Picnics, boat rides, and playtime!!!

This past Sunday we attended the annual picnic at our church. We had a lot of fun at the park, and we got to watch people getting baptized in the lake. Pretty awesome! Daddy tried to do Brooks' hair for the event...needless to say, mommy had to tame things down!

Monday night, Brooks went on his first boat ride. We went with our neighbors Gina and Tim who have become very close friends of ours. Their two boys, Brendan and Nathan, and Brooks had a lot of fun! Watching the Michigan sunsent was absolutely beautiful!!

We went over to Sherry and Chris' house last Friday for a barbeque. Their kids loved playing with Brooks! Wonderful food...wonderful company

Daddy recently bought Brooks a map of the world puzzle to lay on the floor. He loves taking it apart and chewing on the pieces:)

Daddy changing dirty diapers...

This morning, Brooks and I went to our first Gymboree class with my friend Christina and her little nine month old, Ana. As you can see, Brooks and Ana liked eachother a lot. This is the first girl that Brooks has held hands with....they grow up so fast!!!!!

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First trip to the Zoo

This past weekend, we took Brooks to the Detroit Zoo for the first time. It was a beautiful day, and we all had a great time. When he saw an animal that he really liked, he would flap his arms and squeal. The Rhino got the award this trip for loundest squeal from the nine month old. Brooks also really liked the Peacock that was freely walking around. By mid-afternoon, he was tuckered out and it was time to retire to a late afternoon nap.

Another highlight of the week was going to the Henry Ford Museum. We went with one of my friends and her two little kids. They are 3 and 5, and had so much fun playing in the trains, building toy cars, riding the Ford Model T, riding the carousel, and playing with Lincoln logs. Of course, Brooks couldn't participate in ALL of these things of course. But he did ride in the Model T, rode his first carousel, went in the trains, and sat in the bus that Nora Parks is famous for. More firsts to add to our list...

Brooks and the kids sitting in an old train in the Engineer's seat

Brooks enjoying the museum

Mommy and Brooks posing by the horses

The whole crew riding a Model T

Our first carousel ride...he was a little nervous at first, but once he got going there was quite a bit more squealing:)

And, finally, for Shrampa's sake, we had to ride a Rooster....we could hear his phone ringing the whole ride:)

Many more firsts to come.......

Our (almost) nine month old Cardinal!

A lot has changed in the Blankenship household since I last posted. As you can see, our precious little boy been growing...and growing...and growing. Daddy could not have been any happier when Brooks got a package in the mail from Shrampa (Hall) recently that had this Cardinals shirt and hat in it. When Adam opened the package, you would have lot we won the lottery!

Over the week of Memorial day, Adam and I took our first trip without the baby. We went to St. Thomas in the Carribean and had a wonderful time. Knowing the Great Grandma Blankenship and Grammy were back home taking care of Brooks for the week helped us to enjoy ourselves even more. Thank you SOOOOOO much for taking such good care of Brooks. He misses you both every single day! When we returned home, we didn't get to our house until about 1 am. Grammy and Brooks were sleeping, but the signs and balloons below (and of course the NIPS) were waiting for us. This was such a sweet idea!

The balloons were in the shape of flip-flops:)


This pic was taken at breakfast the morning after we returned. Brooks was so happy to see Daddy! (And, Mommy too of course)

Adam brought Brooks back a plastic pirate ship for bath time. He loves it...especially chewing on the pirate's hat!



All the pics below were of our trip...







Deep thoughts...by Adam Blankenship (while eating at a restaurant on the beach).

Below is the baths at Virgin Gourda. Adam chartered us a boat one day to take us around wherever we wanted to go. We went to St. John, Tortola, and the Virgin Gourda. It was amazing!

Again, thank you so much to Grammy and Great Grandma for watching Brooks. Although it was very hard to be away from him, knowing you were there made things better. And, thank you for the videos that you took every day while we were gone. That way, we truly didn't miss a day. We love you and will forever be grateful!

We've been home now for about a week and a half, and we can't believe how much Brooks is changing. He is such a smiley baby! As you can see below, he definitely knows how to cheese it up:)

The next two were at Man and the Hat (the Japanese Restaurant where they cook the food in front of you). Brooks thought that was pretty neat!

He started crawling just two days ago on Sunday. He only took a few real "crawls", but he definitely pulls himself all over the room. Sunday was a busy day...that's the day we noticed that he was getting his first tooth...finally.

He loves to help mommy with the laundry...

As you can see, we are enjoying every single day of watching Brooks grow. He has such a sweet little personality, and it is so much fun to watch him learn new things. He started saying Da Da when he sees Adam, and he definitely seems to know where mommy is...not to mention Shocker and Tiger. From his head to his feet (below), our son is a daily blessing in our lives up here in Michigan!!!