My beautiful Becky and our chubber-dubber Jack with his multiple chins. The boy is loving his food. I love this picture.

hehe...

I'm in California for a couple days for work. I miss my family terribly! Jack is growing so fast and it seems like every day he's doing something new. Even though he's been able to sit up for quite a while now, he's never seemed too interested in sitting still. Just in the last few days, he's really started to find pleasure in sitting. I've even walked in to get him up from a nap a few times to find him sitting up straight in the middle of his crib. Anyway...because he's been holding his head up since he was 3 weeks old, and he's now sitting so well, I'm getting excited about the possibility of taking him in the bike trailer. I want to make sure he's safe, so we're not quite ready to pull the trigger, but we thought we'd get prepared. Becky sent this to my phone while I was in the middle of a meeting tonight. Just what I needed!

This last weekend, I ran in the 10 mile Cape Mountain Trail Run. Between the 4 of us (Trent, Jim, Eric, and myself) we've run the CMTR 11 times in the last 4 years. I didn't run it last year because I was having knee issues...and I really missed it! Since I started feeling good again, I've had my sights on this race. I don't so much "race" it as I "survive" it. But it's a great atmosphere (family supported fundraiser for Siuslaw HS runners), and now it's a tradition!

Jim and Steph were so kind to come and sit around for 2 hours while I was out on the trail...but I know Becky and Jack were glad for the company.

I finished within my goal (under 2 hours), and although I think I could have shaved a few more minutes off my time, I'm very happy that I did well and ran pain-free. Here I am just a hundred yards from the finish. Thanks Steph and Jim for the pics (I stole them from Steph's blog).

All sweaty and tired...my wife keeping her distance...

Jack got his first taste of peas at the coast, and although he looks completely shocked in this picture, I think he liked them. But he likes all food so far, so no surprise there.

Well...the Nike+ "last 5 runs" feature is not working properly for some reason, so instead I added a widget displaying the Nike+ challenge that I'm currently participating in. I and a few of my friends from work decided to race to 300 miles. The losing team has to buy lunch for the other team at Chang's Mongolian Grill! It's Jill Harris and Kristen Budz (hence the name Harry Budz) against me and Annalee Bird (hence the name Bunch o' Birdies). At the time of this posting, Anna and I are 1.51 miles behind. But I forsee a huge comback in the near future!

girls, girls, girls!

I guess that's probably a misleading title. But after all the boys in our circle, we've now had 2 beautiful baby girls join the crew. Today my sister gave birth to a darling Sydney Paige Tompkins. I don't know all the stats because I'm a guy, but she's healthy and beautiful. Here are a few pictures of Syd on her birthday.

In addition to Jack's new propensity for climbing things (see previous post), he's also decided to start making a funny spit/tongue-rolly/zerbert noise. I tried to capture in on camera and thought I'd show off some of the bloopers. For those of you who comment that Jack is smiling in every picture, these are the shots I don't usually put up :-)

Here's the winner! zerbert in action...

Well...it's been a bit, but as a followup to the post below, Jack is moving like crazy now. He crawls very efficiently now, and can pretty much get to anything he wants. Which leads to this. I was getting ready for a run this afternoon (see my Nike + widget to the right, by the way) and looked over to see this:

I couldn't believe it! He was pretty proud of himself and kept climbing back up as soon as we brough him down. The best part is how happy he gets when he's "standing up". He starts babbling and blowing spit bubbles...the kid wants to grow up. His parents would be okay if he slowed down just a bit...

Look out! Here I come! Jack crawled a couple days ago for the first time, and we just got it on video this afternoon. The kid is MOBILE and we have a lot of baby-proofing to do!

Update on the "food" front. Yesterday was Jack's 4th bowl of rice cereal and it's quite obvious that he knows EXACTLY what to do with it now. Becky, Jack, Lily and I went to the park last night and Jack had his dinner there. As soon as the spoon comes out, he opens up his mouth! At one point he even grabbed it out of Becky's hand and put it in his mouth by himself.

Jack got his first taste of "solid" food tonight. We gave him some rice cereal since he's been grabbing at everything he sees us put in our mouths. It took him a few tries to figure out what to do with it. But eventually he finished the whole bowl!

Such a fun little boy...I'm having way too much fun being a daddy!

I mean...come on! This smile is just not fair! Mommy and Daddy don't stand a chance.

Grabby Graberton...just one of our nicknames for Jack.

w00t!

We revived the Memorial Day Weekend bike trip this year. Trent joined us on his new bike! None of us were quite as "bike-fit" as Jim and I were last year, so we only went 100 miles on an overnighter. 3 days on the bike saddle might just have killed us.

Day 1:

Riding past Faraday Lake outside of Estacada. The road is closed to vehicular traffic, so we had complete freedom. It was nice not to be looking over our shoulders.

Only Trent could pull off an entire outfit of compression fit performance attire.

Trent is actually on his bike in this picture. I'm not sure why he looks like that.

Day 2:

This is the top of a BIG hill that we rode UP the day before. We were excited about riding down it in the morning. I stopped to take these pictures of the guys and after they sped off down the hill, I put my camera away and got on my bike. As soon as I was clipped into my pedals, I realized that my back tire was completely flat. The guys were out of view and already about a half mile away. So I pulled to the side and started working on changing my flat.


I flagged down the first car that passed and asked him to tell the guys what happened. But it was a little too late. As he drove off, I saw Jim powering up the hill AGAIN to come find me. What a guy. Trent apparently did not care if I had died.

We were surprised by unexpected sunshine all day on Saturday, so the on and off rain on Sunday did not dampen our spirits. A cup of hot cofffee and a few donuts in Estacada gave us enough juice to get home in the drizzle. I had one more flat tire, but now I'm a pro at changing them!

What a great weekend. I truly love the sense of freedom and independence about riding my bike. It's nice to know that I got from my house in Beaverton to the Mount Hood national forest without ever getting in my car (the MAX lightrail helped). I like it so much, I rode in to work today.

Good times!

p.s. - Jack slept in till 8am for Becky while I was gone.

After Jack and I took a walk the other day...i added a little gel to his hair so we'd have matching faux-haws.

We had a great weekend with the Pjaks in Wenatchee this last weekend. Brad posted about our awesome day of golf, so I'll focus on some of the other fun times. We planned our trip around one of Elliott's t-ball games. We got the bonus of seeing one of Brad's church softball games too!

This is one of my favorite pictures. For some reason, it really struck a chord with me. I immediately started thinking of how strange (and wonderful) it feels to be growing up. I remember watching my dad play church softball when I was a kid. I'm sure my mom spent plenty of time sitting on a blanket in the shade watching me run around the ball field. Now my wife is doing the same with my kid! Plus...it just feels great to have such great friends. We love the Pjaks and every minute that we get to spend together.

Jack sure found some good friends too this weekend. As you can see, he had no shortage of entertainment, and all 3 boys were really sweet to Jack. Wesley especially loved to come up and "tickle" Jack. Of course, my kid obliged with a huge grin every time.

I've been a little derilict in my posting, so here are a few to catch up.

Jack got his first swimming pool experince last Thursday. He was a little unsure at first, but didn't seem to mind it too much after a bit. A little stoic, but mom and dad had fun.

the first touch...

Hangin' with cousin Ethan

Standing up with Daddy

The best part...he actually sat STILL in my lap for a bout a half hour after the pool. Normally he's either wiggling or sleeping. Never just STILL. It was nice.

I had a great time this weekend with Trent, Jen, Carson, JoJo and Jim in Eugene for Trent's marathon. It was a great day, and Trent beat his old personal record by 12 minutes! He finished under 4 hours - totally awesome.

But, I sure missed this kid while I was gone. We took some pictures when I got home.

Chub-a-dub-dub...

This is the smiley boy that we get to enjoy all the time (not always smiling though...)! We are so thankful for his life! He makes our so much better.

I didn't take nearly enough pictures of our coast trip this last weekend, but it was a ton of fun! Here's one of my favorites...this is my nephew Carson on one of our beach walks.