On Friday Mom, Dad, and I went to the Salem Red Sox game. While mom’s a huge baseball fan, I was most interested in climbing in and out of my chair. I enjoyed when the ball was hit, but otherwise it was all about climbing and people watching. They had fireworks after the game and after a little hesitation I greatly enjoyed them! I’ll be ready for the Fourth of July!

We went to Dr. Arnone of Friday, he’s pretty impressed with me! I just climb right up on the table, throw my paper away, he just loves me! We don’t have to go back for six weeks, and then after that not for a few months!

After my appointment we stopped by the Nature Museum where I saw all kinds of bugs, birds, you name it. Mom was not happy about how into the snakes I was, but that’s just how little boys are Mom! I had a great time because I’m such an outside boy! Oh and by the way, no nap!

Our house is definitely filled to the brim with Thomas stuff. From forks, to chairs, sheets, to books, and everything in between, there is no escaping the Thomas Empire. I’ve been driving my Thomas train Powerwheel from Nanny, I had a great time driving it around the high school.

I have a Lego track of the Misty Island movie, which is pretty much the best thing ever! Dad and I have been hard at working making endless combinations of tracks! I’ll tell him if it needs to be short or tall, straight or windy, and help him put it together. I’m well on my way to letting mom and dad retire in style with that engineering degree!

We had a great party today celebrating my SECOND birthday! Mal, Pap, Poppy, Grandma, Beth, Jessica, Grady, Brian, Annemarie, and Lilamae joined us for a fun party! Nanny skyped in too!!

I got tons of stuff and even got a Thomas Powerwheel from Nanny!! We went outside to try it out. My cake was a THOMAS cake, I didn’t have any of it, but everyone said it was soooo yummy!

After all the guests left we walked down to the river with Mal and Pap to scope out a good fishing spot. Poppy and Grandma got me a play fishing pole, so I have to get ready for the real one!

It is so cliche but it really is hard for mom and dad to believe how much I’ve changed. Give an extra hug to your loved ones, time really does fly.

Here’s to another great year! 🙂

Wish you were here!

Birthday Presents from Mike Murphy on Vimeo.

Yay! I’m TWO YEARS OLD TODAY! What an awesome day I had! It rained, so we couldn’t go outside, but I had TONS of presents to open from Mal and Pap and Rhonda. I got TONS of Thomas stuff, so I’m a pretty happy guy right now! 🙂

Tomorrow more people will be here for a cookout and tons of fun!

Mom and Dad keep talking about how lucky they are. The last two years have flown by and they say they’ve enjoyed every second (minus some of the diapers, tantrums, etc) and they wouldn’t change anything about me! They can’t believe how far I’ve come, from a little guy in a helmet to the BIG talking, running man I am now! We are truly blessed!

Mom’s super emotional…she just had to take pictures of me as my last day as a one year old! Can you believe it? What a BIG guy I’ve become! Running around, 10 word sentences, they are pretty proud of me! Mal and Pap will be here tomorrow and then we’ll celebrate my birthday on Saturday! Can’t wait to see everyone! 🙂

We had another adventure today! Mom, Dad, and I ventured over to Giles Co to hike the Cascades! I was so excited to wear my boots because mom doesn’t let me wear them with shorts! I stomped around all morning saying “boots for the waterfall”. Then we were off!

Cascades is a two-mile hike to a 70 ft waterfall, I was just happy to be outside. We took the upper trail both times because the lower one is pretty narrow and mom and dad figured all the mud would be a disaster! So even though it was a pretty steep incline I walked 1.25 miles on the way up and the whole way back down! (As mom is writing it is currently 8pm and I’ve been asleep since 4:30–that never happens!!)

I just loved the watefall, not because of the beauty, but because of all the stairs I got to climb! I also saw some cool dogs swimming in the water!

When we left mom and I “ran” a lot of the way down and did that funny kid yell as we ran–it was the best time!

We had a great Easter weekend! We are quite lucky to have such a wonderful family.

I finally said “Grandma” instead of all the other things I’ve been calling Grandma, which made her pretty happy. Poppy and I played and played and raced and raced. Aunt Beth gave me a Thomas train for Easter, which definitley made my day. I warmed up to G.G. (Great Grandma) pretty quickly too.

At GG’s house we had a yummy dinner, I ate lots of beans and strawberries. We also had our annual Easter Egg Hunt and I won the prize egg! I found it under one of the statue geese’s hats!

Can’t wait to see everyone in a few weeks for my birthday!

Saturday (4/23/2011) Mom, Dad, Mal, Pap, and I ventured to Washington DC. I had THE BEST TIME EVER. The pictures aren’t really going to show that because every time we stopped moving I screamed my head off and shouted “GOOOOOOOO” a million times. It was a beautiful day, the weatherman called for horrendous storms, I’m soooo glad he was wrong!

I just loved the Washington Monument. I said “I’ll race you to the momument” over and over again! Then, we headed to the WWII Memorial, and on to the Lincoln. I absoultey was in awe of Mr. Lincoln. I climbed the stairs and just stared and stared at him. After we left mom asked me what I saw and I said “Lincoln upstairs in the chair” everyone was pretty impressed. Later, we made our way to the Capitol where I met a couple of ducks and made a wish in the fountain.

Despite getting lost in Georgetown we had a great time. After we got back to Mal and Pap’s Pap showed me his tractors and I played with one of Nanny’s old toys.

I’m thankful Mal and Pap came with us. All in all, a pretty great day.