A Portland Christmas

We recently returned from our Christmas vacation in cold Portland, Oregon. This year, we were joined by my older sister, Carla, but unfortunately Karen and Andy were not able to make it. Of course the star of the show was little Nate, who worked on being as charming as possible while fighting a cold he likely picked up on the flight over.

Here he obediently waits with his mouth wide open for Aunty Carla to shovel in some rice cereal-yogurt-applesauce mushy delight.

After a day of rest, we headed to the fascinating Evergreen Air and Space Museum, where we saw the famous Spruce Goose and lots of other really cool planes, helicopters and even spaceships.

Nate "flying" a helicopter, with a little help from Mom.The next day, Matt, Dad and I went tubing at Skibowl on Mount Hood, then sledding in a big meadow. Nate stayed home to hang out with Nana. Here's Matt on a sweet run.

Matt and my Dad conquered this unbelievably huge hill on sleds later that day. I am surprised neither of them broke their necks. Here they are, covered with snow after crazy landings.
On Christmas Eve, we had the Mackays over for a delicious lunch.

Opening presents with Aunty Carla. Nate: "Hey, this dog looks like that crazy chihuahua we have back home!"

My Dad has read us "The Night Before Christmas" every year since we were little. This year, Nate got to be in on it for the first time.

Christmas surprise: Portland Trailblazers NBA tickets for the Christmas game. SO FUN! A super exciting game, and Portland won! Plus free chalupas...

Nate's Halloween costume was so cute (and warm), that we brought it along so he could show it off in Portland.

Matt and I enjoyed an awesome day of skiing at Skibowl on the slopes of Mount Hood. We only get to go once a year, and we missed it last year because I was pregnant. So this year we REALLY appreciated it. What a rush!

Me with Mount Hood in the background. What a beautiful place to ski.

And finally, on the last day of our trip, we got a surprise snowfall! We were even able to go sledding in our neighborhood. Don't be fooled by Nate's smile here - he actually hated the snow falling on his face. It was Pop behind the camera making him grin.

Kaimana Beach

Here are a few pictures from a recent trip to Kaimana Beach Park. We love it because the beach is in complete shade until noonish, which makes it great for babies. Our friends Lindsey, Bo, Sarah and Drew joined us.

We brought along a life jacket that Desiree had given us to see if Nate liked it. First, we tried it on for size. Anna, Bo and Lindsey's little girl, was very curious about the whole process. (On a side note, Anna and Nate were born on the exact same day!!!)

Safety first, Mom.

Little Nate just lay there while Anna checked that the straps were tight.

Trying it out with Daddy while Drew and Olivia supervise. Success!

The daddies and their babies.

Nate, now glad to be free of the jacket. What a funny kid.

The Happiest Baby on Earth

So I realize it's been some time since I last posted, so I'll try to list a few highlights from the past few weeks:

• Matt camped out outside of Best Buy on Thanksgiving night to score amazing deals on two new laptops, as well as come to a deeper understanding of bizarre human social behavior.
• We had a great time tailgating and attending the UH football game last weekend with a couple of friends while Matt's parents looked after Nate.
• We've spent quite a bit of time at a great beach that is in the shade of a large building until midday - perfect for Nate and his baby friends to play in the shade.
• Matt's brother Tim returned to his family in Mississippi safe and sound from a deployment in Iraq.
• I've decorated our apartment for Christmas.
• Nate has cut his first tooth!

Well Nate may not be the most advanced baby in terms of physical abilities or speech, but I think he's off the charts when it comes to personality. He is so chill, rarely cries (even though he's teething), and LOVES to smile and laugh. I've posted a few videos below as evidence for my case:

High Five Lessons from Dad:

Sucking His Toes:

And he actually used to really dislike his Johnny jump-up, but now its growing on him. Especially when silly Daddy comes home after a day at work.

Big East Swell

Over the past few days, Oahu's east side has been pummeled with a big east swell. Nate and I took a run up to Makapu'u Lighthouse yesterday to check out the action, and also caught a few pics of big swells pounding the Hanauma Bay cliffs. Enjoy.

Six Recent Videos

Matt and I were sitting around watching some of these videos from the past few weeks and just cracking up, so I thought I'd post a few for everyone to enjoy. Nate is reaching some fun milestones, such as sitting up, eating solid food, and making verbalizations that are getting closer to language.

He also makes the best farting noises of anyone I know:

He's still figuring out some basic physics:

When learning to sit up, sometimes it takes a little while to get it just right... Yup, you are going to want to watch this one a couple of times. :o) Poor little guy.

This was Nate's first bite of "solid" food - delicious rice cereal!

The boys having a kick-fest...Nate's favorite sport.

And if nothing has made you laugh out loud thus far, this one is guaranteed to!

Halloween Fun

The Stevens Family had a great Halloween day. We took a trip to the North Shore to go hiking, swimming and to watch some big surf (which didn't end up being all that big). We started with a hike up a mountain over by Dillingham Airfield. There were some great views of the ocean from the top, but probably the coolest part was the gliders that soared just over our heads. Dillingham is where they do commercial glider rides (which Matt took me on the day he proposed!) and it was so cool to see them glide over us almost noiselessly. We also enjoyed watching the skydive plane nose-dive and land every twenty minutes or so. After they drop off the skydivers at 11,000 feet, the customers are out and there's no use wasting gas to slowly cruise down to ground level, so the plane basically plunges what looks like nearly straight down until just before nearing the airstrip, where they suddenly pull up and set the plane down, even before the skydivers reach the ground. Crazy!

Here is Matt and Nate in our hiking backpack. We rigged up this umbrella to protect our super-haole baby. We climbed the mountain on the left in this picture.

Cool cat in his BabyBanz.
We made it! We chilled out at the picnic table at the top for a while.

Nate and Daddy.

Now for a bunch of pictures of our munchkin:

Aww, Dad.

The whole family in our shades. We then went for a swim at the protected lagoon at Shark's Cove. Nate has outgrown his swim diaper so he wore his birthday suit. Now that he is six months old, we can use sunscreen on him, so we are looking forward to doing more activities with him. We loaded him up with sunscreen, even in his hair!

That night, he transformed into a monkey!!! He loved the banana sewn into his pocket and kept sucking on it.

Matt looked very handsome in a hand-me-down flight suit from Tim.

I wore a saree I picked up while in India.

I love this picture - we would let Nate grab his own candy, and he has this "Oh no, you caught me!" look on his face here that I love.

Trip Part 1: Illinois

We had a wonderful time on our Illinois/Colorado trip! Nate was an amazing traveler, especially considering all of the flights we took to get around. We started our trip in Rockford, just outside Chicago, with a visit with Matt's paternal grandparents. Nate loved meeting his great-grandparents, too!

Brrrrr...it was cold! Nate and Great-Grandpa roll around on the carpet.
Great-grandma entertains Nate while we enjoy her delicious cooking!

We went on a beautiful walk along the Rock River with Matt's grandfather.

Matt and his grandfather check out this dock that ends in the middle of a pond.

The fall trees were beautiful!

After a couple of days with family, we went into Chicago and met up with a bunch of Matt's old college friends. First stop was the Ledge on the Skydeck of the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower). It's a glass box extended from the side of the building 103 floors up. It turned my stomack in knots to look straight down through the glass to the street WAY below.

This was pretty freaky. I didn't spend too long out there!

Matt and Nate on the Ledge. I can't post the one of Nate by himself on here... The next morning, bright and early, was the Chicago Marathon. It was a frigid 33 degrees at the start. Despite the temperature, the skies were clear and we were in for a beautiful day. This is a picture of the start. It takes quite some time for the 45,000 runners to cross the start line. Matt had pre-qualified to start near the front of the pack, so at this point he was well into the race.

Here he is just before the halfway point, looking strong and moving fast.

Here he is going over the bridge right before the finish. Can you believe he's run 26 miles? Matt finished with an incredible time of 2:38:49. He was the 167th overall finisher. Congratulations!!!

Matt's college roommate Jason and his wife Natalie were there for the finish. I'm pointing at Nate's shirt that says "MY DAD IS RAD." Isn't that the truth?! (Thanks Desiree and Tim for the shirt!)

One of our favorite pictures from the trip is this picture of the overall race winner, Sammy Wanjiru, holding Nate. He was the Beijing Olympic gold medalist for the marathon, and set a new North American record that morning by beating the course record by one second. I think Nate will like seeing this one when he's older. Quite a few of Matt's college friends came into town for the weekend. We had a fun celebration with some deep dish pizza at the Steingard's that evening after the marathon. Here are three college buddies with their new kiddos.Congratulations to the three finishers. Matt's friend Ryan and his brother also finished the marathon that morning. The next morning we departed for Colorado. Check out the next post for our adventures there!