Amelia's Photo-Shoot

Okay, it has taken me this long to get baby pictures of Amelia because the whole process stresses me out. I know it is silly, but it is in fact, a fairly painful process for me. Mostly, I think it is the preparation that is so painful. I am not good at deciding what clothes to wear with what accessories and I never seem to have the right mix of clothes - Amelia's closet was no exception. Trying to find her 3 outfits that would be simple, classy and charming was impossible for me. (I can't even find one outfit like that in my closet! I need a trendy shopping buddy...anybody out there want to help me??). So I just decided to do the best I could and get myself over to the studio and give it a try with what I had.

Some of them worked better than others.

Bottom line is, they are cute pictures that capture Amelia's sparkling eyes and smiley, happy personality. Her clothes and bows...well, they are what they are. Sorry your mom is not more trendy Amelia.

Oh well, anything I put her in will be outdated by the time she turns 16 anyway...right?

I went to Sears because I thought I would just get some quick, cheap pictures to quiet my mommy guilt (people keep telling me I will regret it if I don't get some professional pictures of her as a baby). Well, little did I know that there is really no such thing as "quick" or "cheap" when it comes to professional pictures. A learning experience.

Without further whining:

Amelia 6 months old

What a cutie.

We love you baby Amelia and love watching you grow and change everyday.
You are so much fun.

Hawaii

Okay, this is another post with a million pictures of Amelia...are you surprised? Probably not. But you can't fault me because that's just what moms do, right? I mean, I really can't help it. It must come as part of the mom mantel.

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii. The weather was perfect - sunny but not too hot with a light breeze. Except for a tsunami warning (which thankfully did not amount to much) and losing 3 too many baseball games, it was a pretty perfect business trip!

Amelia had fun exploring the sand and the water...
...except for when she didn't...
...but she'd usually recover and enjoy it again...

Ah, makes a nutritionist proud - here she is enjoying a piece of celery

These next few pictures are from the top of Diamond Head - beautiful views. We thought we could walk to the base of the hike from our hotel and then hike up and back. Well, we did just that, but it was probably 10 miles round trip and we were exhausted by the end! Amelia slept the whole way while Andrew carried her in the front pack.
We kept Amelia covered with a towel draped over her back to keep the sun away from her fair skin.

One morning we drove up to the North Shore and enjoyed the beautiful beaches on that side of the island. We got our feet in the water at one of the beaches and no more than 6 feet from my feet there were 4 huge sea turtles! These are the best pictures we could get, but it was so cool to see them stick up their little heads for air or poke a flipper up through the water. They are my some of my favorite sea creatures. Very cool.

We went to California before Hawaii, and here are a few pictures from that trip.

The night games were a little chilly, but nothing this little Oregonian couldn't handle.

I know, a little over-the-top, but I couldn't help it

Uncle Dan's visit!

Warning: there are a ton of pictures in this post. In our family, Lisa is the great photo-documenter, but since she wasn't here I was determined to take a few pictures to remember this wonderful week. Thus wherever Dan and I went, I asked myself, "What would Lisa do if she were here?" and it seemed that just about every time the answer was, "She'd take a picture...or two...or fifteen." So, that's just what I did.

We were so lucky to have Dan come and visit us for the week and we had so much fun. I wish we all lived closer.

Dan was able to be here for the first home baseball game in the new stadium and it was fun to share a part of our baseball life with him for a few days. Although he could still stump me on quite a few baseball facts, I think he was impressed by my new baseball savvy :)



Of course we had to take him out to our favorite Eugene places to eat, which include Laughing Planet (sweet potato, plantain burritos), Pizza Reasearch Institute (pear, potato, pesto pizza and the ecclectic Chef's Special) and of course Prince Puckler's (banana brownie ice cream). Yum!
This was the last picture we got with Andrew and Dan before Andrew had to go out of town for the weekend. We missed him so much, but Amelia and I tried to continue showing Dan the best of Oregon.

While in Portland, we made a trip to the famous VooDoo Doughnuts and Dan enjoyed his doughnut with crushed Oreo, peanut butter and chocolate on top. Weird, yes. Yummy, also yes.

Dan also showed off his newly developed cooking skills by making these delectable pieces of chocolate heaven. You may guess he used cocoa powder to make these double chocolate cookies, but you'd be wrong. They get their chocolatey goodness from a whole bag of melted Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips, plus another bag thrown in there for chocolate crunch. Wow.


On Thursday we went to the Raptor Center in Eugene and saw the amazing birds there. My favorites are the bald eagles. I know why they are our National birds - they are huge and impressive. They weigh as much as Amelia does!


Saturday was a gorgeously sunny day - perfect for a visit to the coast! So we headed out to Florence and visited the Heceta Head Lighthouse - my favorite - and enjoyed the beach.

We also spent a day in Portland. Here we are at Mount Tabor.

Awesome view of Mount Hood from the top of Mount Tabor.

Amelia LOVED her Uncle Dan, and really who can blame her? He is thoughtful and fun, he can make her smile and he can deal with her when she's fussy, he is patient and intuitive, he's smart and sensitive, he's the best big brother I could ever ask for and he's a great, great Uncle.

We miss you already Dan!