No real story on the straw hat photos. That is papa's river hat, for some reason it was sitting out while I was cleaning up the house and Joey reached up for it, so I put it on his head. The cool thing about this hat is the mesh area right at his eye level when the hat falls down on his head. Also it has a string, one of the three coolest things in the world. For the record those three things are: 1. Straps/strings of any kind 2. Cardboard boxes 3. Food!

The last two photos are evidence of the consequences of crawling backwards.... He had started out playing with the dogs over near the dining room table, he wound up 20 feet away under the couch. He really is trying to crawl forward but he can not get the transmission out of "R". Being stuck under the couch was funny for a brief time, but eventually once he realized all I was doing was taking photos, and not pulling him out he got pissed, don't worry he was only there for at most 2 more seconds after that last photo......

Those who are parents will probably appreciate this, but it will be old news to you, however for me this has been outstanding! In the last week Joey has really started mimicking our behavior when ever he can. Of course he has been doing some of this through out, things like smiling etc, but now it is becoming fairly ubiquitous in his behavior. Most notably it happens with food. I was trying to teach him to drink water out of a sippy cup, he wanted nothing to do with it until I tried it first, he then giggled, reached for it, and did exactly as I had just done. When feeding him sometimes there are other more interesting things around, that is until I put the spoon in my mouth, then he can't stop eating whatever it is. On top of this, when he mimics he gets extremely proud and satisfied with himself. Typically in the morning once he has eaten and gotten dressed I let him chase the dogs around and pull the laundry out in the walker. During that time I make my coffee and get some toast. The last few mornings he has started walking up to me while I am eating and screaming with his arms out. While not the traditional baby sign for "toast" it has become very clear to me what he is wanting, I always try to give him the "food" "please" signs, but he finds scream/reach more effective. Anyways, as soon as I rip off a piece of toast he goes nuts and makes these great "yum yum" noises as he shoves it in, he then proceeds to stand next to me until he is finished with his piece, and either takes off on another adventure (first to the dogs to give them the leftovers) or "signs" for more toast, again scream/reach. These pics are intended to demonstrate the pure pleasure/pride/satisfaction he has when he mimics our behavior.

One more post today. This happened this afternoon. Joey has really gotten into scooting himself along the floor, albeit backwards, but hey, it's locomotion with not assistance. Anyways, we were hanging out near the kitchen, we'd been wrestling and kicking the soccer ball (i kick it, he heads it), when he decided to back up to the dog's water bowl. He was pretty proud of himself, and happy playing in the spilled water for quite sometime, until if finally leaked all the way through his overalls and I think he got a little uncomfortable. The dogs were less than impressed with the whole situation.

Double dose of post today. Joey is really getting into eating solid foods. He is pretty pasionate about it too. As these photos demonstrate. The screaming face was perpetrated by my taking too long to scoop the next spoonful, seriously it was maybe a 15 second pause between bites and he let me know it was too long. Of course his attitude swings the exact opposite direction as soon as he gets that next bite. All those worries we had about him not gaining weight the first two months have long since past....some days I think I can see him getting bigger, or at least feel him getting heavier while he sits in the backpack.

Spring break for the University was last week. This meant Lindsey took some time off to recuperate, and I took some time off to ski. It did mean we were apart for a short time. Lindsey and Joey flew to Boise to hang with her folks for a couple of days. Diesel and I headed into the Wallowas in Northeast Oregon to do a backcountry ski trip. Denver stayed home with our friend Chambers and took full advantage of sitting on the couch and on Chambers. We were all back together again by Wednesday. I was able to get a bunch of work done on my project at the end of the week, and Lindsey did a lot of things around the house she had been wanting to do. The picks with this post are first of Diesel and I on a ridge called Lookout ridge, just before sunset of our first day, and the second is of Diesel and I on the last day with the Aneroid basin in the background.

The last two pics are of Joey demonstrating the new skills Papa Ken taught him while in Boise.

As I posted before, Joey loves his walker. Here is a video of him getting around. He is really enjoying the freedom, but still prefers to interact with us while he is in it.

Joey just wants to say happy birthday grandma, and we will see you in a couple of weeks! For now enjoy these photos of him playing in his walker, dressed in his engineer's get-up.



Sometimes Joey forgets the walker is not the jumper.



That's when it's time to move!....

To the jumper, he loves hanging on this while in the walker.

A few new pics. Joey has really taken an interest in Diesel and Denver. Diesel is starting to warm up a little bit, he sat close enough to Joey to be pet by him for about 2 min. the other day. Denver is really starting to appreciate that Joey now knows how to pet him.

Below is a video of the little man enjoying his jump up and talking to the dogs. This is by far one of his favorite activities, especially if someone sits in front of him and talk to him....or jumps along side him, of course this often gets the dogs wound up, so we try to do this when Lindsey isn't home.

This is the last post in my catch up series. After Christmas we went to McCall, Idaho and spend 5 days skiing and hanging with family. Lindsey's Grandma Chaldy , parents, Grandpa and Grandma Pearson, Aunt Beth (along with her husband and two kids) Charlie (Lindsey's brother), and my immediate family (minus Joellen) all met up there for 5 days of non stop snow. It snowed at least 5 inches every day, and 9 inches a couple of days. It was a great time, and we are hoping to do a similar thing next year.

For some reason I was not shooting many pictures then, but I did take some yesterday of Joey in his new ISU gear that great G and G Pearson gave him.

After the trip to California we were home for about 3 weeks. During that time we tried to get caught up on things we had missed. I had some good work going in the lab, and Lindsey was finishing up her classes for the semester. Of course the snow came and so began the ski season. We were home until about Dec 20. At that point Lindsey and Joey flew to Boise, to go be with Lindsey's mom for her birthday.

I stayed behind and got a little more lab work done, then headed over to the Wallowas to do some work on the back country yurts in there. On the second day in there Trevor, Diesel, Denver, and I were hiking up a ridge to take a look around and ski the 2-3 feet of fresh snow when some snow sluffed under me, and released a slide that took Diesel and I about 150 feet down slope. We stopped unhurt and with all of our gear. It was sobering experience and an exciting way to start the back county season.

Eventually we made it out, and I drove on to Boise to spend Christmas with Lindsey's family and await our trip to McCall.

The photos with this post are of our few days at home. One is Diesel keeping watch over a sleeping Joey. Another is Tobin (our friend Pete and Anna's youngest) showing Joey how to stand. Then there is a series of him in his Christmas gear.

The next set of photos is from the ski trip. Denver typically does not get to go on these trips, but since I was headed to Boise from there he was forced to join us. He had a good time, but was a little tired at the end of the days. It snowed on us most of the way into the yurts, that's the shot of diesel covered in snow. There are two shots of the slide. One taken from where Diesel and I stopped, and one taken after we hiked back up to the crown to dig a pit to look at which layer was responsible. Finally there is a shot of Trevor and I with the dogs outside of the yurt.

Gonna try to catch up a little here with a series of postings. The holidays have finally passed, which doesn't mean we've slowed down, just that it's a way point marking how long it's been since I've updated here.

For Thanksgiving, the five of us (Lindsey, Joey, Diesel, Denver, and myself) drove to Southern California to be with my family for the week. We broke the drive into 3 days, the first day we drove to Boise and stayed withe Lindsey's folks. The second day we drove to San Francisco and stayed with Marty. Jay and his wife Mellisa live in the Bay area as well, so we took an extra day there and ran around the city. It was a lot of fun, we did a trek up to the Muir woods area and got to see some of the coastal redwoods.

Once we got to "So Cal" (please don't say so cal) we finally got to introduce Joey to his Uncle Micheal, and Great Grandma Tiefel and Great Grandpa and Grandma Shirley. In addition he met some other aunts and uncles and cousins of mine. The time with family was great, but extremely hectic. Hopefully in the future we choose to travel at non holiday times. By the time we got home we were all exhausted, and I think in the future we will use those university breaks as a time to recover from the stresses of the semester.

Anyways, this is the first post in a series of catch up...

I've posted some photos from the trip. The two are of Lindsey and Joey. The second is of Joey's first road trip food spill... (I let him try my ice cream sandwich). The last three are from his trip to the Pacific ocean... I have also included some photos of family holding Joey. Uncle Micheal, Great Grandma Tiefel, Great Grandpa Shirley.