11 months continued- CO trip

Landon reached the butter on the table, and decided to bathe in it...

At 11 months old, Landon loved to point at people. I think we figured out that Mariah would point to him and say "no" when he was doing something naughty, so he started doing it back to her. He also started reaching things standing up that we did not think he could reach. He figured out how to stand on our desk chair's legs in order to reach higher up on our desks in our room. Very crafty, Landon, very crafty. He discovered the wonders of fresh berries- particularly enjoying blueberries. Don't worry, he still adores grapes and cheese. Probably the biggest accomplishment of this month, however, was learning to drink from a sippy cup. Dun Dun DUH! No more bottles for us (not that he was drinking from a bottle very much anyway).

Landon LOVED the sea lion at the zoo... and his grandparents!

Family Chicago temple trip with Mariah

In the pool, Landon started dunking his face underwater on his own! He comes up with a smile on his face every time, but sometimes he slurps up water when he does this. He continues to paddle around and we are working on kicking. He attempts to blow bubbles, and has succeeded on accident. He is starting to get more adventurous with his taking steps without support, but mainly cruises around things, with an occasional step in between in order to bridge the gap between one thing and another.

Zoo fun!

Landon, Mariah, and I flew out to CO in the middle of the week to visit Austin's family prior to the Livengood family reunion. After the work week ended, Austin flew out to join us in visiting his family and participating in the crazy Livengood family reunion. Mariah, Landon, and Austin's parents Evelyn and Jim went to the Denver zoo. It was the first time I could really tell that Landon was enjoying himself, and could see some of the animals. It all started with the grizzly bear. He pointed at it, and made really cute loud "ooh" "ahh" noises while pointing at it. He also loved the sea lion. It was definitely his favorite. The sea lion was swimming laps around the pool and so Landon could predict when he was going to come right by the underwater window. He would get so happy and excited every time the sea lion swam by.

Landon loved the watermelon "balls"

My family at Sprague lake after a short hike from our cabin

After a fun weekend with the Browns, they drove us up to Estes Park, CO for our family reunion. It was my dad's dad's side of the family, and it was fun to spend time with my great-aunts and uncle and their families, as well as my aunts and cousins. Landon had MANY babysitters as he was the only baby and all the kids adored him. He was constantly entertained for the entire week. My brother hadn't seen him since November, so he had a great time bonding with him. We hiked a lot with Landon in the front pack, helped my parents make lots of good food for all 40 of us, played in the pool, and spent time with family. We went to the YMCA of the Rockies, and stayed in the big family reunion cabins that are at 8700 feet at the top of the YMCA, right next to Rocky Mountain National Park. We ventured into the park one day and hiked to a beautiful waterfall, we did archery at the archery range at the Y, and even played a few rounds of mini golf. Landon's favorite part were the golf balls for sure. The cabin we stayed in was the main cabin, and it is on the national registry of historic places. It was awesome, but had no insulation between floors, meaning that Landon had a hard time going to bed at his normal bedtime due to everyone being gathered/loud down below on the main floor. Landon ended up in our bed more often than not, where he pretended to be a hamster stealing our spots in bed and running into us in the middle of the night. He even fell off the head of the bed and scratched his nose, thus the nose scratches in later pictures!

In the middle of the river on a Rocky Mountain NP Hike

Landon took refuge in Uncle Greg's jacket during a rainstorm

The mountains=GORGEOUS

My grandpa Karl gave us a great little genealogy lesson about our forefather Livengoods one night. Another night, we had a family talent show. Several families participated, and my family sang a verse and chorus of "YMCA". Austin didn't want to participate fully, so he crouched behind us while we sang the verse, then popped out for the chorus like a giant mascot. There were some funny, witty skits and songs and it definitely cemented the fact that my family is SUPER quirky, but fun. Later on, my aunt told ghost stories around a roaring fire in the fireplace. In this old creepy cabin, it really had an impact.

My favorite part of the reunion besides being with family was probably the views from Mountainside Lodge. It was gorgeous at sunrise, during the day, and at sunset. Although it rained and stormed a few of the days, it was still such a great retreat to be up away from everything in nature with family.

After a fun-filled week, we said goodbye to my family and came back down to Arvada to spend more time with Austin's family. Emily, Austin's sister was in town and so Landon got to hang out with her more. The Browns also hosted a BBQ for family and friends so everyone could see us before we returned to Chicago. It was great to see everyone and I think the coolest part was Landon got to play/beat up on his younger cousins. Austin's cousins' children are 1 week and 4 months younger than Landon and I think they all somewhat resemble each other. They played in the kiddy pool and crawled around and sat on the blanket.

And then once upon a time there was a photo dump, because I can't choose which pictures of Landon to post.