a Northwest Jaunt

Many of you know how much I love the Oregon Coast. Well, I pine for it more and more these days ever since a dear friend of mine moved to the Portland area. I saved all my pennies over the past year and skipped town for a weekend to visit! I had already cancelled this trip once due to an unfortunate back injury... but I was not going to be stopped this time!

Linus got to come with me since he still flies free, and it was such a nice break from the norm. Taking care of one baby is enormously simpler than taking care of a baby and a 3 1/2 year old who thinks he's 20. Calvin and Tyler stayed and had some nice daddy-son bonding time.

Linus LOVED the plane ride. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited. He just kept looking out the window and giggling. He was SO tired, but wouldn't close his eyes for a minute. He just grinned like this the whole way.

Kate hadn't been to the coast yet, so we made our way there. First stop- Tillamook, of course.

As we arrived, we posed the babies for a picture. It didn't seem strange at the time, but now it looks as if they were going to tour the factory alone. We want to do a separate blog about the adventures of two one-year-olds travelling the world together.

my Baby Loaf

Cannon Beach. Joe with his pail and shovel. And Linus with a handful of sand about to enter his mouth.

Linus is ever observant

A rare sighting of the tracks of Babyis Mobilis

Hmm...where can I find more sand to eat?

Windy, wonderful Cannon Beach

And no trip to Cannon Beach would be complete without clam chowder from Ecola Seafood. I love that place.

We visited the Lahsenes as well. They are always such wonderful hosts! (Here is Adrian, Susie, and Jake. Marcel is not pictured)

My wonderful cousin Susie

Jake and Linus always seem to really hit it off

And of course, a DOUBLE RAINBOW to signify the end of the trip!

I had such a wonderful, relaxing time eating delicious food and playing with amazing friends. The four days went by so fast- I wish I could've stayed longer. But I did miss my Tyler and Calvin. It was good to come back home. Maybe we just need to all move up there.....

Linus had a birthday!

I cannot believe it. Linus is one year old. This year has gone so fast! It's crazy!

Here are some stats:
Height: 28 1/4 (5-10%tile)
Weight: 19 lbs 8 oz (5-10%tile)
Head: 45.4 cm (25%tile)

People think since he's chunky that he's really big. He's not really. He's chunky all right, but he's still pretty small for his age. He's just a shrunken chunken. I love it.

The cake.

We made a six layer cake from an idea we saw on Pinterest. It was so fun and colorful and I was so happy with how it turned out!

This is his favorite toy "Socks" given to him last Christmas by his Aunt Kayla. He LOVES this little guy. He gave me the idea to make a colors cake.

Party Time with good friends!

And now, here's a bunch of pictures of the birthday boy eating his cake! (that's all you want to see on a 1st birthday post, right?)

He was pooping colors for days.

I love this boy so much. It is so strange to me, but he is so different than Calvin. By Calvin's 1st birthday, he had so many tricks primed to impressed any onlookers who would give him attention.  (He's still this way)

Linus, on the other hand, does not seem to have any urge to perform or impress. He's happy and content (unless he needs to voice his opinion, in which case he screams loudly). He thinks and observes and does things so subtly and gently that you will miss them if you turn your head for a moment. He is so cuddly and loving and would be content just snuggling with me for hours. His favorite thing to do besides snuggling with mommy is watching and playing with Calvin. Calvin can make him laugh more than anyone else in the world. They are the cutest brothers.

He also likes:
playing in the toilet (if you see him headed into the bathroom and he notices you approaching him, he'll bump his crawl into overdrive frantically trying to get to the toilet before you can stop him, giggling all the while)
putting things into the toilet
flushing the toilet
unrolling toilet paper
putting things into shoes (he's like Sinterklaas, filling the shoes of good little Dutch boys and girls with goodies)
eating bread and bananas (he'll eat anything, but if either of these things is visible, he won't stop shouting until it is in his mouth)
sucking his thumb (we may pay for this later, but right now it's so cute how he calms himself down)