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)

Just Keep Swimming

We have our sixth broken bone in six weeks...

This little guy is so cute.

I am counting each one of my fractured vertebrae separately to sound dramatic, but poor Linus just broke his arm last week as he dove off the changing table when the babysitter turned her head. I think he felt inspired by all of our Olympics watching. It was very sad. And the babysitter felt very bad.

But now he remains as happy as he can be, hobbling around on his splinted arm. What I cannot believe, is that he is going to be ONE YEAR OLD in just 2 weeks! That is crazy.

It has been quite an interesting 2 months, but my back is healing well, and the summer is coming to a close. Here are some pictures for all to enjoy!

Eating the one block Calvin would let him play with. Calvin has gotten a little more generous with his sharing over the last month or so.

He began pulling up a few weeks ago! He is very proud of himself.

I love love his blue eyes.

At the Fiesta Days parade. Calvin requested a green cat face painted on him.

Our pumpkin patch! Tyler is afraid it is going to take over our yard. I can't wait for all of our pumpkins in October!

It's my job

I love being a stay-at-home mom. I also love being a freelance stage manager. Every year, I work on Stadium of Fire, and it is always a wonderful week of hard, hard work. I thought the show was especially good this year- especially the fireworks. I ran the stage this year and had a blast doing it. The Beach Boys put on an exciting show, and while most of the Beach Boys and their band took off right after their set, Mike Love stayed backstage with us and enjoyed the fireworks. Scotty McCreery and his band also had a great set and were wonderful to work with. I never get a chance to take too many pictures, but here are a few from show day.

Decked out in my SM Gear

Taken during the fireworks while ash and fallout was raining upon me.

Hanging out backstage with the host, Alex Boye

Birdcage Makeover

It's not really a makeover post unless you see the "before" pictures, but I forgot to take them. :(

At the last fleaology sale that I told you all I was very excited about, I found a great bird cage and metal stand. They were separate pieces, but I knew they'd go well together and look great in my living room. I spray painted them both with a hammered gun metal grey finish and affixed the bird cage on top of the stand. The combination was something that could easily have been sold for at least 3x what I paid for it. Yay for being cheap!

Calvin and I each made a bird to go in it.

Catchup

I have so much to update, but it's always a matter of getting my pictures and such in order. I will make a concerted effort this week to update though. Things that are happening:

Stadium of Fire was such a great show to work on this year!
Linus is almost 11 months old. (Crazy!)
I got in an accident and got 5 fractures in my spine...

So, things are a little crazy right now. I will begin playing catchup soon.

Tulip Fest

I didn't use to like flowers all that much. Maybe it's because I grew up in Arizona and didn't really see them much or maybe it's because I was a determined Tomboy for  most of my life. When I went to Japan, that all changed. Flowers run rampant there. On Hokkaido, I saw fields of lavender and tulips and dozens of other flowers I don't know the names of. Everyone's front yards were painstakingly maintained and absolutely beautiful.

I remember very clearly one day as I rode past a house in Hakodate whose lawn was filled with tulips. Hundreds of tulips of all shapes and sizes and colors covered the lawn. I was speechless. It was beautiful. I actually started tearing up and taking pictures like crazy. I noticed that my indifference towards flowers had definitely changed. 

  

Every year the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point comes and goes. I have always wanted to go, but I always miss it. Not this year. This year, my friend and I went and it did not disappoint. I wish I had a better camera.