Portland

We piled the dog, baby, tons of gear, and ourselves into the car Saturday morning and headed to Portland for the weekend. Normally this would be a pleasant, zero-planning little trip. However, with a baby who hates to be in the car seat and certainly has no qualms about letting us know her feelings on the matter, we've been dreading the actual drive for weeks. I've had images in my head of the terror that was the drive to/from Olympia last month and wasn't sure my fragile mental state could take it again.

I am happy to say Anya did pretty well (for her) on the drives. She slept 2/3 the way there and merely whined the rest of the way. On the way home, she slept about half the trip and alternated between screaming, babbling, and complaining. This was manageable.

The actual visiting was nice. First, we hit Vancouver to see Chris's cousin David and wife Heather. They are expecting a little boy in December, so we got to offload lots of baby gear. We visited at the house for awhile and went out to lunch. I have to say, lately, I hate taking Anya out to restaurants. She is so. loud. She doesn't cry (thank God!), but happily yells....and yells...and tests the limits of her volume some more. I haven't found a way of quieting her yet. I did catch a few "can't you control your baby??!" looks of annoyance (from obvious non-parents) as we left the restaurant. Oh well. I'm starting to get used to them.

David, Anya, and Heather. Anya kept refusing to look at the camera.

Then we headed over to Portland/Beaverton to hang with my step-brother Bobby and Amy the rest of the weekend. It was a low-key visit, since everything had to work around Anya's naps. We didn't leave the house much, but it was relaxing and they are fantastic hosts (thanks for having us!). We mostly sat around and played Rock Band because we are dorks and watched Anya being cute...and taking her first steps, woohoo! Anya adored Bobby and Amy (and learned to say Bob's name) and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. I'd appreciate it if they hurried up and made a cousin for Anya to play with, though. It's pretty selfish of them that they haven't done so yet. You hear that, Bobby & Amy? Selfish!

Bobby teaches Anya the ways of Rock Band

She's starting to get the hang of it

Anya reaches expert level in the drums and wows the audience

Amy and Anya enjoying the weather

Bobby and Chris playing Rock Band. I joined in shortly after.