Dylan's First Hike

On July 3rd, grandma's 60th birthday, we took Dylan on his first hike. Grandma and Grandpa came with us. Normally, people walk when they go on hikes, but Dylan turned it into a run. We had a hard time keeping up with him. We brought the backpack to put him in if he got tired, but he only went in it for 10 minutes (and he went in kicking and screaming).

At the top of the mountain we tried to get a family picture. Dylan doesn't enjoy having his picture taken these days.

On the way down we had to hold onto Dylan's hand because he wanted to run down and he would have done quite a few face plants on the rocks and roots sticking out of the ground. He also liked to slide on his bottom to get down. I will rethink putting him in khaki shorts for our next hike.

At the bottom of the trail was a river. The water was pretty cold, but Dylan still enjoyed dipping his toes.

Golfing Season Is Back!

Golfing season has arrived for the Schmits' and Dylan couldn't be more excited. He loves going to the driving range to hit balls. Papa gave him a set of real clubs when he was only four days old.


We finally broke out the clubs and Dylan is very excited to have his own real set. He prefers irons (like his dad) and he enjoys putting. The clubs are still a little too heavy for him, but he doesn't let that stop him from "crushing it."


Dylan normally hates to wear hats, but he had to wear the Mickey Mouse hat from Gramps while he was hitting balls.

Dylan would be happy to spend a few hours at the range hitting a bucket of balls by himself. The other day we ran out of balls about 40 minutes after we arrived but luckily Dylan isn't a long distance hitter yet so we reused some of his shots and we were able to stay longer.

Easter 2009

We had a great time celebrating Easter! On Friday we colored Easter eggs. Dylan didn't like to use the egg holder to put the egg in and out of the colors so his hands looked blue by the end of it. However, we discovered that his favorite part of Easter eggs is cracking and eating them.

On Saturday we went with our friends the Hatchs' to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was just a roped off area with a bunch of eggs in it.


Dylan was a little tentative but he soon figured out that there was candy inside and he should collect as many as possible. There was also an Easter bunny there giving out treats to the kids. I was interested to see how Dylan would react because last year he balled his eyes out when he saw the Easter bunny. This year he was very intrigued and he enjoyed being around the Easter bunny. He was a big fan of the bubbles she was giving out.


On Sunday, we went to church and then we headed down to Nana and Papas'. The entire Willett and Kemppainen clan were there too. Nana and Papa colored eggs to use in an Easter egg hunt for Dylan. Papa and I hid them around the family room and Dylan enjoyed finding them and cracking them. After a few broken eggs we quickly picked up the real eggs and Aunt Lizzy put out plastic eggs with jelly beans in them. He LOVED the jelly beans and all night he kept asking for "beans".

After dinner we pulled out some playdoh that Dylan got from the Easter bunny. It was hilarious to see Dylan using the playdoh to make a mustache so he could look like Papa.


Later Dylan enjoyed a special bunny cake that Nana made for him.

Dylan's Birthday Part 3 - Playdate with Friends

Dylan also had a small playdate with some friends at our house. It was a beautiful day and we played upstairs for a while, but soon we headed outdoors to play with bubbles and all of our fun outdoor toys. We had pizza and Dylan was excited that he got to have another Elmo cupcake. We are really thankful for our friends and we were glad they could celebrate Dylan's birthday with us!!

Dylan's 2nd Birthday Part 2 - Family Party

On Sunday, April 5th, we celebrated Dylan's birthday with our family. Everyone gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's house and we had a great evening. We had tacos for dinner and Elmo cupcakes for dessert. For a few weeks we have been telling Dylan that his birthday was coming up and he will be turning 2. The only thing he cared about was that he was going to get cake, sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out his candles. He definitely wasn't as messy with his cake as he was on his first birthday, but he loved singing happy birthday and blowing out his candles.



He also enjoyed opening his presents. After he unwrapped a gift he would say, "open it". Anyone that has kids knows how hard it can be to open some of the packaging that the toys come in. He was so spoiled by everyone that we were able to distract him by unwrapping another gift while we took the last gift out of its package. It was a wonderful day!

Dylan's 2nd Birthday Part 1 - Children's Musuem

We took Dylan to the Seattle Childrens Musuem for his 2nd birthday. They had a special exhibit on Curious George and Dylan loves reading Curious George books. We all had a great time. There are some many things to do at there. Dylan drove a fire truck, Metro bus, he went shopping, played in water and tunnels, made a painting and so much more. I think he could have run around the musuem all day. It was a great day and we were so excited to be celebrating the life of our wonderful little boy!

Jeff and Tracy's wedding

Jeff and Tracy's wedding was amazing!! It was so fun to be a part of their special day. Dylan looked so handsome in his tux. He had a little meltdown right before we walked down the aisle because he didn't want to put on his jacket. He was supposed to walk down the aisle with Jacob, the other ring bearer, but he ended up walking down with me and Bryan. It worked out fine and we had a great day! We are so excited for Jeff and Tracy and we love that she is now a WILLETT! Dylan really loved all of the out of town guests. He was especially fond of Justin and they had a lot of fun together. I love our extended family!