And Now A Public Service Announcement
Nancy Regan would be very happy with Liam's most recent ad campaign...
We were lucky enough to have Amelia's parents come in town the weekend after New Years. We had a great time laying low and got in quite a few games of cards. We even let the cat back in. I may have forgotten to mention we put her on Prozac to see if that alters her litter box dysfunction. I'm happy to say she's holding up her end of the deal so far.
Liam is again thinking about his career opportunities. Here he models his stunt man shirts while showcasing his outstanding abilities to roll off a mat at daycare and induce carpet burn on his face. He's a trooper though and hasn't shown any signs it bothers him.
Been Hanging Around...
chewing on stuff (life is good with dog in one hand and paci in the other)...
standing by the couch (but only when somebody props me up like this)...
picking out a Christmas tree (Dad took so long to find the perfect specimen that we started to lose daylight)...
eating peaches, pears, and anything else I can get to my mouth...
drooling (all this drool is making me breakout)...
checking out the Zoolights display on the train...
and riding my horse, Winston. It must be the boots, 'cuz I got mad skills in the saddle.
November Happenings
It's beginning to look a lot like... well, really bare. And really cold. Here's Shawn and Liam dressed to go out for an evening walk.
More humiliation by hat...
To all you doubters, yes he does have hair. We're hoping to rock the mullet in 2008.
Cosette, my Oregon office companion. Or at least she was until her latest exile to the garage. Anyone want an incredibly sweet and cute cat with a history of major litter box issues? Seriously. We have plenty of love for her, but are out of ideas and patience and would happily give her over to a good home with ample supplies of all three.
Aww, Dad, stop. I've got stuff to do...
Like work this remote (I'm now convinced this is basic male instinct rather than a learned behavior; reason #101 we don't have cable back home in NM).
Shawn's parents joined us for some fun times over the Thanksgiving weekend. Between feedings (I'm referencing us adults here, not Liam), we got in a stroll in Portland's Forest Park (six bites of pie burned, about 12,000 calories to go).
Grandma brought Liam a ducky just like the ones at swim class. Can't tell if it's his new best friend or he's trying to bite its head off, but it was a huge hit either way.
And we spent a picturesque - if chilly - day together on the coast checking out the ocean and tasting some Tillamook ice cream (officially putting the calorie counter into overload).
-Amelia
Swimming Like A Fish
They get to play all kinds of cool pool games. Here Liam is the "itsy bitsy spider" getting washed down the water spout. Boy, does he love this game (as you can tell by the look on his face).
The weather lately has also been great (AKA no rain). We took some time in a local park to enjoy some time in the grass.
While working on shift at work has its drawbacks it also provided a few benefits. One of which is 3 and 4 day weekends (which I'm in withdraw over now that I'm back on my Monday-Friday schedule). I recently had the opportunity to go fishing during the salmon run. Here's a picture of the early morning sunrise. It was quite breathtaking.
Lastly is the picture of the 32lb salmon we caught. This fish looked so good that I had our guide cut off a hunk to eat when he filleted it. That made it the most expensive sushi I've had. But it was indisputably the best I've ever had, and wished I'd taken more than a single bit!
-Shawn
Exploring The Beaver State
The overall transition to life up here hasn't been as smooth as we were hoping, but we have seen some seriously incredible stuff around Oregon (and still need to capture all the crazy-colorful and gorgeous fall colors - now this is what fall should look like)...
Liam was thrilled to visit the Columbia Gorge Area; or maybe just for the opportunity to taste sunglasses.
The Columbia River Valley.
Liam and I at Multnomah Falls. There are a bunch of waterfalls in this area, but this is the tallest and has the coolest bridge :0)
Checking out the fish ladder at Bonneville Lock and Dam which allows for the upriver migration of salmon. There were underwater windows to check out the fish as they pass through the ladder and it was wild to see them working against all that current (we'll spare you the blurry fish pictures, though)!
Here's Shawn and Liam at the beach in Seaside, Oregon.
And Liam and I at Ecola State Park on the Oregon Coast. He's getting bigger and more mobile, but still pretty content to be carted around in his wrap. It's getting to be a decent workout for us, too!
Shawn took this photo of an incredibly funky tree while on a stroll through Ecola State Park. Believe it or not, this is NOT in black and white...
And a closing shot of Oregon's gorgeous coast. We'll definitely be back.
Oregon or Bust
OK, so its been a while since either of us have made a posting. But really, we had a good excuse. For those that don't know we moved up to Hillsboro, Oregon (near Portland) for a temporary training assignment (Shawn here). Oh and for those of you that haven't moved in a while... you suck! Or rather, moving sucks.
Due to some technical difficulties I'll have to do the update from our Minnesota trip later on even though it precedes most of these pictures.
Without further adieu here are some picts:
We made it down to Portland's Saturday Market yesterday (yes, that's Sunday and it's put on both days). While there we made our way down to the Willamette river front.
We also took some time to stop and see Portland's Rose Garden in Washington Park which was quite impressive. It spans 5 acres! Liam was more interested in checking out the taller rose bushes.
Ummmmmm, not yet. Wrong bottle. Boy was he pissed when we took it away. I can sympathize with him on that one. 
We decided we'd wait until we got up to Oregon before trying solid foods with Liam. They recommend cereal first so that they can get used to texture. But we thought we'd try the pears first. I think he learned a lot at "school" (his old daycare) watching the other kids. He had no question what the spoon was for and how to eat. In fact, we didn't need the resealable cap... he ate the whole damn thing (and proceeded to drop a major load a couple hours later). 
We had a spare day up in our townhome waiting for our driver to arrive with our packed stuff. In the meantime we bought this jumper for Liam. I must say its one of the coolest things I've seen. It has a turret on it! Liam decided he could stand to do some leg exercises to work on his physique.
We stopped near the Blue Mountains in Oregon to let the dogs out. This was part of the historic Oregon Trail. While there we took some pictures. You'll also notice there are few pictures we took along the way and for reference the sun is always in the East for the pictures. With 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 six month old, and our stuff in the Escape the only time everyone was happy was in the morning.
The worst family member on the trip was the cat. Our favorite vet gave us some sedatives and instructed 1/2 pill every 8 hrs. She finally shut up after 2 hours of non-stop squawking. After day one we called him and he recommended doubling the dose. It worked so well on day two that we thought we'd killed here. Alas, she came back with a vengeance on day three despite the full pill. 
For the first night we stopped just south of Salt Lake City. We took this picture about a hour north of the city when we stopped to let the dogs out.
Here are some of the last pictures of us before leaving New Mexico. Liam was still enjoying the hot tub. He was getting quite good at dropping his binky into the water and fishing it back out. 
Liam started holding his own bottles. Its actually a huge blessing for us because you can do something else now while he's eating. Oh, wait, that's if you feed him with a bottle... sorry sweety.