Thanksgiving trip to Knoxville

We had a wonderful week in Knoxville last week for Thanksgiving. Owen had a great time with James, Aunt Laura & Uncle Rick, Aunt Ju-Ju, and Mimi & Poppy. He took to calling the original Poppy "Poppy 2" and enjoyed several meals with him. And there were a lot of train-related activities, including the big thrill Owen had talked about for weeks - riding on an actual coal-powered steam train.

Owen also ran in his first race, the Little Gobbler 200 yard dash, part of the Knoxville Track Club's Autumnfest event. He got a blue ribbon and a donut after the finish and seemed to enjoy it and talked about it for a couple days.

(the vast majority of pics shown here are courtesy of Duffy a.k.a. Poppy)

Painted Face

Owen had his face pained one day last week at daycare. Just thought it was very cute.

October Flew By!

October was a great month. Great weather meant lots of time outside, a fun visit to the pumpkin patch that had a little train, and a few other outings.

Owen participated in his first pumpkin carving. And come Halloween, he was far more into trick-or-treating than last year. He had no fear going up to peoples' doors, and once he realized he was getting candy just by saying "trick or treat" that was it...it was "one more house, Dada" about 10 more times.

Here are some pics from the month.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

On Aug 19th, Owen turned 2! Or as he likes to say, "I'm two!!"

Mimi and Popop were visiting for the occasion, and we had a great time with them.

Owen got to first have a mini celebration with his daycare class where they had popsicles and sang happy birthday. Then at home, he got to open a lot of great presents, including an accordion (awesome!), train conductor's outfit, books, legos, and a big Thomas train set. He had more than he knew what to do with.

Cake and ice cream followed, including lighting candles which he blew out while we sang happy birthday. Then he wanted to do it again. So we did. Then again. So we did. Then again...We sang and let him blow out the candle 3 times before convincing him that he might enjoy actually eating the cake, which he did.

First Time Camping

We took Owen camping with friends Brian & Michelle and their daughter, Madeline. We went to an Oregon state forest campground about an hour west of Portland.

It was so much fun, and Owen did great. He seemed to really enjoy the whole camping experience, including sleeping in a tent with the see-through top open to the starry night sky. He loved the fire (who doesn't?) and running around the campsite, but what he liked the most was throwing rocks into the creek on our hike. We went twice on the hike down to the creek and each time, he stood and threw about 100 rocks.

Here are a few photos. Quality is not great because they were all taken with a phone which I had trouble holding steady.

Happy Birthday!!!

Owen turns 2 today!
We knew that having a child was going to be awesome, but we couldn't have imagined how amazing Owen is and the feeling of being truly blessed to have him as part of our lives. He is a smiling, happy, energetic, and sweet boy who has filled our lives with so much love and joy.
Happy Birthday, Owie-O!!

Bike Riding

A few months ago, we bought Owen his first bike. He had already been pretty into riding in the trailer behind our bikes, so we had a feeling he'd like it. We bought a balance bike, which is a low bike without pedals. The idea is that he uses his feet for power and he can stay balanced, then when he wants to he can pick his feet up and just glide.
The bike was still a little big for him when we got it, but now it's getting to be about the right size. And he's starting to venture outside. Here's a somewhat long video of some of his early bike moments that also shows some of the other things he's into these days: Talking, bugs, taking off his clothes (he went swimming at friend/neighbors' house then ditched the swimsuit), and dogs.

Bike Riding from Kevin Skurski on Vimeo.