Dinner Date

Tristan always seems to have a dinner date these days. Someone who constantly hangs out near his highchair as he's eating any meal. She's not really partial to any one kind of food - she'll gladly eat whatever he throws down to her. Is there even a question as to who this could be?? Bella has become our constant kitchen cleaner. Now if only she would sweep up the hair she leaves behind, too :)

Easter in Palm Springs!

Since Oregon's weather has been less than ideal (record low temps - it reached 60 degrees maybe once?!), we decided Palm Springs was the obvious choice to celebrate Easter. My parents have had a place down there for the past 6-7 years and Brian and I haven't been there in five! They rent it out every winter, so with my teaching schedule, I can never take time off during the school year when it's empty. Except in the summer when it's scorching hot. It just so happened that Easter was late this year (the renters had just left) and since I'm a Catholic school teacher, we decided to take advantage of the four day Easter weekend.

A bit more of a back story with this place is that my grandparents also owned it for many years before my parents. I spent quite a few Spring Breaks and Easters there while in college and in my early years of teaching. So it definitely holds a special place in my heart. I would always spend 3-5 days being pampered by my grandparents while I soaked up the sun and slept in. Although this time was a little different, I'm glad that I was able to bring Tristan so that he can also start making his own memories there - four generations now!



We were quite the circus at the airport - six carry-ons, two carseats, one stroller between three adults and two kids. These pics don't even do it justice!






Hanging out in the pool during our 85 degree days!





Practicing their moves on the putting green
Checking out the grapefruits with Grama

Grama and her boys!



Why wear pants when driving a golf cart?

Family photo opp


The boys with their Easter baskets


Let the egg hunting begin!

Easter egg hunts on a golf course can only happen in Palm Springs :)

Standing by himself!


Tuckered out on the plane ride home. He did great for his first plane travels!


Cute videos of the boys' Easter egg hunt :)

Happy 11 month, not-so-Little Man!!

Cannot believe this is our last month before our Little Man turns 1!! I know everyone says that time goes so fast, but I didn't actually believe how quickly it does until this past year. My baby boy looks more like a toddler than a baby now - I'm not sure how I feel about that!

Here are some highlights over the past month:
* He has stood on his own numerous times - funny though, he seems to do it more often when my Mom is around!
* He now says, "dad", "baba", "mom", and tries to say other words with the "b" sound!
* He loves to mimic others around him, especially trying to say their words!
* He also likes to bring things to others and "share" - pretty sweet!
* He's really into stacking things - sometimes he likes to hit it over and laugh at how it all falls down :)
* He also likes to use any object as a phone - probably to call his bud Logan :)
* He loves to dance - mostly to the super catchy tunes that come from his standing/walking toys :)
* He loves eating anything Mom & Dad are eating. Food that comes in a jar is no longer appealing to him, so we have been trying to come up with healthy meals that we can all eat together. Never realized how many different ways I could make meals with cooked carrots, celery, broccoli, beans and whole wheat pasta!



Our sweet Little Man!



Cousins in the mirror

With Grandma & Grandpa George

Dinnertime

Now that Little Man is no longer interested in pureed baby food, we are trying to come up with some good, healthy meals for him. He seems to like anything we put in front of him (no surprise there, right?) We tried beans the other night and didn't realize what a mess they would become! What kind of mom sits him down to eat without a bib and with a WHITE shirt on?? Needless to say, it was bathtime with a fresh change of clothes soon after our photo opp.





I'd say he's pretty proud of this mess!!

Tristan & Aubrey - almost 1 year later

T and I were invited over to Ali & Aubrey's house for a playdate the other day. As I was beginning to write this post, I realized their first playdate was almost a year ago when Little Man was only a month old and little Aubrey Jackson was 5 months old. What a difference 10 months make!! Funny how T Man is as tall as she is but is much bigger in the lb department. Here are some pics of our fun get-together and a link to the post I wrote almost a year ago - http://theadventuresofthegeorgefamily.blogspot.com/2010/06/tristan-aubrey.html


Hey, we have the same toy!

Looking out the window while T tries to pull down the curtains (sorry Ali!)

T was trying to show Aubrey how you can "eat" your reflection in the fridge, but when she came over to inspect, he decided he wanted to use her for support instead.

First word??

Little Man has been saying ramblings of "mama dada baba" for quite some time. He has also been working hard at getting his "g" sound and says it with a lot of meaning whenever the dogs bark. He also goes for his bottle any time we say "baba", so I know he is associating his language with ours. We have also been working hard at completing the words "dad" and "dog" and really emphasizing the ending sound. Well, today, he really said "dad"!!! And said it a couple of times!! Brian told me he's heard him say it already, so not sure if this is the first time or not. At any rate, I guess we can officially say "dad" is his first word! I also think since he's been saying "ba" for awhile and "g" whenever he's referring to the dogs, that those are also his first words! Wow, our Little Man is getting so big!!

*UPDATE - Since I posted this, the next day we had a playdate with Ali & Aubrey and she insisted that he said, "mama" or "mom" when I left the room!! Brian's mom had told me he had said it before as well when I left the room, but since I hadn't heard it, I just thought it was part of his "mama baba dada" ramblings. Also, all this week he has been saying "dad" over and over and over! His favorite part is putting a lot of emphasis on the "d" at the end of the word. He loves hearing himself say it!

Always an Adventure with the George Family..

Oh, wow. Where do I begin?? Appropriately enough, it all began on April Fool's with what could have been a pretty good joke. Too bad it wasn't...

Brian picked me up from school letting me know that our Jeep had just caught fire (in a nonchalant voice). Since he was also smiling/lauging while telling the story, I thought for sure it was a joke. In fact, I didn't believe him until after all our errands had been run and we were home three hours later to find the Jeep after it had been towed. Now, it wasn't quite as dramatic as it sounds because only the engine caught fire and spewed flames under the hood, not causing any damage to the rest of the vehicle. But the damage is done and too much to save poor Sport.

How does a vehicle catch fire you ask? Good question. I'm not a Jeep (or any car) expert, but apparently it was having trouble with the starter and while Brian was trying hard to start the car, it was causing friction and heat under the hood, thus catching all the "gunk and oil" under the hood to catch on fire.

Did I mention this was in front of Brian's office building? Did I also mention that Tristan was in the backseat, buckled in safely while all this was happening? As soon as Brian saw flames, he grabbed T and rushed him up to the third floor where his office is while Clint (who really is the hero in all this), grabbed a fire extinguisher from the nearest office and sprayed all the flames until they were gone. Phew. And what an embarrassing scene for these business partners who are trying to be professional.

So, I guess we will be purchasing a car a little sooner than we expected. Truth be told, the Jeep was supposed to be my temporary car to last me through grad school (graduated six years ago) after good friend, Ali, sold her college car to me. But, Brian kept telling me he wanted to "drive it into the ground" before we bought a new one. Well, I guess he got his way...

Okay, onto Adventure #2 of April Fool's Day weekend: After realizing the Jeep was no joke, we decided we'd take Clint & Sarah up on their offer to go to her cabin in Camp Sherman. Maybe we were hoping the Jeep incident would take care of itself if we left for a weekend. As we were heading out of town, Brian decided to take a shortcut way to Central Oregon. We'd never gone that way before, but he assured me it was much faster. Thinking we'd already had our one bad incident of the day, I took his word. Even as we passed the sign that read, "Road not maintained in winter", I still didn't speak up. I mean, so what if it had been one of the snowiest winters on record? It was a week into spring and had been 66 that day, so that definitely meant the road over the mountain would be okay, right?? Even as we had to swerve around boulders in the middle of the road and tree branches that covered almost both lanes, I trusted our captain. When we started driving over feet of ungroomed snow with sheer dropoffs down to the Clackamas River below, I finally said something. Oh, and we hadn't had cell service in over an hour. I started thinking about the poor couple from San Fran who was in a similar situation as us and who ended up having a very bad outcome after getting stuck. I realized the parrells to their story and ours were so close, that I had to say something. So, we turned around and had to go almost all of the way back home before getting on the original path to Camp Sherman. What should have been a three hour drive turned into seven. With a baby and two dogs in tow, that's really like 24. After we made it, we realized what a bad idea that was. No one really knew we had taken that way and would not have known where to look for us if something had happened. Horrible idea. Even though it had been 66 degrees that day, it began to dump snow the entire rest of the weekend. Several feet blanketed even the main road home. The only difference is that that road is maintained. Again, bad idea on the shortcut.

It doesn't just end there. That was only Day #1! The next day, we decided to go on a day hike to a nearby cave. We had to drive only eight miles from the cabin. As we were halfway, we began to encounter a similar scene as the day before. Except this time, there was more snow on the ground and we had another group of people with us. It only took us 15 minutes before we realized that we needed to turn around and go for a walk near the cabin instead. Much smarter this time around. Moral of the story: There is no distinction between winter and spring in the Oregon mountains. And do not take back roads until June, maybe.


Clint's truck ahead of us after getting stuck.


Brian deciding he could go in Clint's tracks to forge ahead.


"This is what the Land Rover is designed for." Apparently not. Us also getting stuck.

Later that night, we were supposed to meet up with B's sister and husband for drinks & apps, but since Ryan was sick and we didn't get the message until after we were almost to the restaurant, we decided to have a George night out.


T Man playing with Dad's phone while waiting for our food.



Tristan's favorite part of the weekend!


After a very eventful two days, we left early on Sunday morning hoping to get back home before something else came up. Luckily for us, we had a very uneventful ride home and were back safe sound before noon :)


The Camp Sherman cabin - thanks again for your hospitality, Maxwells!!

Dresel's visit

We got to visit with my good friend, Dresel, this week as she was up here to do more planning for her June wedding in Cannon Beach. We started by meeting up with her, Falks and Jenna for lunch (never would have been able to do this full-time!). And then again on Thursday when we had a mini-shower for her before she left to go back home to sunny SoCal. After this visit, it got me even more excited for her upcoming wedding events in the next couple months!!


Out to lunch with Auntie Dresel!


Dresel's mini-shower dinner (Sorry for the lack of quality of the picture - that's what I get for having the iPhone3. I will probably be upgrading to iPhone4 as soon as the 10th one comes out. Or as soon as my brother decides to give me his?? :)


Being entertained by Auntie Ali's pearls so mom can get a quick bite.


Destroying Falks' kitchen while mom enjoys her glass of wine :)