Had a fun outing last night were we walked over to Magnolia Village and spent the evening collecting candy.  Sander was shy, but seemed to enjoy trick-or-treating.   He liked looking at the other costumes.

Olin got to crawl around the house and be a dino.  We all enjoyed that.  He was very cute.

We made it to Seattle last night. Signed our apartment papers and viewed the house. Kim liked if and sander liked running around. We stayed in a hotel last night and will probably stay in the house tonight.

Yesterday turned out to be a good day as we found ourselves in Crater Lake. Pretty amazing (though a little hazy). We then made the journey to Bend. Definitely a nice town. Had a great dinner at Deschutes. Today we are going to attempt to make it to Portland through the weather.

It is really hard to put into words the last five months. This has been the most challenging time of my life, and I’m pretty sure the most challenging for Kim. Today is a big day. We moved out of our house in Oakland. Lots of memories and a special place for us. It is really hard for me to talk about right now in any depth.

I will say, the first 5 minutes of our drive away from the house… was difficult.

We made it 2 hours north to wonderful Willows, Ca.  Happen to have this massive rome available.  Sander and I made the journey to get mexican food from this hole-in-the-wall across the street (picture below).  Tomorrow we continue our journey to Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Sander and I had a discussion about what to be for Halloween. He had a couple of ideas. He liked the idea of being a cow. He also came up with some unique suggetions of having a big “spinner” on his shirt (not sure what that means). He also wanted to pit susages with sticks poking out of them on his shirt. Lastly, he wanted to be a juice box. The picture below demonstrates the juice box concept.

Olin was scooting around on the floor tonight. He moves backwards slowly on the floor. He got caught up under the table. He did like looking at the bottom of the chairs.

Last two days I’ve been riding the ferry with Nicole and Sven into San francisco. Been fun hanging out with them and had a fret dinner last night.

Very much looking forward to seeing Kim and the boys tonight.

It is tough not to compare the second child to the first child; in how they look, when they accomplish those baby milestones, their personalities, sleep habits, and so on. Today I am amazed at their differences. One in particular, Olin successfully put his foot in his mouth today. I think because I had taken away everything else he had to chew on. He is our little Billy Goat. Sander never was able to get his foot to his mouth.

I thought Sander put everything in his mouth but O takes it to a whole new level. Today alone I was holding our grocery bag while O was in the carrier and before I knew it he had it in his mouth (sorry Trader Joe cashier that had to touch that bag).

Next was the string to his brother’s balloon and it is not easy to pry something from his clenched fist. He has got some hold. Then as he was sitting next to me at lunch and had already chewed on both his socks I feel him tugging at my shirt. I don’t know what I expected but I got a nice wet shirt by the time I figured out what he was doing.

Finally he found his toes. I am sure it won’t be the last thing he finds today to chew on. I guess at least he doesn’t chew through things.

Been a crazy couple of weeks as we prepare for our big move. In that time i’ve had some nice moments with my boys. Sander and I spent some time at schoolhouse beach. Great time in the fog. So pretty.

Olin has a tendancy to wake up too early in the morning. This morning we went out for an early morning walk to the rose garden and up piedmont ave.

This post is a little overdue, but back in June we headed to my parents house for a long weekend. The two boys and I drove up together and much to my surprise we made it in one piece. Chris joined us a few days later.

Sander had a fabulous time (Olin too, but easier to gauge Sander’s reaction). We visited the pool, which was really an indoor wonderland for kids. Lots of water squirting everywhere, balls, buckets and water slides. Sander has to grow a little to go on the water slides, but I tired them out for the team. They were super fast and briefly made me feel like a teenager. I would post a picture from the pool, but I am not sure my Mom wants me to post a picture of her in her bathing suit on the web (though she looks fantastic), so I will err on the side of caution and leave the pool up to your imagination.

Sander enjoyed running around the backyard, watching my Dad’s train run around the track, climbing the hill and running along all the paths my Dad’s created. Olin just enjoyed being held all the time and some Grandparent love.

And later in the weekend to further fuel Sander’s love of trains we rode one. It gives us something else to talk about when he says at dinner, “talk about (long dramatic pause like he might ask us to talk about something else), trains!” It was a little rainy that day, but fun none-the-less.

The final shot is of the boys in Sander’s travel bed. Too cute not to post.