Port Alice

We spent the weekend in Port Alice where we had a wonderful visit with the family. The little boys were spoiled with attention and love. 

Grady and Papa watching a movie. 

Grady and Easton playing at the beach. 

Hunter and I watching the boys. 

Hunter ... very proud of his new skill ... pulling himself up to standing!

Happy 8 months Hunter!

Hunter is 8 months old! The past month has brought big changes in mobility. He crawls very quickly now and has started pulling himself up to standing using the furniture. Hunter's favorite activity is (still!) playing with Grady. He loves to follow Grady around, and also to play with the toys in the living room together. He's a bit of a menace and likes to get into things - all of the house plants are now up off the floor - he was pulling the leave off of them and dumping the dirt out.

Hunter is doing a great job of trying a wide variety of different foods. He's very good at picking up chunks of food and actually getting it into his mouth. When he's had enough, he starts dropping food over the side of his tray. Ryder loves this time of night!

Hunter is starting to babble quite a bit. We hear a lot of "ba ba ba". He's started to do some funny things that make Grady and I laugh. He squints his eyes and nods his head when he's happy ... he's quite the little character ... full of smiles. We sure love him.

Chompers

Poor baby Hunter has had a bit of a rough go with teething lately. His two bottom teeth came up fairly quickly. But, his top side teeth are coming in now and it hasn't been quick or easy. Lots of drooling, chewing on his fingers, and a bit of crankiness too. One tooth just poked through his gums today and I'm hopeful that the other side will come through in the next day or two. And, then I'm hoping we get a little break!

Smiley

Exercise class

Grady is taking a two-week class that offers an introduction to fitness, boxing, and self defense type moves. The first day they did push-ups, squats, tire flips, rope climbing, and boxing. He slept well that night! 

Kindergarten

Grady's first year of school was pretty great. He had an amazing teacher who took the students outside as much as possible - for walks and to work in the outdoor classroom. Grady made a lot of friends and had some neat experiences with field trips and presentations. He learned about the sounds of the letters (jolly phonics), how to properly write his letters and numbers, math, science, computers, and many other parts of the curriculum. Grady is already excited for grade 1 in September!

Thank you Uncle Bill!

Uncle Bill sent a special treat for Grady (the jelly bean monster). He was absolutely thrilled to have two of his very own packs ... he did share though!

Our first cabin trip of this summer

This past weekend we went on our first cabin trip of the summer. I was a little hesitant about how it would go because Hunter's favorite activity is crawling around on the floor and playing with whatever he finds ... I can't really let him do that on a dock that is surrounded on all sides with the ocean! It went surprisingly well. Between the jolly jumper, the high chair, and the carrier, we managed to keep him happy and entertained for most of the weekend! I can only hope the rest of our time out there this summer goes as smoothly.

This was a big weekend for Grady because he is now big/strong enough to row his row boat by himself! He was thrilled to take Ryder to shore (so were we ... means we didn't have to go every time!) and also to do a little fishing in the bay.

We didn't do much fishing this trip ... maybe one hour total ... it's a little trickier when I'm holding Hunter plus trying to entertain Grady plus trying to drive the boat! So, we'll work on finding a system that is a little easier on all of us. Since fishing was proving to be a little crazy, we docked at Friendly Cove and spent some time on the beautiful beach there. We were lucky that it was a nice, sunny day. The views were amazing and we all enjoyed choosing a few special rocks to bring home.

Goofing around

Puppy love

Easton's visit

We had Easton come stay with us this weekend. He and Grady had non-stop fun!