Highlights from the Severson Reunion

Above: Eli and his cute cousins (he has 17 cousins on Ben's side - two weren't here)

We had a smaller (if you can call a group of 31 people small), immediate family reunion with Ben's parents, kids and grandkids, all staying at his brother Joe and wife Cami's house in a suburb outside of Portland. There were people sleeping in all corners of their beautiful home, but Ben, Eli and I were lucky enough to sleep in the guest room! It was great.

Above: the first picture is a great example of how our trip started (Eli crying on the moving walkway). The other three pictures were taken on the way home - he was in a MUCH better mood and even slept for about 2 1/2 hours - it made such a difference, especially since I was dreading that return flight...

Above: we went on a beautiful hike near Portland (Cami, what is the name of this place again?) and saw some pretty waterfalls. Eli had a great time throwing rocks with his cousin Kaelan, who is 2 weeks older and has an amazing overhand throw already!

Above: On Saturday, we went to this great park near Joe and Cami's house that had fields, tennis courts, a big playground, and a fun water play area. Eli loved running through the splashes of water!

Above: Here we are at the big Severson reunion. We rented a camp at the base of Mt. Hood. The setting was beautiful! This was my fourth reunion with the family and all have been at this location. This time was the biggest though - with 119 total! The family really amazes me with how well they interact with each other, even when they get competitive (there were some fierce games of volleyball). Picture 1 - Ben's wearing his team's flag, playing family feud (they surveyed the family on various Severson questions before the reunion). Picture 2 - Ben swimming with Eli. Pictures 3 & 4 - Eli's molars are still trying to come through and he was SO drooly the entire time - you can see how wet his shirt would get in these pics.

Above: Picture 1 - Eli sitting with his great-grandparents, Frances and Floyd. They were all decked out for the holiday! Picture 2 - the cabin where we slept had a big ramp in the front that Eli loved walking up and down. He was pretty unsteady at first, but by the end of the week, he was cruising up and down that ramp pretty fast. We think his walking skills greatly improved on this trip. Pictures 3 and 4 - Eli was so happy being outside so much!

Some other comments on the trip...

• The food was TERRIBLE. I was seriously starving on those days we stayed at the camp. The camp's cook was not impressive and I actually woke up one morning after dreaming about eating lots of delicious foods. I survived on crackers and snack foods that I picked up at a nearby convenience store. The cabin we were sleeping in was not the cleanest either, but we survived! I preferred this over tent camping w/out a real bathroom for a week.
  
  
• Ben and his cousin tied for first in the big Severson pinochle tournament! It was impressive. But it also kept him out late a few of the nights... that and late-night volleyball
  
  
• It was really wonderful to get away from the stresses of life, be in a pretty setting surrounded by huge trees. I tried to put the housing craziness in the back of my mind and enjoyed spending quality time with Ben and Eli and the zillions of Seversons. Now I'm back to the realization that we still don't know where we'll live in 7 weeks! No worries, right? :)

Below are some short video clips from the week - the first is Eli showing off/banging his head on the velour chair in our cabin's sitting area. The next two are Eli in the water play area at the park (they show off Eli's cute waddle when he walks), and the last one is a video of Eli and Kaelan throwing rocks in the river. It's funny to see the differences in their throws :)

Boy in Blue

I snapped some pictures of Eli early this morning as we were playing with his toys. Last night he slept in this blue onesie because it was once again oh-so-humid... someday I vow to live in a place with central air conditioning! Thankfully it's cooled off some after a big rain this afternoon and we're all more comfortable.

In our effort to de-clutter, we cleaned out the items in the cabinet that serves as our entertainment center, and now we can throw most of Eli's toys in there. It's great, except for when Eli decides to pull everything out... :)

Eli really loves Bob the sheep. Bob is hard to clean, however, so he doesn't sleep with him. Instead, he gives the sheep loves multiple times a day when he is playing with toys.

Pictures above and below show Eli playing with an empty milk jug that he found in the kitchen, waiting to go out to the recycling bin. He tried hiding the jug behind the Leapfrog table without much success, so he opted to just carry it around our condo instead.

Ben and I love watching Eli walk - he kind of waddles side to side with very heavy feet. If he weighed more, I bet his steps would be pretty loud. I'll try to get a video clip sometime soon to capture this cuteness! Seeing these pictures of our boy in blue makes me want to reach over and squeeze those chubby legs of his... :)

Video Clips from our Holland Trip

Here are some video clips from our Holland trip. This exciting video includes Eli walking and saying "duck! duck!" quite a few times, and then Eli on Ben's shoulders as they go under a flag (with Eli laughing), and then the grand finale is Eli screaming in the car. :)

The screaming in the car was on Sunday, and today Eli still isn't very happy. Last night he kept waking up crying, and was up this morning at 4:45 screaming in his crib. He was inconsolable for an hour and was running a fever. He seemed so uncomfortable.

I was convinced Eli had an ear infection, so I took him in to the doctor's sick call this morning - but alas, no ear infection! His doctor said it looks like his molars are trying to come through, which is most likely what is causing this trauma. Sad!! I hope this doesn't last too too long...