Great Family & Great Friends

The older I get the more I realize the importance of great family and friends. This past week was a great reminder of that for me. The work week was pretty normal, both Mom & Dad put in hard hours at their jobs, but they never ran out of energy for me. Not sure if you have heard or not, but babies are hard, demanding work. They say you never get to rest when you are watching a baby, but I don't believe that because I am a baby and I rest all the time.
This was a great week because my cousin Sam (who is the closest in age to me in the house) and I got to play all afternoon one day. I even let him sneak into my stroller for a little walk. Mommy & Daddy's friend John let us use his house that came with access to a fantastic lakeside park. I set up my peapod tent and took a nap so close to the water that the waves got me wet a couple times. Dad left at the end of the week to go to Uncle Roy's bachelor party, which freed up some of my time at home (normally Dad hogs me and only lets someone else hold me when I'm less than happy). So while Dad was out of town I got to play cards with Uncle Burke, hang out with Aunt Jennifer while Mom worked on Saturday, go for a boat ride in the pool with Sammy and get some great 1-on-1 time with Mom. I also had my first paid babysitter on Sunday. Erin works for Dad at Slidewaters and the first time I met her we hit it off immediately. Erin and I hung out for almost 7 hours on Sunday--we just did a bunch of girl stuff.
Mom & Dad said I have to report a couple of other things about me in this blog. My giggles are growing by the day and becoming increasingly cute Mom says. Dad is happy that I am starting to be able to help hold my own bottle and everyone thinks I'm on the verge of rolling over. Honestly, it is a little overwhelming knowing the expectations everyone has for me.

Cousin Lucy is teaching me to hold my own bottle. I think I'm getting the hang of it. I like to look to her for confirmation on my technique.

Nothing beats a nap at the beach. Actually nothing beats a nap anywhere.

Cousin Sam likes to hitch rides with me in my stroller.

This is my friend Erin. We met at Slidewaters and now we hang out sometimes when both Mom & Dad have to work.

Hot, but not Tucson hot.

It was a hot week in Chelan, and it is supposed to stay hot for another couple of weeks. We hit triple digits a couple times last week and will again before the end of the month. I was talking with my cousins Camden and Ashton last week and they told me that 100 degrees is nothing, and that it was a 110 degrees in Tucson! Hopefully they are finding ways to cool off. To keep cool here I went swimming with Mom & Dad. It was a salt water pool in the neighborhood and was the perfect temperature. Dad says our friends J & Auna have a warm salt water pool in Tucson that we can use if we are nice to them. I told him I could be nice to anybody if it meant I could use their pool.

GP & Bitz came to visit at the end of the week. GP is funny and makes me smile. I even got my first alone time with them when both Mom & Dad were off at work Friday afternoon. And then Friday night GP, Bitz and I watched Lucy, Mia, Charlie & Sam so Burke, Jen, Mom & Dad could go out to dinner.

Mom's working more hours at Starbucks now that she has finished her training. She is gone some mornings when I get up and Dad gets to feed me, but I've been trying to help everyone out by sleeping in later. I made it past 9 oclock last week. Mom & Dad thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I told them now that I'm not the youngest in the family anymore I needed to be a role model to Ashton.

Nothing like a good day at the pool!

Finally a worthy opponent for a staring contest. The matching outfits was an accident.

Life really is this good. Mom says my smiles keeping getting bigger and that I am starting to laugh. With all of Dad's awesome jokes I've been laughing on the inside for months.

A lot changes in 3 months.

Life is good!

We are finally starting to feel settled in Chelan. It took a while because I had a lot of visitors and road trips in June, but now things are becoming a little more routine. I'm loving life right now. I get to play with my cousins a lot and Mom and Aunt Jen have worked out a great system of sharing me in the morning so that we can all be the most productive. Then when Dad gets home I get some good time with him too (I usually have to be pretty patient because Dad's tired from work and needs to rest a little before we can play). In my normal routine week I did have a couple highlights. I went to listen to Ice Age 3 with the entire household (Mom was great at comforting me during the scary parts). Daddy and I had a great day on Saturday while mom was working. Sunday was rougher, Dad couldn't keep up. I could tell he was dragging. He doesn't seem to be as durable as mom. Mom and Dad taught me how to play the card game Nertz (Mom and I rock at Nertz and are thinking of starting a league).

But the best part of the week started on Wednesday. I found out in the morning that one of Daddy's best friends had a brand new baby. Josiah William Allen. Congratulations Joe & Heidi! And then to make the day even better, Uncle Adam, Aunt Melissa and Cousin Camden welcomed my newest cousin to this world. Ashton Guz Odell. He joined us 4 weeks early and was only 5 pounds 3 ounces! I love having friends smaller than me!! What a great day! Then on Sunday I told Mom and Dad we should Skype everyone in Tucson so we could see Cousin Camden and Cousin Ashton. My first video skype call went great. I saw Bop, Noni, Uncle Matt & Aunt Karey-Ann, Uncle Adam, Aunt Mel, Cousin Camden (he was little camera shy), Baby Ashton, Grandma Ruby and even Junie-B and Dakota.

Does Dad ever wear a shirt?

Dad is a sore loser at Nertz. GP says that after any game is over you shouldn't be able to tell if you won or lost through your actions.

Mommy and Daddy thought I was small, Cousin Ashton was less than 5 pounds for a couple days! With Grandma Ruby in the background of that computer we cover four generations!

Great start to July!

We've had a great start to the month of July. Last Monday was Mom's first day of work at Starbucks, so I stayed home with my roommates. We had a blast. Then on Wednesday when Mom went back to work, I went to work with Dad, which was awesome. I went to my first lifeguard safety meeting, helped welcome people to the park, and we even did a little paperwork in the office--followed by naptime of course. Dad said I was a great helper and that in August I could do some guarding at the park. On Friday, I went swimming with Dad in the lake. It was too cold for Mom, so she took some pictures from the shore-I'm starting to see a pattern with mom and temperatures. Then on the Fourth of July I got to hang out with Dad during the day and after the barbeque we went out on the boat to watch the fireworks. We had 14 people in the boat, most of them kids, I couldn't have asked for a better Fourth of July. Now as I type this out I'm listening (I'm still not allowed to watch TV) to the Wimbledon Final on the Tivo. What a great match. Congratulation Fed on your 15th grand slam!

I'm learning that sometimes the things you want the most are just out of your reach.

Dad seems determined to make sure I love water as much as he does.

Thanks to Mom and Aunt Biza (thanks for the top) I won the contest for cutest Fourth of July outfit. Dad says it wasn't even close.

We watched the fireworks from the boat, we had a great view because we were only a couple hundred yards from where they were being launched. It was a pretty spectacular sight, hundreds of boats gathered around the barge to watch incredible fireworks. God Bless America.

Love to all,

Reese Bronson