Bumbo!

Need I say more?

Guilty

The Charges:

Obsessively watching the sales at every local grocery store: Guilty.

Clipping coupons: Guilty.

Shopping at odd hours of the day or night to get these deals: Guilty.

Going through the checkout line multiple times because your shopping cart is too full the first time: Guilty.

Making your wife mad because all you bought was cereal. 70 boxes of them. GUILTY!

Please present the evidence.

Please bring out the guilty charged.

Sentenced: To eating cereal every meal, every day, for the next 6 months. LOL

Preston's First Campout

Will was a proud dad this last weekend.

Preston got to experience his very first outdoor adventure. And what an adventure it was!

We went to the Ward Campout Friday night. Although I don't think Will considered it real camping since we arrived with everything in our car instead of hauled on our backs.

The weather was nice and warm when we first arrived. We had a scrumptious dinner of sloppy joe's, hot dogs, beans, salads, desserts, chips, etc. (standard pot luck campout dinner). Then as the night grew darker, the temperature dropped.

We bundled Preston up in a blanket, a hat, and put him in the Baby Bjorn all nestled up next to Will for bodyheat. He slept through the festivities of family skits.

Many people made the comment to us that we were so brave to camp with our 2 and 1/2 month old. I couldn't really figure out if that comment was out of shock/horror for bringing him out into the night air, or adoration/admiration for being brave enough to sleep on the ground, in a tent, and with a baby.

Well, pre-baby, Will and I were really big on camping. Almost every other weekend during the summertimes would involve some type of outdoor excursion from camping, kayaking, or backpacking. This would be no different...right?

But we were soon to find out how brave we were...

We headed back to our little tent around 9:30pm and this is where the true test began. Our little "2 Man Tent" was now 2 plus baby. It was a bit tricky trying to figure out how we would place Preston to sleep. We couldn't let him sleep with us on our airmattress because we were afraid we would roll onto him and squish him during the night. And because we didn't expect the temperature to get so low (and for there to be so much dew on the ground), we couldn't just let him sleep on the ground with blankets.

So we brought in his carseat and loaded it up with blankets so it was cozy for him.

The next hour and a half involved the following routine:

- Feeding him....and then him falling asleep with us on the air mattress during feeding
- Carefully trying to pick him up and put him in the carseat without him waking up from the bouncing of the air mattress and the squeaky noises it would make
- Putting him the carseat only to have him wake up 30 seconds later and crying.

- Since our "2 Man Tent" doesn't have any walking room, we can't stand up to bounce and shush him, so we have to try to do it while sitting on a wabbly air mattress.

- Still crying, so handing him back to Mom for another short "Dream feed" to get him to sleep.
- Start routine again.

Luckily our neighbors also had a baby and she was crying too, so we didn't feel too bad. And Preston's cry was a lot quieter too (2 month old lung size compared to 12 month old). But given how tired Will and I were, and how old the "routine" was getting after a few times....we were sure glad when Preston finally decided to conk out and go to sleep for reals this time.

And sleep he did...he slept all through the night and didn't wake up until 6 am the next morning.

We awoke to a nice fog cover. Will took off around 6:30 to go mountain biking, while Preston and I snuggled in bed for another hour and a half until breakfast at 8:00am.

After breakfast the ward had a host of "Olympic" events to participate in. Will and I were in charge of two different events (see picture below).

Overall, it was a fun filled weekend and we are glad we took the little guy camping. We are contemplating going camping this weekend for Labor Day at one of our favorite spots. I'm not exactly excited about our tent size anymore. But I don't think we will be getting a new tent any time soon, so I may just have to suck it in and be tough! LOL

Here's to many more adventures with our little guy. Welcome to our family Preston! This won't be your last adventure we promise.

Little Scooter

Here is the other video I was trying to post on the last blog but Blogger was having issues. I wasted forever waiting for it to upload and then I got an error. So I'm youtubing it this time.

This is a new skill that Preston has recently acquired, and we're not so sure we like it.

He scoots.

Scoots himself almost right off his changing table, scoots himself around my lap while I'm feeding him, and almost scoots himself right out of his swing and bouncy chair. We have to strap this kid down! He might not be able to roll over or crawl - but he can scoot!

The 2nd half of the video is Preston "talking". Too cute!

p.s. I just uploaded to youtube at 5:45pm so it might not show up til later.

Us Lately

Well, it would seem it is getting harder these days to find the time to post individual blogs about the various things we've been up to, so I've been resorting to "Week in Review" blogs that ecompass anything and everything. Although somehow I do manage to find time to write almost daily on my personal blog (aka my girly journal, I guess), so what I should say is that it is getting harder to find the time to keep up on both blogs all of the time.

So, this is not just a week in review, but more like 2 or 3 weeks in review.

So this is us lately...

Will

Will has been busy doing what he does best - working hard at his job, taking care of Preston and I, and duh - adventure racing, trail running, and backpacking. I think he has been meaning to blog about his recent adventures, but his evenings lately seem to involve releiving me of Preston instead of having his own time to actually write the blogs. So I am helping him out with the blogging part. :) And babe, thank you for helping out too when you get home from work.

Last weekend Will went backpacking with his friend Aaron up to the Rampart Lakes in the Cascades. This was in the same area as he went last year.

While I was semi-jealous I didn't get to go along with them (I had girls night with Aaron's wife, Erika instead since she is 8 months pregnant and frankly I'm not in shape to go backpacking yet either), I wasn't jealous of how they had to hike up in the extreme heat.

Here is a shot Will took of the temperature gage on his watch to show how hot it was. They were hoping for cooler weather up in the mountains, but found no relief.

Poor guys.

Just a few more shots of them hiking up

And, obiously somebody was having fun with their headlamp and the shutter speed on the camera. Awe shucks honey, thanks for thinking of us while away on your little boys adventure.

No that is not the sun. That is actually a full moon. Will was sad that they didn't get to see many stars, but he got some really cool pictures of the moon.

And then just some more beautiful shots of the scenery up there where they hiked.

Will also did another "Adventure Race". For those not familiar with adventure racing, it involves a combination of a few different sports and you are timed. Will could tell you about it better than me, but he had to mountain bike, run, do a little orienteering, and um...I think that is it. Sometimes these types of races will involve a water sport as well, but this one didn't.

He was the 2nd team (although his team consisted of just him) across the finish line, but ended up getting 12th our of 35 teams because he choose not to attempt the pro course. He said the sad thing was, he got lost and ended up on the pro course for over 15 minutes but did not realize it. He still has to work out those navigation kinks. He also came up with a team name that is fitting for him: "Lost One" (he said, and I quote "It has multiple meanings, I get lost a lot, I'm a team of one, could also be replaced with Last One as that is where I usually finish).

Here were his race results: http://beastrace.com/2008-BEAST-4-results-ss.htm

Will came home that night with a sprained ankle. He rolled it because he started the race and forgot to tighten his shoes. I think he also injured the same ankle again about a week after that. Ouch.

You can see Will's youtube videos of his adventure races by going here.

Will also went backpacking with some of the guys from our ward. They went up to Rachel Lake. It was about 12 miles. He says they got fogged in. Here are a few pictures from that trip with Videos again on Youtube.

Some other adventures Will has not had time to blog about:

- At the end of June he ran a 30K race at Bridle Trails State Park 30k. He hadn't run a race since May and said he wasn't quite ready for this race. He had an IT Band issue on his right knee after 10k, hurt the next 10k, then had to walk/hobble the last 10k. Preston and I went to see him for the last portion of that race. He said it was his worst performance he's had, but it felt good to run. Here are his race results: http://www.bridletrails.org/Assets/Bridle_Trails_Fun_Run_2008.pdf?varRaceID=943

- He hiked McClellum Butte after work and climbed 3,500 vertical feet with two guys from ward, Mike R. and Greg G. Weather was perfect. Great 360 view of the surrounding mountains and Mt. Rainier.


View Larger Map

- Next adventure???? He's wanting to fastpack (hike, jog) a section of the PCT Pacific Crest Trail from Steven’s pass to Snoqualmie pass. 75 miles long, 13,000 feet of elevation ascent and 13,000 feet of descent. Over 10 ridges/passes and goes by 20 alpine lakes and their are no roads intersecting the trail along the 75 miles. He's crazy. And did I mention he wants to do it all in one shot, no sleeping. He says it will take 36-48 hours. That's if he doesn't get lost or eaten by mosquitos. He's hoping for sometime in September when ankle is better, and before the snow returns. Right now he's just waiting for my approval. Am I crazy to let him do this?

http://postholer.com/gmap/gmap.php?trail=pct&lat=47.580231&lon=-121.257477&zoom=10&vw=4&

Jenni

I've been busy trying to get back into music and juggle motherhood. I am really enjoying being a mom, but am still trying to figure out how to become balanced in everything. I find that by the time Will comes home from work I'm so ready for a break I just hand Preston off to him so I can have my arms free again, that I sometimes forget that Will needs attention too.

We had our first date last weekend together without Preston and that was really nice. Hopefully as he continues to get older, and can entertain himself more and more, Will and I will be able to spend some better quality time with each other again. I think this is normal though - as I've talked with a lot of my girlfriends. It seems like everyone goes through a phase of trying to still have time for each other but your both so busy adjusting to taking care of a baby too.

I already mentioned that my mom and I are getting started on a collaborated album together. I've already almost finished the Brahms Lullaby, and next will be working on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We each plan to write 5 songs for the album - so a total of 10 songs.

I also just finished recording some instrumental versions of some primary songs for a filmmaker that is putting together a LDS version of Baby Einstein. It was pretty easy - took me about 3 days to do.

I've been working out every day. I have only missed 2 days in the last 5 weeks. I have a long ways to go to get my pre-pregnancy body back, and sometimes its really hard to look at myself in the mirror but I have a beautiful reason why I look this way. :) The girls at church do aerobics every Mon/Wed/Fri and so I also just started going to that as of last week. It is a lot of fun. I'm also up to 3.8 miles now (walking). Will and I are going to do a 5k race before the end of the year and so I'm ready now. :)

I also just started teaching piano again as of last week. I just have one student for the rest of August, and then in September I will have all 6 again.

Preston

What a joy he has been! He has started smiling lately, coo'ing (talking to us), and I think I even heard a giggle out of him yesterday. He can bat his arms and hands at bright colored toys and can follow us with his eyes from longer distances now. He just had his 2 month checkup this morning and here are some pictures from that...

At home before leaving to head to the doctor's office

At the doctor's office just before getting some shots

Right after the shots

Me right after the shots

Will came to the appointment for moral support. I held Preston last month when he got a shot and it was so hard. And today he was so happy - just smiling and looking at us. It is an awful feeling - to see them looking up at you and trusting you and then WHAM they get a shot in their leg. Preston's face got so red and he let out this heartbreaking cry that said "Mommy! You betrayed me!".

Well, that's what it sounded like to me. lol.

We have a big boy though! At 10 weeks old he weighs in at 14 pounds, and is 23 and 1/4 inches long. He is in the 90% percentile for his weight, and the 75th percentile for his height. And it looks like those baby blues are here to stay. I'm glad because they are my favorite.

Here are some other recent pictures and then a couple of cute videos at the bottom.

Will didn't know I was standing behind him taking this video...it was too cute.