A weekend of many firsts!

We had yet, another busy weekend. Summers just fly by. Every weekend there is something to do, somewhere to go, and people to see. I wouldn't have it any other way, but boy does it ever start to wear on you by the end of it all.

On Friday, Austin started to play with Allie's toy. It was adorable. You can see in the picture, he has a big smile on his face. Allie and Jackson have exceeded our expectations with Austin. Both Jared and I were a bit worried when it came to the dogs when he was first born, but they are so good with him. They give him kisses all the time, and as he starts to throw more and more food on the ground for them to pick up, I think they will become even closer friends. Both of our dogs share their toys with Austin. We don't let Austin put these toys in his mouth or anything, but he grabs on to them and sort of throws them around a bit. It's cute, because this normally gets the dogs attention. They won't growl at him or anything, they just kind of pull on the toys a bit and play with him. Austin thinks this is hilarious, and he just sits there and cracks up. He even goes to fetch the toys with the dogs, it's too cute! Saturday, Austin had his first visit to the lake to see Matt and Drew. We didn't end up taking any pictures :( Blame that one on Jared! He got to ride on a pontoon for the first time, eat some yummy watermelon, and he even got to show people his new walking pose. His shoes kept coming off, so Drew kept putting them on, with no such luck! Matt tried to hold him a few times, but Austin was a bit apprehensive. I hope this is something he'll get over sooner, rather than later. Austin ended up staying up until 10 pm that night! Granted, he went back to his pattern of not sleeping through the night again, but it was worth it to get out of the house, out of a routine, and hang out with some friends for the night!

On Sunday, Austin got to do two new things. He made a birthday card for his grandpa using finger paints, and he went swimming in his pool for the first time. Oh, what fun both of those were! While finger painting, he was more interested in playing with the paint and the rocks that were holding down the paper (we were smart, and did this project outside). He managed to get more paint on the rocks I think, and then of course, he had to taste the rocks to see if they tasted like chicken or not! Needless to say, that's why his mouth was blue. It was cute to watch him play with the paint. Maybe next year, the art will be a bit more identifiable. His card to grandpa had a footprint on it, but it looks like it got smeared a bit by him sitting on it later. Oh well, grandpa loved it anyway! We had my parents over for dinner on Sunday evening also, and we wanted to share the first time Austin played in his pool. They enjoyed watching him splash around in the water, which he's very good at doing now. He was soaked from head to toe, but enjoyed every minute of it. In one of the pictures above, he was even blowing raspberries!