Evie's first birthday

Evie had her first birthday last week. Her and Christen were up in Washington visiting the family, so they had a little birthday party for her. Here she is chattin' it up with her cousin Brooklyn.



She got some pretty cool presents:



I think this grin says it all:



Here she is the next day sitting on the rocking chair Christen used to sit in:

Evie is laughing now

I just realized we haven't posted in a while, and thought I'd share this. I guess it is more exciting when you're actually there, but she is pretty cute in any case.

Mount June on Friday

On Friday Christen, Evie, and I went out for another hike. It was a pretty stressful week for both of us between working on my comprehensive exam and everything else going on, so Christen skipped school in the afternoon (and went in on Saturday) so we could go for a little relaxing hike. We hiked about a mile to the top of a little peak--the highest in the immediate vicinity. We forgot our camera, but I got some pictures with my cell phone, and figured out how to get them onto the computer. Evie enjoyed a meal at the top:

We had a beauiful view of the three sisters and all the mountains in central Oregon. If anyone wants to come down later this summer, it supposed to be a pretty fun day hike to go up one of the three sisters, by the way. :)

This is how Evie made it to the top:

This was on the way down, but on the way up I had her facing forward. She was pretty wide-eyed the entire time, just taking everything in. By the time we got back to the car though, she was sound asleep, and slept the entire drive home.

While I was getting pictures off of my phone, I remembered this one that I took a while back from my lab window:

You might have to click on the picture to be able to see it, but there is a tank driving on the lawn behind the science complex. The drawing is just our normal window markings when there's not enough room on the white board.

Gratuitous baby pictures

In case any of you were unaware, Evie is the cutest baby ever.

I though mom and dad would appreciate her shirt. I can remember a few of the kids eating fruit that way. :)

Prepare to have your mind blown...

This is the most awesome thing I think I've seen all week.  

Evie's first hike

Last weekend Evie had a couple major milestones. Christen and I took her on her first drive over an hour, and she went on her first hike. We drove down to the Umpqua river near Roseburg, and went to a couple waterfalls. We got to the first falls, and she had to be fed and changed. It was kind of a diaper explosion, so by changed I mean the entire outfit. Forty-five minutes later, we got out on the trail. She didn't actually hike much, and she actually spent most of the hike looking like this:

I thought she was pretty cute. Those couple of pictures were taken at Deadline falls on the Umpqua river near Roseburg. Then we went up the road a little ways to another set of falls. This one was about 3/4 of a mile up the trail. It was kind of raining, so Evie spent most of the hike in the sling with my jacket zipped around her.

It was a pretty waterfall, too.

With all of that done, we drove back home. It was a pretty successful trip, in my opinion.

First post of the new year

So I think I officially fail at the blog posting thing. It's one of my new year's resolutions to get it going again, though. The break was fun. It is nice to have a break from the break. There is something about being in your own apartment, and being on your own schedule that is kind of relaxing. Also, in addition to Christmas, we had Tara's (my sister) wedding, and her reception.

Also, we went back and forth between the two families, and on top of that, there was snow on the ground the entire time, which is a big deal in Washington, resulting in things like this:

We also saw a land cruiser with one wheel over a guard rail. I have no idea how it got there, but I guess at least it was only one wheel, and not all of them.