Big Day!

In the morning we harrassed Virgil.

Then Z took a nap...sort of. He'd been down for MAYBE 15 minutes when we heard all sorts of squawking coming from upstairs so we went to check it out. This is what we saw: little man STANDING!! He was beaming with pride, and so were we!

I ran to get the camera so Zane could tell you all how he accomplished such a feat.

Then we went back to our new favorite spot along the Clackamas river with our friends Tyler and Jake. Virgil was MIA for a few minutes and came back smelling absolutely revolting (though he was very pleased with himself) and was covered in poo. Oh joy. He got an impromptu bath in the river and a real one when we got home.

Zane, master of the shore...
...and the water. Once again the water was frigid and we were shocked that he didn't fuss at all when he went in. It was quite the opposite actually, I think he would have stayed in much longer but Mason and I kept pulling him out and wrapping him in our towel.

Soapbox Derby, Music, & Crawling

Today it was 96 degrees. So what better to do than go hang out in the sun?! Haha. We went to the Soapbox Derby races on Mt. Tabor with our friends Ben and Jaden. Luckily they'd gotten there early and staked out a place in the shade! Here's a view of the city from the park.

This guy was one of my favorites.

His car was a bear! He's wearing a Chicago Bears helmut and launching water balloons - Awesome!

The lovely Jaden and I.

Mason and Ben watch intently. Zane focuses on his mouth full of graham crackers.

When we got home we hung out in the air conditioning and Zane made some music for us.

Then Mason played some guitar and Zane CRAWLED!! On his knees!!

Clackamas River

On Friday our buddy, Luke, invited us to go explore the Clackamas River with him. It's about an hour away, so we loaded Virgil, Zane, Luke's 2 dogs, and all 3 of us into his wagon and headed out. It was a great drive and an even more serene location on the river. I don't know how we lucked out, but we were the only people on this little beach...it was perfect for the dogs to run around!

The water was COLD but Zaney didn't mind at all. Once again proof that he is a Rippey.

And of course it didn't take long for him to get filthy. He loved the sand.

As Papa rinsed him off he would grab at the leaves and sticks that floated by.

Newberry Crater

We decided to pack up and go on a camping trip to Newberry Crater, Crater Lake, and Ashland, OR to visit some friends. Three nights, three different locations, good times. Almost.

Newberry Crater is just south of Bend. We'd never been to Bend and were looking forward to visiting. It's an amazing town with lots of little shops and eateries. Mt. Bachelor is there and the town morphs into a hoppin' ski town in the winter. The landscape is totally different than Portland - very dry, dessert, lots of sage brush, lots of vast open spaces. It conjured up images of the wild west in my mind and I kept waiting for a gang of cowboys to come whoopin' and hollerin' over the hills...that didn't happen when I was watching, but it probably did for the cars a few miles back. We ate lunch downtown and forgot Z's food in the car so we ordered him some pasta off the kid's menu. He was stoked to have his very own bowl and nearly polished it off!

Newberry Crater is an hour south of Bend and there is so much to do. I hope we can go back sometime and hike the lava caves.
We circled the campground twice before finding the perfect spot!
Zane found a lava rock! He was very excited about it, but was dissapointed that it didn't taste better.

After camp was set up we ventured out to walk around Newberry Caldera. It was crazy to think we were walking in the crater of a volcano (inactive!).

The ridge behind them is the rim of the volcano. Do you like Mason's redneck goatee? He shaved it just for the camping trip.

This was the last happy photo of the day...

...Zane fell asleep just fine, but about an hour later woke up to fuss. Repeat scenario over and over and over. Little man woke up no less than 12 times. It was colder than we'd expected so I had him in my sleeping bag with me, which doesn't leave any space for movement, and he kept trying to roll over. Since it was chilly he'd also wake up if any part of him was exposed...which lead to me being highly paranoid and overly vigilant about keeping him tucked in...which also lead to me not sleeping at all. On top of that, poor Virgil was shivering all night too and as he tried to keep warm he'd nuzzle up against me and just shake. Poor guy. I'd put a blanket on him when I could but he'd move and it'd fall off and I couldn't reach over and put it back on because I didn't want to wake Zane...also repeat scenario over and over and over. Mason was sleeping on his thermarest next to our air mattress and didn't manage to get much more sleep than we did. Needless to say we aborted the mission in the morning and headed home.

Sleep deprived as we were, we still couldn't deny how gorgeous the views were. As I was getting my camera out to take a photo of the dessert landscape it switched back to lush and green! Dang it!! So no photo of the sage brush, but here's Mt. Hood for you.
As a special treat to make ourselves feel better about skipping the last 2 destinations we stopped off at a Shell gas station at the bottom of Mt. Hood known to sell legit Pizza Pockets. Anyone familiar with Beaverdale Little League in Des Moines, IA knows what I'm talking about and would totally understand how eating one could improve your day. They were glorious.

Zane caught up on some Zzzz's in the car. Good thing he's cute when he sleeps :)

10 Months

Ten months. Wow.

He army crawls and pulls himself onto his knees, but no crawling. Don't turn your back though, because little man can get around! Pulling books off shelves, emptying cubbies, and knocking down towers rate high on his list of things to do. He is VERY vocal, especially at meal time. He's an apple juice and blueberry lover...come to think of it we haven't come across too many things he doesn't like, except for pickles...not a fan. He is sleeping through the night now (cue the choir singing) and most nights sleeps from 7pm - 6am. His Independence grows daily as he becomes more and more confident by crawling further away from us and into other rooms. He is drawn to the bathroom, soon we'll have to keep the door closed at all times.

Did I mention he's vocal? Check out the vein in his neck as he beckons to the neighbors!

Jack and Zoe heard his cries and came to play for a little bit. Yay!

This is Zane's new face. He makes it a lot and I can't tell what he wants when he makes it. Usually he just looks at me and smiles afterwards as if to say "did you see that silly face I just made?"*

Zoe imitates Zane's new face.

*Eye update- Little man is scheduled for his eyelid surgery (frontalis sling surgery) on September 14th at the Casey Eye Institute at OHSU. He is going to have a silicone sling implanted into his eyelid and it will be attached to his eyebrow muscles to open and close his eye. It's a common procedure and we feel comfortable with the surgeon (Doctor Ng) and his associates. The surgery itself will only take an hour or two and he will be home that day. They will call us a week before and let us know what time since the youngest patients go first. Hopefully he is the youngest because he's not allowed to eat for 6 hours before and that could get a little dicey. Recovery could be rough since he won't be able to close his eye, even during sleep, for the first week or so and we'll put gel in it to keep it moist. So think positive thoughts for us as the day approaches! I honestly think it'll be harder for Mason and I than for Zane. He'll do great, he's a resilient little guy.

Right-of-way Completion!

Zane wants to get an early start on the day. He's got his overalls on and he's ready!

When we were done with the pebbles, but not quite ready to tackle the pathway, we just put some weed blocker over the strip where the path was going to go. Apparently it wasn't secured tight enough because it turned into a weed greenhouse. If only we could get our garden to grow like that! Papa had a great time pulling them all out so we could start the project. Zane likes to squeeze and release the pebbles. Occasionally he'll test to see if you're watching and make a move for his mouth.

Virgil occupied himself.

It got too sunny for sensitive baby heads.

I think this hat is adorable (thanks Jack!). This photo was taken during the 5 minutes he kept it on...not a hat fan.

Chillin' with the pooch.

Sneak attack. Doh!

Beautiful finished product!! The stones were all reclaimed from our yard and have just been sitting by the shed for years.

Our cute little home.

And to think this is what we started with. I'm SO glad we were able to see past the aesthetic repairs that it needed (inside and out)!

Bolognese & Slugs

Mason whipped up some turkey bolognese last night. As I was getting one of Z's jars of food out we realized that he could just have some of what we were having. It was truly an Ah-Ha moment. I would also like to point out how lucky I am to have a hubby who can whip up something that amazing. When I 'whip something up' it's usually pasta with butter or grilled cheese.

If he could give the thumbs up, he would.

On Sunday we ventured into Forest Park for a little hike with Oliver. Ollie is 4 and an awesome hiker. He was very well prepared with his own backpack full of essentials like bug repellent (I wish I had some!), binoculars, water, and gold fish snacks. Zane loved having a hiking buddy and couldn't keep his eyes off of him. You could almost hear him thinking "how can I get my legs to move like that? I want to run around too!" Soon enough little man, soon enough.

Ollie was our lookout for banana slugs. We saw 4 total and they were HUGE!!

This pretty specimen was suspended from a tree and we thought it was a spider but then saw it's wings. We just moved on. Ew.

Nap time! I'm going to miss it when he doesn't sleep with his butt in the air. So cute!