Catching Up on the Last Month

  

We enjoyed a family hike with fellow Baby Boot Campers to the top of Multnomah Falls at the end of August.  It was a good hike and an even a better work out carrying Desmond.

  

Desmond walking around the zoo.  We forgot the stroller and he LOVED his freedom!  Des and I visit the zoo often with our friends Gina and Addison.  The kiddos really enjoy playing together.

The strange rash Desmond broke out with after eating hummus – which he’s had before with no reaction.  He also broke out like this after eating a cinnamon sugar pretzel.  Hmmm.

  

Fun at the state fair!  Desmond’s favorite part was the corn bin.  He did NOT want to get out.

 

Playing at home: This week I pulled out my little table and chairs from when I was a kid.  Desmond thinks it’s so cool.  He also loves carrying around the new Twistables crayons.  He doesn’t color much yet, but at least he can’t eat them now.

Getting Into Everything!

You didn’t need this magazine, right Mom?

Finding my favorite tunes on the radio.

Walking is the best thing ever!

At least Mommy got her shower in while I was occupied.

He’s Walking

Desmond just started walking!  Last week he could take 2-3 steps at a time.

And now he can walk all the way across the living room.  We’re very proud of our little walker!  I guess running is next… for both Desmond and Mommy.

Bridge Pedal Birthday

Sunday morning we joined with the Lees (and about 20,000 other bicyclists) for the annual Portland Bridge Pedal.  Since we had the kiddos with us we only did the 14 mile 6-bridge ride rather than our usual 38 mile 11-bridge ride.  It took us an hour and a half.  Desmond snoozed the first half of the ride and then rode with Addison for the second half.  We look forward to doing it again next year!

    

Sunday was also Davin’s birthday so we celebrated with cheesecake and root beer floats.  His mom and brother are also up from California to join in the festivities.  It’s been great having them here, and Desmond has really enjoyed his Grandma Linda and Uncle Shane.

 

Panda Bear

On Saturday we went to the Scan One company picnic at Oaks Park.  They gave us a few tickets to use and since we couldn’t go on any of the rides as a family, we decided to play a midway game and see if we could win something fun.  Davin triumphed and won a big prize for Desmond and he’s been nearly inseparable from his “Beh” ever since.

 

Desmond is One!

   

I decided to make a beach ball cake for Desmond since he LOVES his beach ball… or any ball for that matter.  When he woke up the day of the party he pointed to the cake and said, “Ball!”  Yay, he likes it!  His party was themed around beach balls including the plates and favors for the younger guests.

    

The highlight of the party was Desmond eating his first cake and ice cream.  (Okay, we actually gave him his first taste of ice cream on his actual birthday, but his first taste of cake was right here.)  At first he didn’t know if he should touch it.  Then he picked up a piece and took a bite.  Then he wanted more!  We ended up giving him seconds on both the cake and ice cream. 

He received lots of presents although he didn’t really know what to do with them.  The older kids were more excited than he was, but he’s loving playing and using all his new things at home.

Happy birthday, Desmond!

Google being evil ... slightly?

So, I was looking at Google's homepage in IE8 today and I noticed something funny. I was curious, so I decided to open up Google in the other major browsers to see if the funniness followed. Nope! Only in IE. Below are screenshots of the major browsers (save Google Chrome of course). See if you can spot the difference. I realize that Google can do whatever it wants with its one home page(even though Microsoft can't do what it wants with its OS, but don't get me started) and granted IE has its faults, but this seems a bit mean to me ... especially since I was using IE8, which is the most standards compliant IE to date(meaning the features that they have implemented conform to industry standards). What do you think, is it "evil" to sinlge out one competing browser in this way?

Firefox:

Opera:

Safari:

IE8:

Five great years!

So, this year was Melissa and my fifth wedding anniversary.  It has been a really good five years.  I am so blessed to have her for a wife.  So, this year I decided to make her something.  The traditional gift for a fifth anniversary is wood (not sure who made that up).  Anyway, so I was trying to think up what I could make her.  After much contemplation I thought it might be cool to make her a headboard.  We’ve never had one and have wanted one for a long time.  I also thought it might be nice to have a matching footboard.  Well, then I figured if I make a headboard and a footboard I might as well add two side rails and complete the whole frame … see how these things get out of hand really quick. :)

I talked with my martial arts instructor, Dr. Kutz, because I knew that he is really good with wood.  I asked him for some help and he agreed.  I told Melissa that Dr. Kutz agreed to give me some one on one help.  She thought it was for my black belt test, but really it was for the bed.  So, on Saturdays I would go for two hours to work-out at Multnomah … or rather work out at Multnomah, where I was keeping the materials.  I also took three days off of work, but Melissa thought I just went in to work those days.  I even had to get dressed up in to work close before I came home so she wouldn’t suspect.  I also had the 3rd of July off of work as a vacation day, but Melissa didn’t know that. :)  Anyway, I worked a lot on it here and there.

Anyway, this is the fruit of my labor.  It’s the first time I have attempted something of this size.  I think it turned out well considering that.  Melissa likes it very much … I’m glad.  It took me about 50-60 hours to build and about two months.  I’m sneaky!  I do have to give credit to Dr. Kutz for helping me do the cuts and giving me lots of great advice, LeRoy Lee for helping stain and setting it up, Don Willert for helping stain and lacquer, and Shon TenKley for letting me keep the materials and tools at the Wilcox House.

Below is video of Melissa’s reaction and a slide show of me working on it and some pictures of it set up in our bedroom.

5 Year Anniversary to Remember

We’ve been looking forward to celebrating our 5 year anniversary for several months.  It was my first time away from Desmond for more than 4 hours, and though I was a bit anxious about that I was also very excited!  A 2-day vacation from being a mom for the last year!

Saying goodbye to the baby for two days at Nana and Papa’s.  (He did great!)

Instead of crying like I thought I might, I felt giddy!

 

 

The highlight of our trip: dinner at the Space Needle on the evening of July 17th.  It was exactly five years ago to the hour that we said our “I do’s”.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Dining high above the skyline of Seattle.  We rotated around two times during our meal.

   

Appetizers: clam chowder and spinach salad, dinner: seafood trio, and dessert: ice cream and Marion berry cobbler.  We had to document this food since we paid a ridiculous amount of money for it.  Davin’s “lunar orbiter” dessert was quite the show stopper.

 

 

 

 

 

We saw the sun set as we had dessert.  Perfect.  Then we went up on the observation deck to take in the nighttime views.

 

  

After glorious uninterrupted sleep we spent Saturday walking around Seattle and finished the day with my first ever drive in movie.  It was so much fun!  How refreshing to be carefree for a little while.

 

We’re already dreaming of our next mommy and daddy get-away!

Desmond in July

Here are a few Desmond pictures from the last few weeks.  I can’t believe my baby is almost one!  Where did the last 12 months go? 

Playing at the park after Baby Boot Camp and just chillin’.

  

A trip to the zoo!  He loved riding the train.

     

Last Sunday I dressed Desmond while Davin was getting ready in the other room.  Was that planned?  Nope, but too cute to miss taking a picture!