Fish camp

I've had this post in my "draft" folder for a long time - about time it goes up!

Grandma and Grandpa Patrick come up to Alaska in their camper every other year, and it was so fun to visit with them at their "fish camps" on the Russian and Kenai Rivers this summer. Boyd really loved spending time with them, and it was great to have an incentive to leave Anchorage and head down to the peninsula for the weekend.

I can't emphasize enough how convenient it is to stay in the camper. We just pack up our stuff (Boyd has more than the both of us combined), make some food, hop in the truck and go! No worrying about tent camping with a baby. We'll see how it goes next year - unless we can convince my in-laws to make the long trek again. :-)

Boyd around the house

Sometimes while I am cleaning the house, I wonder why I even bother tidying up before Boyd goes to bed. He can mess up a room like nobody's business! But he also helps clean when we ask him to. It just seems like our house looks like it's in shambles every time I post a photo.

This weekend I let Boyd hold the mail as we came in the house. I just had to laugh when he ran straight over to his chair and put his feet up to check it all out...

It's not often that I go out and leave Boyd with someone else to take a little time for myself, but last week I had TWO NIGHTS OUT with the girls! Wednesday evening I met some of my girlfriends for sushi, and then Thursday night I had supper club with my work friends. It was awesome to just relax with all of these ladies and have a couple nights off from baby duty. Plus I think it's great that Boyd gets quality time with Daddy. Everybody wins!

When I got home last week after sushi, I saw all of Boyd's bath toys lined up along the edge of the tub. So funny! I really appreciate how D takes a different approach to parenting tasks than I do. I think it's good for Boyd to experience us both.

Helping me vacuum. He went through a stage of hating the noise, but now when I turn it off he says, "more!"

He goes and gets his toy vacuum whenever I bring out the Dyson. We feel strongly that he needs to learn about chores (in a playful way now) so that it will be normal for him when he's older.

Master of the list at Costco! We didn't see our favorite checkout lady this time. She coos all over Boyd and he gives her big smiles. We also stopped by the thrift store and an older lady just could not get enough of him - she commented about his cute Bogs boots and laughed about how they were both wearing Columbia jackets.

Boyd has been loving the Learning Tower lately. I've been trying to teach him how to climb into it, and then he has easy access to the counters. He put this extra large rubber band on his head himself. So goofy.

He retrieved this container from a shelf, brought it to me and then proceeded to climb inside. I pushed him around the floor in it for about 5 minutes.

Boyd can't get enough of his own image. We watch a lot of videos and take many, many photos of him so that he can look at them later.

These two are D's biggest fans - they get incredibly excited with he gets home. Here they are both peering through the baby gate trying to get a glimpse of him!