Wednesday, October 28, 2009

How did we get to Fall already?

We haven't posted for awhile, So while Nate is reading to Caleb. I thought I would throw some pictures on the blog.





Caleb recently got a new hat and mittens - which he modeled for me. What a ham!
























Caleb playing with Nate's Indian flute. He can't figure out why it sounds so different when daddy plays it...









At the end of September we went to Marilyn's house for a dinner for Rob's birthday. The brother of this turkey was the main course... Yum! It was great to see Marilyn and Rob but Caleb was more fascinated by the chickens, ducks, and turkeys!










Caleb's cousin, Preston, left his pumpkin at Maemae and Bapa's house. Caleb quickly decided it was fun to tote around.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

The Things a Baby Gets Into

Caleb loves getting into things. I thought I'd show you a synopsis of various places that Caleb finds interesting.


He climbed into Moose's kennel on many occasions. Sometimes Moose was in there with him!




Caleb loves to get into cabinets and drawers.



Don't exactly know how he pulled this one off, but he did.




This is a classic example of what happens when you turn your back on him.



Just clowning around.


Causing trouble at Special Olympics.



Sometimes you only see the aftermath of what he got into.




Boxes abounded after our move.



Caleb loves playing with Mommy's fabric.



He even finds places to crawl into at church. Here he is under an end table.



That's all for now. I'll show off the garden next.

.

Monday, July 20, 2009

2009 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show

Hang on to your hats, this is going to be a post full of color and pictures. For the first four years I knew Andrea, she always went to the Sisters quilt show without me because I had to work on Saturdays. Now, I finally had the chance to go with her.

On the last day of our camping trip, we packed up, but didn't head home. Instead, we headed into Bend to spend time before we could check into our hotel. We stopped at the outlets and went shopping. Then on the way out, I spotted a quilt store! Only the second time I've spotted one before Andrea did (the first time was on our honeymoon). We couldn't stop for long, I can't remember why, but we did go back after checking into our hotel. We then got some lunch, went to a dog wash and washed Kirby (he was DIRTY) and headed to a local park and had a picnic lunch. Caleb played on the grass and loved every minute of it. He crawled about a couple hundred feet from the blanket and then played next to a tree for a while and then crawled back. He was tired! (all part of the plan ;).

The next morning, we got up plenty early. When we went downstairs, I was disappointed to find a lot of other quilters down there getting breakfast before us. I had been hoping we were going to get to town before the epic traffic jam began to build (the backup coming into town is miles long!). I needn't have worried though. We got to Sisters and parked without a single delay. The following is a fraction of the 295 pictures we took!











Quilts are EVERYWHERE. They are hung on pretty much every single business all over town. It's impressive. You would have to spend a considerable amount of time there if you wanted to see every quilt. I believe there were over 1,100 quilts this year alone!











Here is a fraction of the crowd taken from a great distance away.
















Here's a few individual quilts. We took a lot more, but here are some highlights:



This is an Amish quilt. That means, everything has been done by hand. No machines were used to piece or quilt this quilt.


Mother Goose.




This is done by a local quilt artist. This is one of Andrea's favorites.




Sunday, July 12, 2009

Camping to Quilting


Vacation time!! I took advantage of the 4th being a Saturday (a very rare three day weekend for me) and arranged my vacation time around it. This was also partly for Kirby, as he is deathly afraid of fireworks, and Vancouver is a war zone on Independence Day (the first time I was here for the 4th, it even intimidated me). So I stuffed the car full of camping gear, dog, baby, and the wife and headed to Crane Prairie for a week of camping with my folks, and my Uncle Curt and Aunt Marie and cousin Sarah with friend Alex, and Marie's mom Bev. We had a good time, but Caleb had an absolute blast! He loved getting to play with all the new people, especially my parents. They had fun getting some extended time with their only grandchild. This is going to be a long post, so strap in:



Getting to Central Oregon with a baby is apparently no small feat. We had to stop twice before leaving the Metro area, and then stopped twice more at Government Camp and Redmond before making it to camp in the early evening. That night, Andrea decided that we should bathe Caleb in our wash tub. Here's the cute result. He had a blast.



The next day, Caleb really got to go to town. We [reluctantly] put him down and let him do as he willed. Being a baby boy, his will was to play with the dirt and get very dirty! For the most part, Andrea and I just worked on settling in at camp. We got caught up with everybody, and passed Caleb around before setting him on his course toward filthiness.





Andrea wanted to take Caleb out on the lake, and my folks had brought the perfect device for such an activity. Mom got him in and he loved every minute of it. I, of course, forgot my swimsuit. Therefore I was relegated to wading out as far as I could go and getting pictures.




Then it was my dad's turn to hold him. I not sure what they were looking at, but it must have been interesting.





Of course, hard play calls for equally hard naps. Caleb loved taking naps with his Grandma, and this would become a consistent sight throughout the trip.



Day two in camp had us loading up the whole gang and going for a hike. It was the first time I would go for a real hike with Caleb in our new backpack. I think he really likes it, since he gets to be up high, and can see the action, unlike the ErgoBaby, which doesn't really let him look around all that much. It was a hard hike that was supposed to take us to a lake, but we gave it up after about an hour. This was apparently just a really long access trail to a longer trail like the PCT. After getting back to the car, my dad looked at the map and discovered that we were only a few hundred yards from the lake when we turned around! Bummer. We went over to a nearby campground and had lunch. Andrea and I then headed into Sunriver to get some gas.



Apparently riding in the pack is exhausting as well.


Tuesday, we packed up and headed into Sisters so Andrea could go to the quilt store there. The quilt store hosts the outdoor quilt show in Sisters, so on show day it gets really busy. Therefore she wanted to go early and beat the crowds and have some time to shop. Caleb had fun being carried around and flirting with all the old ladies who just ate him up. We then had lunch in a nearby park and headed back to camp. On the way, we stopped in Bend at a pet store. This wasn't just for Kirby, it was also for Caleb. See, he has developed an attachment to Kirby's leash to the point where he gets very upset if we take it from him. So we stopped at Petco and bought him an identical leash, that he now hangs onto as though it were a teddy bear (of course, he still tries to hang on to Kirby's leash too! Oh well, we tried).



At some point on the trip, Mom had a great idea. Their big tent had also come with a smaller backpacking tent. So she and I set it up for Caleb to play in and not get dirty. We filled it with all kinds of things to grab, chew and stand up on (we don't give him true toys because he doesn't play with toys). This was a huge success until he got wise to the fact that we were trying to keep him out of the dirt. From then on, he would only go in it once in a while, and then, not for very long.












Wednesday, we went for another hike with Mom and Dad. This time the goal was to circle a small butte just south of South Sister. The mosquitoes were horrendous! Mom turned back about a quarter of the way through. We labored on and were rewarded with a beautiful, vast meadow at the base of the butte. However, this hike too would be aborted. We climbed higher, and started to encounter ever bigger patches of snow until they completely covered the trail and made further exploration too risky. So we turned around and headed back down. On the way down, Kirby ran after and treed some animal. It was hilarious! He had never treed anything before, and yet he knew just what to do! It turned out to be a pine martin. Pine martins are long like weasels, but have cuter faces, with short snouts and Mickey Mouse ears. Sitings by humans are rare, so this was exciting (though we couldn't get the camera out before it ran off). Good dog Kirby!

Thursday was our lazy day, though we managed to do a lot of work. First, Andrea and I went out in a kayak rented from the resort. Marie babysat while we did this. It was only our second date since Caleb was born. It was great!





Again, Caleb played hard, and then he and I napped hard. Marie got picked up by the rest of the family who had rented a pontoon boat for the day. Andrea and I had camp to ourselves, and spent the time just sitting for quite a while. The chipmunks came out in force that afternoon! They were everywhere. One climbed up onto Curt and Marie's table and made off with a biscuit that was bigger than he was! A group of babies decided they would sniff out the blanket and air mattress that Caleb had been playing on (he had also been eating on it as well). While we were away from camp, one ended up trapped in our garbage bag, and Dad had to cut a hole in it to get it out!








After our naps, it was time for showers and laundry. While Andrea did laundry, I took Caleb down to a grassy area next to the resort's general store and let him play away. Here he is with his leash firmly in hand.



That night, we were treated to a fireworks show that only God could manufacture. A thunderstorm rolled over the campground with constant thunder and lightning. It finally moved out over the lake, and we were able to stand on the beach and watch. I took video with the camera, and Uncle Curt managed to get some photographs. I'll try and post what I got as soon as I figure out how to get the videos off the camera.




Friday saw us all break camp. We got together for breakfast in Sunriver, and then we headed our separate directions. We headed into Bend to waste some time before checking into our hotel room. We managed to first, go to the local outlet mall and use the facilities and shop for clean clothes and new shoes. Then, upon leaving the mall, I discovered a quilt store, much to Andrea's delight. Then, we stopped at Freddies and got directions to a dog wash so we could clean up Kirby. Then we got directions to a local park and had lunch and let Caleb play in the grass again. After checking into our hotel, we went back to the quilt store to do some more shopping. Caleb again received the rapt attention of the ladies there even when he started to throw a tantrum.


Okay, that's probably long enough for today. Tomorrow, I'll show you a small fraction of the picture we took at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.


For those who made it to the end of this post, you will be rewarded with the news that Caleb took his first two unaided steps today in front of his Mae Mae and Mommy. I manage to catch a brief glimpse.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Learning to fall asleep



Caleb sleeping in Nate's lap
Now that Caleb is 10 months old we have decided that he needs to fall asleep on his own. Who knew that this is a learned skill! Tonight was Day 2 of Operation: "Go to Sleep"
He still doesn't sleep through the night but we will work on that after he can fall asleep without being rocked. That is actually the downside of this all - we are no longer rocking him to sleep which was really kind of a nice way to spend cuddle time with him. Caleb is the awesomest cuddler, although now that he is exploring he cuddles less and less (sigh).

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

"tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow..."

So in the past 13 hours, Nate had a mishap with his car and it ended up in the body shop and Caleb ate part of a bar of soap while I was washing his back. What a day!

Saturday, April 11, 2009