Ireland Highlights

Riley and I made it to Ireland and back without too many hitches. She slept most of the way there. The worst parts of flying were when she had to be confined/strapped to me (take-off, landing, flights between Ireland and Dublin), but overall it went pretty well. I had a little bit of a breakdown at Heathrow on the way back, but that was the worst of it. Riley didn't sleep much on the way home either, but she still did well.

We had a nice time in Ireland. Mostly just hung around the house enjoying each other's company and visiting with Colm's family.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

Riley became good friends with the snowman and santa. They were just her size.

Riley and Jasmine in their PJs on Christmas Eve

Colm helps Riley open presents Christmas morning

Bathtime with Jasmine

Family portrait


On a walk


Again

Chillin'

Merry Christmas to All...

We head to Ireland on Friday and won't be back until Dec. 29th. We're looking forward to spending Christmas with Colm and with the Kinsella side of the family. Wish Riley and I luck as we take a go at the plane ride on our own. We'll fly directly from Denver to London (9 hours) and then a short flight to Dublin, arriving Saturday morning.

I didn't send Christmas cards this year. So we'll go for a blog card:

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and New Year. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, may 2009 be a better year for all.

Love,

The Kinsella Family

Rock Star!

Angie brought her Wii and RockStar video game up to Silverthorne for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun playing the drums, guitar and even singing. Riley tried her hand at playing drums and has a lot of natural talent for a 1 year old.

Let it Snow!

We spent Thanksgiving weekend up in Silverthorne. It snowed 3 days straight up there, so we decided to play in the snow for a little bit. Here is Riley all decked out in her warmest gear.

She liked it - even when she fell into the snow. Its a tough business, walking with all that gear on!

Too Funny!

This is was what Riley was doing when I came home the other night...I had to get a video to share.



I guess we have to add "belly" to her list of words!

Words

It seems Riley starts saying a new word every day. Well at least every day for the last two days. Yesterday was Cracker (she says "ca-ca") and this evening it was Gecko ("gay-go"). She learned Gecko because we were reading a book about a gecko (Thanks Hilary!). My mom keeps saying I need to be writing these words down. How better to do that than here on this blog?

Here is a list of the words Riley can say (roughly in the order she started saying them):
Bye
Hi
Mama
Uh-Oh
Duck
Dog (sounds the same as "Duck")
Shoe
Banana
Night Night
No
Hello
Up
Go
Coat (sounds the same as "Go," so she might only know one of these words, as they are used at the same time)
More
Milk (sounds the same as "More")
All Done
Book
Cracker
Gecko

Some of these words are obvious to all (bye, hi). But some are still at the point where they can only be understood by those around her daily (shoe = "do"). Some are used frequently (banana, bye, no) and some have only been heard a few times (up, more).

It is so fun watching her learn!

Fall!

I took Riley out to play in the leaves over the weekend. She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it either. It is much harder for a 1 ft. something tall person to walk in a few inches of leaves than it is for an almost 6 ft. tall person. It was nice to enjoy the crisp fall day with a little time outside though.