July -- A Month for Birthdays!

Hello Family & Friends,

In addition to both Joe & I having our birthdays in July, we celebrated 2 other birthdays this past weekend! Cassidy turned 4 and Octavia turned 3! Cassidy is the daughter of Paul & Michele -- Paul was Joe's roomate at UW. Octavia is the daughter of Aric & Teresa. I used to work with Teresa and now I work with Aric. Octavia was adopted from Guatemala as well. The parties were lots of fun for Gabriela who loves being surrounded by people, especially little kids!

Whoa -- close up! She liked her party hat, but she LOVED the ice cream!

Make a wish, Octavia!

Your turn, Cassidy!

Gabriela continues to grow! We took her for her 9 month check-up last week. She weighed in at a whopping 21.5 pounds (90th %ile), was 30 inches tall (>100th %ile) and had a head circumfrence of 18 inches (85th %ile). We couldn't believe that she grew 3 inches in 3 months. She'll either be the tallest Guatemalan ever or the Halls have been rubbing off on her! ;-)

She is crawling fast and all over the place now. Her favorite is to crawl back and forth between the back door and the front door to look outside. She even crawled up and over Jackson the other day as well.

We're headed up to the Vail area this weekend to escape the dryness and heat of the foothills and to see our good friends Dan & Julianne.

Best wishes for a great week!

Love, Joe, Tara & Gabi

Summertime Fun!

Hi everyone! We hope you all had a fun 4th of July weekend! Here are some pictures of Gabi from this past weekend! Enjoy!

At the Golden Farmer's Market on Saturday

Gabi's 1st 4th of July! She loved her festive dress from Grandma Mary!

Riding on her rocking MOOSE! Very cool Paul & Michele -- thank you!

Crazy Hair Morning -- yes, this is what it looks like every morning -- hee hee!

We also celebrated Joe's 31st birthday on Sunday with a long hike, shishkabobs and peach pie -- yumm!

Love to you all!

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Here She Comes!

Gabi has been working on crawling for the past couple of weeks and I think everything came together today. Yea! Grandma Joyce taught her how to clap last week, so she has been clapping for herself a lot as she learns how to do new things! She also claps whenever Jackson & Rocky come into the room. She is so much fun!

To my surprise, she crawls even better on the carpet downstairs. I thought she was just dragging her legs on the wood floors, but she can get them moving when they have something to catch on. I guess we better baby-proof the house this weekend!

"Hi everybody!" I am really good at waving too!

It is hard to believe that Gabi is 9 months old already. Time really does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it?!

We hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend! We're looking forward to a weekend at home and a couple of bbqs with friends. Our best to you all!

Joe, Tara & Gabi

Our Little Wildflower

Hello all!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Buffalo last weekend. Gabi had lots of fun playing with her cousin, Gio! Give them a few years and they will be quite the pair! We took Gio & Gabi up to the mountains for some pictures in the wildflowers. I don't think you could find a better backdrop! The Big Horns really are beautiful and the two little kids are pretty cute themselves!

Grandma Joyce time! Can you tell by Gabi's hair that she just woke up? :)

Joe's cousin, Natalie, brought over her two little girls -- Ella (pink) and Kate (green). All of the cousins had fun playing together and Ella was just enamored with Gabi's hair -- she kept touching it. What fun they will have as they grow up together!

The Big Horn Wild & Scenic Trail Run went well. Joe won the 50K by over 20 minutes and enjoyed it. I was 18th (7th female) in the 30K. We saw lots of wildflowers and I even saw two bull moose while riding up in the bus. I've been in Greeley this week taking a class, so I've been missing my Gabi. Sounds like she has been having a great time with Grandma Joyce!

Love to you all! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Celebrating Family!

Hello! Is this summer flying by or is it just me? We spent last weekend in Crawford, Nebraska at the LaMay Family Reunion and drove up to Buffalo, Wyoming last night to spend this weekend with Joe's family. It is a good thing that Gabi is such a little trooper and allows us to haul her all over the place! She loves seeing her Grandmas and Grandpas!

We all wore cowboy hats and embroidered bandanas for family pictures at the reunion!

A great time was had by all at the LaMay Family Reunion. It was so fun to see everyone. The last time everyone was together was my Grandpa Joe's funeral 4 years ago. Family came from Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Tennessee, Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, and South Dakota. We gathered at the family cabin just outside of Crawford. It was a beautiful and blessed day.

Gabi meets her Great-Grandma Genie

Family Reunion 2008 attendees

A Family Gathering at the Cabin during Thanksgiving (~15 years ago)

LaMay Family (~25 years ago) We have grown since then!

Joe & I are running the Big Horn Wild & Scenic Trail Run on Saturday in the Big Horn Mountains. Joe is running the 50K (31 miles) and I'm doing the 30K (18.6 miles). All I can say is that it sounded like a good idea back in February (before Gabi came home), but seems a little crazy now! Oh well -- the wildflowers will be out in full force since it has been a stellar moisture season in Northern Wyoming , so it will be a beautiful run! Aunt Amanda gets to watch Gabi while we're running, so that will be fun. She has been playing with her cousin Gio already and having a great time. She really wants to crawl and keeps practicing.

Joyce (Joe's mom) is riding back with us to Golden on Sunday and will stay at our house for the rest of next week to watch Gabi. I have to take a class in Greeley that will prepare me to teach AP Environmental Science next year. It will be hard to leave Gabi, but she will have fun with Grandma!

We hope you all are having a great week! Thanks for checking in on us!

Love, Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Feeling Better!

Shortly after my post last week, Gabi developed a low fever. At first we thought it was due to teething, but when she stopped eating, we knew it was something bigger. Turns out that she caught a virus that gave her a really, really sore throat. A couple of trips to the doctor, a few sleepless nights (she wouldn't sleep unless we were holding her), and some meds, she fought it off. This was the first time that she has ever been sick, so I think that made it even harder on her. We're just so glad that she is back to her normal, healthy, silly, great-sleeping little self! She has started to wave "hi," so that has been fun this week!

Since Gabi was sick, we don't have many pictures from this past week, so you're stuck with one of me! On Saturday morning, we decided that Gabi was doing much better, so we headed up to Spearfish, SD for the Mickelson Trail Marathon. We stayed with Grandma Fern in Spearfish and met up with our friends from college. Joe, Gabi, & Fern drove along the race course and supported me, which I really needed! It was a beautiful course and despite a lack of sleep, the first 13 miles being uphill, getting hailed on for 10 minutes around mile 20, I MADE IT! My time was 4:05, a little slower than I would have liked, but I finished 22nd out of 108 females and was in the top 1/3 overall. The race was a fun experience (I can say that now that the soreness has diminished!) Our friends, Chris & Tracy Jons and Sam Bruner ran the half-marathon and did great!

We're headed to Crawford, Nebraksa tomorrow for the 1st Annual LaMay Family Reunion (my Dad's side of the family). Gabi will finally get to meet her Great-Grandma Genie and all of her Great-Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins. We're really looking forward to it!

Love to you all! Have a great rest of your week! Thanks for your support!

Joe, Tara & Gabi

Electric Hair & Stinky Feet

Hello! Hope you all are doing well! Here are a couple of pictures from this past week! Gabi's hair has decided that it is no longer going to lay down. No matter what I do (gobs of lotion, spraying it with water, combing it every 5 minutes), it wants to stand up. It sure does add to her silly personality! She has been scooching around on her butt on the hardwood floors and has been a little joy. She seems to want some teeth to come out, but none have appeared yet!

Electric Hair

Gabi loves to laugh at Joe! Just about anything he does gets at least a big smile and most of the time, lots of giggles. She is such a silly little girl and as you can tell in the video, she makes us laugh as well.

We're headed up to Buffalo on Thursday night for a short visit before heading to Spearfish, SD on Saturday to stay with Grandma Fern and to meet up with Chris & Tracy, Sam & Ashley, and Nate & Robbie. I am running the Mickelson Trail Marathon on Sunday and many of our friends are doing the Half Marathon. Wish us luck!

Have a good week,

Joe, Tara & Gabi