Mavis's First Birthday Par-tay!!!

This past weekend, Mavis had a few friends over for a really hot pool party & some good cake made by her daddy of course. Here Mavis checks out the cake. On her actual birthday, she was offered a piece, but refused to even try it. We wondered if she'd try it at the party... 

Fun Aimee gives Mavis a second taste of the good stuff. 

Daddy made Mavis a cake that looks like one of her favorite things, Mom's alarm clock, with the time at which she was born. That's a.m. 

Mavis gets her first taste of cake. She was hesitant at first, then after the first taste, she totally latched on & started sucking. Chocolate is good. 

Daddy & his Mini Me birthday girl. 

I want more cake!!! SUGAR!!! 

Mmmmm, daddy makes good cake. 

The big one-year old girl opens some of her presents. 

Take me back to Tulsa

In early July, before her big trip to Idaho, Mavis' Grandma & Grandpa Mike came down to visit. They were hanging out on the couch, considering how crazy her dog is. Mavis had a good time. 

 

We're off to Idaho, and Washington, Montana & Oregon!

Mavis, welcome to Hayden Lake. We headed to northern Idaho to meet up w/mom's family at a wonderful cabin on the lake. Mavis had fun re-meeting all the aunties, uncles & cousins on that side of the fam, & they were all determined they could teach her to crawl. (we're still waiting on that)

This was Mavy's first experience swimming in anything but a swimming pool. She was a bit nervous at first, but came to really like it & kicked her feet all around underwather. 

Mavis was not too sure about this life jacket business. I can't blame her, as she looks rather like a stuffed sausage here. The weather was perfect, in the high 90s during the day, the lake was probably around 80, & 60s at night. It was a divine relief from Austin's summer.

She looks like she's hanging on for dear life, doesn't she? Thanks to Aunt Kathy for the floatie.

Mavis & daddy swimming in Hayden Lake. Uncle Jim is hovering in the background. Mavis really did like swimming in the lake, although at times, as you can see, she was a bit nervous. 

At times it was a bit much for her.

Cousin Grace introduces Mavis to the wonderful world of watermelon. Mavis liked it, but Grace got concerned when Mavis tried to eat the rind. All week long, Grace informed everyone that she was "in charge of Mavis". 

This is about half of mom's extended family who gathered in Idaho for our get together. Cousins in the foreground. They came from Washington, Idaho, Alaska & Utah. And us, from Texas. 

Mavis doesn't like her daddy laughing at her. 

Mavis watches with excitement? trepidation? as a gecko walks between her & daddy. 

While we were in Idaho, we went on the Hiawatha Trail (www.skilookout.com/hiaw), which is an old train track through the mountains in Idaho (& a little bit of Montana) that has been converted into a bike trail. It was beautiful & fun & 15 miles downhill! We rode through/over 10 tunnels & 7 trestles. This picture is at the trailhead, which starts through a tunnel that is 1.8 miles long! We had lights on the bikes, & Mavis rode in a trailer behind mom. We paused here just before entering, to gather our courage. 

We made it through! As you can see, I had to put on my sweater for the ride, it was COLD inside the tunnel. Inside the mountain. You can barely see the sign on the left lower corner where it shows the length of 8000+ feet. It was fun. And scary. 

Mavis is very proud, after having ridden through the long dark tunnel, how very quickly she was able to dump out her bag of O's (cheerios), as you can see in this photo. She seemed to enjoy riding in the trailer. It has a screen that is zipped down, then for the tunnels, a pastic cover so she didn't get mud splashed up on her. 

Emerging from one of the tunnels, we got a view of a trestle bridge in the distance that we'd soon be riding over. The scenery wasnt' too shabby either. 

Peering over the edge of the trestle bridge, it was hard to get too close to the edge. We rode over 6-7 of these, some a couple hundred feet high, one was over 900 feet high. It was pretty cool, & not as hard (I mean scary) as expected.