I realize many of you have already experienced the momentous occassion of your first childs steps, but to this dad, today was the first.  I was on the road today transporting equipment from our new facility in Frederic, Wisconsin (Oak Forest Center) to Camp Forest Springs, when I received a call from Julie saying that Simon was walking all over the house.  You see for months Julie and I have been encouraging Simon to take some steps and even had several stand up toys around to motivate him.  Unfortunately, with Simon, non of that really matters.  He has always done things only when he knows he can.  None of this, try to stand up, take a few steps and fall on his face.  No, tonight he walked from Julie to me (about 10 feet) and then stood there waiting to be picked up to receive a huge hug from dad. 

Now, many of you are thinking right now that we are going to soon wish that Simon hadn’t mastered this quite yet as now all we are going to do is chase him.  But given Julie’s ever growing belly (next baby - not too much ice cream), Simon being able to walk alleviates a lot for her when I am not home.  I can’t wait to see what the next installment of Simon’s First has in store. 
Until then, keep your stick on the ice cause were all in this together!

I was told that Simon took his first steps today, walked clear across the kitchen.  Of course I was at camp cutting wood and missed the whole thing.  To make matters worse, he wouldn’t even try tonight after I got home, so I will have to continue to wait to see it but as the picture will tell, he gets cuter everyday.  Today he decided to say snack (sounded more like ‘ack’) and has concluded that a snack equals animal crackers and nothing else.  We will have to teach him that snacks come in all shapes and sizes as well as flavors. 

    It is hard to believe that the second installment of the Huffman Family will be here in just 6 weeks.  There is much to be done upstairs in Simon’s room and the baby’s room before that day comes.  Julie is doing good and feeling good although she is getting very tired in the evening and I am sure Simon is wearing her out during the day.  This baby has been moving a lot more than Simon did and seems to get the hiccups more often. 

Things have started to slow down a little around the Huffman household. Don’t get me wrong, we still have plenty to keep us busy.  But on a beautiful day like today we just couldn’t stay inside. Simon and I went for a walk to enjoy the colors on the trees.  Then while I raked the lawn Simon was introduced to playing in the leaves!  I raked a pile around him and for a while it served as an automatic playpen.  He was too afraid of the leaves to move!  Before long he figured out my scheme and got a little braver.  Soon he was playing and laughing and crawling all over right where I wanted to rake.  Needless to say I didn’t accomplish much! 

August 18th, 2007 took Julie and her sister to Columbia to be a part of her oldest brothers wedding.  On Sunday August 19th, 2007, Jonathan and Juanita Tarp were married in Bogata, Columbia.  It was the longest Julie had ever been away from Simon and they were both happy to see each other (I was also happy to see my wife back safely).