I need to duct tape my camera to myself

My mom, Paxton, and I went to a water park (Weston Aquatic Center) this morning with friends. It would have made for some great photo ops but of course I forgot my camera. For any locals, this is a great place to spend the day with kids of any age.
Now we are home and I am blogging and eating chocolate instead of packing. We head to Pheonix, AZ early tomorrow morning. We are attending General Council of the Assemblies of God while staying with Preston's Aunt and Uncle who live there. On top of that Preston's parents are flying out with us to help watch Pax while we are in business meetings and workshops. Aren't they great?!
Preston's Aunt told us we should pack for 115 degree weather, which leaves me a little bewildered as to how to pack. Regardless, we are looking forward to dependably sunny weather, time with family and times of learning, growth and networking through the conference. Oh yes, and how could I forget, good restaurants!
I am sure to not forget our camera for this trip so will have some good pics when we get back.

Tough Mudder Challenge

We spent this past weekend down at Devil's Head ski and golf resort for the 2011 Wisconsin Tough Mudder. It is a 10 mile, 25 obstacle, adventure race that was honestly one of the most fun events we have ever been to and by far the most fun race we have ever done. No one was timed because the goal was to overcome your fears and work as a team to finish the race (without getting hurt). Everyone on our team finished together which was an awesome experience. We went with friends from church, Bonnie (our photographer), Bonnie's dad (our spectating cheerer), Kevin, Tom, Diana and Ryan (a fellow pastor friend). I think the hardest part of the race was the terrain, going up and down the black diamond slopes.
We got very muddy!
They provided huge high pressure hoses to "rinse off" throughout the race. (I really enjoy the woman's face behind us. Intense!)
Here is us at the finish end, 4 hours later! The last obstacle was electro shock therapy where you run through a bunch of dangling wires, not knowing which ones are live with 10,000 volts of energy. 4 out of 6 of us were shocked (weird feeling!), sending 2 of our teammates to the muddy ground. I think we look pretty good for just being electrocuted! I wish I had a picture of each obstacle because they were that cool. It was a long and challenging course but Preston and I already want to do another one. (They have them all across the country.)
The big "to do" at the race is earning your orange sweatband at the finish line. They don't sell these anywhere, you have to earn them. We thought Pax looked pretty cute in it. We are starting his training soon to be a future Tough Mudder. :)
If you are interested in doing a Tough Mudder go to www.toughmudder.com to find more info.

On a personal note this was a really positive opportunity and experience for me. I wasn't sure if I would be able to complete the race and was pretty scared of some of the obstacles. I had settled into the, 'I'm a mom now' phase of life and just wasn't sure I could do this. It was an empowering experience to face my fears do well in this race. I would highly recommend this race!

Montana 2011

In early July we took a long awaited trip to visit the Clines in Missoula, Montana. (Justin and Preston both turned 30 this year and wanted to do a family vacation together as their birthday present.) It was actually this visit that gave me the inspiration to start blogging again when Melinda said something along the lines of, "Your blog really stinks," referring to the fact that I hadn't blogged since December. So here goes another attempt at chronicling our family life.
Justin and Preston love to bike ride so they took advantage of the great weather and scenery to bike together. Madeleine also can ride without training wheels so she wanted to be highlighted in this picture as well.
We got to go on some great hikes with the kids. It made us really wish there was more wilderness near us.
We went camping for one night in a National Forest, which we quickly realized was what camping was meant to be like. First, it was free. Second, it was in the mountains with incredible views. Three, there was no where else around us. Four, it was shared by great friends!
Could you get a group of more adorable kids? They really played well together.


Here we were in downtown Missoula. There are incredible views everywhere you turn. Missoula is such a special place for us. Thanks Clines!

Old & New

After about a year or more of growing his hair, Preston cut it. I couldn't be happier. :)

This is Preston's sweater from when he was one year old. It keeps Pax really warm!

Pax's newest trick: holding his own banana.

Snow Baby

This is Pax's first snow experience. He wasn't sure what to make of all of it. He mostly just wanted to take his gloves off. But he had a few moments of joy and wonder.

Happy Birthday

Paxton celebrated one year this week! The celebration lasted from Wednesday to Saturday. Here are some pictures and videos of the celebration. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/aimeetippen/FirstBirthday#

Videos here - http://www.youtube.com/TheTippens
The video site includes his first year in six minutes. What changes a baby goes through in 365 days.

A few recent snapshots of our life

We went to an apple orchard last weekend with some friends. The grape harvest has passed, but Pax liked exploring the vines. It turned out to be such a nice day that we had to take his shirt off because he was so hot.

Our life is all about books when we are at home these days. We are already taking trips to the library to check out more books. I wonder if he is too young for his own card?

This is my favorite sweater. A friend knit it for him when he was born. It fits him perfectly now. I picked this little beanie up at a local thrift shop. Our little "granola" baby. :)

The Captain's chair... for the Captain.

This picture typifies our family time lately. Pax gets enough of me all day so when we are all together it is 100% Daddy crush.

Pax looking longingly at the apples. :)

His first apple. He did great!

This is Pax's new favorite pass time. He wakes up in the morning and points for the door to go out on the swing. We are going to have to get creative this winter. I don't think he can go a day without it.

Pax is all about climbing. He climbed the attic stairs all by himself.

Making breakfast with Grandpa.

Erie Wedding

Here is Preston's two sister and me before the wedding. You can't tell from the picture but those shoes are bright orange with 4 inch heels.


Here are the lovely bride and groom. I accidentally copied this twice in this post and I can't delete it for some reason. So enjoy it twice as much!

Where have the last few months gone?

It's been a while since I posted again. These last few months have flown by, with travel and busyness here in Marshfield. The moments that we have had to spend at home, I haven't felt like spending blogging.
September was our wedding month. It began with Colby, my cousin, and Shannon's wedding in Savannah, Georgia, and ended with Alison, Preston's youngest sister and Josh's wedding in Erie. I had the priveledge of being a bridesmaid in both and Preston had the honor of officiating Alison and Josh's. And Pax... got to come along for the ride and flight of both. An adventure he relished at times and despised at times. He loved all the attention from family and the excitement of the events, but managed to have an extreme and first bought of constipation in Savannah and an ear infection in Erie which sent us to the emergency room at 3 in the morning the day of the wedding. Both ailments lent themselves to sleepless nights, which made us laugh at the re-realization that parenthood really is a constant adventure.
Both weddings were gorgeous and more importantly, the love between the Brides and Grooms could be felt. I'll post some pics of the Savannah wedding below. Still waiting on getting pics from the Erie wedding. We didn't take any of our own.

Also, Pax is walking. He still prefers crawling but can walk all the way across a room on his own accord. To see video of him walking and more go to...
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTippens

Since much of our weekend revolved around good southern cooked food, Pax got to try a lot of new foods. We discovered he really likes pickles.


Here is the groom, my little (not so little) cousin and I, enjoying a night out on the Savannah Waterfront.


The rehearsal dinner was at Paula Dean's original restaurant. Delicious would be an understatement. Here is Preston, my mom and I at the dinner.


This is the beautiful bride, along with Jaclyn and I.


Pax was sporting an adorable suit but it was so hot we had to take the suit coat off.

On a not so amazing note, my cousin Colby, the groom deploys for Afghanistan in October. Please pray for him and his new wife.

Playing with my bucket at Church