A message from the H man.

Crawl? Me? No way, man! How about I flex as hard as I can and then when I don't magically move, I'll scream and and scream and scream. How bout I just move right onto walking. In fact, if I could just borrow two of your fingers, I'd be happy to walk around the house all day long. If not, I'll just cruise along the couch. Watch out, I'm going to be a big boy before you know it!

Up Where There Ain't No Air...

Jake has new teacher orientation tomorrow. It feels like we have been waiting for this day forever. Or maybe it's only been three years. Bring on that paycheck, baby. Bring it on.

While we had closed our books for family adventures this summer  up in Jackson, Jake still had a little something up his sleeve. And by a little something, I mean he wanted to climb to the top of Utah's tallest mountain. Now don't worry, it was only 13,528 feet. Children's play, really. And yes, he did ask me if it was okay if he left me and the child alone at home while he attempted this solo venture out into the wild. He took advantage of my hesitation in answering the question and before I knew it, we were buying Cliff bars and dried fruit for his 30 miles out and back adventure. And while his pictures are glorious and I was a bit jealous of his accomplishment there is no way my sea-level and very out of shape lungs would have ever made it to the top.

Cool as a cucumber at the top of King's Peak...never mind the 700 foot drop off behind him.

And now some amazing panoramas. It's true, this kid can shoot.

Anderson Pass

Gunshy (unofficial name) Lake

Gunsight Pass

King's Peak Summit

And now it's all about the work. Work, work, work!

Gettin' Out of Town

As one last hoorah before Jake heads into the land of first year teaching, we decided to venture up to Grand Teton National Park for Henry's first camping trip. Unfortunately, it was so smokey that  most of the time it was hard to believe that we were surrounded by mountains.

A glimpse at Mt. Owen.

The little man did great and slept soundly for two colds nights out in the "wilderness." I, on the other hand, barely slept the first night as I was sure he would wake up at any minute screaming his sweet little head off and thus waking up the whole campground while I frantically tried to scramble out of my mummy bag. Really, really glad that didn't happen.

Happy Little Camper

Henry's Camping Chair

Morning snuggles with Dad.

Although the mountains were attempting to hide in the smoke, we still hoofed it up to Inspiration Point and completed Henry's first six mile hike. 

Happy to be at the top and out of the carrier!

Jake's description on his Facebook page sums up our trip perfectly:

"First camping trip with Henry, done and in the bag. Grand Teton National Park including a 6 mile round trip hike. Final tally, 15 people said "Beautiful blue eyes," 7 people said "you're so brave to bring him out here," and maybe a couple gave us that look that says, "No, not a baby out here!"

We are so pleased that so far Henry is adapting to outdoor lifestyle and are excited to continue exploring this new state of ours.

Eight Months!

It's hard to believe this little man has been ruling our lives for eight months already.

Henry is hard at work trying to figure out this whole crawling business. He is not content to sit in one place any longer but can't quite figure out how to efficiently move. As you can tell, he is not pleased  about this.

He  saya "dada" and "mama" all day long and has now added clenched fists and a red face to his high pitched squeals.

Most days you can find Henry dumping baskets of toys all over the living room floor, pulling himself up on any available individual and winning hearts.

Love you baby boy!

Wyoming oh Wyoming

It is true. It is true. We have landed ourselves in one pretty little place. Emphasis on the little. And, okay, emphasis on the pretty too. While my longed for Targets and Old Navys are miles and miles away, the wide open spaces of our new town are remarkable. I'm pretty sure Jake is convinced that we now live at the doorstep of heaven.

A mere five minute walk from our couch...

And a ten minute drive...

It's not too shabby here, folks, and thank the good Lord for online shopping.

Henry Meets the Sand

Before we left Oregon, I had to visit the coast one last time.  It was a gloriously sunny day, but as the Oregon coast so often is, it was crazily windy. We were on the beach just long enough to walk down to the water before a certain someone started to crank and let his dissent for the wind be known. I was actually pretty proud of myself for lasting longer than the baby.

Here's the H-man attempting to feast on sand.

The smiling babe, so happy that mom and dad found a sandy spot that wasn't in that blasted wind-so what if it was actually in the parking lot!

And the video. If you're not a grandparent, you might want to skip it. And, yes, it requires you to tilt your head to the left. Sorry!

The Chill Life

On our way to Mountain View, we stopped in Lakeview for three relaxing days of pool fun. This was Henry's first experience in water that wasn't toasty bath water and we weren't quite sure what his reaction would be. Would he dip a toe in the colder water and turn up his nose like his mother would do or would he dream of running into the water like David Hasselhoff (his father's favorite approach) no matter what the temperature was?

So, you tell me, did he enjoy the water? We can't quite decide, but man is this kid cute.