shamrock

Friday, August 28, 2015

Portland Land

In June we made the trek to Portland to visit Jesse and his family!
Leo did pretty well overall for such long drives in his car seat. We employed several tricks with food and distractions to try to keep him happy; half of them worked some of the time :)
Yes, I covet that mini.

We can never get enough of the forests and greenery of the Pacific North West.

Dr. Jesse completed his medical residency! We got to enjoy a banquet with presentations honoring him and the other graduates. 


Cousins! It was great to spend so much time with the cousins, especially Piper and Miles who Leo got to meet for the first time.
We stayed at a home in Canby. The land had a walnut orchard and was right by the river. 

Astoria
We drove to Astoria, on the coast, and went to the Maritime museum. We learned many neat things about that area, the Columbia river, and the treacherous Bar-where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. 
The boat in the top middle picture was from Japan and got swept out to sea during the tsunami and washed up on the Oregon coast. 

Mexican seafood, mmmm.

We briefly went to the beach. Technically it was Leo's first time at the beach, but it was so windy and cold that as soon as we touched the sand we snapped a picture and Leo went to the car to sit with Grandma and Poppa. We'll just have to go back and try again soon.

Powell's Books! Bookstore junky Mecca. 
Let's just say we had a budget set aside for this place, and maybe we kind of went over it...
The kids books were just too tempting! This baby clearly needed more. 

Face timing with Grammy 

More cousin and Auntie time. Aunt Annie gave Leo his first strawberry, I think he liked it.

Sauvie Island farm. We picked tons of blueberries and it still wasn't enough for me. It's very cathartic to pick blueberries on such a beautiful farm. 

I need to get the pictures from Steven's phone, more of family, the Portland Temple, Bob's Red Mill, the Japanese gardens and more. 
We kind of loved it there :)
Huge thank you to Grandma, Papa, and the Powell clan!

Face

I love the mirror in my car that let's me see Leo in his car seat. 
So many faces I would miss without that mirror. 

Baby selfies. 

This one he edited himself to be
this:

               This was his latest

He's an artistic soul 

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Fabulous Las Vegas

The whole reason we went down south mid-April was to go to a concert in Vegas. The concert was Monday night so we stayed the weekend in Hurricane. 

       Enjoying Aunt Marsha's house.

                   Sleepy car ride

First time out of state for Leo! We technically passed through Arizona before Nevada :)

Bellagio Buffett, mmmmm. This guy was like a celebrity in Vegas, many people ooed and awed at the cute little baby :) 

       Flower gardens at the Bellagio 

            We toured a few hotels 


We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel because that's where the concert was. 

           Leo liked the hotel bed

          ....and the view :)

Steven's birthday present :) Jungle was the opening act; they were good, but had too many strobes. We came to see Alt-J, a band that Steven has really been into lately. They were great! It was a very hypnotic performance. 


Leo spent the night with Grammy and Poppy while we were at the show. Thank you very much to them for that, and to Leo for being good :) 

Home again! We drove home through some crazy wind and rain, and mud-rain. It was a fun get-away. We are very grateful to our parents for making it possible and for joining us in the adventure! 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Down South

Mid April we took a trip to southern Utah and beyond (so naturally all pictures are still of Leo).
Leo's first stop in Cedar City where we met our good friends for dinner.


    He did alright on the long car ride :) 

He was definitely happy to be done with the car seat though.

Peaceful Hurricane morning with dad and Poppa 


Leo had fun at great aunt and uncle, Rae and Duane's house.

           At the Chinese buffet

          I never get sick of this view

             Thrilled about church

                       My boys


His first time in the pool! He loved it, especially when he realized he could kick like in the tub. 

Monday, May 4, 2015

How??









How is this sweet boy SIX months old already?? 
I still can't believe we have a six month old...