She's 4 Months!!!!

It is absolutely amazing how fast they grow! We had our four month doctor appointment today. She is 23 3/4 inches long and she weighs 13 pounds and 9 ounces. She is doing great! And of course all the nurses and the doctor think that she is such a beautiful girl and they certainly love her eyes. Of course she got 4 shots today, so she wasn't too happy.

She is doing so much! She loves to smile and laugh (have you noticed her dimples?). She never cries unless she is hungry, wet, or extremely tired. She is chewing on everything. Her favorite things to chew on are anything cloth and her fingers. She wants to stand and sit up (though she can't do it herself yet). We will be starting her on rice cereal here soon. Can't wait for that! Hopefully we will get a video of it and post it! Her rolling over has gotten much better than when she was 27 days old. She is rolling over both ways!

We will keep posting to keep you up to speed on her development!

New Zealand Outfit!

Brianna is finally big enough to fit into her special outfit sent to us by Aunt Jill and Uncle Josh in New Zealand!



She was all smiles this morning as we dressed her in these bright and colorful shirt and pants.



Thank you for my outfit Aunt Jill and Uncle Josh!! - Brianna

Weekend Trip to Santa Fe

Rachael and I were commenting the other day about how blessed we have been this year to be able to travel so much. Especially since we have been able to bring our baby daughter along with us on these trips. Our weekends have been very busy this month, but it has been amazing to see so many awesome places and enjoy all of them with Brianna. However, it is a bit of a shame that she won't remember these trips because she is so young, but I guess that gives us an excuse to go back again with our whole family when the kids are older. :-)

This past weekend we took a trip to Santa Fe, NM to stay at the Inn and Spa at Loretto, one of the sister properties of the hotel that Rachael works for. Her team will be taking overflow reservations for this resort, so we were invited to experience a stay at the hotel and eat at the lovely new outdoor restaurant. We also took the chance to do some site-seeing Sunday afternoon around the historic city of Santa Fe.

Above is the spiral stairway at the Loretto Chapel. No one knows how the stairway was built, they even brought several master carpenters and none were able to reproduce the unique craftmenship of this stairway or determine what kind of wood was used to build it. The handrail and small metal support (between the stair and the pillar) were added later for safety, but the original stairway was crafted as a completely free-standing spiral up to the choir balcony.

Also in Santa Fe is the oldest Christian church in the United States. This adobe style structure was built on Native American holy ground and originally had dirt floors and stone steps up to the alter.

Nearby the oldest church is the oldest house in the United States. The doorways are rather small and you can still see the straw mixed into the adobe walls of the outside of the building.

More Mt. Rushmore Pics

The new granite archways and paved walkway out to the viewing area

Smile :-D

Looking up at Washington and Lincoln from a small cave along Presidents Trail.



A closer view of the Presidents.

More Devil's Tower Pics

The trailer parked at the campground just outside Devil's Tower.

Along the trail around the tower.

Justin doing some rock climbing :-)

Sunset over the tower coming back from Mt. Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial

Being within a few driving hours of Mt. Rushmore, we decided to go up to South Dakota to visit this National Memorial as well. Roy and Martha made several comments about how much had changed since they were there last. There is now a beautiful paved walkway out to the amphitheater with large polished granite archways and pillars (shown in the picture above) with flags from all 50 states labeled with the date each one became a state. They also have gift shops, dining, a museum, sculpting and artwork buildings, and the Presidential Trail with awesome views of the faces and Native American tee pees where they would reenact historical activities.

Devil's Tower National Monument

We finally made it to the tower later that afternoon. The views driving along the highway were incredible. This was the first time I had been here since my family visited in 1982 (which I obviously didn't remember). This is truly a spectacular natural wonder! (More pictures will be coming as these are just the cell phone snapshots while we were traveling)

Lunch at Penny's Diner

Rachael and I drove separately up to Wyoming and ended up missing the truck and camper turning off at Douglas for lunch. We had already gone several miles down Highway 59 before we got the phone call from Roy and Martha, so we decided to continue on down the road and eat lunch on our own. We stopped in at this small diner in the town of Bill, Wyoming. It was great food and it's always fun to chat with the locals... of course Brianna was a hit and the center of attention.

Poppy's New Toy

Roy (a.k.a. Poppy) and Grandma bought a NICE new camper trailer. They wanted to try it out, so they invited us to go with them up to Devils Tower, WY. This National Monument holds special meaning for them as it was the first place they went with their daughters when they had their first camper trailer way back when. This time they got to bring both their daughters AND granddaughters with them.

Sitting and Standing

Brianna is still building up her back muscles so she can sit up and stand. Right now she can sit up in her boppy and also stand for short periods of time with her hands against a surface.

Her little legs are so chubby, you can tell she is building great muscle tone. She loves stretching out her legs and will usually have a great big dimple-smile on her face when she is standing up.

Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jim

Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jim came out to visit last week and went on a trip with my parents to Silverton, Mesa Verde and Santa Fe

After they got back to my parent's house from their travels, Rachael and I stopped by for an excellent south-west style dinner and introduced them to baby Bri.

We had a wonderful evening spending time talking and laughing while sharing pictures of their vacation.

4th of July - Hiking and Fireworks

That afternoon we all decided to take a hike along the river in Fraiser

Here's me moving a fallen tree out of the trail (just fooling around!)

There was this very real looking statue of Stevo along the trail pointing the way west :-)

After getting back to Stefan's condo, we ate dinner and then went outside to watch fireworks. Brianna was awake for a few of the small fountains that Stefan had bought. Later, after it got dark and Rachael took her inside to sleep, we watched the big fireworks show.

4th of July - Hang'n out at Stefan's

Stefan Schreiber, the host of the 4th of July party

(From left to right) Stefan's uncle John petting Angel, their dog, Stefan's mom holding Brianna, and Rachael

Brianna tried wearing a hat, but found it to be way too big :-)



Stevo, Whitney, and Rachael after dinner