Blackberry Bramble...

We did it! 70 miles later, the Blackberry Bramble was finished, and I was one tired biker.

Thankfully my dad and his good friend Rob let me suck their back wheel for the last 20 miles and pulled me into the finish line where a piece of blackberry pie a la mode was waiting. yummmmmm! My back, neck, butt, and of course legs were feeling it. Nothing that a good soak in a hot tub and some awesome food couldn't cure!
Forrest had some good Grandma time, even if he did go on a bit of a sleeping strike. "Too many good things to see out in Eugene mom!"
The ride was about how I expected, good for the first half, and REALLY hard the last half. Primarily due to the fact I just haven't been able to spend a lot of time on the bike...which I expected.
Overall I'm happy with how it went. Eugene was beautiful, the food at friend's Rob and Sherry's house was awesome, and my goal was met!

Forrest spent a lot of time in his car seat this trip...7 hour drive! He did surprisingly well, and mom spent the time sucking down 2 pounds of blueberries she found on the side of the road....


MMMMM. I love summer!

What you do with the grandparents on a HOT summer day....

Take them to the river of course! And spend ALL day there, as to be away from the wonderful Trinity river means 106 degree heat...yikes!
So we floated, played, swam, and swam, and swam.....Forrest included. His first real river experience. He had to be in the water to stay cool...I think he enjoyed himself...the first of hundreds...thousands, of river adventures for him!

Our tuckered out boys...I think us girls just plain wore them out!

Local Meal...

BBQ'd salmon, stir fried swiss chard, swiss chard stem fritters, home-grown tomatoes, topped with a Steelehead Porter

So actually this meal happened about a month ago...and we are very near eating from our garden, river, etc, every meal these summer days. But I like posting these meals as we are proud of them. And....there is a lot of work to be done to get these veggies, fish, etc, out of the garden, river, and inside our kitchen, hence the lateness and the lack of summer posting.
I'll do my best to keep up...
Currently this plate would be doubled in size and filled with the above plus summer squash, eggplant, more tomatoes, and corn! Yes our first sweet corn...yummm.

The Zoo Wedding Fun Fest

Last weekend was filled with party animals, lovey dovey animals, and animals of all other shapes.

My cousin Amy got hitched in San Juan Capistrano to her love Pat. It was a great time filled with tons of my family, some that I haven't seen for over a year...
Including this little cutie, Forrest's closest cousin, Joshua....

This was there first meeting. I think they were so stoked to see other little faces in the crowd of big, possibly scary, perhaps boring appearing adults. There little exchange was cool to watch and I only wished Joshua lived a little closer....Texas is just too far!

The wedding was beautiful and Amy and her bridesmaids looked so so lovely.

Mr. and Mrs Amy and Pat Musser!

Forrest had fun getting passed from arm to arm, and getting pushed around in his stroller.

He even managed to sleep when THIS was happening in the background...

We've trained this boy right! Loud sounds don't seem to bother him too much when he's super tired...

And then, the party animals, (sister Megan took the cake on this one... )

went for a trip to the Zoo the next two days where literally hundreds of fellow creatures took turns amazing us.

Here are just a few of the big and little beings that we had the pleasure of sharing the day with...

"Mom is that a croc behind me? Can I go ride on his back ...PLEEEAASE....."

Forrest's Favorite, the River Otters!

It was quite a warm day for San Diego. Forrest spent a lot of it in his diaper with his mom and dad trying to keep him cool in his stroller...
speaking of strollers...I truly didn't know how many existed until this trip. The Zoo is strollerville if I've ever seen one.

We were just one of the crowd...of course this mama and dad did noticed how many "cute Baby" comments Forrest got despite the massive amounts of baby and kids that were surrounding us...
We have to agree...

Summer Fun and a chillin babe

They're calling for temps up to 107 here in the next couple of days...

The life of a baby...I think I'll be stealing his floatie soon...

4 month old Forrest

4 months old....wow.

It is so amazing how much he has already changed, and how BIG Forrest seems to be getting. Literally growing before our very eyes...him and our garden corn! His weight is 14.5 lbs, at about the 50th percentile. Height is 75th percentile, and head circumference is....95th percentile! WOW!

He has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two months, and especially the last two weeks.
His little baby rolls are popping up on his chubby little thighs and arms, and he has the best little baby pot belly anywhere.


And he is getting STRONG! He actually seems to like to play on his tummy now as he can lift his big head up with no problem. No rolling yet, but I bet it's only a matter of days, perhaps hours...And...he loves to stand up...just loves it. He gets all happy and googily eyed, often laughs outloud.


And, ta DAAAAAAA, he's sleeping as much as 6-7 hours in a row on some nights. WOW! And now that I edit this a week later he hasn't done this feat in the last week at all...but at least I know he's capable of it. A usual night is still to wake up ever 4 hours....still giving his mama some rest which is good. I think it is absolutely marvelous when he sleeps 6 hours. And it helps me stay caught up on the pumping front so I can stay ahead of my little piglett while at work, as he seems to suck down the milk faster than I can make it while I am away.


Yes away, back at work full time. VERY, very tough. It's so hard to leave the little smiling face. He's still so full of smiles for his momma, dad, and just about everyone else who will give him some goos and razzs. When I get home I can't seem to get enough of him....his smiling, (and sometimes teary...) eyes are just so so sweet....
But, overall I think the transition to full time is as good as it can be. I am lucky enough to have him with an excoworker who is now home with her little year old girl just one day a week. She is close to my office so I can pop in for a visit or feeding session on those days. The other days he his getting some good dad time, with Grandma Gloria to help out now and then.

And by the time this is posted, I'm sure he'll be another pound heavier, another grunt closer to rolling over, and another baby babble closer to saying his first word...it really does go by so fast...