Male Bonding

Today was Fan Day at the Oregon Ducks' indoor training facility and I decided to take The Little Man with me for some good ol' male bonding. I didn't think it would be too crowded, but it felt like the whole town showed up. There were long lines for everything both inside and outside the building. That's okay, we love our Ducks!

Meeting The Duck. The Little Man was fascinated with him.

They gave The Little Man a duck of his own. He loves this thing!

We also got to meet head football coach Chip Kelly. He was kind enough to pose in a picture with us, but I had some stranger take it and it didn't turn out that good. Oh well. Then, The Little Man got the attention of some girls...

The ONLY reason he looks upset is because he thought there would be more cheerleaders to pose with him.

In summary: Drew high-fived the head coach and flirted with cheerleaders. It was a proud day for me.

Surprise Visit to Utah

Since Dan had to go out of town for 4 days, Drew and I decided to surprise my family in Utah. I love surprises. I'm not so sure Drew does. :) I thought it would be funny to put Drew on my parent's porch in his carseat by himself. So I did that and had my sister, Steph, call my mom and ask her to come outside to help her with some stuff. So my poor mother opens the door, sees Drew, screams out of excitement (which I knew she would do because she usually does), and poor little Drew just cried and cried (which I knew he would - am I horrible for wanting the surprise at everyone's expense??). Drew recovered quickly and absolutely loves my mom. :) I had Steph record the surprise:

We were able to see one of my best friends, Angie, and her mom and sister, which was so fun!
Someone in my family cough*mom*cough took my phone and took random pictures. (I love my family!)
Gavin, Drew, and Ranen are 4 months apart. Drew was born in December, Ranen in February, and Gavin in April. So I thought it'd be fun to get a picture of them together. Gavin and Ranen cooperated. Drew just tried grabbing the other babies (poor Gavin's bracing himself), tried standing up when my mom tried holding his hands down (sorry, Mom), and tried scooting away.

We finally got a decent one with Gavin and Drew smiling. I'm not sure Ranen was thrilled about the whole idea. :)
My dad took our family to Incredible Pizza, which was so fun. Drew got to ride in this car that goes around on a track and he loved playing with the steering wheel.

Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful visit!

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

This past weekend, I went on the young men's Super Adventure to the southern Oregon coast while Ang and Drew headed for the mountains of Utah. Hence, the name of this blog post (which is also the name of a Journey song. You know the one with the chorus that goes, "Someday, love will find you..."). Yep, that one. I'm so DAN clever.
Anyway, I joined up with them for some camping, kayaking, football on the beach, and other male bonding stuff. It was a blast!
We were so close to the Redwoods in California. I have never seen them before and we didn't have permission to take the youth out of state, so we couldn't do that for an activity. So what did I do? I left them suckas behind and went anyway. I got up early Saturday morning (while everyone else was still fast asleep) and took another adult leader with me and headed for Cali. Even though we were down in the Redwoods for roughly an hour, I'm still amazed by what I was able to see. You can't really appreciate how old and majestic these trees are until you see them in person. I recommend every one to go see these lions of the tree family. I can't wait to take my family back down there and share the experience with them!
Anyway, here are some pics (taken with the camera on my BlackBerry) from my excursion.

This tree is so huge! And it's not even the biggest one.

Me standing alongside a fallen tree. I swear I didn't do it.

Mr. Ordway and I had a fun time.

I wonder if Chuck Norris had a hand in knocking this one down.

This tree is ready for it's close up.

The Smith River located in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. The tall, dark and handsome trees on the right are Redwoods.

These things are so tall! In other words, not only are they big, but they are BIG.

As we were all headed back to Eugene, we stopped at a "secret beach" that Gavin showed us along Hwy 101. For some reason, this beach reminded me of The Goonies. Maybe it was the rocks, the beach, the youth running around, or the fact that it was filmed in Oregon.

"Goonies never say die!" (and neither do Redwood trees)

He's Mobile!

Drew's mobile! He's been rolling over for a few months now, but he's finally figured out how to get places by rolling over and over. He's fast too! As soon as we lay him down, he'll flip over and get goin'. Guess it's time to baby proof!

He loves the XBox. I'm not surprised. Knowing his Daddy and birthfather, that one's a given. :) He rolls up to the entertainment center and plays with it. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to push the buttons.


But he has figured out how to do this:


Which means it's time to get locks for the doors. We don't want any smashed fingers! (Sorry, Amelia!!) But him being mobile also means this:

Poor boy! This picture makes me so sad. I'm sure there will be more of this when he starts crawling, pulling himself up and trying to walk in the months to come. Sigh.