Crabbing!!

   Guys!! I need to make this very clear to you: I lead a super exciting life full of fun and adventure. Even though I have the special little kid, it's not like my life is any less full throttle than it was 5 years ago.
 
   Proof: A few weekends ago, Cara and I spontaneously decided to go crabbing. (Ha!! For a second there those b's in "crabbing" were accidental p's. What fun!) We'd bought a "pot" - which is what the indigenous people call the crab-trap-box - a few months earlier on sale and wanted to try it, so we hopped in the manlyvan for another trip to the coast.
   Spontaneous trips to the coast?! Well that's only all we ever did in college.

Circa 2005

   This was taken in a simpler time, when Cara had a boyfriend who wasn't me and I had a haircut that should've happened weeks ago. You might think "I wonder if Grant is embarassed by a picture with his hair like that?" No. I am not. Because I know there are also pictures like this:

Circa a few months later in 2005

   The scarf definitely makes that thing work. I'm so glad to know this picture, which I pulled off facebook, will be on the internet forever.
       Anyways, crabbing. We loaded up the pot, 4 or 5 random cords and ropes, some thawing chicken, and all the little-boy gear we'd ever need. Then we drove as West as the roads can take you. To our surprise, and I mean we were shocked, it was an absolutely glorious day at the coast. The sun wasn't really out, there was light cloud cover the whole time, but it was warm, breezy, light and relaxing. Days like this at the coast are a treat.

This might not look like much, but imagine all of the paintings it could inspire!

   So, here's the deal. We have no idea how to crab. I've never been crabbing before, I'm pretty sure Cara hadn't either because she was absolutely useless the whole time, and we were to afraid to ask all the other "pro" crabbers around us at the dock for help, so we just tied three ropes together to make them long enough to reach the ocean floor, strung some chicken up (do crabs like chicken?! I'm sure they do, who doesn't?) and then pulled the pot up again a couple hours later.

   And if you don't think having a two-year-old running around the docks above the water for half an hour is stressful, well, um, you'd... you'd be wrong. So, we decided to leave it and play at the water for a while.

   Wyatt did not like the route we had to take to the water, through the grasses.

   Why didn't we just carry him? BECAUSE HE HAS TO LEARN, THAT'S WHY.

   WYATT SURE LOVED TO PLAY ONCE WE GOT THERE SORRY I LEFT MY CAPS ON FROM ABOVE AND JUST NOW NOTICED. We discovered that he likes two things: putting sand on his head and running from the water.

   We had so much fun. It's rare to be on the beach in Oregon in November and not have to hide from the brutal, mercilessly cold winds. Also, I think Cara finally has a picture of the two of us that doesn't make her regret marrying me.

Hmm. Grant might need to invest in some teeth whitening.

  We returned to our pots (which, when I write it like that makes it sound like we are drug addicts), only to find that all of the bait was gone, and there were no crabs in it. It turns out we didn't have the traps set up correctly, so the crabs could come and go as they pleased. So instead of crab for dinner, we feasted on some Safeway Chinese take-out, which was our plan all along anyways and in no way disappointing. Still, we had lots of fun and skipped a gross, dark, foggy day back home for a fun day in the sand. Yay us! We're the best and exciting and don't spend all of our time at home okay!!

   My mood: Pleased with our fun day!
   Wyatt's mood: Hates having sandy hair in his carseat!!
   Listening to: Enya

The Coast!!

   What's the first thing you do when you get a new minivan? Take it to the beach!! If you said "get insurance" you're right and I'll get right on that, but we threw caution to the wind and decided to head west to end of the continent. So we loaded up the new car, and boy did it have space!

Baby's first trip in the van! This is interesting, okay!!

   We had room for baby, mommy, daddy, auntie, uncle and all of the food and gear we could possibly need!! Minivans are the best!! This one even has a cd player!! Exclamation points!! We took the quick drive to the coast, listening to an old mix-cd I found. (Seriously, do you know where your cds are? No, you don't, because you don't listen to them anymore! Also serious: I would love to have your cds for my car.)

   Here in Oregon we don't actually call it "the beach," because, well, that'd be a lie. The water is too cold to swim in for long, the wind blows hard (and cold), and the sun is rarely out in force. It's not a place to go get tan, meet babes or surf without a wetsuit. In fact, the babies resorted to this shelter Garrett and I had to build:

Shelter from the wind. It's like we're in Iraq or something,

We put up a sheet to try and shield Cara, Auntie Ashley
and Baby Wallet (AKA "the babies") from the harsh wind.

   Yep!! Sunglasses, sunscreen, sweatpants and jackets make for a typical August day on the Oregon Coast.  Just so you know, it looked like this for a long time:

I wonder if we'll see any celebrities!?

   I even forgot to bring anything warm whatsoever!! I guess I was just too preoccupied providing for and protecting my family. So I was just in my sandals, t-shirt and shorts, like a sucker. After about 45 minutes of this we gave up. As we were leaving our prized shelter, we saw other groups of people trying desperately to have fun: Two guys throwing a football that veered in weird directions because of the wind, a young family hiding in the tall grass from the galeforce winds, a sad child failing to fly his kite, someone chasing an errant frisbee for miles. It just made you want to give everyone a hug! I wanted to yell "We tried, everyone!! Maybe next time!?"

   Luckily our town on the coast, Florence, has lots of little lakes, great state parks and enormous sand dunes. So we went to Honeymon Park, laid in the sand and got warm.

Wyatt doing his army crawl, in keeping with our Desert Storm Trooper theme. 

   Guess what?! Wy loves the sand. He can't get enough of it, and not just in his mouth! He loved playing and crawling and trying to walk and throwing sand and burying my no-longer-function cell phone! When we put him on the ground on the sand dune, he crawled/rolled down several feet, just giggling!!

   He loves the water too!! The lakes on the coast are very warm and comfy, so they're easy to splash in. What a great time was had by all!! This is the most interesting thing you could have read today!!

My mood: adventurous but tired from all of the adventuring!!
Wy's mood: excited for new experiences!!
Listening to: Prom Mix 2003

The Sniffles :(

     Wy hasn't been sleeping great these past few nights. He has a cold and his nose is all stuffed. When he is trying to sleep he sounds like it's hard to breath and it makes me sad.



     But!! Today was a nice day so we went for a walk, then sat outside and read, and then went for a walk in another neighborhood until mommy got off work! He was really calm and happy and able to breath just fine. (I know you check this blog just to hear about my baby's moods).

Wyatt's chair is both more comfy and more
expensive than mine. And it vibrates! Not fair!!

This was the only jacket I could find to put him in, and it's waaaaay to big! I hope no one things I'm a bad parent!

We saw the weirdest thing on our second walk. We drove to a different neighborhood to take in the sights, and guess what we saw!? Wyatt actually pointed it out to me. It looks like a box cutter that was pressed into the road when it was being made. It's like an imprint or a fossil of a time long forgotten. What a fun adventure we had!!

A Stroll Through the Mall

     Traeden, my wife and I went to the mall to get some final Christmas shopping done. Trae had been once or twice before, and he loves all of the lights, sounds, smells and colors!! He could just stare over my shoulder for hours. It's so fun having people walk by and point out the baby, talk about how cute he is, and here little kids point and say "baby" in their still-learning-to-speak voices. What a great affirmation of the quality of my genes!!
  
He just fell in love with this cozy, comfy bed at Macy's (and gave daddy a chance to rest his tired, but strong, arms):

   It looks like he has expensive tastes. Luckily, the bed was on sale!

Hopefully nobody thought I had a baby for sale! How awful! And we would never mark his price down.

Seriously though, selling children, or any people, is bad unless they agree to it.

Baby's mood: trying to fart and can't
My mood: trying to fart and can
Listening to: Pandora - Colbie Callait