The moms' idea, the babies' plan, and what actually happened.

It's been so nice out here in Bellingham this week. Foggy cold mornings that open up into bright blue skies and sunshine! I love it. It makes me appreciate the sun even more especially after all those dark rainy days. My back has been all wonkey this week though, so I didn't get out as much as I would have liked. So Becky and I decided that yesterday would be the perfect day to take the ferry to Orcas Island and take a small hike to the top of Mt. Constitution, the highest point in the San Juan Islands. I have only been to Orcas once, when it was dark, so I thought this sounded like a great idea! The hike was only supposed to be about 2 miles round trip, so I thought my back would be fine for this. We checked out the ferry times and made our plans. We would pack up the boys after their morning naps, drive down to Anacortes take the noon ferry to Orcas, hike up to the top of the mountain, check out the gorgeous views of the entire Puget Sound, take some photos, and then go home on the 5 pm ferry. The boys would be home in time for their 7 pm bedtime! Great idea! Well... it didn't go exactly as planned :-)

We made it to Anacortes in time. The babies were a little fussy but pretty good. They were super excited to be outside in the sunshine. But then they wouldn't nurse. Too much going on. We got on the ferry. It was nice and quiet. The sun was shining. They had some avocado for lunch. Becky and I ate something. They still didn't eat much. Of course when we got off the ferry it was close to their nap times and so they fell asleep on the 20 minute drive from the ferry to the parking lot of the hike. When we got outside and parked, where we thought the hike started, it was cold, the babies started crying and the sign said 1.8 miles instead of 1.0 miles. We looked at the clock and thought, we can still make it in time. We got Corbin and Brody all dressed in their snow suits, hats, mittens, and put them in the packs. They weren't too happy at first. It was cold and windy out. Below freezing. No sun in the shade. Then we got on the trail. The sign then said 2.2 miles... hmmm... I guess we can still make it. We plugged along... then we hit snow. Yep. Snow. The trail is on the North East side of the mountain and thus does not get too much warming sun. So now we were slowed down by snow. In our tennis shoes. With babies on our backs. Below freezing temps. My back hurting. Me being out of shape. Get the picture? We sang some songs, pointed out what we were looking at, for the most point the babies were in a pretty good mood. Corbin fell asleep again. We continued on in the snow. Some parts of the trail were right on the edge with a steep drop off and snow. I was a little nervous especially since my back was hurting me, so I didn't feel as stable. There were some pretty amazing views. You could seem Mt. Baker, the islands, the plains of the Skagit and Nooksack rivers. It was gorgeous! We finally made it up to the top. The boys started crying again. It was cold and windy. We tried to get some pictures. We climbed to the top of the tower and got another couple take our picture. When we finally looked at the time it was already 3:30! Yikes! It had taken us almost an hour and a half to get up. And going down wasn't going to be much faster because of the snow. And we still had almost 20 minutes to get back to the ferry. And my back was really hurting now! So we loaded the boys up again. Corbin was not happy with me. He was cold. He was tired. He cried a lot more going down. He finally fell asleep for a little while but then got jostled awake when I went I got kinda stuck in the snow. He stared crying harder. We decided to go out to the road at the parking lot that we had meant to start at and walk down the road, which would at least be snow free. Corbin lost his hat and Becky was too far ahead of me to get her to put it back on. So I had to move him around to the front to both put the hat on and to comfort him because he was pretty upset. Which made me go even slower because now I had this 18 pounds in front and my back hurt and their was still snow and so I had to watch my step around Corbin... ahh... When we finally got to the road it was 4:30. We tried to book it as fast as we could. Could we make it? We tried to rush and throw the boys in their car seats. They screamed at us... the clock said 4:45. There was no way were were going to make the 5 pm ferry. So...

We nursed the boys. Called and found out that there was a 7pm ferry. Decided to go into town and get some food and then go to the ferry. When we finally got into town, found a restaurant, changed the wet diapers, ordered our burgers and beer, fed the babies, watched them be happy to be out of their packs, we somehow forgot about the time again... I looked at my cell phone and it said 6:41! Ahhh... Becky shot out of the restaurant, I paid the check. Corbin and Brody screamed to be in the car again all strapped in. We got behind a slow truck, passed him, and then pulled up to the ferry dock as the ferry was pulling away. My phone said 7:02. Shit. After the shock of not only having missed one ferry but now two. All we could do was laugh!

The next ferry was at 9:10 pm. But it went to Friday Harbor on San Juan first finally getting into Annacortes at 11:15 pm! There was nothing we could do but wait. At the ferry dock. We changed the boys again, screaming of course, got back into the car. Called our husbands. Listen to them laugh at us. Let the babies crawl around the front of the car wanting to touch everything. Becky finally got Brody to go to sleep but not Corbin. No he wanted to be awake. Too much excitement! He pooped again. And then finally let me nurse him to sleep as the ferry was getting there. We finally got on the ferry with the babies asleep on our laps. You think the adventure is over... but no... The ferry left. Only to stop and idle in the middle of the water and then turn around! Yes, turn around! A car had not gotten off! So we had to turn around and go back. 20 minutes later we were on our way again... We successfully transferred the babies to their car seats so we could be free to go to the bathroom and get water. We finally saw the lights of Anacortes. And here was our final bad timing decision. We thought we would buckle them in... well they woke up and screamed and we were still not at the ferry dock. One baby would cry, then the other. It was a comedy of errors. Once we were on the road they finally fell back to sleep but not without some pretty sad crying. Wow.

What an adventure. Corbin was finally home in bed by 12:30. Moms' idea of a fun time and the babies were different. They were troopers. We made it and now have a story to tell.

7 months

Corbin was 7 months old on Sat.! I know I have said this already but time is seriously flying by! Here is a little update of what he is doing now. He is scooting army crawl style all over the place now. He can now get wherever he wants to go. He still hasn't figured out how to go gracefully from sitting to being on his stomach. Sometimes he falls over and sometimes he gets really frustrated because he wants to get sometime but can't quite get there. He does use your legs or a stuffed animals sometimes to lean over and get onto his belly. He of course goes straight for the things he shouldn't have like shoes, cords, the fire place, the dog dishes, wine bottles, and Brindzi's toys. He has 3 teeth. One on the bottome and two on the top. It's very hard to get a picture of them. I need someone to help me get him to smile his big toothy grin while I take a picture. When I try myself, all he wants to do is grab the camera. He has figured out how to click his bottom tooth to the top and grind them! It sounds horrible! It's so cute, his little bottom tooth fits inbetween the gap between the two on top! His other teeth are bothering him and so he has been a little cranky pants lately and has had lots of baby tylenol. Food is going well. His favorite food by far is avacado! We tried an hard boiled egg yolk from our chickens the other day. He wans't too fond of it. We will try again later. We might try yogurt this week. He had peaches this morning for the first time. His sleeping is going well again. He is still waking up once a night for a feeding. Which I am ok with right now. He is such a skinny guy that I figure it's good for him to have an extra feeding. He is sooo distracted and active sometimes that I can't get him to nurse much sometimes. He wants to be moving around ALL the time and everything distracts him! I am trying to pump after I feed him so that I keep my milk supply up. He goes down for a nap most of the time without nursing! I miss nursing him to sleep for naps but it really messes up his feeding schedule for the rest of the day. He still nurses at night before going to sleep. He made the sign for nurse last week! It was pretty cool! Nurse, more, kitty, dog, and sometimes all done are the only signs I know and so I use them when I can. So that is what he is doing these days!

Army crawl

Looks like Corbin could use a hug!

Ha! He's gonna get you!

Kicking up a storm

Two teeth erupted in Corbin's mouth this week. About the same time as all our stormy weather here in Bham. He has one little bottom tooth and I thought his other one would make it's entrance any day. He was rubbing things on his gums like no tomorrow and cranky. Then at our Baby n me class I had him upside down and I saw that his top two teeth were cutting and he had little blisters! The next day they fully popped through! He won't let you get a look unless he is upside down! Then he just opens his mouth and smiles! It's pretty cute. I know you might not be able to see too much in this shot but now he no longer has a gummy smile :-)

He is also perfecting his army crawl. He can go and get a toy. He is doing some yoga positions like plank and a lazy down dog. That butt goes up in the air but then he doesn't really know what to do with his knees. I went down to Babies R Us with Daylen and Luca to get baby proofing stuff. Yow. Baby gates, plug covers, etc. My plants have all been evacuated from the living room floor and are now living in new and higher ground.

And then tonight we went swimming! All that kicking around he does on the living room floor finally had a purpose! He was talking up a storm while looking at the water and once he got in, he splashed about. We did things like grab for toys, throw them and then go float to get them, sing songs, have them float on their backs. Corbin floats about as well as Adam, which is almost zero. Then we all had to get out of the pool because a baby pooped! So we go in the big people pool which was colder but they still had fun! Corbin and Brody were turning blue but he never once fussed, even when Adam dunked him! Twice! I think we might have a swimmer on our hands! I was in the pool too so I only got a couple of pictures.

Wow, that is like a really BIG bathtub...

As some of you might have heard, I guess we made national news, we had some flooding and landslides this week here in Bham. All the school districts except Adam's and Blaine were canceled on Wed. and Thursday because of flooding. Whatcom Falls was roaring!

Baby in motion

The end of 2008

Ok. Get ready for a lot of pictures! This is what happens when I don't get to post for a week. Or just that I take and post a lot of pictures :-) We are finally home and glad to be, although we had a great time with both of our families! Corbin's first Christmas was really fun. We got some really great time in with aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, and friends! Corbin got some really fun new wooden toys including some second hand blocks and a train and some great books. There was also a monkey theme, since he is my little monkey! Corbin also had two slightly tramatic events. He was too quick for us and grabbed a hot bowl of soup on Christmas Eve and burned his little hand. It blistered but he is now almost completely healed! It was hard on both of us for about a half hour! But then he hardly seemed to notice it. And we learned our lesson of what happens when you don't lable food in the fridge and make your own baby food. I had made him some apricots and my mom put them away so when I went to take out the apricots the next morning, I just went for the organge food in the tupperware. Later he became really constipated, in pain, grunting, sweating, crying, and then finally pooping! The next day when I went to take it with us both my mom and Adam said "that's not apricots, it's canned pumpkin pie filling!" Oh no! Now we know why he felt so bad! Of course it had things in it he probably shouldn't have but he survived and is all better now! Poor little guy!!! Now I need to lable my homemade baby food!

I wanted to start the tradition of reading him the "Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve. This book was given to me by my paternal grandma on my first Christmas.

My dad got out his rope and made up this great stocking hanging system using rope and a ladder behind the mantle so that we could all hang up our stockings!

Grandma knitted and felted Corbin's first stocking for their house!

We walked around my parents neighborhood in the snow on Christmas Eve. It was so beautiful out!

Jed and Kara finally made it! They had to fly into Sacremento and then take the bus to Medford where my grandpa Dan picked them up and drove them the rest of the way. All the crazy weather everywhere made it quite a LONG trip. Of course their luggage didn't make it and in fact Kara didn't get hers until they went back to Seattle to fly out!

We built some snowpeople out on the deck. Even mom helped!

The next day, when my battery was dead, they started leaning. Over the next two days the one on the right tipped into the other one and then they finally fell over.

Christmas morning!! Corbin's first stocking!

Oooohhh a monkey. I think I will put it into my mouth!

Jingle bells and some socks! Wow!

Adam in his new Seattle Sounders Jersey.

Yeah, a whole box of blocks for me to put into my mouth!

Some new books.

The bows are fun too!

We went out for a Christmas Day ski and stopped at the warming hut for some cheese and sausage. Yum!

Our skiing family! The benefits of having a former US Ski Team member in the family are many. He not only passes down all of his old clothes for the rest of us to wear but he doesn't need to bring any of his ski stuff with him which is good because with no luggage, it would have been hard to ski. Kara just used my mom's old skis and boots. And the second good thing, was that Jed could again ski with the Chariot in the deep powder instead of Adam. We thought they would have groomed after teh 6+ inches of snow that had fallen but no... so unfortunately only Grandpa, Kara, and I were on classic skis. So the gowing was slow. But it was still fun!

Here is Corbin's first tooth!

More Christmas!

Corbin and the boys, playing games of course!

We decided to host our Second Biennial New Years Eve Dinner. We grew by almost 2x as much this year. We missed Sabe and Tom but had lots of fun! We invited 14 of our friends to come over for New Year's to celebrate. Adam made a 6 course Spanish meal out of his new cookbook, 1080 Recipes. We spread the meal out over several hours, babies going to bed, waking up, eating, drinking wine and hot buttered rum.

And Corbin is moving around like crazy. This video doesn't do him justice. He is all over the place. Today I set him down in the Kitchen and when I cam back he had dumped Brindzi's water dish all over the floor. I REALLY need to baby proof I guess!! He is going to be crawling in no time. He can move around and around and backwards and tries to get his butt up in the air. He moves his little legs sooo fast. I can only imagine how fast they will go once they hit the ground!

Happy New Year! Who know what this year will bring! It was a pretty amazing 2008. I am looking forward to all the new things that will come in 2009.