He got some really cool shoes fresh from Italy. He loves them and wears them all the time now.
The celebration was done the week after his birthday, so these two pics were taken on the actual day.
The weekend after his birthday, we took a trip up to Washington and visited a bunch of friends. The main deal was a girls' night out with all my old high school cronies. What a lovely group of ladies and what a fun night. I miss them all and had a wonderful time catching up.
My brother and his girlfriend Heidi were in WA that weekend as well, so we all gathered for a day at the folks' house.
So, then it was off to Coos Bay for Thanksgiving. A pretty low key weekend, which was strong on eating and socializing, but pretty weak on the adventure front - no midnight mussel gathering or crabbing in the torrential rain and winds. In fact no crabbing at all, if you can believe it. It started out a very rainy weekend, but we ended it with some very sunny days. We were able to do the normal cliff walk with some moderately impressive wave crashing and a great day out at the dunes. Fun in the backyard. This kid is going to be an adrenaline junkie. We'll take him bungee jumping next year.
Gracie can't get enough of the dunes. She reverts to puppydom while there.
Cam couldn't get enough of them either. He cried so hard when we had to leave.
At the bay down the road. What a gorgeous day.
The week after Thanksgiving, we took off again, this time to Colorado. Carl's family-in-law had a week at a condo in Steamboat Springs (aka fancy ski resort) that they could not use and was going to expire, so he and Tory generously invited the Bauer clan to use it with them. So we ventured once again to the skies with a young one. This time a walking, much more active kid. We were leery about the trip (the getting there and home part), but excited for some potential Colorado powder and time with the fam.
We had a ridiculously early flight out of Portland, so we stayed the night with a friend who lives close to the airport. Everything went smoothly. We were hoping with the early flight, Cam would crash once on the plane, but not so. He was awake and way too alert for way too long. Thank God for food and books as distractions. He only had a few grouchy moments and only got a couple annoyed looks from surrounding passengers, but eventually did sleep a bit.
On the way to the baggage claim in Denver, he had his first moving walkway experience:
We met up with my brother, sister-in-law, and mom on route to Colorado Springs (about 3 hours away from Boulder and Denver), and caravaned the rest of the way. Paul and Heidi showed up later that night driving all the way from Utah. The condo was great. Spacious and cozy at the same time and literally in the back yard of the slopes. The bummer part was the weather. It hadn't snowed in a while, and the hills were void of practically anything but man-made snow. Of the 30 or so lifts only 4 were open and of the 300 or so runs only 30 were open (I have no idea the real numbers, but it was pathetically barren). Needless to say we did not ski - just couldn't fork out that kind of money for ice packed slopes. Also, this was the week the entire Western half of the country was in a wicked cold snap. So while it was in the 20's back home, it was in the 0's and 10's here in Colorado. Crazy cold.
Outside the condo:
We made the most of it, and while we missed out on some of the grander adventures that my brothers and their girls went on, we still got out. It was a challenge with Cam and the cold. Babies don't exactly like mittens nor can they tell you if they are cold, so you spend a lot of time bundling to go out, and most of your time out fretting if baby is cold or not, then a lot of time consoling when the baby breaks down at the end of the outing.
He got better with each outing, but never loved the snow like we thought he might. At first he wouldn't even stand up out in it. He just crumpled, losing all muscle tone as his feet hit the snow. This was a nice, but brief moment of happiness.
Kids are a great source of entertainment.
Eating is always nice.
In video, a recap of the weekend at the condo:
The day before we were scheduled to leave and drive straight to the airport, we were checking the weather and saw many dire warnings about a massive storm about to hit and potentially close all roads out of the area for a day or so. So, we packed up and headed out a day early and crashed at Carl and Tory's place in Boulder. We left the babe with grandma for a while and took a nice day hike in the snowy hills on the edge of Boulder known as the Flatirons (same place we went in the summer). Another bone chillingly cold day, but a beautiful hike.
The rest of December, we laid low around home. Had a quiet Christmas at home with a couple potluck meals - one at Merv and Carolyn's and another at Melody and Dwayne's Eugene home. We were pretty skimpy on the whole Christmas Day celebration for Cam - again, he doesn't know any better. We gave him two simple gifts - the more expensive one he could care less about. Of course.
Our Christmas Card photo:
Would have been a great photo if it wasn't quite so bright.
Loves his books and blocks.
And his bus. A great find from Grandma.
Corrine and the kids have moved to the East side of the mountains so we hardly ever get to see them anymore. They did pay us a nice visit just before Christmas. I know I say this every time, but I can't believe how big her kids are getting!
For New Years we went out to the John and Jenn's place on the coast again. We've done this for the past three years. John was down in Pasadena this year though watching and photographing the Ducks in the Rosebowl, so they did not join us. We were ready for a weekend away, so we we went ahead without them. There were record high tides this particular weekend, as was evident by the roads as we approached Florence along the Siuslaw River.
It was mostly rainy, but we had some nice breaks from it and a few nice outings. Cam as usual, loved the times down at the beach and in the dunes.
The rain and tides left some crazy foam. And a broken ladder.
And since then, we've been carrying on with life. Work for me has been mostly good with only the occasional crisis. I've been able to get off early quite a bit lately which, as always, is good for tucking Cam in at night but bad on the paycheck. Keith and Pat have stayed busy with a couple substantial projects. Busy enough to warrant putting Cam back in daycare twice a week. We had to change daycare centers as our old one is no longer willing to work with flexible schedules. With Melody and Dwayne up here each week watching him on Tues and Wed, we only need two half days a week at daycare for now. We like our new place - the building is more spacious with better play areas for the kids, but man, dropping him off is the pits. Everyone assures me he does fine all day and Keith says he is perfectly happy when he picks him up, and get this - he naps longer there than he does at home! But man he cries when I let go of him and hand him over. It's that frantic, horrible I-can't-breathe cry that just breaks my heart each time. Granted, sometimes he stops crying before I can even get to the door. But still. I want to be the one that picks him up! Do kids ever get used to that and not cry when you leave?
Meanwhile, I've been able to get this blog posted and my house clean and my laundry done and a full night's of uninterrupted sleep because my sweet husband took my sweet boy to the coast with John and Bea for the weekend. I have had two days of quiet. I haven't changed a diaper in 24 hours. And I spent last evening sharing a bottle of wine with Jenn while we cooked, chatted and watched a movie. And I miss my boys and am ready for them to be home. Life's funny, isn't it?
A couple random pics from January. Until next time!
What a sweet face.
Oh the puddles!
Gracie is at her happiest when Camden is eating.
He is very proud of himself when he makes his way up onto the chair. Luckily he hasn't been tempted to climb up on anything else yet, and can get himself safely down.
Reading in his chair. He is such a talker now. He will try to imitate almost any word you say. His latest words are apple, mama (finally!), and boots.
Who couldn't love this face?
And a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure.
