a first!

we were working outside in the yard today...oren was adamant about NOT taking a nap so we set him up in his pack-n-play so we could continue to work. he's been working at pulling up for awhile, but today was the first time he made it all the way up to standing! and once he figured it out, of course had to repeat it several times, laughing the whole time. way to go oren!!!

red, red wine (or otherwise known as the garriott family beach weekend)

who knew the washington coast could be so nice! (just kidding) we spent a fantastic weekend in ocean shores, at this sweet little beach house adjacent to a wildlife reserve. It was such a peaceful location, with tons of birds and small animals darting about. and every morning four or five deer came strolling past the house...they weren't in the least bit frightened. well, until lucy caught sight and decided it would be a fun race...luckily she turned right around and came back when i called her. whew! in all honesty she wouldn't know what to do if by some miracle she actually caught up with a deer. she would be terrified!

of course...we ate well. a crab feast by sam, with a terrific beet and goat cheese salad, corn on the cob, and quinoa on the side. and especially yummy - grand marnier ice cream layered with peaches for dessert! what a treat!

so the theme here was relax - we even napped on saturday afternoon!

anyway...a few pictures:

this is the wildlife reserve. a trail led from the house through this reserve to the beach. as flat and open as this seems...i think getting off the trail could lead to trouble in no time. the dunes were just high enough to loose sight of any structure, and there seemed to be no natural way-finding markers. we stuck to the trail.

oren and aunt sam playing on the sofa

getting kisses before bed from aunt carol

breakfast!

dave, sam, carol and oren (where was charley?)

thanks to sam and carol and dave and charley (and ian too!!) for making this weekend so wonderful. we had fun.

italian night!

a couple weekends ago ian's parents invited us out to participate in a fun dinner party. one goal for the evening was to get enough people together to share this fantastic bottle of wine: a 1987 Silver Oak cabernet. yum! you see from the photo it did take quite a few of us, but we finished it off! oren was helping with the decanting, but of course refused any offers for sips. he's such a good boy.

visit from auntie allison!

this weekend was back out to yamhill for some more good family time. allison flew up from CA on thursday and travis, sharon, nathan and aidan came down from seattle. saturday we took a fun trip to the biggest fall farm production you'll ever see! totally a fun time, especially for the kids. apple tasting (with caramel of course) was a highlight for me.

i don't have a photo - but aidan won a jug of apple cider by sling-shotting an apple probably 50 yards through a pumpkin's eye. :-) entertainment, i tell ya!

the gelbrich clan

happy fall everyone!

lots 'o pumpkin

nannie and her grandsons in front of the corn maze

yep - it's a big one. but not as big as the one that won the weigh-off!

hilarious - these faces were painted everywhere.

pretty good view from way up here!

nathan on the zip-line

catching up

i'm so behind on posting! we've had lots of fun-filled weekends lately. I'll touch on the ones I've got photos for...waiting for a couple more so this may end up a little out of order. but who's counting, right?

first up - attempted camping trip with the runnings and ian's parents. boy, i wish i had a photo of our initial arrival to the campsite three friday's ago. ron and peggy had been there an hour or so ahead of us and totally set things up to prepare for RAIN. we pull up to a tarp hung, roaring fire, and all. but MAN was it raining! and the most perfect spots for our three tents were quickly turning to mud. mud just doesn't mix with babies and dogs...so we bagged it and 'camped' the entire wet weekend back at the gelbrich house. fun times despite the change in plan!!! just wish we could have put more of our gear to use. next time.....

lovely camping facilities

oren and annik playing in the bath

storytime

look out edward!

love this.

despite the blurriness, i had to post this one.

visit with g-gma payne

today is ron and peggy's wedding anniversary. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! they planned a get-away to bend, so we went out to stay with the dogs in yamhill. We had a nice and relaxing weekend and of course lucy had a blast too. one highlight was a nice lunch at grandma payne's. Oren got to hang out with his great-grandma and i got to see some super fun photos of ian as a baby! what a cutie!!! thanks grandma payne.

...and now back to reality. ian had to work this afternoon and oren and i are trying to catch up on chores. he particularly loves the laundry; watching the dryer spin seems to make him quite happy.

here's to a good (and by that i mean fast) week!

beets!!

while the first few bites were a little sketchy, he warmed right up to them. but what a mess!

and i love this last one with lucy lurking behind. this is her new favorite spot, no doubt about it.

busy busy....

well this weekend we were all over the pnw. Friday we did a super-quick trip to seattle. we had a wonderful time (as always) with sam and david, and got to meet miss emmy leigh on Saturday! of course i get home without a single photo of her...I'm hoping I can steal one from Christopher, as he was taking photos.

Of course, Sam made an amazing dinner, complete with g&t's, champagne for our anniversary, and great wine. Breakfast was also lovely; we walked down to their neighborhood cafe.

Sunday peggy watched oren so Ian and I could have a night out! so kind of her, and now we are feeling rested and ready for the week (sort-of). Ron came up today so we got to see him for a bit as well. Always great to spend time with them... :-)

a few fun shots:

oren loving on sam and david

really... oren was smiling the whole time.

D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S chicken with roasted garlic and walnuts

happy cooks, and oren is ready for bed.

oren made a ton of new friends in the cafe. this server took him around to meet every table! of course he loved the beard and glasses!

fun weekend!

a little late on the posting, but wanted to update from last weekend. it was a good one...happy 1-year to oscar at his party on saturday and a fun picnic in the park with the grace's afterward.

oscar and his dad getting ready for CAKE!!

oren meets thor ..lots of kiddos to play with at the party.

ari being silly at the park

tica and dylan - so cute!

Camping Trip #2!

we realized this number of camping trip experiences relate to both oren and to lucy. I have to admit oren did better this time, but it totally wasn't lucy's fault. A group of kids decided it would be fun to set off fireworks over the lake. No, we didn't enjoy them along with the rest of the campers - we were busy trying to pry lucy off the roof of the tent. poor thing is terrified of fireworks...we even contemplated packing up and driving home. luckily the kids must not have had much of a fireworks budget. thankfully, oren slept through the entire thing.

terrified puppy aside...the weekend was a relative success.

of course nothing went as planned:

Lost Lake turned into Laurence Lake - both on the flanks of Mt. Hood. unfortunately Ron and Peggy decided to take us up on the offer of driving up to camp with us...but we thought Ron was working so didn't relay the change in campsite. They drove all around Lost lake with not a sign of us - cuz we weren't there!!! (they apparently "had a nice drive, and bought lots of fruit" - insert me feeling terrible!!!) ...next time.

can anyone say WINDY? we of course chose a site fairly well shielded from the wind, but whew! did it blow. and crazy tent neighbors were getting a kick out of burning every tiny ash-generating piece of groundcover...grrr...

several atypical food mishaps this time:

meatballs for dinner! - totally burnt in the fire = inedible.

pita bread stuffed with roasted veggies! - chipmunk stole the pita.

blueberry pancakes for breakfast! - forgot the pancake mix.

sunday AM brought rain, and since we weren't crazy about repeating our previous day's breakfast of oatmeal, we packed up quickly and headed into Hood River for a tasty breakfast at Bette's Place.

of course the s'mores worked just fine. yum!

and ian's idea of brie warmed in the fire was yummy with the fresh baked bread we brought from home.

a few photos from our adventure:

goodness i love this laugh.

our brand spankin' new tent/palace.

from the inside...sooo spacious! and ian can stand fully upright!! i say - this height is necessary for bouncing a baby to sleep.

good morning.

oren can hold his own bottle now

tasty breakfast

someone (me) forgot the pancake mix...always have a back-up plan.

we try to keep a regular nap schedule...totally worked, he slept for 2+ hours!

sticking his tongue out at me.

first time fishing (for oren)!!

keeping lucy busy..when she's not swimming.