The Minahans will be eating home more often...

Last weekend marked the end of the Minahan dining out for a few months. In Owen's short 15 months he has been to many fine dining establishments and really has been a great sport...until now. As parents we unselfishly made a decision to halt our love for trying out new restaurants and visiting our staple favs and are planning to take a break for a while...our fellow restaurants goers will thank us later. That is, at least until Owen stops throwing his food and screaming DA DA at the top of his lungs. We had our first experience of packing up our uneaten food, missing out on our delicious wine and packing up the troops. This wonderful experience helped make our decision for us. So, we may be seeing you at Red Robin in the near future...

Owen's Debut in the Diaper Derby

Today Owen had his first "race". He was a contender...or should I say, participant, in the JDRF Beat the Bridge Diaper Derby. We had high hopes, really high hopes for this kid but they diminished drastically after today's performance.

He was set. Had a race bib. Oldest of the crawlers by far. He even gave this nice camera man some good footage (he asked for Owen's name and age so watch for him on Prime Time). Then, the race started and Owen froze. Crawled a foot, turned around, stared at me and sat. It was sad, really sad. The child of two college athletes...we had been defeated. No biggie O, next year you'll nail it.

After we composed ourselves from our loss Al tried to show Owen what it might feel like to score the winning touchdown for the Huskies in the year 2029. He gave us some camera shots and then decided it was time for a nap...in the end zone. He must be tired from all his TDs!!! Bob Rondo will be talking about this kiddo someday for sure.

Wife & Mommy Weekend

Last weekend was filled with celebrations. Al and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary on Saturday and Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day ALL day long. It was a long day for O but he did great. We had brunch at Inglewood with Dave & Sue after church and ended the day with a 3 hour dinner at the Washington Athletic Club with the Rumbergers and Flints. Owen should win a prize for totaling 5 hours in a high chair in one day which I believe may be a record for any 14 month old. It was just a year ago that we were having our 8 week old baby boy dedicated...such a blessing to be a mommy.

Owen was practicing his walking skills...they aren't that great as you can see but he'll get there soon enough.

31 Years Young

More to come from Al's birthday "week" celebration but here are a few ones from the weekend. 31 years and we've been together for over a 1/3 of them...totally crazy. I love this guy more each day.

A Spring Day at the Park

His little face says it all...we are obsessed.

Easter Weekend Fun

Last year at Easter Owen was only 7 weeks old and as much as I wanted him to be out there hunting for eggs I knew that I would have to wait until this year to really enjoy the fun with him. We started our weekend by making some Easter sugar cookies. Owen quickly lost interest and as you can see Daddy and I finished up the decorating job and decided that we really can't wait until he can do that part as Al needs a lot of coaching around the proper cooking decorating technique. So off to bed he went with Daddy for bedtime reading of the Easter Story. This morning we went to the kids Easter brunch at the club with the Oldelehrs and the kids had a great time hunting for eggs and watching Leo the Clown (I think the bunny suit must have been reserved already!). Lindsey brought some bunny ears for the kids to wear in our photo shoot but they weren't having it. Off to dye eggs with Auntie Beth & Uncle Scott tonight and brunch & dinner tomorrow with the grandparents and great-grandpa Fred.

Owen's First Year Pictures

I would give Owen a 5 out of 10 for his behavior/happiness this day but the pictures didn't show that at all. We have found a wonderful (& very patient) photographer here in Edmonds (www.beccahowell.com) and she did a great job capturing what I thought was a horrible photo shoot for the little man.