Oliver's First Trip to Pike's Place

We walked onto the ferry and went to Pike's Place Market in Seattle to get some crab legs. It was a lot of fun to walk there with hoot belly in the stroller instead of driving and having to deal with traffic and parking.

We got a hot dog along the water and Oliver loved the mustard. He was so interested in poking it one second, and then looked like this the next second. He was ok when we picked him up and started giving him little tastes of the hot dog toppings.

On the ferry ride back there were three killer whales swimming by. They are just to the right of the sailboat. It was really cool to see them.

He started giving us this smile and squint today.

Doro cooked up the crab legs that we got at the market and they were so good.

I was putting together some drawers for a dresser that we got at Ikea and hoot belly was super interested in it. He grabbed the other screwdriver and started trying to put in the screws with me. It was really cute. Then he went to every drawer and started pounding on them.

Here are a couple videos that we have been meaning to put up.

Oliver's First Fever

Oliver had his first fever this weekend.  He is ok, and his fever has resolved, but it was sad to see him sick and sleepy for a couple days.  All he wanted to do was cuddle with us.  It worked out nice for me because I got home from working nights and I was super tired too.

He discovered this box in the recycle pile, and then discovered that he could put it on.  He was so happy about it, until he tried to walk and tumbled over, then it was, "MOM!!!  THIS BOX IS EATING ME, GET IT OFF!!!" in so many screams and grunts.

Oliver's First Hoot Hike

Yesterday we took Oliver on a hike into the Olympic National Park with some of the other residents from the hospital. We got him a backpack to sit in, packed some other supplies and hoped for the best. The drive to the beginning of the trail was about two hours and he was fussy the whole way there so we were worried at the start, but once he got in the backpack he started looking around and was hooting up a storm. It was about eight miles round trip, with some pretty steep declines into a valley where there is a glacial lake.

This was the start of the trail. Great view of the Olympic mountains..

He got tired and took a nap just before we got to the lake. Then he slept in the backpack while we ate lunch and rested. I'm so glad that we decided to get a pack with a frame so that it could stand up like this.

This is Evi, one of the resident's wives. They live right around the corner from us and we were really excited that they were on this hike too!

After he woke up it was time to explore. He hooted around all over the place, picking up rocks, climbing on everything, he was so cute.

As we were leaving a family of three white mountain goats strolled past. I've never seen real mountain goats before and I was amazed at how beefy they were. I was hoping they weren't going to try and ram us from behind during this picture.

This is Oliver's victory picture. He got fussy about 2/3 of the way back, but did awesome. The return hike was tough with steep switch-backs up the final ascent. Doro and I drank glacial fresh glacial water out of a stream that was the best water we have ever tasted.

Oliver's Rotten Plum

Hoot Belly loves the bath. We take all the foam letters and stick them on the sides and on his belly while he races us to get them off.

This is the plum tree in the back yard. They are just now coming in and hoot belly was really interested in them. He managed to grab a rotten one which ended up all over Dorothy.

We took him to a new park and he loves to be in the swing. He was laughing so hard when we would get him going and I would grab his little feet each time.

We went to a little town north of Bremerton a little while ago called Kingston. You can see Seattle off to the right in the distance. Oliver was hooting at everybody when we were walking around.

He loves to go outside and always tries to open the door. He usually grabs my keys, picks out the truck key and jams it into the lock.

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Barbara

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Barbara! We miss you and hope that you have a great day. Oliver misses you so much that he cuddles with the teddy bear that you gave him every night when he goes to bed and before his nap. We tell him often how much his great grandma loves him. We love you too!