New Tricks

Ethan has decided that he wants to be "like mike" I guess that he will be the next air Jordan with his tongue sticking out abilities. Of course, he has yet to master basketball, but that will come in time :) There's also a new picture of an old trick... Ethan and his pacifier stunts. The last picture is of Ethan and his cousin Carter, they are four days apart. It was definitely a difficult moment to capture on camera, they are both just too busy to hold still.

Blackberry Battle Wounds

Yesterday we decided to go for a walk and see if there were any blackberries that we could pick. We went down to the field by our house and there were loads of blackberries that were ripe, so we decided to pick a few. Steve had Ethan on his back in the backpack and was picking right along when Ethan started to make choking sounds. It turned out that he had grabbed a bunch of leaves and shoved them in his mouth (typical Ethan) and was choking on them. Steve had to quickly jump out of the bushes to get to me so that I could get the leaves out of Ethan's mouth. For those of you who don't know, blackberry bushes are ridiculously thorny... I would say they're worse than a rose bush, but I like to exaggerate. So he jumped out and got all cut up from the thorns. At least Ethan didn't end up getting the leaves down, we got them out in time.

Oneonta Gorge Hike

Today we went with our friends Paul and Aliisa to hike the Oneonta Gorge. It is a water hike up a slot canyon to a waterfall, and it was so much fun! We had to do some creative hiking to get Ethan over all the logs and debris that blocked the path, but it was very worth it in the end. After we hiked up the gorge we followed it back down and under the highway to a slough that we swam in for a little bit. Ethan did his first skinny dipping and he had an especially good time. Then we kept going even further and went through some tunnels that went under the freeway and came to the Columbia river. It was a very fun trip, and we got to pick and eat blackberries all along the way.

Getting Ready to Camp

Steve and I are preparing for our trip down the coast in September. There are a lot of things to think about when you are camping with a little one. We have no idea what we are going to do for his sleeping arrangements. So I thought I'd set up the tent and see if his pack 'n play fit in it with room for me and Steve... it doesn't. But while the tent was up Ethan sure loved playing in it. He is just so cute when he comes across something new. We also made a little sleeping bag for him, his first one! It's just a flannel blanket that I sewed together, but it will work for our trip.

Picture Fallout

So these are just some pictures from our vacation home in July. We spent a day up at the ranch swimming, we were in the water for hours and I could have been in for five more hours before I was ready to get out. The bottom right one is of my dad pretending that he is running a gondola... I wish that I could add sound effects to go along with the picture. He was singing very loud in Italian (or what he thought Italian would sound like). It was so funny.

This is a picture from when we were on vacation as well. Melanie captured a beautiful moment here... Ethan is doing his raspberry sound, but unfortunately for him it looks like he is doing his business. What a cutie. The next one is Ethan with his cousin Milo.

These are pictures from when we got home from vacation. We went on a hike to try out our newly acquired baby backpack (which I have already mentioned that we love). We hiked from Horsetail Falls to Triple Falls. There were about four waterfalls to see on the way, and Ethan really loved being carried on Steve's back, where he could grab at his hat or hair and have something really wonderful to try and get in his mouth. At the very end of the hike the bouncing finally caught up to him and lulled him to sleep. I think that he liked it well enough to go on many more hikes.

Baby Proofing

People would bring their kids over to our apartment and I would feel bad for them because I hadn't baby proofed yet, so they run around after their kids trying to make sure that they didn't demolish our little home. Now I am the one that is running around trying to make sure it doesn't get demolished! I have a plan of attack though, I watch him as he crawls around from room to room exploring, and then when he finds something that is not a good baby toy, I try and come up with a way to make sure he can't get at it. I have had to unplug almost everything and hide the cords, I have to make sure all of the closet and bathroom doors are closed; he really loves the bathroom... he gets that from Steve :) I had to rearrange all of the computer wires and cables. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about our wide open entertainment center. He really loves the game cube... he must get that from Steve too :) He pulls all of the books off of the bottom shelves, but I don't have enough shelf space to do anything about that, so I spend a lot of my time putting books back on the shelves. I made a shelf especially for him in his room that is full of stuffed animals and kids books, he spends a lot of his time sitting next to it and pulling things off. We have the cutest boy in the world!

Larch Mountain Hike

Today was a first for me. For a Young Women activity we went up to Larch Mountain, and I took Ethan with me. That's right, I carried him on my back all by myself. Normally this would be a Steve job, but Steve was in school and so there was no other choice. I pretty much only do hard labor like this when I don't really have a choice :) It was really beautiful though. A gorgeous drive through forests (not a good drive for those who get carsick... trust me), and then you get to the parking lot and you hike 1/4 of a mile (please no laughing that I could only carry Ethan on my back for a half a mile... really, It's Steve's job to do the longer ones.) and then you get to the top of the mountain and there is a gorgeous view of five or six other mountains. You can see Mt. Saint Helen's, Mt. Rainer, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood... and one or two others. I'm going to take Steve with me, but next time we're going to hike from there down to Multnomah Falls, and he will be carrying Ethan. Anyway, I really love having this baby backpack, it has been wonderful to finally be able to do the things outdoors that Steve and I love to do. It will really come in handy when we make our trip down the coast too :)