Oktoberfest 2010

It was another great Oktoberfest. Rylie had a great time at Sloopy's on Friday morning while Grandpa was broadcasting the tapping of the golden 'can'. This is a pre-celebration for the actual opening ceremony: the tapping of the golden 'keg' down at the festgrounds. This also makes it a long day for people that plan on making it to the festgrounds that evening, since the drinking begins at 6am!

Grandpa, Dr. Rock and Dan Wettstein broadcasting from Sloopy's

She dressed the part...in her mini dirndl

Hmmm...should I or shouldn't I? Okay...she was really eating a cheerio.
Great Grandpa and Grandma saved us a table in the front. That's Grandma and Uncle Patrick in the background too!

Unfortunately, Grandpa had to fly out to St. Louis following his morning show to broadcast the UW-L game on Saturday. He wasn't happy about it and neither were we! The only positive to come out of this is that Dan and I got to spend more time with Elaine and her friend Megan from Texas after the parade. We even got to go to a bar, which doesn't happen very often! Thanks to Grandma for staying home with Rylie.

Parade pictures (we don't actually watch it):

Checking out other people's tailgates

Running, running, running

We're working on "please"...

You know those carts with all of the blown up animals on sticks, silly string, horns, etc.?? I remember practically begging for something from these carts when I was younger. Of course Rylie gets one out of Grandma :-)

Giving kisses

Morning nap...it was not a warm day

Grandma and Ry

Auntie Elaine

Family pic

My Elaine

All the girls

Parents out on the town!!

Mandatory annual picture

This girl knows who she's cheering for!

First Words...Thank you??

Other than mama and dada, apparently "thank you" is Rylie's first word (or so we thought). My mom heard it last weekend when we were in town for Oktoberfest (those pictures yet to be posted). She says it both when you give her something that she shouldn't have and also when she hands something to us because our response is always "thank you". And since then we've started hearing all kinds of other words (Rylie's version anyway) that we've likely been missing because we just haven't been listening close enough. It's not likely that "thank you" was actually the first word...it's just the first one that was clear enough to understand. Now that we're paying closer attention, we've found that she also says: hi, bye bye ("bye ya" is her version), all done, counts one and two (she and Grandma count as they climb the stairs at their house over and over), and milk (mmmmeh) courtesy of Grr Mom.

Here are a couple of "thank you" videos:

Dan's Birthday and Rylie's New Play Space

Dan requested "wings and beer" to celebrate his 33rd birthday. So we met the family at Buffalo Wild Wings on Friday night where he ate wings and drank beer. Birthday wish fulfilled.

Rylie and the birthday boy

Rylie and her Godmother

The NASCAR cake

Rylie and Sophie sharing their dinner

Dan's gift made by Michael

Bobby (Christa and Tommy's little guy) can't take any more!

The Play Room:
What started as our dining room when we bought this house has now served 3 purposes for us, which is the most of any room. When I was pregnant, the office became Rylie's room; the dining room became our office and the den became our dining room. It became obvious, after Rylie's birthday party, that we need a play area for her. The toys had taken over our entire living room. We're trying to make the best use out of the space we have in this house, so we made another change. The office has now become Rylie's new play room. We moved the desk downstairs, which works out well because on days that Trudy is watching Rylie at our house and Dan is working from home, there are less distractions for him.

The dining room (making wedding invites)

The office

Finally, the play room

We think she likes it!

Rylie even helped build it

Labor Day Weekend

I decided to take the week after Labor Day off work. I had hoped to take a week sometime in August to catch a little more of the summer weather, but it didn't work out. We headed to La Crosse for the weekend as we have the past couple of years to celebrate our Anniversary with dinner at the Freight House and spend a night out together. Rylie and I decided to extend our stay since I had the week off and spend a little extra time with Grandpa and Grandma since she won't see them as often this time of year.

Things we did at Grandpa and Grandma's:

Walked and walked and walked. Rylie had taken several steps at a time the past few weeks. Just this past week, she started walking all over the place. And often had to be carrying something in each hand...not a little something...a big something.



Rocked and rocked and rocked.


Climbed the stairs over and over to mommy's old bedroom to look at all the books in the toy bench. Had a fashion show of mommy's old clothes...and some of Grandma's bead necklaces.

Went to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Jenks and Great Grandma Kearns while daddy and Grandpa mowed both of their lawns. Then saw Great Grandpa and Grandma the next day at Sloopy's...and did some dancing there.

Rylie pretty much eats anything we eat now and isn't really interested in being fed with a spoon, unless she can do it herself, which is a crazy mess.

She went for a couple walks through the neighborhood with Grandpa on a fussy day, which we later found out was due to one of her top front teeth popping through.

She did a lot of playing with rocks...filling a container and throwing them back out.

Reaches for everything she's not supposed to have. Makes the cutest little face while holding out her hand and reaching for what she wants.

Wanted to do "this little piggy" over and over again. Grandma did it once while she was sitting in the rocking chair and every time she sat there, she pointed at her big toe.

Helped Grandma fill her wine cork holder.

The best picture of the weekend...captured by my mom. This is about 10 minutes (if that) after we got home from our big date night out. We are clearly out of practice.

Hopefully he wasn't drooling on me.

Girls Weekend!

Dan and the guys went to Bristol, TN last week for the NASCAR race; his mom and the Carpenter family were in Indiana; and Auntie Beth and her family went up North for the week, so we were daycare-less for a few days. I had already planned on taking a week off work over Labor Day and didn't want to use more PTO if I didn't have to, so my mom came to spend a couple days with Rylie. Everyone left Wednesday afternoon, so my mom watched Rylie during the day Wednesday and Thursday while I was at work. They made numerous laps walking around the yard, with Rylie leading the way, and picked up all kinds of pine cones...and played in a little dirt too. It was a short visit though as my mom had to head back to La Crosse on Thursday after I got done with work because they already had Larryfest/camping plans that weekend. I took Friday off, so I got to have all kinds of just Mommy and Rylie time from Thursday evening until daddy got home on Sunday...and I LOVED every minute of it. We went shopping, had a play date with Carter, went to the park to swing, went for walks and just did a lot of playing. Here are a few pictures from the her play date and the park.

Walking

I'm not sure how/if these can be rotated...so they are both sideways. The first one is from my cell phone, so it's a little fuzzy...

I'm not sure if she was mad that she had to walk all the way to her toy...or if she was mad that I was taking a video of her doing it.