Swim Class

Avery had her last swim lesson of the Winter session this weekend. As a special treat to end the class...the babies got to go on the slide a couple of times. Avery LOVED it!! She's really looking forward to the Spring swim classes now!

Trip to Arizona

We just got back from a weekend trip to Scottsdale, Arizona. We met up there with our friends from Illinois...Brooke and Todd and their daughter Parker, and Ben and Brandy and their daughter Madison. The girls are all just a couple of months apart so it was so fun to see them together.

We got in late Wednesday night, so this picture was taken the first thing Thursday morning when the girls all met for the first time...
We had beautiful weather, so we were outside a lot. Here we are out on the trails by the house we stayed at...
And here are the dad's pushing strollers in downtown Scottsdale...
The mom's took the babies to the Zoo...
Here is Avery's traditional photo in front of the elephants...although the elephant is not in focus at all...

Avery got to wear her favorite monkey dress...which is clearly made for shorter babies...
We cooled down the hot tub to a bath water temperature...the girls loved it!!!
And so did Avery's mom...
And dad...
The guys got to do a lot of golfing...

And we hired nannies so that we could all go out to dinner one night like old times...
Avery was the oldest...and therefore a big bully. Here she is stealing a toy from Parker...
And no, Brooke and I did not plan for Avery and Parker to have matching outfits...but it was a crazy coincidence that we had dressed them in those outfits on the same day without knowing it!
The girls got to play together one last time before we had to leave. Luckily we came back to great Portland spring weather, so we are not too sad to have to leave the desert. But I do miss the hot tub!!

Avery update

Avery's friend Delaney had her 1st birthday this weekend! Here’s Delaney right at the point where the sugar high started to kick in…

And here is Avery celebrating…

Avery is so creative...she’s already finding new uses for things. Here she is playing underneath her exersaucer…
This is Avery's new favorite pastime…taking all the toys out of her basket and then climbing in…

Avery's funny noises

This video is a few weeks old, but it still cracks me up. Plus, it shows Avery saying her favorite word..."baby". It may not be the most lady-like behavior, but that's our little goofball....

Trip to Oakland

We spent the weekend visiting Jon’s family in Oakland, California. Jon’s mom Kathy flew out for the week, as well as Jon’s uncle Ken, aunt Denise, and cousin Megghan from New Hampshire, and cousin Brenna from Washington. Aunt Judy and Uncle Jim were awesome hosts (and tour guides) and we all had a great weekend!

Here's Avery with Grandma Kathy (and mom and dad)...

with Kathy, Judy, and Ken...
Avery on a walk with Grandma...
It was a beautiful weekend...the flowers are in bloom already!
Avery reading with Grandma...

And reading with Aunt Denise...
We celebrated Brenna's engagement...
Here's Avery and her mom (and alcatraz off to the right)...
This is Avery's new favorite game - playing SuperBaby...

Avery and her dad watching the Sea Lions at Fishermans' Wharf...

Avery up high...
One of about 4 family pictures of us that have ever been taken...
We visited Fort Mason, which is where Jon's grandparents lived when Aunt Judy was in high school. It is now a national park...
Here are the siblings in front of their old house...
A picture of the house...

And the view from the front yard....
Avery is very sad today because she is not being held 24x7 like she was all weekend. Here's Avery with Hannah and cousin Kelsey...
Avery and Brenna...
Avery and Grandma...
If all these photos of Avery weren't enough, make sure to check out the next posting to see what Avery learned to do while we were away...

8 months old and doing lots of new things...

Hard to believe Avery is 8 months old already!! She’s growing up so fast! And it’s getting hard to keep up with all the new things she’s doing. Here are a few new milestones from this weekend…

Avery learned to wave “bye bye”! Unfortunately she usually waves after the person has already left…



Since we live in a ranch style house, Avery had never seen a stair until this weekend…but she had no problem climbing right to the top of the stairs at Jim and Judy’s house…

We have had some pretty rainy weather in Portland (shocking, I know), so Avery has not been outside much lately. But while walking in San Fransisco this weekend, we stopped at a little park to feed her…and we realized it was the first time she had really felt grass. She was so confused.
After about 5 minutes of consideration, Avery finally did decided that grass is safe to crawl on. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of this, partly because I was laughing too hard to take pictures by this point at how cute she was being afraid of grass; and partly because once she figured out it was ok, she just took off and my full time Baby Chasing job was back on…

Lazy Saturday...

We are enjoying a relaxing weekend, and today had beautiful weather which made it so nice. Avery’s day started with riding Trot around the house like a horse. We’re dog sitting, so Trot was too tired from playing with his girlfriend Pompei to care about Avery being on his back….


Next we took Avery to the duck pond and the playground....

She really loves riding on the swings….

Then we did a little shopping, which apparently wore Avery right out….