Oregon & so much more!

It seems so much has happened in the past few weeks! Samuel now has three teeth on bottom and three teeth on top! (plus, you can see teeth #7 & 8 are on their way!) He's also learned to wave bye-bye! Its so funny, he hold up his left hand (always the left hand) and kind of twists his wrist back and forth, as if he were shooing away a fly or something. :) But, the BIGGEST news thus far is that Sammy is crawling now! It happened early one misty morning up in Oregon - he decided he'd had enough of tummy-army-crawling and hopped up on all fours and just went for it! We're so proud of our little guy! We give credit to the fully-carpeted house up there, but also to our 8-month old cousin Josh who graciously crawled all around Sam the whole week and inspired him to give it a try! Now's he's all over the place exploring things much faster than he used to!

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(Sammy wanted to share his thoughts about the experience)

Josh & Sam were buddies the whole week up in Oregon... they ate the same snacks, took a bath together, and even stayed up late one night to watch a movie together. :)

Sammy even wanted to share the same bottle, but Josh wouldn't give it up. :)
We had a very enjoyable time in Oregon! Samuel did quite well on the 18-hour trip, especially on the way home, because he was sitting in his new car seat. You gotta love the logo for his new Recaro carseat: "Don't get cute, get Recaro." So their either implying that Recaro carseats are not cute... or that we shouldn't be fooled to buy other "cute" carseats when Recaro is simply the best! Regardless, Sammy thought the seat was quite comfortable and slept for hours in it! We call it his barcalounger. And you'll see why in this photo below - quite cushy.

Our favorite part of the trip, besides relaxing & skiing on the lake, was trying out skeet shooting for the first time! :) It left a little bit of a bruise on my left shoulder, but it was all worth it because I hit 13 out of 50 moving targets! (Okay, that may not sound that great to some, but its really quite difficult! Andrew got 21/50, and our experienced Uncle Drake & cousin Jeff hit 36 or so).

Sammy's favorite part of the trip was pretending to drive the boat. He would sit in the boat with his Grammy for hours it seemed, turning the wheel, pushing and pulling all the buttons, honking the horn and figuring out how to take the key out of the ignition! He is definitely a smart little cookie and I'm sure he can't wait until he can really drive the boat.

Andrew took Sam for a little spin on the jet ski, which I was a bit nervous about. and I took him for a short drive on the quad. In the video below, Andrew taught Samuel how to blow the jet ski whistle! What a cutie!

On our way up to Oregon, we were able to visit with some of our good friends, Dave & Natalie, Adam & Ali, and Kim (plus Sammy got to hang out with his friends Tyler, Noelle, Evan, Baby 2 Knight & Baby 2 Bradley!) - and on the way back home we stopped in Marshall, CA to attend our cousin's wedding... and then got to visit Jessica's freshman-year college roommate (& fellow reccie)! It was so wonderful catching up with so many people during our trip! It seemed the trip just flew by, as it does every year, and we're already looking forward to next summer!

Greetings from Woahink Lake!

Great-Gramps & Gigi with their 1st great-grandbaby :)

Me and my Fremont roommate Ashley

How can anyone sleep like this?

We felt very safe on our vacation. If you're ever up in Oregon and running from a tsunami, just follow the signs!

Sammy's sporting his Daddy's Oregon t-shirt from when he was a baby!

Wednesday was Amy's & my "matching dress day" at the lake. :) And to wrap it up, here are a couple videos of Jessica & Andrew "competing" for who can fall the most graciously while waterskiing... please log your vote in the comments section as to who had the best wipeout!