Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Fourth

We took an extended trip for the fourth this year. We started off Thursday and headed to Corvallis for the afternoon and dinner. Granny Nanny had the baby pool out in the sun with a little water to get it nice and warm for Oliver. It took a little while to warm up to the idea but then he had tons of fun! After we took his suit off, he decided that would be a perfect time to sit down in the water, in his clothes. We learned that he is modest. Granny took off his wet clothes and diaper and he started freaking out, crawling and trying to go inside. Finally I picked him up and carried him in while asking if he wanted to put and a fresh diaper. He said "K" (his new favorite word for Yes.) laid right down on the floor, let me put on the diaper and was instantly happy again!
 
 
Daddy had to fill the cups up for Oliver so he could dump them in the pipe.
A butterfly that decided to join us, ont he Butterfly bush no less...
 
Henri at 11 weeks.
 
Larger than life.
After dinner we headed over to Gramma and Poppa Rick's house for the night. After a rough night for Oliver (went to bed at 11, woke up at 4:30am), we packed up and make the trek to Williams, Oregon.
After some visiting, a little snacking and a little wine at Auntie Steph & Uncle Larry's, we drove into Jacksonville for dinner. The rest of the family went to a concert at Britt and we drove back to Pacifica (where we were staying and Great Gramma Lou and Great Poppa Joe's house.)
Oliver fell asleep in the car and made a seamless transfer from car to crib.
Then Daddy grabbed his fishing pole and headed to the pond for some fly fishing.
The amazing deck.
 
The Pond (view from the deck)
Part of the garden.
 
Oliver had a lot of firsts this weekend. One of which was riding/driving the golf cart.
  
Red, White & Blue.

Red.

Blue.
This is how Henri was after I laid him down from a feeding. He looked like and Old Man and like he was flashing gang signs at the same time...
 
Another new thing Oliver did was going into a real pool. He didn't swim, only stood in ankle deep water.
 
He met another little girl who just turned 2. Her name was Malia also but spelled different, Maleah I think... He was pretty smitten.
  
He made another friend, Demetrius , who had a Nerf gun that shot little darts. He had so much fun watching him shoot it and even helped retrieve the darts. I had to snap this picture of him standing with his hands on his hips.

Hambone.

Starting the fireworks.
He LOVED the fireworks so much and he sat still for almost the whole time. He learned to say "oooooo" and "Woo Hoo!" and clapped for all of them.
On a side note: the other day at the park the water park came on. There are a couple of fountains that come out of the ground and look a lot like the fountain fireworks. When the water hits the pavement it makes a similar crackling sound. Oliver had run through the water when one of these came on. Next thing we knew he was sitting on the ground, feet out in front of him saying "oooo" "woo hoo!" and clapping...he thought it was a firework show! It was so cute I was laughing so hard wishing I had my camera.

  
Watching with Daddy.

  
  
  
  
 
Gramma thought that Oliver should try out some sparklers. He LOVED those too!
  
Lighting the sparkler.

Sparkler!
Both boys did really well on the trip and it was nice to get to see family that we only see a couple of times a year. We hope to go back down in September but with Graham's new job we aren't sure what his schedule will be.
Oliver's vocabulary also grew by leaps and bounds this week. Or I guess that was last week! He now says Book, and brings books to read. Answers either No or Kay to questions. And has started making more phrases, like Where'd Daddy go? It went Away. He tells you when he is out of drink, All Gone. and always Stuck. He picks up on words ending in K really well. Walk, Book, Stuck, Yuck...Many of his words are getting much clearer now but he does have full conversations where you can not understand a word he is saying!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bon Voyage

Sunday we took our first trip as a family of four to Corvallis for Uncle Max's going away party with the family. Graham's Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Arthur traveled up from Klamath Falls as well as his cousin Tia from Ashland. 
 
Great Uncle Arthur & Great Auntie Jennifer
 
 
Cousin Tia & Oliver
(Graham took this picture & I love it! I myself had some fun making it look oldy timey...)
His grandparents, now Great Grandparents, Ab & Myrna came down from Salem and his Aunt Sara from Eugene.
 Great Grandma Myrna & Great Grandpa Abner
(i just now realized that we didn't get a single picture of Great Aunt Sara...or myself for that matter...)
There were four generations of Chaney/Waldron family members gathered together and we had a great BBQ feast. 
 
Granny Nanny & Henri

3 weeks old

  
Fresh and Clean Roxy!

 Discovery of the water dish.
 
Granny Nanny & Poppa J got Oliver a kiddie pool to play in but unfortunately he is currently hating being in bodies of water. I am hoping that this will change this summer, how else will I keep him cool AND entertained?
Cousin Tia came to the rescue and showed Oliver a fun way to play with the water. Kitchen utensils and measuring cups were brought out and a storm pipe was pointed out. How fun to fill up yout cup and walk to the hole to dump it out! Who would have guessed?
 
  
 
After dinner and dessert, that family all took off and we headed to the park. Max, Graham and Max's childhood friend Philip, played some frisbee and Granny Nanny walked around with Oliver. He also had a great time being tripped and attacked by Uncle Max!
Henri and I hung out in the shade as he slept after his afternoon feeding. 
Poppa J joined us once he finished his "chores".
 
  
 
 
  
 Here are 2 short videos. The 1st is Oliver with the water transfer game and the 2nd is showing off how he can copy the big boys with a frisbee. At the end of the video he drops the frisbee and squeals..this is his way of saying he wants to be chased...
Since we knew we were coming down, we took the opportunity to see our old friends. Emily, Alex and Caitlin met us at the park and a bit later Chad and Marci joined us as well.
By about 6pm Oliver started to melt into Monster Mode and finally everyone else got to see what I am refering too. So often I am told how good and sweet he is, which is is about 90% of the time, but there are those days...
He hadn't really napped the past two days, didn't take one on the drive down or sleep well the night before. As my Mommy friends can confirm, when little ones get over tired it is actually harder for them to get a good nights sleep. Graham put him in bed at about 6pm to try to get him to take a nap. he cried for quite some time and was asleep by about 7. 
Henri woke up a bit later and Chad and Marci were finally able to see him awake and with open eyes!
After he went back to sleep, Graham and I got our first adult outing in I don't know how long! It was a quick trip for some late night pizza!
We were both exhausted as well since we got to bed late, and up early as we left the house by 8:30am to fit in the errands we needed to do before getting to the party. We were ready for bed by 10:30. (this is soo early for us as Graham is often not home until midnight...)
He was going to sleep up in his old room with Oliver and I was going to sleep in the TV room with Henri. We both went to our beds and as I was getting mine situated, I heard Oliver crying. He woke up almost as soon as Graham opened the door. They both came down and we put in the insurance policy, Wall-E. Oliver's mood instantly perked up and he sat sweetly with Daddy, his blankie & a banana. It didn't last long and soon he was pushing buttons on teh DVD player. I woke Graham up and they headed off to bed. I wasn't sure how he was going to get him to sleep, I usually end up sharing the bed with him when we stay there because I don't let him cry it out once every one is asleep. Luckily he just cried for maybe a minute and laid down and went to sleep!
Monday we had the house to ourselves. Got up a little later than normal and took our time getting ready. We stopped at the other Chaney boy's work site to say a final good bye to Max who we probably won't be seeing again until Christmas.
Then off we wereback home...

Friday, January 2, 2009

Christmas Whirlwind 2008

This Christmas felt more like a whirlwind than past years, although Graham did have to work on Christmas Day last year. We drove back to Lebanon on Christmas Eve night and actually got there by 2am and in bed by 2:30. The roads in the metro area we just wet and it was smooth sailing until Woodburn. From there to Salem was just pure black ice. There wasn't much traffic but the Fast Lane and Middle lane were filled with built up snow and ice so everyone was staying in the only clear lane. It caught us off guard and Graham found out we were on ice when the cruise control went crazy making the car slip. Once we knew we were on ice it was smooth but slow going until we made it through Salem.
We got up about 8am that morning and opened presents with Nama and Papa Rick. Oliver was really starting to get into it and LOVED his new wood play cube but was and still is weary of his new Tickle Me Cookie Monster.
(I forgot to take pictures until we made it to the Elder Chaney's house)
Next we all got ready, packed up our car and drove over to my Grandma & Grandpa's house for our Christmas morning Brunch. Some of the family had never met Oliver or had only met him once last November. He actually did quite well and wasn't too shy and loved being the center of attention. He even tried drinking out of a cup, a pretty funny sight if you ask me!
We couldn't stay long there as we had to make it over to Granny Nanny and Poppa J's house for dinner and to see Uncle Max and Miss Esa who had just drove up from Quincy.

The Chaney Tree. Very cone-like and not the traditional Chaney Family tree...

After opening presents and stockings, Graham's Aunt Sara and Cousin Erica arrived from Eugene (and San Diego) for dinner. We had a great time catching up and Erica got to finally meet Mr. O. 
We had a great dinner and I found that while I was distracted by a needy toddler, Graham was torturing Esa with the camera...
 
Miss Esa.


After dinner, and the torture, Graham passed out on the floor in front of the fire.
 
Daddy passed out on the Dog Bed in front of the fire.

Moved to the couch and not happy about flash photography.
  
Uncle Max teaching O how to play with his new toys.

 
O wearing the T-shirt from Uncle Max and playing with his new toys.
Cheeseball.

Finally we got to see Chad and Marci in the evening and visit for some time. We ended the night with a very loud and fun game of Scattegories and a few choice words being thrown around...Unfortunately we had to get up early in the morning to drive back to PDX for Graham to go to work but we were able to get some more visiting in on Saturday and dinner at the restaurant. I once again forgot to take pictures but we all had a great time being pampered by the Chef and Sous even though we had a stressed out cranky baby to deal with. Miraculously, at dessert, my sweet little man came back, calmed down and stopped throwing fits. Since then he has mostly been back to his happy sweet self. Who knew?