The child-proofing begins

Josiah's started playing roly-poly on his bedroom floor.  He no longer just flops around on his blanket.  He rolls until he can't go any more.  Just a little while ago he bonked his head into the bottom of his little rocking chair.  It left a red mark but it's already gone.  So now there is a blanket in front of the chair.

Next thing I know he'll be crawling!!

6 Months

Josiah turned 6 months this past Tues.  Wed. he had his check up and shots. We also started him on rice cereal that night. Below are two videos of his first tasting. I'll warn you ahead of time the first one is about 3 minutes long and the second is about 4 minutes. I didn't edit them because one, I'm not really sure how and two, I know our families want to see it all. If you are not family, don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing.  He makes some pretty good faces in the first video, so you don't miss much not watching the second one.

More cuteness...

Two post in one day!!

I should be getting supper started but...

The first weekend in Oct we took advantage of the beautiful fall weekend and went camping up along the North Shore of Superior.  We didn't get to the campground until after dark only to find out they were completely full as were all the other state parks along Superior!  Apparently you had to reserve a site 3 weeks in advance.  We just don't work that way.  Thankfully there were two forest campgrounds just down the road that had plenty of space available.

That night the temperature went below freezing to somewhere between 25-27 degrees.  It was cold but I surprisingly stayed warm if I didn't move, Mike didn't have as much luck.  Usually we have the aid of sleeping pads to soften the ground and keep us warm but yours truly didn't pack them!!  So we did not really enjoy our sleeping that night.  You're probably wandering how Josiah did during his first below freezing night.  Well, he didn't sleep as good as normal but probably because he was too hot!  We had that little guy wrapped up snug on top of a folded blanket and sleeping between us.  So we didn't end up staying another night since we didn't know what the temps were going to be.

I think Mike was more than eager to get out of the tent in the morning to get the fire started. We had a great breakfast of skillet hash: eggs, tater tots and bacon all cooked in bacon grease. 

 It was good and rich!  You can only get away with that when you're camping.

Hanging at the campsite with Dad

We enjoyed a nice relaxing morning cooking breakfast.  When we finally packed up, we went driving.  Usually Mike's not up for this, but he was that day.  We ended up driving to Ely.   Ely is a popular place due to it's proximity to the Boundary Waters, which is a popular canoeing destination in MN.

We ended our drive back at the state park we were going to spend the night.  We went for a short hike along the Baptism River.  

The fall leaves were pretty but we only saw one really red maple, the rest were birch trees and evergreens.

The following weekend was the University of Sioux Falls 125th Anniversary.  This is where Mike went for his undergrad and is only one hour past his parents house.  We stayed at his parents for the weekend and went to Sioux Falls on Sat to visit with Mike's college friends and one of his professors.  We had a good time visiting.

So that catches you up on our events. Somewhere along the way Josiah started sitting up.  He doesn't have any teeth yet but I keep checking.  Two boys born a few days before and after him have their bottom teeth in.  Mike and I didn't get any teeth until we were at least one, so I'm hoping he'll be the same way.

One more post will get you caught up to the present!

I'm a slacker...

I keep telling myself I need to post more often.  By the time I sit down to do another post there is sooo much that has happened I don't feel like going through it all!  It's been over a month since the last post! 

Well here's brief summary of what has been going on: (I have to read my last post to see where I left off)  Ok, ok, it's been WELL over a month since I've posted! (Now I'm looking at our calender to remind what has happened, sad.)

Not long after Josiah and I returned from TX, Mike and his brother went on a road trip out to California to go surfing for a week.  They only surfed for a day but took the week to travel, they hit several places on the way out to to CA: Vegas, Zion, and Hoover Dam.  They had more planned but they aren't as young as they used to be.  While they were enjoying themselves out on the road, my mom came up for the week.  We had much planned also but didn't get it all in.  We did go the Science Museum to see their Omnitheater movie about the Great Lakes.  The following day we drove up to Duluth for the day.  I always love going up there.  Lake Superior quickly became one of my favorite destinations since my time at Honeyrock.  We drove along Skyline drive above Duluth and ran into alot of bird watchers.  Early Sept. is when the hawks, eagles and other raptors start migrating south and Duluth is the place to watch.  We also went down by the harbor and watched a freighter come through the canal under the lift bridge.  It was really neat to see it up close.

Here it comes...

Closer...

There it goes under the lift bridge.

As you can see it was a beautiful day!

Josiah was mesmerized by the water.

I think this is the most sun he's had in his entire life, can you tell?

Josiah is waking up from his nap, so I'll stop here and try to continue during the next nap time.

Only in Texas...

is every other vehicle a SUV or bigger and can you go to a Mexican food restaurant and have the waiter ask if you want tea, water or Dr. Pepper!!! Man, I missed Texas!!

Josiah and I just spent 10 days down in Texas. We flew down the Tues before Labor Day and came back last Thursday. We had a great time and he did really well flying. I'm sure all the business men and women on our morning flights were excited to see me walk in with a baby, but thankfully he slept the whole time!!
The first few days we spent time in Abilene with my grandmother, Dad and Lauren. During the weekend we spent time with our Labor Day crowd (all of mom's college roomates and families, who we've gone camping every LD weekend before any of us kids were born). This time we stayed in a hotel which I didn't mind since it was hot! I've been spoiled by being up north already...
The last few days we spent with my mom in Dallas. My good friend Bethany also got to meet Josiah, we had a good visit with her!
And were able to see my Aunt, Uncle, cousin and her family. Here's some pictures from that visit:

Josiah, Lisa and cousin Ben

Cousin Ben was nice enough to let Josiah use a swim diaper, it worked even if a little big!

He didn't like his first time in the pool but...

he adjusted, you know he doesn't mind if he's chewing his fingers.

Josiah, Ben and Ben's older brother Kyle.
Three blue-eyed stud muffins!!

During this busy but fun month, Josiah started rolling from his back to his stomach and grabbing his feet!!

August was a month of many firsts:

• boat ride
• plane trip
• time in TX
• swimming
• rolling over
• grabbing feet
• getting licked by a chihuahua...just kidding Mike!!
• sticking feet in Lake Superior
• meeting friends and family
  

WOW! August flew by....

I'm not even sure where to start but I'll try to catch you up on everything we've been doing! I'm at Panera enjoying ME time and catching up on this blog.


The first weekend in Aug. we got together with Mike's college friends and families at a cabin north of here. It's seems everyone has cabin up north in MN, they even have a weekend cabin weather forecast on the evening news. There were six families that came from Minnesota, Wyoming, Illinios and Iowa. We slept outside in a tent and went to sleep to the sound of loons and people talking around the campfire. The weather was absolutely perfect, warm enough to swim during the day and cool enough at night to wear pants and sweatshirts! Josiah went on his first boat ride around the lake, he didn't say if he liked it or not? I already new most everyone or had at least met them once, but it was really nice that two other mom's had little guys too. We had a mini la leche group! I didn't have to hide away while I was feeding Josiah, instead got to talk to the others a lot.

The following weekend went camping again with one of the couples from the previous group. They where one vacation the whole time and we met them up in Bayfield, WI. We went berry picking at a farm up there. Bayfield is right on Lake Superior and by the Apostle Islands. It's a beautiful area that would be great a great place to live if you could stand the harsh winters! Funny thing is this time last year we were pregnant but didn't know it yet! So technically, this is Josiah's second time to be there. This is us last year!!

The blueberries were huge and very tasty! And the weather was a lot warmer! Here's some more pics from this trip this year:

Full moon coming up over Lake Superior and Madeline Island

Blueberry bushes

Some berries where the size of quarters!!

Blue Vista Farm

Our happy little guy!!

Josiah in Mike's hat...

Wyatt in Mike's hat.

After all that fun, we drove home with the driver's side window down because it broke and with a faulty driver's seatbelt buckle! So we took the slower scenic route through WI.
Mike has spent the last few weeks working on the Explorer. All these things and more would quite working right after we bought new tires!!! The Chilton and Hayne's manuals and Joe's salvage yard have become Mike's new best friends! By the time we're done, the Explorer will be made of more used parts than original. Also each of the used parts have come from every state we've lived in minus Idaho.
Okay time for a new post...

Josiah meets Chewie

What better way to celebrate a 3 month birthday than to introduce our son to Star Wars. The funny thing is we're not huge, huge fans, we just grew up watching the movies.
The Science Museum has a Star Wars exhibit going on right now. They have all the original costumes and model ships used in the movies. It was neat to watch how they filmed the ships flying and how they came up with the sound effects. Since CGI wasn't around back then, they were creative in making the movie.

In the omnitheater, a special effects movie was showing on how they made the model cities in Star Wars and how they blew up the capital in Independence Day. Josiah added his own special effect to the viewing. We went Monday night so very few people were in the theater. We sat away from everyone else so I could feed Josiah while we watched the show. Mike was burping him afterwards. Josiah's special effect was too much for the disposable diaper and Mike's hand, shirt and pants were the back up. As Mike was laying him down in the aisle for me to change him, he discovered the extent of the effect. He was a little grossed out and I was laughing a lot. Afterwards, he just shrugged it off being in Dad mode and we finished looking around the exhibit.

This is Josiah smiling at me while waiting for Dad to wash off in the bathroom. He's smiling cause he knew what he did!