More Benny Pictures!

Benny is just facinated by this calculator. That is when he is not chewing on it. This wand is actually a cat toy, but Benny doesn't care. Anything on the floor is considered his.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

On our way back home from Crater Lake, we stopped off at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument to see the Big Obsidian Flow which was created 1,300 years ago and covers 700 acres. It really looked like someone just dumped a big pile of rocks in the middle of a valley.
There was a trail to hike up the big pile of rocks and that is what we did. We are sure glad we brought the backpack.
You can't really tell from this picture, but the rock is really shiny and looks like glass.
You are forbidden to take any rocks out of the park. Although, I didn't really see anyone doing any searches.

Crater Lake National Park

Last week we took a mini-vacation to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. We drove 8 hours Tuesday to get there. On Wednesday it was rainy and foggy that we couldn't see the lake at all, so we decided to go to California since I had never been there. We drove by Mt. Shasta and was able to see it fine because it was sunny and warm. On Thursday (the day we were leaving to go back home) we went to the crater rim one more time. It was still covered in fog. We decided to take the east way around the lake and boy are we glad we did. As you can see in the pictures, the west side was covered in fog and clouds. Benny slept through the first part of the drive around the crater, but woke up and wanted to stretch his legs. It was very windy and cold. Here is an island in the lake called Wizard Island. It's elevation is 6940 Feet!
This is called the Phantom Ship. It is not really a ship, just a rock formation that looks like one.
In this picture you can see the blueness of the lake. Even though is was overcast, it was still pretty.
And here is a picture of Mt. Shasta. We didn't go up it or anything, we just drove by.

Benny Walking!

Here is Benny walking around upstairs. This was taken a few weeks ago. Benny started taking steps on his own right after his birthday. Brad and I would sit across the room from each other and have Benny walk back and forth between us. Once he did that a couple of times, he was ready to let go and do it all on his own.

Here is a video of Benny walking around our kitchen. This was taken today. Benny likes to walk around the house. Compared to the video above, he is getting steadier on his feet.

Snoqualmie Falls

A few weeks ago we took a family trip to see the Snoqualmie Falls. It was okay. Benny seemed to like it. I myself have seen more impressive waterfalls (ie. Niagara Falls). Here are the pictures.

Former Neighbors

Our former neighbors, the Watts family, recently moved from Washington to Wisconsin. They seem to be doing well. I have added their blog to my blog list.

Update

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know what has been going on here.

First of all, we have not heard anything definite about the move to
Allentown, but we are anticipating being there by January of 2010.
That would be good, but it would mean that we would miss the Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC. If we are still here when is happens, we are planning to go since it is so close. I heard that Chicago is in the running for the Summer Olympics in the near future. That would be very cool.

Anyway, Benny has been very cranky for the past two days. He would cry for no apparent reason. He has been running a mild fever (100.7 was the highest it got.) and not wanting to eat much. I gave him Tylenol last yesterday and last night and he started acting like his cheery self. That's why we think it is his teeth. He now has eight front teeth, four on top and four on bottom. He also has molars trying to come in. He has a top and bottom molar on the right side that have broken through and one molar on the top on the left side that has broken through as well. Hopefully we will be through this before we visit grandma and grandpa in September.

Benny has been walking up a storm lately. He paces around the living room. He likes to help push the shopping cart around the store instead of riding in it. Twice now he has stopped bent/squatted down to pick up a toy and then stand back up and keep walking. Once he sits down, he has to crawl over to something to pull himself up to get back to walking. I hope to have a video of him walking uploaded soon.

Benny's Checkup

Benny had his 12 month checkup yesterday. Our little boy is getting big. He is now 31 inches tall and weighs 21 1/2 pounds. That puts him in the 75 percentile in height and the 25 percentile in weight. The doctor recommended that we introduce Benny to eggs, peanut butter and whole milk. Foods that are high in protein and fat are what Benny needs right now. Even though Benny eats a lot of fruits and veggies, they don't contain many calories and Benny needs a lot of calories because he is so active. Benny had scrambled eggs for dinner last night and he seemed to like them. Brad also gave him a small spoonful of peanut butter and he liked that too.

Benny was a good boy for the doctor. He had to get 3 shots. He cried for a little bit but was soon back to his happy self. His next checkup is not until 18 months but the doctor wants to see him in 2 months to check his weight. Our job is to fatten up the kid. Not too much because Brad is concerned that Benny will have problems with weight just like he did growing up. Only time will tell.

Benny's Birthday Party

Benny had a great time at his Birthday Party. He really enjoyed his cake. The pictures say it all.

Here is his birthday cake.

He liked it when we sang Happy Birthday to him.

Benny just dove right into the cake.
Yummy!
Boy, eating this cake sure is hard work!

Pacific Science Center

One of the places Benny went with Aunt Leslie and Uncle Steve was the Pacific Science Center. there was a special place there just for kids Benny's age. Benny really loved playing there. They had a big water table and Benny liked to play in the water.
They also had an area with blocks and puzzles. Benny really liked this puzzle table.
There was a little car there that Benny liked to "drive". He even had a passenger.
There was a great big table and chairs there as well. It said that a person who was 6 feet tall would look 3 feet tall. Since Uncle Steve was well over 6 feet we had him sit in the chair with Benny. Benny looks really small now and so does Uncle Steve.

Benny's Birthday

Benny did many wonderful things on his birthday. He went to the Woodland Park Zoo, the Seattle Aquarium, took a Harbor Cruise and went up to the top of the Space Needle. He had the privilege of doing all these things with Aunt Leslie and Uncle Steve. Here he is with daddy at the aquarium. They are looking at an octopus.

At the Zoo, Benny had fun walking around this hippo statue.

Here he is at the aquarium. He really liked looking at all of the fish.

Daddy read him stories on the Harbor Cruise.