Bucks Lake

Last summer, our trip to the cabin at Bucks Lake was Owen's first family vacation. Owen was too young (only 3 months old) to really appreciate it, but this year he had a blast. He loved playing with Oisin and Jakodi, jumping on the bed, climbing on the deck chairs, and going inside/outside/inside/outside through the cabin door. Here he is playing peekaboo with Jakodi behind our beach towels.


He also learned a bunch of new words: blanket ("mum-baht"), yes, ready, more, and bucket ("buh-bit") as you can see here.

Spaghetti Hat

Sandbeck Family Reunion

Jeremy's Norwegian great-grandparents, Bert and Bertina Sandbeck, had thirteen children including Jeremy's grandma, Donna, the youngest of the bunch. At today's family reunion at May Nissen Park we saw about 150 family members, and this wasn't even close to the total number of relatives. There are so many people in the family that we've randomly met people in Livermore to later on find out that they're related. This was a fun day for Grammy Nancy to show off Owen to family members who hadn't met him yet, including his great-great-aunts. Of course, Owen was just stoked to be at the park all day.

Grandma Donna would have been proud.


Owen and his Dada

Slammy, Grammy, and Owen

Sizing up some of the little girls in the family

"Whee!" (That's what he says. He's still learning the word "slide.")


Owen=1/8 Norwegian

Fun Weekend

Oakland Zoo
Finally, summer school is over (and only 1 more week for Jeremy)! We kicked off the summer vacation by visiting the Oakland Zoo. This zoo trip was much more fun for Owen than the last one, when he was only 7 months old. He knew a lot of the animals this time (elephants, zebras, monkeys, birds) and he liked making their sounds. His favorite part was the petting zoo, where he learned a new animal/word: goat.

Owen was very VERY eager to pet the goats

This was right before Owen poked the goat in the eye

Walking walking walking all the time now!

Berkeley Kite Festival
The next day we went to the Berkeley Kite Festival. Owen was a little underwhelmed with the kites, but he did do a couple "oooh"s here and there. But it's pretty clear that anywhere Owen can find sticks and rocks and a place to roam, he'll have fun.

Not to brag...

...but I've got a pretty cute kid!

Here you can see he's a little boy now, not a little baby.

My little boy- 14 months old


Owen and Grandpa


Contemplating the meaning of life? Or just looking at a bush?


Reading a book. In a box.

And now a couple pictures we can use to embarrass Owen sometime later. You know, pull them out and show his prom date, stuff like that.

Fun with tampons

Snuggling up with the TP (like he does with anything soft- thumb in the mouth, rubbing the softie on his forehead)

Disneyland

We were already there for a wedding at the Disneyland Hotel, so we HAD to take Owen on his first visit to Disneyland. He loved it! His first ride was the teacups, and after that he went on It's a Small World, the Disneyland Railroad, the Jungle Cruise, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Tiki Room. He also met Mickey Mouse at Mickey's House. One of his favorites was the Jungle Cruise, of course, with all those animals, but his absolute favorite was the Tiki Room. He loved dancing to the singing birds and music (while I ate my pineapple hwhip). I was worried that Pirates of the Caribbean would be too scary for him with the dark plunges down the waterfalls. But he only tensed up a little, said "Uh oh" when he saw the first pirate skeleton, and then he fell asleep. With naptime, etc. we didn't get to do as much as I wanted, so we'll just have to take him back again sometime soon :)

At Kelly & Bryan's wedding


First ride of the day

Meeting Mickey (right before Owen grabbed Mickey's nose)

Jeremy & Owen on the Jungle Cruise

Long car ride with Disney pals Mickey and Dale

Owen Turns 1!

"Owen" has been slacking on his blog because "Owen" has had a busy few months. Now it's finally summer vacation (for the next 4 weeks) so the blog may just get some TLC.


Now, catching up on May...

What do cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, peaches, and strawberries have in common? They are all among the things Owen is allergic to. Poor Owen had to have 6 vials of blood taken so he could be tested for the allergies we suspected, and some others too. So now the challenge is finding things he can (and will) eat, and I am now a chronic food label reader. I see lots of nut-free tables and no more trips to Yogurtland in our future, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Owen will get tested again in 2 years, and hopefully he'll grow out of some or all of his allergies.

A case of the sillies at dinner time

Owen's first birthday was spent at Alamo Creek Park with his friends and family. He had his own cake to dig into, but he wasn't very interested in it. He mostly liked being held by the people in his family and opening presents. It was unseasonably freezing, but luckily the hail held off until the next day.

Owen's very own (egg-and-milk-free) birthday cake


Owen and Grammy

Owen's personality is coming out pretty clearly. He's sweet and cuddly, but independent, too. He loves reading his books, and he definitely has his favorites, most of which are about animals. He wasn't walking yet, but crawling like crazy, and getting into everything.

Not walking yet, but getting into everything (like our bedroom closet)