The Carusos go to Colorado

On July 4th we headed to Colorado for 10 days. Our goal: to relax, take in a few sights, and catch up with old friends. We had a great time! Some trip highlights included a ride on the cog railway to the top of Pikes Peak (14,110 ft), the Coors Brewery tour, a day at the Denver Zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, lunch in downtown Denver, visiting Fort Collins and Pueblo, hanging out with friends, Miles' new haircut, and escaping the Seattle heatwave that struck while we were out of town.

Here's a little bit of our trip:

Sightseeing in Colorado

The Denver Zoo

Friends in Colorado

A quick get-away to Lopez Island

A couple days after school got out, several gals from work--Carrie, Sarah, Anna, Sheri, and I--were able to get away to Lopez Island for a little relaxation. We stayed at Carrie's family cabin. And although Miles and I were only there for one night, we sure had a great time. Plus, Miles got to take his first ride on a ferry!

The Caruso Family is off to Denver in a couple hours and will be gone for about 10 days. We're looking forward to some fun family time and will definitely have stories and photos to share when we get back.

We wish you all a fun and safe 4th of July!

A Day at the Zoo

A few pictures from our day at the Woodland Park Zoo. Miles especially loved the "sleeping roar" (known as a jaguar to the rest of us), elephants, gorillas, and penguins.

We're home!

As some of you know, we headed out last week to attend Phil and Tiffany's wedding in Virginia. We arrived home late last night (thanks again, Jes, for the ride from the airport!), got a few hours of sleep, and headed off to work and daycare today. We had a great time.

(Click on photos for a larger view.)

Look what Miles can do!

Miles turned 18 months on May 5. At his check-up he measured 32 inches tall (60th percentile) and weighed in at 23 pounds, 9 ounces (20th percentile). He's a bundle of energy and here are a few of our favorite (and not-so-favorite) things he has been doing lately:

• has moved up to a booster seat instead of a highchair
• clearly declares "all done" and raises his hands up in the air when he doesn't like something
• he tells people "bye-bye" after they've already left the room
• can identify stars, circles, and various barnyard animals
• he LOVES to read books
• helps buckle his car seat
• he helps feed Basie by carrying the cup of food over to the bowl and dumping it in...mostly
• pretends to smell his feet and says "Eewww, Yuck!" when we take off his shoes
• he loves to watch his Wiggles DVD while standing about 4 inches away from the screen and rocks out in his car seat when we play his Wiggles cd
• tells us when he wants to go upstairs, downstairs, and outside
• can walk up and down the stairs while holding a hand for help
• points out EVERY balloon he sees and says "That's a balloon." (It actually sounds a lot like "ats a boon"....not to be mistaken for "ats a poon" which means "That's a spoon.")
• can point out his ear, nose, hair, hand, foot, eyes, mouth, and tummy
• he likes to play with the basketball and calls any round object a ball
• loves fruit, pickles, macaroni & cheese, popcorn, and anything sweet
• goes crazy for bananas
• likes to walk up to Basie and say "Hi, Doggy!"
• claims things as his own by saying "MINE"
• LOVES to climb, especially in and out of chairs...over and over again
• likes to go down the slide at the park and squeals "weeee" when we push him in the swing
• he knows the DVDs go in the player and tries to put them in on his own
• has been known to stuff remotes, toys, and/or his hand in the VCR

Mostly he keeps us on the run and laughing. And every day we are amazed and entertained by his developing sense of independence and growing vocabulary. This parenting thing has turned out to be pretty fun.