Shrimp Fest!

We're building a second home in Brinnon, WA -- A tiny little town on the West side of the Hood Canal. It's much less populated because it's *that* much harder to get to it from Seattle. But, it makes a great destination location for people that like to do outdoorsy kind of things.

Brinnon's one claim to fame (for now, until the resort is built) is Shrimp Fest, which happens every year on Memorial Day weekend. We've been there for it before but I haven't blogged about it until now.



They have these belt sander races that our neighbors really get into. Ralph is the main referee (under the tent). Ray inspects the decorated sanders, and everyone else loves to watch and cheer. It's pretty funny how much they get into it.






One thing we found out is that Connor LOVES shrimp. We bought a basket of shrimp and fries for Ron and it turns out Connor ate most of them. (We took the breading off, but still!)


This slide reminded me of childhood (if only it were yellow). Any time we went to the state fair, this was the only ride we ever did. and we did it 2 or three times. "super slide!"


Connor had his first pony ride. A little silly, I know....


Outside of the Quilcene Museum. We had always heard about it, this time we decided to go. It was better than I thought it would be! luckily it was free, so I didn't have to feel jipped.




It never fails. When we go to Brinnon, Ron is ALWAYS strapping SOMETHING to the roof of our car. and it's usually me that forgets it's there and somehow dings the body a bit. :P oh, well.


We let Connor play in the dirt for the first time. I told Ron he should at least PRETEND like he wasn't letting our child swallow rock after rock... ew.






I wonder where Connor gets his tongue from? hmmm....

9 months...

Connor had his nine month appointment today (today he is 9 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days old!). He measured ~31" tall and weighed ~20 lbs. that puts him in the 96th percentile for height and 60th percentile for weight! :| The doctor said not to worry about it if he's healthy and eating -- which he is. He just wiggles and squirms and moves so much that he burns it all off, I guess. And it probably didn't help that he's had the stomache flu all last weekend and didn't hold anything down. He weighed 21 lbs at 8 months, so it's a minor setback. I'm sure he'll be back up at 1 yr again. His head was in the 70th percentile for size, but I don't remember what it measured. Maybe I'll look it up when I get home.

We had family pictures taken on Monday evening by Krissy Allori Photography. She's a local photographer that does REALLY good work! and, she's also Ron's boss. (Long story, but she didn't want to take our pictures because she thought it would be a conflict of interest... she set up a contest so we could enter and try to win it instead... a little wierd, but oh well). The pictures turned out AWESOME. I was totally bummed, though, that Connor had been sick, so he wasn't smiling in any of them that I've seen so far. (She set up a sneak preview on her blog for us to see). Krissy is in the process of posting all of the proofs to the gallery so we can review them and buy the ones we want. Maybe there will be a couple in there that are smiling. I gotta hand it to the kid, though, at least he wasn't crying his baby eyes out. He's such a good kid! We count our blessings every day that we have with him.

Once the pictures have been purchased, I'll post some here. They're really quite cute!

Playdates at the park

Posting pictures. Verbage to come soon! :)

FIrst Words...

(picture taken March 5, 2010 -- almost 9 months old)

It's always so exciting when babies reach milestones. But saying words is the BEST so far!!

So, he's been babbling for a while now, but a few weeks ago, he started forming consonants together, and I heard "yum" and "yeah" and "go-o". But none of them were very sensical. Then, he started saying "ba-ba" all the time. and he would say it sometimes when he wanted his bottle, but I still wasn't sure...

But then last night I came home from work, and Connor was saying "Kee-Ghee, Kee-Ghee, Kee-Ca". Which sounds like "Kitty" or "Kitty Cat". Hmm... I thought. And then Ron tells me that Connor had a "big day with the cats". Really? What happened? Well, Ron was playing with the laser pointer, making the cats chase it. They were so fixated on the laser they didn't notice that Connor had caught up with them... He would pet them and grab them and they wouldn't move!! You have to realize that he has been chasing them for a while now, and to date has never actually caught them. He was so excited that he told me all about it when I got home. Since then, when the cats come in to the room, he says "Kee-Ghee" ... [Update, 05/11: Ron Took Connor to the zoo today. Connor was a chatter box the whole day... (They stayed there for ~5 hours!) When they got to the tiger's cage, Connor said "Kee-Ghee! Kee-Ca" and the lady standing next to them said, "that's an awfully big kitty cat!" :) So cute.]

I'm still working on "mama". and I'm sure Ron is working on "dada". but his favorite words for now are "Kee-Ghee". :)