HANK TURNS ONE: Toys, Friends, Cake, Bath, Tylenol, Bed

We did it! Our baby made it to toddler-hood! Henry celebrated an enormous milestone this week as he turned one year old. The import of this event was, of course, completely lost on him, but we all enjoyed celebrating nonetheless. We had a big party over at Grandmom and Granddad Pickle's house, and Henry received a tricycle, car, play table, and a bunch of fantastic t-shirts. He also covered himself in cake and drove himself into a near-psychotic state with the sugar contained therein. He needs to experiment a little more with sugar to find his limit. As you can imagine, he was an absolute pleasure once he started coming down from the sugar high.

Thanks to everyone who helped with or attended the party, and to everyone who has given us support over the last year. We love you all and couldn't have done it without you.

Also below, see a few pics of the Barack Obama rally, dinner with the Koranskys, and our trip to see the (almost) imploded Intel building. (Awesome job, City of Austin!)







































Wow!




Grandmom Looks on


Henry really lost it when we tried to take away the cake...Ok, a few more bites.


Washing away the sins of the day…

Henry Almost is Eaten by Mountain Lion

Ok, well not really. David, Ben, Eli and Henry went to the zoo in Waco. We went to visit the Martin Rider's this past weekend. We had a great time - our last visit before el bambino #2 comes along (for Dave and Jen, not us!!). The zoo was a huge success. Henry loves the fish especially. Henry's been to like 3 or 4 zoos before, but this was the first time he really got into it. The best thing about having kids is seeing that sense of awe in their faces. It's such pure excitement.

We also met up with Grandmom and Granddad Burdett and Great-grandmom Hunter on the way back to town.

Mom and Dad get away

For the first time, Ben and I went on vacation without Henry. It was a lot harder than we expected and we missed him a lot. But, it was fun to stay up late, er, well actually, we couldn't even do that.. But, it was nice to indulge a bit. We went to an all-inclusive resort on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico just south of Cancun. Our pics are on our family website at pickleinfo.com. Henry stayed with both sets of grandparents as well as Lori, Jeremiah and Holly. We just missed Austin's ice storm by hours on either side of our flights. Henry got to see snow for the first time. Here are some pics from his stay over there. Plus a cartoon that Aunt Lori made revealing the true adventures while Mom and Dad were away (They had a little cabin fever I think).

Last weekend we took Henry on the Zilker train for the first time. He loved it! But, he looked a little dazed afterwards, kind of like "i've seen some stuff, man!" It was pretty funny. Pics below..