Visits

On their way to Oregon for all the festivities, Nana, Vatti and Bridgett stopped by for a few days of fun. It was nice to have them around to help with the boys and to do lots of fun things with us. Though Gavin will vote not to go to "the German Restaurant" next time Vatti comes to town, he enjoyed having people to color with and play games and plenty of people to wake up in the morning.

The pregnant lady heads to Oregon

At the last moment that any good medical professional would allow, I headed to Oregon last weekend with my sisters to do some celebrating and sight-seeing. Schatzy had never been to Oregon and with Duane relocating it seemed like the last chance any of us would get in a while. One husband decided early on that he would stay home with his kids, and the other two quickly joined in that decision, so we girls were able to fly up to see Duane and Natalie- kid free.

The first day we hit the coast. The weather all weekend was chilly, but we enjoyed one hour of sun and next to no wind during our Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock stop.

Heidi, Schatzy and Me

Dad chasing our new nephew- Reginald (aka Reggie)

We added a DMD to the family resume... and only had to sit through the 2 hour ceremony to do it, oh yeah, and those four rough years of dental school.

We visited the Rose Garden.
And had lots of fun times and slumber parties with this fabulous girl.
We made a stop at the Portland Temple.And finally enjoyed a great party to celebrate the marriage, graduation, and moving of Natalie and Duane.

Besides all of that we even crammed in some truly Portland moments like a trip to Saturdays Market, and a walk down the water front that included a cop on a bicycle searching out which park patrons were in possession of "the really sweet weed," that we could all smell. It was a great time and helped me to realize how super pregnant I really am, and how much I love my siblings.

He's Finally Done It

After Christmas, Gavin started talking about wanting to ride a 2-wheeler, but was basically too nervous about falling. For his birthday we got him a set of pads to ease his mind. Finally at the beginning of April, Caleb was home and we had few minutes on a Saturday morning to get him riding. He did great the first day and if we helped him start he would go up and down our half of the block. Then freakish weather set in and he didn't ride for a week or more. The next time I took him out he was worried about if he should wear his knee and elbow pads, but I didn't want to find them and told him he was riding well enough not to need them... My big mistake. 10 feet after he started he rode up a small hill in the neighbors yard, he had forgotten that he had to steer, and then dove off onto the sidewalk. The end result was a super skinned knee and a mean mom trying to make him ride again. It might have worked, but the moment he got a good look at the blood that started to run down his leg, he processed to scream his head off. Then had to go home and cry it out for 30 minutes. It was not pretty. Since he wouldn't ride again for a few weeks due to the skinned knee and the snow that we kept getting, by the time he agreed to ride again he also would only ride if "Dad is here to help me." It seemed to annoy him that I couldn't hold his bike up and chase him down the street in my pregnant state.

Finally, after all of this, and several practice sessions with Dad running along next to him for moral support. He has overcome all fear and scabbed over knees and is finally riding, and doing it all on his own. He even wants to be the one to strap on his pads and helmet when he rides. We have taken full advantage of the elementary school play area to ride many many laps in the last few days. He keeps wanting me to invite people out to see him as well. And I will not be the one to tell him when I think it is safe to leave his pads off to ride... I can't shoulder that kind of blame again.Hurray for perseverance.