Josh has grown up so much in the last few weeks. He has decided he is too big for everything. He will not sit in his booster at the table, he climbs into Jake’s seat in the car, and he throws a fit every time he has to sit in the shopping cart. We gave in on the booster but not the other two. We have been taking his rail off of his crib a few times in the last few months. At night he would throw a fit and we would have to put it back on to get him to go to sleep. He finally has agreed to have it off the whole night. He has only fallen out of it a few times. He still needs one nap and is ready to go to bed early. He also has been weened from his binki. He had three left a few months ago. He lost one and bit holes through the other two. He was devastated for two weeks. Every night he would look under his bed hoping to find one and he would walk around the house asking for it. Luckily, he still had his blanket for some comfort. He loves putting on his shoes to go places and loves waving goodbye to dad in the morning and blowing kisses. His favorite tv show is Curious George. We tease him and tell him it is because they talk the same by grunting. Josh only says a handful of words. But, he loves yelling Jake’s name all the time. He knows all his body parts. He has the best laugh and loves to be tickled. He is such a happy easy going little buddy. Birthday pictures and video to the right.

After a few days there we drove to Oregon City to visit with Kurt’s sister’s family and meet up with his parents. We then drove to Seattle for a few days with his parents where we had lots of activities planned and no rest time. We thought Seattle would be cooler but they were having record heat highs and it was hot.

Day 1- Woodland Park Zoo: Jake woke up not feeling good with a fever so he sat most of the time in the stroller sleeping. Josh loved the animals and kept growling at everything. It was a big zoo with giraffes, elephants, bears, gorillas, a hippo, penguins, lots of varieties of birds, lions, tigers, and more.

Red Mill Burger: This was one of many places that Kurt had to eat at in Seattle. It was really busy but yummy.

Museum of Flight: This had lots of different types of aircraft to view. We got to walk through a Concorde and a retired Air Force One.

Mariners Game: This was Kurt’s favorite. Kurt grew up going to a few games with his dad and has great memories. The field was very impressive. I wish Jake had felt better so we could dance and cheer with the rest of the audience.

Day 2- Seattle Aquarium: Jake was feeling much better and ran around looking at all the sea animals. Josh had a fever and was really cranky. We got to see lots of feeding of different animals.

Ivars: Another one of Kurt’s eating picks. Jake loved feeding the seagulls that wait around for leftover french fries. You just put your hand out with food and they swoop down to eat it out of your hand.

Argosy Cruise: This was my favorite. We got on a boat that cruised around and had a narrator pointing out sights as we drove by. I loved being on the water.

Pike’s Market: We walked through all the shops and saw some fish throwing that Jake thought was really funny. It was so crowded and hard to walk anywhere so we didn’t stay long.

Ferry: We got on the ferry and rode it over to Bainbridge Island and back. We watched all the cars, motorcycles, and bicyclists get on and off the ferry.

The Crab Pot: Again this was on Kurt’s list. They brought a bunch of different sea food and dumped it on the table for everyone. Kurt was in heaven eating it all.

Space Needle: With our pass we got two rides on the elevator to the top of the Space Needle. We took the first ride at night. It was fun to see the city at night with all the lights. Josh screamed most of the time at the top. I think he was tired and wanted to go to bed. It was a long day.

Day 3- Space Needle: Our second trip was during the day. Jake liked this even more. He kept asking where things were that we had seen during the rest of our trip.

Science Center: This was like our Children’s Museum at home. We didn’t spend too much time here since we only paid for a few hours of parking. It was a little run down and we were glad that we saved it for the end so we didn’t waste much time.

We then drove back to Portland and then back home. It is always a good feeling to be home. Pictures are to the right. Click on one to go to our Flickr page to see all of them.

Jake also learned to ride his bike by himself. It was one of the goals that he set for himself to accomplish this year. We have been working on it the last couple of days and even tried last summer. He has been so nervous to do it all by himself in fear of falling and hurting himself. He finally just took off with it. He kept yelling as he was riding “This is so much fun!”. We are so proud of him! Pictures and video to the right of the blog. There is also some video of Josh pointing to his face parts and saying some words. We are also proud of him and the many things he is learning right now.