Portland 2011

This September we finally made it out to Portland to see Eric's side of the family. We were originally scheduled to go last Thanksgiving, but Eric's eye troubles delayed that. While the visit was delayed, we got to enjoy much better weather and we headed to the beach! We were fortunate to get to spend almost a week with the Hansens/Rudins/Nelsons at the beach!

Nick loved the beach. From the moment that we arrived, until the moment that we left he loved to explore the sand, water and everything that the beach has to offer.


Nick also loved to spend time with his cousins. He definitely looked up to Jeremy and Andrew and whatever they were doing, he wanted to do as well!



This was just the beginning of all of the silly, crazy and incredibly fun good times that we had in Portland/the OR coast this summer!

Fourth Part 2

It was so great to spend some quality time with family this past weekend. Even though we're older now, not much has changed in our family dynamic. Muffin still falls asleep on the couch for an evening "nap", Peter and I are still goof balls. All in all it made for some funny pictures.

Nick enjoyed snuggling up with Grandpa Muffin on the couch to watch some golf. The TV is probably what kept him still long enough to get a half way decent picture.


Nick had so much fun playing with Grandma. He enjoyed getting to spend so much time with her and indulging in all of her treats!

Happy Fourth of July!!

Fourth of July Part I

We made a trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa over the Fourth of July weekend. Uncle Peter even made the trip down from Princeton to spend some time with us. Nick LOVES Uncle Peter. All weekend he requested that Uncle Peter play with him, read to him and just give him all sorts of attention.

Grandma spoiled all of us, particularly Nick. She got him a super cool train set that Nick enjoyed playing with all weekend. Over the course of the weekend, I think that we all spent a fair amount of time playing with Nick and the train set.
Two peas in a pod. The spoiling continued as Grandma provided Nick with all sorts of yummy treats - popsicles, m & ms, oreos, and tons of love and affection.
Uncle Mark and Amy had just moved into their new house on Lake Norman, so we had to go take a look. Nick loved to spend time on the jet ski (while parked) and riding on their boat.
He absolutely loved being on the boat, seeing the sights and having the wind in his face.

Easter Egg Hunt

The weekend before Easter, we took Nick to an Easter Egg Hunt at my work. While it may not seem like it in this picture, Nick LOVES the Easter Bunny. He kept staring up at him with a huge smile on his face. He was just enamored by the bunny!

They broke the hunt out into different age groups. The 1 - 3 group was the place to be. There weren't that many kids so they all got plenty of eggs.
Nick totally enjoyed going around and finding the eggs and putting them in his bucket.
By the end of the hunt, Nick's basket was full, to the top full. It got to the point where I had to carry it for him full. He was one happy child as he opened all of the eggs and dug into the sugary and chocolate delights!

Touch a Truck

I knew that it had been awhile since I last blogged, but it wasn't until this morning when I was going through our pictures that I realized it's been like 3 months... oops! Anyway, back in April (on an unexpectedly cold day) we took Nick to Touch a Truck. This is a 2 year old boy's dream. There is a parking lot full of all sorts of trucks, vehicles, cars, etc and the kids can climb into them and all over them. Minus the cold, it was awesome!

Nick wasn't nearly as scared of the fire truck as he was in November at his birthday party!!

He loved driving this digger, I know it's shocking that he loves construction equipment. We actually had to force him to get off this one to let the other kids have a turn.

Nick and Daddy got to climb up into a huge real-life Wal-Mart truck! As you can see, he loved every minute of it!
This truck was so lifted, that I could not lift Nick up to get into it - Eric had to. Half the people there weren't tall enough to lift their kids into it. This picture doesn't really do it justice - it was just ridiculous.

They also had a race car that Nick asked to go back to like 3 times. They had a helmet that the kids could try on as well, but it was just way too big for our little guy.
Driving home from our awesome adventure, Nick was super happy, hungry and exhausted (even though he would never ever admit to being tired)!

Devil's Den with Daddy

Nick got to have tons of quality time with Daddy today, while Mommy worked all day. They went on several adventures, one of which was going on Nick's first hike at Devil's Den.

Nick loved to run along the trails and explore everything in site! He probably walked about 2 miles on the trail (in and back).
The boys found some really cool rock formations and caves, an explorer's delight!
Yes, Daddy is crazy and left Nick sitting up there by himself. Thankfully, I can vouch for the fact that he is still in one piece (not even a scratch or a bruise!).


Then they came across a field of dandelions. Nick picked them all and blew on them to send the seeds flying.

Boots and big boy underwear

By now we all know that Nick loves shoes, especially if they're from Mommy's closet. He also seems to love to try and wear the ones that would be the hardest. Somehow, with some assistance from Daddy, he managed to get my snow boots on!

They are nearly as big as he is!

He also wanted to show off his new big boy underwear!! He still doesn't get the concept that underwear cannot absorb things like diapers. But hey, they look super cool.

Nick picked out the Thomas the Train ones all by himself. He also got a few pairs of Cars underwear. Now maybe one day he'll figure out how to use them correctly...