin' joke. There is no tourist trap more freaky than here. Check this out.

Awkward indian poses.

Haunted houses and abandoned torture museums.

Cars on the walls? Whatever. Now I've seen everything.

T-shirts - most of them lame except this one: "If you see da' police: Warn a Brother!" I started crying in a meeting this week when I thought about this shirt. In hind sight, I wish I bought one.

The Dells is pretty hard core is what I'm trying to say. What's that? You don't think the Dells is weird enough for you?

How about a gigantic Trojan Horse that you can go-cart through? Hmmm. Odd.

Or how about a replica of the White House upside down? Yeah, you can tour the inside and see the furniture on the ceiling.

The president's limo crashed into the side. Did aliens pick the White House up and drop it in the Dells?

Yeah...that's how messed up it is here. Its a place I could really settle down and retire. We had a great time with our friends. But seriously, how awesome is a huge indoor water park in a freaky town? I'm so glad I married a woman who loves adventures and we are friends who like to partay. What will our next winter adventure be???