Wow, can it be—our once-small beamish boy Henry has been with us for a full decade and a half? Madness!
We’re so happy and lucky to have this charming chap in our lives. He spent part of his day exploring the rails (of course!), then returned for a feast featuring Chicago dogs, one of Mom’s famous KitKat-infused cakes, and some opening of presents. We put a bow on things with a spectacular sunset photo-walk with Seamus.
Here’s a little gallery of the goings-on.
inn Forgets Fifteen, Keeps Moving On Up!
We of course can’t quite believe it, but our big (as in, 6-foot-plus) guy continues his march up the charts of age & height, marking a full sixteen trips around the sun.
We’re so happy & grateful to have this funny, wry, driven, studious, self-starting hockey lover in our home, and we’re excited (if a little scared!) that he’ll soon be behind the wheel, squiring his brother (or similar-sized hockey bag) in the Miata.
Here’s a handful of shots from our recent Death Valley sojourn (more on that soon!), plus a little set showing him opening gifts. Highlights of the latter included a beautiful handmade beanie from Auntie Laura & some delicious Lou Malnati’s pies courtesy of Grandma & Grandpa Nack.
Happy birthday, Squire, and many happy returns!
[See also: Birthday posts from over the years.]
(…among those born in 2008, anyway!)
We are equal parts delighted & amazed to wish a very happy 14th (!!) birthday to our tall drink of water, aspiring DJ, and doodle-wrangler par excellence Mr. Finn Nack!
Ahead of his birthday, Finn let it be known that he’d like to expand upon his recent piano-learning forays by getting a little MIDI mixing device. He was chomping at the bit to order it himself, not knowing that Margot had pulled the trigger some days earlier—so it was all we could do to delay him until it arrived, as shown below. 😛
We planned to celebrate the birthday itself in pretty low-key fashion—but before we headed out to dinner, Seamus made things unexpectedly exciting by helping himself to a big chunk of the cake!
Thankfully the chocolate didn’t do him any lasting harm, and we enjoyed a lovely meal out at Palermo, followed by the opening of presents. Finn’s now in receipt of some great books and a puzzle from Grandma & Grandpa Nack, plus a root-beer-making kit from Auntie Laura & Uncle James. Check out some pics from the occasion.
As I noted a couple of weeks ago, the boys & I rang in Henry’s 12th birthday with some high-flying zipline adventures:
After we came home tired & happy, it was time to celebrate officially. Here’s a handful of shots, plus the total highlight of the day—Henry getting his great-great grandfather Liggett’s railroad watch! Check it out:
Amidst all the excitement of changing jobs, flying to Illinois, and more, I’ve been remiss in marking Finn’s thirteenth birthday. Happily we weren’t belated in celebrating the day, as you can see in our photo gallery from his big day.
Highlights included getting a pair of cute dog bookends that have been in Grandpa Liggett’s family for generations; scoring great new mystery stories (and Sherlock Holmes socks!); getting my old Cranium game from Galena; reeling in the big Lego police station that Henry had requested for his own birthday (but graciously deferred to Finn to get); and dining on a choco-tastic cake from Flower Flour—which was about the size & density of a manhole cover!
Happy B-Day, Finnster. We love you so much, and we can’t wait to see what adventures await.
Our big, bounding, curly boy has turned two!
“The days are long but the years are short,” and that applies to four-legged kids just as much as the two-legged kind. We can’t believe this lovable man has been on this planet for two years, and in our home for nearly that long. We couldn’t ask for a better quarantine buddy.
To celebrate we got him a smart-looking kerchief & party hat, plus a new chew toy he immediately put into play. Check out a little gallery of the good times.
How can it be a decade plus one since our crazy young amigo charged into the world (photos), trailing clouds of silliness & strong opinions? 😛 What a ride it’s been.
At the moment he’s off on a surprise mission with Auntie Laura, Finn, and Charlie to ride the glass gondola in Vail, and soon he’ll be back in Leadville to enjoy some cake & presents with the rest of us. Yesterday he & I spent hours exploring some abandoned railroad tracks just outside of town, picking up treasures (? 🙃) much as I did as a kid. Here are a few photos showing that outing, plus some late-night stargazing with our friends the Wiggii.
[Update: Check out some pics of Hen unwrapping gifts (including the super cool vintage train photo Mom-O found in nearby Buena Vista, showing a 19th-century train traversing tunnels there) & enjoying cake.]
Though it technically happened just this month, Finn’s 12th birthday—about which I neglected to post amidst all this craziness—feels roughly 1,000 years ago. Be that as it may, let’s take a moment to celebrate a dozen years of enjoying our crazy-verbal, floppy-haired, bedimpled amigo!
We partied first with the gang (including Seamus!) at home, enjoying what felt like a 50-pound Meat Monster pizza and cake. The next night (Finn’s actual birthday), Mom-O was out of town, so the guys (minus Seamus!) and I headed to the mall for round 2 of pizza & cake. Check out some views of our celebrations.
Our big furry boy Seamus turned 1 year old on Friday, December 6th! We are so happy to have this fuzzy goofball in our lives. Hard to believe he’s been with us since February! We have all come to love him so much, and he is the perfect addition to our family, especially our Westy adventures.
Finn was so excited to celebrate the big day with his dog – he’d been talking about it for weeks! We found a recipe for a dog-friendly “pupcake,” complete with frosting, to make for him, and our lovely dog-walker Terry brought him a bag of treats, balloons, and party hats to help celebrate. Here is a gallery showing our buddy on his big day.
Our best blonde-haired, Fortnite-loving, Murdoch-watching, dog-walking, book-devouring fella Finn has somehow completed 11 (!) full trips around the sun with us. On Saturday we celebrated with the arrival of a giant Lego wind turbine plus some great gifts (a forensics kit & more!) from Grandma & Grandpa Nack, after which a whole gaggle of young dudes came over for Nerf wars, cake, and a movie. Check out a little gallery plus an epic battle to blow out candles. 😝
For many, many months, our budding junk (er, treasure) collector Henry has been obsessively watching YouTube channels that demonstrate the fine art of metal detecting. Accordingly, he’s been badgering us to buy him some crazy-expensive kit like the pros use. Happily we were able to talk him down to a much more reasonable little starter kit, and as we hoped he went SUPER BERSERK upon receiving it as an early birthday present. (Our G-Man is nothing if not reliably expressive. 😝) Here’s a little gallery showing the unveiling plus a first treasure-hunting mission with Finn & Charlie.
A decade, man… a decade of this dude, and I’m at a loss for words. It feels like some blow-out retrospective is in order, but rather than wait on that to come together, I can at least share some fun festivities from Finn’s little party.
Despite often telling us that “Being the center of attention is not really my jam,” the Finnster does really enjoy hanging out with a few pals. Therefore on his birthday we rounded up some of the “M Force” (M as in Minecraft, naturally :-)) for some pizza, Nerf battles, and ‘crafting. Here’s a little gallery from the occasion.
The house in Leadville has seen its share of Micronaxx milestones—e.g. Finn turning four and getting a huge Lego truck; Hen turning two (cupcakes!) and three (fireman backpack!). This year the timing of the boys’ school vacation meant that we celebrated Finnster’s tenth (TENTH!!) birthday a bit early. After a fun day of skiing, we brought home some Pizza Hut “cuisine” (Finn’s request 😌) to enjoy with the mint chip ice cream he & Grandpa whipped up. Like me, Finn enjoys savoring the opening of presents, and as you can see in the photo gallery, we had to restrain Hen from blurting out info prematurely. 🤣 In any case, everyone had a ball!
We can’t believe that it’s been eight full rides around the Sun since our young Hen suddenly charged into the world, and we continue to have a blast with him. We’ll try to post more pics from his birthday shortly, but in the meantime here’s a peek at our epic day at Great America:
Our big guy had a blast all day long. In this little gallery you can see him enjoying a cake topped with his Lego doppelgänger; getting The Dangerous Book for Boys from Grandpa Liggett; blasting Mom-O with a “High Eight”; and getting Captain Underpants from Grandma & Grandpa Nack.
Happy birthday to the marvelous Mr. F—cha cha cha! 😀
Up in Tahoe I rang in the start of my 40’s just two days after our friend Hans started his 50’s. Just as last year we shared a cake, and this year Margot & the boys took the sting out of mortality by giving me “Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP!!” from The Lego Movie—a loving throwback to the 80’s-vintage sets I had growing up. Amazingly (miraculously!) despite our cabin being darker than Carlsbad Caverns, we built the beast and got it home without losing any parts.
Here’s a handful of photos from the festivities—including impatient Henry realizing that yes, he will actually get to eat some cake 🙂 .
Our lad Henry marveling excitedly at the Birthday Lego set he has waited for!
Our Henry has hit another milestone – he is officially a 6-year old! He has been so excited to turn six, and we’ve been stretching the celebration out over the past two weeks. Last week, at Henry’s request, we took a family vacation to Legoland California as a special birthday treat. While there, we also visited San Diego’s Maritime Museum and the USS Midway aircraft carrier, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. At long last, Henry got to celebrate yesterday with singing and vanilla cupcakes, cards and gifts from cousins, grandparents, and our beloved Coco, and of course a new Lego City construction set from us.
Feliz Cumpleanos to our youngest, but no longer little, Henry!
Somehow—to our absolute shock—we’ve done seven full laps of the sun since our once-wee man made his debut. (“The days are long but the years are short.”) Happy birthday, our blonde & dimpled treasure!
Stay tuned for more photos & videos from the celebration, but in the meantime check out a gallery of the marvelous Lego-themed cake Mom-O crafted & Finn decorated, on which each member of the fam + Grandma & Grandpa Nack appear. Here, let’s have Finn explain it; just don’t tell him I shared this clip with you. 🙂
[YouTube]