Something New Every Day

Well Wesley is 17 months old now... Oh how time is passing fast. I hold him each night, read him a story (of his choosing) and say his bed time prayers. Every once in awhile I wake up to the reality there is more Wesley to hold than there was last week. He is growing so fast. I sometimes try and remember what it felt like to hold him when he was so tiny and it feels like a dream it was that long ago. In reality is has not been that long, in Wesley land though that was forever ago.

He learns to say a new word every day it seems. Some stick around in his vocabulary, some just make a one day visit. He currently says Momma, Dadda, Juice (we do not know where he learned this one... juice is food, milk, water... he rarely has actual juice), Shews (shoes), Bye Bye, Baba (baby), Doggie or Goggie, Bauk (book), Dar (door), Dello (hello) and Yeah... of course. He already seems to put 2 words together at times. We think it is a coincidence. He will even have pretend converstations on phones. He says "Dello, Yeah, Yeah..." that must be what I sound like. If he is holding a phone and it rings he hands it off, knowing you now need it. It is amazing how observant they are. He copies just about everything Levi does. It is cute to see him look up to him already as such a young age. He tries to make me laugh more than he does Levi. You can tell that is what he appreciates about me. One day I was kissing him to death and then pretending to come up for air as if I was swimming then would dive back down and kiss him all over agian. It took just once for me to do this for him to remember. Now he will walk up and make that same "ah haa ah" like I did. I know then he wants kisses... he just laughs and laughs! Sometimes I pick him up and he starts moving his bootie, I know it is time to dance:).

I have litterly had to stop walking because he makes me laugh so hard. If I was to take another step I would fall over with laughter. His laugh is so contagious... wonder where he got that from :). Yesterday he walked around shaking his wet hair so hard he would fall over laughing. He also likes to spin himself around and make himself dizzy then try to walk. He'll play airplane and is becoming a better dancer. He can actually get a rhythm going. He can do a little baby jogging, I wouldn't say he is all out running yet... soon though. He makes the same laps around the house that Maggie does. If you have ever been to our house it definitely has a circular flow to the plan. You can easily make one circle through the living room, dining room and kitchen. He chases me I chase him, we have a lot of fun. There seems to always be laundry on the couch these days... Wesley is more fun than laundry!

He also will NOT look at the camera. This photo to the left was pure luck. I was holding the camera to the side and trying to get him to smile... there is that tongue again! I need more recent photo's of him. He is being a little booger about the whole thing really.

He seems to have developed some new fears. I took him to work last week for the first time in months, anyway he was afraid of the wooden cowboy statue. Granted he isn't the most attractive guy, messed up teeth, weird eyes. Wesley was freaked out. He was scream if I walked passed the man and he himself would not walk into the entry way. It was fun... lots of fun. We won't be doing that again anytime soon. Also he is now afraid of his bath or doesn't like it. He cries a lot when he use to love it. It almost seems like the seperation is too much. He doesn't seem to really be afraid of the water, it is more you are over there and he is in here. Not sure what is going on there. (Has this happened to anyone else?) He also doesn't like to be a lone in the dark even with a night light... we have to leave an actual light on sometimes. The night thing happened after the cowboy incident. We think he had nightmares that night. Poor little boy! Helpful tips would be great...

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I am semi-busy with work. This is the slower season but people are not going out to eat like they use to so I have to change that. Marketing right now is time consuming and a lot of work. Levi is adjusting to his new job. He has to be there by 6am, which is a change for us. We are use to staying up until 12 or 1 or even 2am! Last night we were in bed by 10:30. We are all doing well though. I am adjusting to the heat. Summer is not my favorite season even though I like what i brings... beach visits, swimming, tans... you get the point. Some other news, now that we don't have cable I am enjoying reading! I have finished a few books and can't wait to read more... this is a HUGE change for me. I really like it though:). I am open to some good reading suggestions...

First Family Vacation

We just spent a wonderful week together as a family on vacation in Oregon. Sunriver, Oregon to be exact. Cattlemens owns a home up there and as a perk for their managers they allow us to use it for vacations. It was so NICE to get away. We had a blast! We just relaxed, played games, played with Wesley, saw the sights, and of course Levi fished! There are many mountain lakes and river to entertain Levi so every day he went fishing.

I guess I should first start telling you about the the trip up... oh my was it LONG. The days prior to our trip Wesley got some weird virus, had a high fever, didn't feel well. That was the sickest he has been. It was hard to see him so miserable, also hard to pack when all he wanted to do was be on my lap getting loves. So of course I loved on him. I got very little sleep the 2 nights before we left. We drove to Redding and left from there. On our way up to Oregon I was like "...Maybe I should find the directions...?" we kept driving north since Oregon is north. Finally we found them when we were in Ashland. Well we were suppose to take the Weed 97 exit... oops. We had to go to Medford and cross over. That alone added about 2 hrs to our trip. It was a beautiful drive though, so at the moment we were not upset. It was just gorgeous. We were so excited to finally come across Klamath Falls that on our way out of the town Levi says" Oh I should have gotten gas". So then we were on the search for an open gas station. There would be huge signs saying "FUEL" then we'd get there and they were all closed up. I was prayin, Levi was driving. We finally found someone to ask. He said our best bet was the next town up, mind you we have already driven further than Levi has every gone on his tank, when he did run out of gas! The guys response to us was "Well it is 7 o clock..." We were like what? He goes on to explain these small towns close up shop earlier and since they pump your gas you are out of luck. He said we would have to stay the night if we didn't make it. Well we made it. His tank took more gas than the factories stated capacity. The gas station attendant said " I don't know what you were driving on." My response was "Prayers". We then had to feed Wesley and let him walk around a bit. We were still 2 hrs away from our destination. Finally we got there, our trip up took 8 hrs total. If we would have driven straight through it would have only been 7 hours from Sacramento!!! We even had a head start. Some of you might be wondering no fighting and no one was agree over all the bumps in the road. We were just happy to be there and were good sports about it.

Over the course of the next few days we visited some waterfalls, hung out, shopped in Bend, and fished at East Lake (there was still snow). My sisters in law came up for a few days to join us. We all decided to go horse back riding. This was my first time riding a horse. My bottom was a tad bit sore... well a lot sore later. We had fun. Minutes before mounting our horses it was hailing! We bundled up and hopped on. Luckily we had great weather for the ride, then it hailed again when we were leaving.

We also went to the "Balloons Over Bend" event. The balloons were suppose to lift off at 6:30 am. So I woke everyone up, got Wesley and myself ready to go. We were there by 6:20 to see the distant sky full of balloons, most of them already left. As we walked up we saw one lift off, then there was just one more and they were done. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see more balloons. We did get to see one balloon get fully inflated as a display that was pretty crazy. Hot Air Balloons are huge. I didn't realize how large they really were. I got some great photos though. So for me, it was worth it.

Wesley really enjoyed his first vacation. He was a good sport about the lack of naps, car rides, and different food. He loves his Auntie Deanna, he just laughs at her... he was unpacking her stuff so that she wouldn't leave. He learned to say "Guck" (duck), all other birds and animals are still "Goggies". We are working on it. I actually bought him a book with all sorts of animals so maybe he was learn some more names.

As for us, Levi and I relaxed watched movies, played domino's... I finished my book, he caught fish. We were sad to leave. We were up there for 8 days. We needed that vacation. When we got home we had some messages for Levi regarding an internship. Well he got the job! He starts Monday. He is excited. He also got his grades when we returned. I am very proud of him A, A, -A, +B! Good huh! Yay Levi!!! It is nice to see all his hard work paying off with good grades and a new job. I am a little sad though. Usually we hang out a lot during the summer. Summer is our time, we've been living on a school schedule for 7 years. So for this to be the first summer of real jobs, I am going to miss my Levi time! But on the other hand he will be home each night for dinner. So I guess I better get some new dinner recipes... This could get interesting. (oh ya, Wesley hates the camera now, he won't look or cries... come on kid, give in. The camera is not going away!)