I can't bealieve it has been so long since I updated this site.  Thanks for the reminders, Mom and Judy :)

 

We just got back in town from a great trip to Idaho.  It was great timing because construction of our home addition had started a couple of weeks before.  We are adding two bedrooms and a bathroom so we can bring Tate upstairs and keep our guest room if we ever have any other kids (which to be clear is not even on the horizon at this point :) See pictures of the progress...

 

So about our trip, first we went Twin Falls (by way of Baker City, Oregon for an overnight on the way) to see Tate's Great Papa Frazier!  We had such a nice time visiting and going to eat and most importantly Tate got to spend some time with his Great Papa who he loved and smiled and laughed with the whole time.

 

Then we headed up to Sun Valley for a week's vacation.  We were married in Sun Valley 3 years ago and love to go back there at least once a year and this was a really fun trip.  We were there alone for the first couple of nights and spent time with Scott's long time friend Julie.  She and Tate got along great and we had fun at a concert with her.  Then we were joined by friends Alysson, Reh and their 19 month old son, Larson.   They drove over from Seattle and stayed with us and we played tennis (the winner is yet undecided), ate out, went on walks, played in the water, went to see live music and even had a celebrity sighting - Mariel Hemmingway.  We probably would have seen more if we'd gone to the John Kerry book signing on Friday night but alas, we did not.  On Saturday Lisa joined us too and that was great.  We celebrated her birthday on an eventful Saturday night at the Pioneer Saloon.  Tate did really well on the trip - from the long car rides to sleeping lots of different rooms and places - he's a real trooper!

 

We actually ended up cutting the trip a day short, due in large part to the Castle Rock fire that started on Thursday when we were there.  It started small but by Saturday it was super smokey everywhere and by Sunday they were evacuating Warm Springs (which is probably less than two miles from our condo)  There was ash in the air and I was playing my role as neurotic mom and thought we should get Tate out of there.  It was really crazy and by the time we left was considered a "type 1" fire requiring an additonal 1000+ firefighters and the top tier incident response team from the national forest service.  It had burned 13000 acres as we were driving out of town last night.  Very scary and sad.

 

Prior to the Idaho trip Tate got to take two trips out to Mason Lake!  The first was with us and the next weekend when Scott and I went to Montana for good friend Julie Mavencamp's wedding, he went back out with Grandma Judy and Grandpapa.  That night he had his very first overnight trip to Grandma Judy's and it was the first time he spent the night without one of the two of us.  Turns out he had a great time and didn't seem ready to come home!

 

Tate is so much fun these days.  He is as happy and smiley as ever and loves learning new things like how to clap his hands!  He eats solid food twice a day now.  We try to get in some oatmeal, a vegetable and a fruit.  We've had beans, carrots, peas, squash, corn, apples, bananas, pears and prunes and he has liked everything (except for sweet potatoes for some reason but I don't really like those either so who can blame him...)  Also he seems to understand more and more things like when we say certain things he knows what it means like "where's Daddy?" and he looks around trying to find Scott.  When he finds him he gets so excited his smile is so big, he gasps and his arms and legs flail everywhere. 

 

I haven't taken a project for work since I returned from Denver and it's getting to the point where I need to - I'll be so sad to leave Tate for 2-3 days a week but it will be good for both of us I'm sure. 

 

Hope everyone is doing well!

 

~Dawn & Scott