HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, JACK!!!!

50 Cent's (pronounced 'Fiddy Sent') lyric, "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" may have a lot more meaning to you after seeing this picture. Jack turned one on Wednesday the 23rd. Incredible! John and I are in shock at how quickly the last year passed. One day we're picking out cribs and carseats. The next day we're playing rock-paper-scissors to see who has to change a blowout diaper. The stuff in between is just a blur. But a good blur. Jack has been the greatest joy to us. We are amazed daily at our love for him and how cool, funny, adorable, sweet, feisty, and wonderful he is. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us and so many others with our son. We're undeserving but eternally grateful!

Jack celebrated his birthday with family and friends. On Saturday, he had a party at Berkeley Hall with a lot of his StrollerFit friends and a few others. My parents were able to make it, along with my brother, Matt, and sister-in-law, Melissa. Jordan, Jackie and Trevor came, too. It was so much fun! The room was packed full of little children, crawling, walking and lying around. There was a lot of sippy cup sharing going on which probably accounts for half of our StrollerFit class being sick right now. Oops. Sorry guys! Jack got so many awesome presents. Thank you everyone. Some of his favorites are his red wagon and his John Deere hayride. He obviously enjoyed the cake experience. Well...we actually enjoyed it more than he did. Jack never took a bite of the cake. He just played in it. He played so hard, in fact, that John had to take him to the showers mid-party to clean up. The coloring came out, but it took several baths to get the grease out of his hair. Jack not only discovered icing that weekend, but he discovered his nose and booger eating as well. It was a birthday present to himself.

On Jack's actual birthday, we went to Gigi and Papa Johnny's house for supper and another party! They were unable to make it to Jack's Saturday party because of moving Jeffrey to college. After dinner, Jack had his 2nd cake experience, which was thankfully mild compared to the first. Several of their family friends came over to witness the event and to sing to him. It was so much fun and so nice of everyone to come! Thank you!

Jack's birthday events were a lot of fun and a lot of excitement. We look forward to many more parties! We just dread how quickly they'll get here:( Here are some pictures from the festivities:

Much

Thanks for hanging us with us, faithful readers! Finally the Blogger site has allowed me to post pictures again! WHOO HOO!!! A lot has happened since our last blog. Here are some pictures to show what all we've done. The explanations will match with the pictures working from top to bottom, left to right. Which is always the case, right?

1. These are some of my college roomies who came to visit while John was on his trip! From L->R starting at the top row is Erin Hall, Erin Coltrane, Amanda Mestler, and Megan Clarke. On the bottom row is Melissa Beahm and Jack and me. The girls were kind enough to come down Friday through Sunday, and we had a blast! Saturday we were all able to go to the beach and get sunburned:):):):) This picture was taken at Truffles, which is the restaurant of choice when they come.

2. I woke up Sunday morning while the girls were here to find that Jack had discovered how to take his pants off. This is exactly how I found him that morning. The blue pile in the floor is his pants.

3. Jack finds a way to immediately get disgusting again just as we finish bathing him.

4. Jack aboard the Dolphin Head Shuttle at his friend, Emma's, birthday party. There's a park here right on the Port Royal sound that has such beautiful scenery (and bucket swings).

5. We discovered that Jack loves to swing! The other day he stayed put in one for over an hour without whimpering. For those of you with children, I don't have to explain why that's a miracle.

6. Week before last, we had a Hilton Head vacation with the Ussery family. All members were present for several days of activity. We beached, golfed, cooked, cleaned, laughed, played and uh...tennised? It was a lot of fun. Jack was surely the center of attention. John and I had to break him of his "I get held every time I whimper" routine once we came back home. Here, Jordan is leaning in for a Jack kiss while Jeffrey's holding him. This was a good chance to hang out with Jeff. He left for Georgia Tech last weekend. We miss you, Jeffrey!!!

7. This picture was taken at Sante Fe Cafe. Jackie, Jordan and Gigi took turns playing with a cranky Jack so John and I could finish our dinner. THANK YOU!!!! We were definitely spoiled having so many extra sets of hands.

8. Jack getting a bath in the sink. He enjoyed turning the water off and on. How do you like his hair?

9. And speaking of hair....here's Jack's latest do. The Usserys have a closet full of fun dress up clothes. This wig seems to always make an appearance if I spend anymore than 5 minutes in their rec room. Jack was probably upset at his parents' performance in the family ping pong tournament. Seriously, Jackie crushed me. I was happy to just hit the ball at all. John did much better than I did, and he was still pretty bad. Congrats to Trevor on his victories!

10. Gigi introduced Jack to the piano. He finally warmed up to it and began banging the keys with his hands and feet. A real Mozart. Gigi and Jordan played a duet of "God Bless America" which was great. We were impressed!

11. Another funny bath picture.

12. Trevor and Jeffrey playing in the sand with Jack. He's so fortunate to have such cool uncles.

13. Storytime with Papa Johnny. Special, huh?

14. Jack supporting Georgia Tech and eating sand. You can always expect a little 'roughage' after a beach trip with Jack.

15. Jack and Shelby's usual Tuesday date to Sippin' Cow. I know I have 64 versions of this picture, but they're so cute, I can't help it.

We've had so much fun over the past few weeks. It's been a great ending to an incredible summer with family and friends. Thanks for the memories, everyone!!!

Technical Difficulties

Have no fear! We haven't forgotten to blog. We haven't stopped taking pictures of Jack. Nor have we suddenly decided to keep our lives private from all of our faithful blog readers. Nope. We're still the capturing Jack's life in every way possible. But for some reason....this DADGUM website won't let me post pictures. And what's a blog without pictures? It's sorry! That's what. Hang tight, readers. Hopefully we'll get the glitches worked out soon and you'll be able to view Jack in all of his ONE YEAR OLD glory! Today's Jack's First Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Altitude

Phil, John, & Chuck - male models, or just studs?

Phil & Chuck - the very definition of manliness

John (me) at 12,000 ft wishing the clouds would lift

Erin has requested that I post a blog referencing my recent mountaineering “expedition” in the French Alps. Having tapped into my somewhat shallow well of marital equity with this trip I’m going to do everything she asks to avoid any Harry Chapin “Cat’s in the Cradle” references. Brevity has never been my strong suit, so on the front end I offer my apologies for any excess verbiage.

The mountaineers (we use this term very loosely – so loose in-fact that it includes anyone who’s ever seen a mountain) in this adventure were Chuck Barrier, Philip Galbreath, and me. Our initial objective of summiting the Alps tallest peak, Mont Blanc, took us to Chamonix, France this past week. Aesthetically the town is as enchanting as the surrounding peaks are breathtaking. Functionally, it’s French. Body odor is a national sport, water costs more than beer, and fuzzy cheese seems to be the fungus of choice.

Our expectations collided with realty in short fashion. I believe Chuck put it very well when he calmly noted “each day is the scariest day in my life.” Ultimately we should probably chalk the “un-assent” of Mont Blanc up to an intense desire for self preservation as it has apparently taken more lives than any other mountain in the world (due in large part to the fact that it’s incredibly accessible for the novice climber). That said, we climbed, hiked, crawled, and ice axed our way through some of the most spectacular mountains in the world and we couldn’t be more proud.

Some brief highlights:

 Traversing the Valley Blanche – An enormous, crevasse laden glacier that marries the Italian and French sides of the mountain.
 Climbing the Arrete du Panne (or as Phil calls it, the “Arc of Pain) – an insanely dramatic 2 ft wide knife edge ridge with 1,000+ ft drop offs on either side in high wind and white-out conditions.
 Crossing crevasses and climbing the ice wall and ridge of the Petit Agi Verte and then getting back down in one piece.
 Eating pizza ¾ of the time… the other ¼ consisting of ham/cheese
 Lamenting the waste of our high school and college French classes as we found ourselves simply using French accents with English words.