Happy Days

Jack is full of joy.

He is discovering new things every day. I LOVE being able to watch him discover new things. Learning how to move things in pop up books. Learning how to wave. Learning to give high fives!

I'm still waiting for him to learn "Mama." He says it on occasion, but "Dada" is his go to word.

He's learning to play the piano.

He loves to play under the kitchen table. I think it's like a little fort for him :)

 Steve is learning things too. 

He's learning Jack dislikes diaper changes first thing in the morning, so he brought in ear protection.

Did I mention he's exploring EVERYTHING?

 

 EASTER MORNING!

Jack found his Easter basket at Grammy and Papa's house!

 Time for the Easter egg hunt!

 Oh! I found something guys!

 Almost got it...

 Got it! And GO!

The best I could do this year for the Easter picture. We've come far in a year. Wow.

(Easter 2014)

 

 SILVER FALLS HIKE

 We got ourselves back on the hiking trail after letting my old lady knees and feet rest up a bit.

 SOOOOO pretty. We got up at 6am on Saturday to make sure we got to the park right when it opened. Boy did that work to our advantage as we only passed 9 people on the trail and it is usually a VERY popular hike.

 Can you see me? I'm a TINY purple speck to the right of the falls. 

 Ugh, just SO pretty. So so pretty.

Can't believe I'd never been here before.

 Family photo :)

 The boys

 There they are on the other side of the falls! The tiny green speck to the left :)

 Cute boy watching the water fall. 

 Can't get enough of the pretty.

 It is SO COOL to get to walk behind the falls. Such a fun and unique experience.

 The last 5 min of our hike included hail. 

But it was beautiful for most of it!

 And we finished our hike JUST in time to make it to Hannah's 3rd birthday party!

Lastly, our studious son. 

He is ALWAYS trying to steal my glasses off my face and has gotten quite skilled at swooping them off in one quick grab.

In an attempt to temper his curiosity just a bit and have him leave my glasses alone, I plopped them on his face.

I think I only accomplished entertaining him, not deterring his efforts.

Well, thanks for reading our life's update!

It's a long one folks!

We have been busy living life lately!

Jack is becoming SO active so we are constantly looking for things to do with him. As a result, we have become way more active!

On this day it was particularly warm and Jack was particularly energetic so I stripped him down and let him loose in the back yard.

 The kids had a good time playing together. 

 Jack wasn't too certain about the feeling of grass. It was his first time to really get down in it and play around. He did a bit of bear crawling to keep the grass off his tummy, but all in all he really enjoyed crawling around in the yard. We can't wait for summer to get outside more to play!

 After playing outside, this little boy needed a bath!

He loves to splash with his hands and kick with his feet and he gets mama almost as wet as he is! 

 He is quite the explorer WHEREVER he is! This kid loves a bath. Always has!

 Clean and happy kid :)

 We whipped out the little lady bug walker toy from Grandma and Grandpa Meliza and Jack had his first ride on it. His legs and balance aren't quite there yet allowing him to scoot about the house on his own, but he sure loved it when Daddy pushed him around on it.

Tryon Creek

We continue our hiking series! 

 On a drizzly weekend in early March we went to explore Tryon creek. We hoped to avoid huge crowds by going in the rain yet still not be too early for the trillium.

 We certainly avoided huge crowds and there was a good amount of trillium making an early appearance to enjoy. Lots of other early spring flowers were peaking their buds and blossoms out too!

 Jack seems to love his backpack! He just rides away on Dad's back and babbles away while we trek.

 Beautiful and green trails

 There was a fun suspension bridge that was perfect for a photo op!

 We had to take a break from hiking one weekend for multiple reasons. 

1) I was on call

2) My old lady knees and feet needed a break. 

3) I needed to try to shop AGAIN for a hiking shoe that my foot would like. The search continues.

 Grammy took Jack to see the Easter bunny while they were running errands together.

Punchbowl Falls

Back to the trails!

 This was my favorite hike so far. The pictures don't do it justice. The mini waterfalls all along the trails were just magical and reminded me of my homeland. Scotland of course. The water was just dripping all along the trail and literally every step of the trail I could have just stood and stared at for a long time. Alas, we had a destination to get to.

But, this picture just doesn't even do the pretty-ness of the trail any kind of justice at all.

 Metlako Falls. A little side jaunt on the rail and pretty falls along the way. 

 Our happy hiker.

 Careful crossing! Must keep my feet dry!

 See that falls behind Steve?

 There she is!

Punchbowl Falls!

 There was so much water going over though that the only way to see the falls was to carefully balance on a little walkway made of rocks people had made to go out to see the falls around the big rocks. 

 Beautiful and lush and just so purdy!

All that walking wore this kid out man:)

And our Bailey girl stayed home to keep the perimeter secure. These hikes weren't very dog friendly and her allergies have been out of control so she has been on house arrest. 

And this picture just makes me laugh. 

Bailey and her bone.

Well folks, I told ya it'd be a long one! If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around to see what we've been up to!

Pittock Mansion

Jack got himself a new present recently. 

It's a fancy-shmancy leisure, I mean, back pack to ride in on family hikes.

We are endeavoring to explore more of our state on foot, and this little hike was our first hike to tackle.

The whole family at the trail head.

On the trail! We lost Jack to a nap the 2nd half of the push uphill. Must be comfy being hauled uphill.

We made it to the top!

 GoRgEoUs!!!

He still didn't wake up immediately once at the top of the hill

The boys

It was a fun little hike and we are looking forward to more!

Sleep Series

Some of the moments I look forward to the most are when it's time to get Jack out of bed. 

He's always in a different position and it's fun, and sometimes funny, how we find him. 

Thought I'd share a few examples.

Must have learned this from his Mama. I know there are pictures of me like this.

I promise this is not how we put him in bed. We lay his blanket nicely over him, not wrapped around his head in a "see if you can survive this" type fashion.

Daddy tried to  get him up from a late evening nap so he'd sleep that night... but he just couldn't keep his eyes open! He was NOT ready to be up. 

I was SO jealous of this cuddle session. Jack doesn't hardly EVER fall while we hold him.

This is how we find him these days. Standing up and not happy to be contained.

Not sure how this was comfortable.

Here he was so tired he didn't move an inch from when we put him to bed. 

Sleeping like an angel.

Is there a boy in there?

Trying the other direction.

This is a morning nap about an hour after he got up (back in October). Steve set him in there to keep him safe so he could finish getting ready for work and he couldn't bring himself to wake Jack up when he went back in and found him like this. I guess little pumpkin toes wasn't ready to face the day :)