South Beach Yurt

For Raminta's BDay, we took a family vacation in a yurt at South Beach.  Mostly, we hiked around, tossed the chuckit for the pups, ate and relaxed.  Our site was in a cul-de-sac mostly populated by a bunch of families who were all friends, their kids playing kickball and whatnot all day long.  We're inspired to do the same as our friends' families get a bit older and able to play semi-supervised.

TJ developed his own sign for asking to be carried on our shoulders.  He pats himself on the head.  He also loves holding our faces as we aggressively toss him about by leaning back and forward and to the sides.

The boys cooking up breakfast for the birthday girl.

Sandplay

Which end up?

TJ is the pied piper of Chuck-It Town.

 

TJ will not accept a Chuck-It without a ball.

Ready for bedtime outside the yurt.

California

Ra, TJ and Vince went down to Northern California to visit Rasa and Craig in June.  More pictures were taken than I would ever want to count, but these gems are the product of thousands of monkeys banging on their thousands of photo-typewriters...

TJ and Grandma above Sonoma Lake

 

Flora identification starts early in our house.

Everyone loves a shoulder ride!

TJ rocks the rocks.

 

One-footed levitation trick.

 

Winery lunching.

Water games at the winery.

May Highlights

More goodness from the springtime...

TJ got his first haircut.  Ra thinks it makes him look like a conservative zealot.  I think of it more as military casual.

TJ is walking back to the barber for a touch-up.

Pensive swinging.

Flower inspection

Splashdown!  (yes, that's a salad spinner bowl)

Alternative mini-pool (dog flavored)

...and this, my friends, is how you eat yogurt:

Check the goods.

Spread the goods

Finish the goods.

Double-mugging.

April Highlights

Paleo TJ eats Paleo-style.

TJ at the Portland zoo.

This may be an unusual expression, 
but he's cute pretty much all of the time these days.

TJ performs all of his own stunts.

TJ also takes great pride in performing his own action scenes.

 

TJ's typical camera smile: lots of teeth and plenty of squinting.

Spider is quite tolerant of aggressive hugging.

Alaska

In late February, Ra and TJ visited friends in Alaska. Highlights included visits to an aquarium, a water park and a few days in a remote cabin.



TJ at his first aquarium.


Making friends...


As fascinating as the seals and other aquatic life may have been, this nightlight in the corner held TJ's attention even more firmly.


Crab attack!


TJ and Zaiden outside the Anchorage aquarium.





Zaiden and TJ are packed for the cabin.


Ready for a sleepytime story.


TJ, Ra and Zaiden hanging out at the cabin.


Time for a hike at the cabin.


Sleeping hiker.


Snowstuck.


Matching jammers!




Anchorage water park.


Another, albeit smaller water park in Anchorage.

Catching Up - Bouldering and Hiking

I've been working through what seem to be the last of my computer woes, so it's definitely time to catch up on my TJ blog updates. The goal is to post about a month of his delayed activity weekly until we're caught up with current happenings. Here is the start of that...



TJ and Shiv prepare for a climbing session at The Circuit Bouldering Gym.


TJ earns his climbing time with some light cleaning around the gym.


This kid knows what to do.


Auntie Chelesa is TJ's primary climbing coach and spotter.



TJ shows off sticks collected during a hike in Forest Park.


Coming next ... Ra and TJ's visit to Alaska in late February!