July 2008

July started off with a little working vacation for Kyle and I. I had to go to Toronto, Canada for a conference for work. Kyle decided to come along. We left Peyton with my parents for 4 days. Boy, did I miss him!

While we were gone, Peyton enjoyed his first 4th of July. Every year, as far back as I can remember, we would go to the parade in Dundalk. My great-aunt lived right around the corner from the parade route, so after the parade we would head to her house for a barbecue. My parents continued on the tradition and took Peyton to the parade. My cousins and aunt were also there. He had such a good time that he fell asleep!

Back in Toronto, Kyle and I did a lot of sight-seeing when I wasn't at the conference. First we headed to Niagra Falls, which was about an hour and a half from Toronto. It was a beautiful day. We spent some time just looking at the falls and trying to take a good picture of us. The bridge in the second picture connects Canada to the United States.

After we checked out the falls, we headed into the touristy area of Niagra Falls. There is a whole street that reminded us of a boardwalk. There were different museums, rides, arcades, and stores. Kyle and I played glow-in-the-dark miniature golf. That was pretty fun, especially because I beat him! That evening, we headed to the casino in Niagra Falls for some dinner and a little gambling. Kyle was actually up on roulette, so I made him stop so that he didn't lose it all back. Finally, we headed to a comedy club and enjoyed a show. The three comedians were pretty funny. Overall it was a really fun day.

Since Canada (obviously) doesn't celebrate the 4th of July, we spent the day at the CN Tower. We paid the ridiculously high price to go to the top of the tower. We took a bunch of pictures of the city, but I only included one. They all kind of look the same unless you know what you're looking at. And I can't really say that I remember.

On our last day in Toronto, we checked out the Hockey Hall of Fame. These pictures are from the outside of the museum.
The rest of the pictures are from the inside of the museum. There were a lot of exhibits and we took a lot of pictures. There were even some interactive exhibits. In one, you could call a famous hockey play. Kyle did the end of the Miracle on Ice game. He's no Al Michaels, but did ok. We even got to touch the Stanley Cup. Well, a fake Stanley Cup. But we did see the real one.



My parents picked Kyle and I up from the airport when we got back. As soon as I saw Peyton, I started running to him. Tears were welling up in my eyes and he was very excited to see us too. I missed him so much since I hadn't seen him in four days. That's a really long time!

A few days later on July 11, we celebrated Kyle's birthday.

Kyle liked this gift (a note saying that he could buy some golf clubs) so much that he just let Peyton fall off his lap. Actually, I think Peyton just squirmed away, but in this picture, it looks like Kyle flung him out of the way in all of the excitement.

We went to PF Changs with my parents, brother, and his girlfriend for Kyle's birthday dinner. Here he is, being crazy as usual, and enjoying his dessert.

Here is a picture of Kyle enjoying his birthday gift at the driving range.

At Peyton's 9 month check-up, we found out that he was 28 1/2 inches and weighed 17 lb 1 oz. He did really well with his shots again. He only cried for less then a minute, and then he was ok again. He also started eating the meat baby foods. Peyton also ate more and more table food.

We took Peyton to his first baseball game on the 20th. We went to Camden Yards to see the Orioles take on the Tigers. Against my wishes, Peyton wore his Tigers gear. We're gonna expose him to both Maryland and Michigan sports teams and let him chose his favorites. Of course he will chose the Terps and O's.

But anyway, it was so hot that day. Our seats were in the sun. Peyton did so well though. There were plenty of empty seats around us, so we put Peyton between us. We had to hold the seat down though, because he is so light that it wanted to close on him. He didn't really care much about the game, but was content playing with some toys. He made it all the way to the 7th inning. I was pretty surprised.

At the end of the month, Peyton started waving bye-bye. He also started clapping.