What a mensch!

Two close friends of ours, Alexa and Brian, tied the knot last weekend in an extremely personal and touching ceremony surrounded by family, close friends, and woodland creatures. It was a fun-filled weekend that flew by all too quickly. A few highlights included:

• Alton's first bachelorette, yes, bachelorette party
• The squirrel that ran in to the ballroom during the wedding ceremony
• Brian's groomsman who prepared Alexa for married life by outfitting her with a hard hat and utility belt to go with her wedding gown
• The pelting rain the whole wedding day that seemed to symbolize a "clean slate" for the newlyweds...hey, it's Seattle, they are there for the rain, right?
• The cat that sauntered in during the first dance--they seem to attract four-legged friends
• Andy and Alton's custom-made, matching yarmulkes lined in purple to match bridesmaid Katie's dress
• Stuffing Alton's ears with cotton during the reception, and tossing him into the frontpack baby carrier over my bridesmaid dress when he was up way past his bedtime
  
• Spending way not enough time with our friends from Seattle, San Diego, Pasadena and Des Moines :-(

Just as we were about to make our way down the aisle, the 6-year-old flower girl turned to Alexa and said, "Alexa! Why are you getting married?!"
Alexa: "Because I love Brian!"
'Nuf said.

Jen loves Alton's suggestion to make baby-lifting a new workout plan

Holly got her hair highlighted to try to pass off as Alton's mom. Nice try.

Gary looks like an old pro with this baby stuff

Kinses together: Alexa, Holly, Claire, Jen and Katie

Brian sneaks in some quality time with Alton the night before the wedding

The happy couple--Mazel Tov!

Claire and Alton having some fun before dinner

The Banana Republic Gang (don't ask--at least we dress nicely)

Sassy girls, Alton in frontpack

Bride and Groom share a cute moment during the dancing

Mr and Mrs show off their moves

The two happiest people in Washington

Scott and the little mensch say farewell!

New Member of the Family

On July 23, the extended Rhyne Family was blessed with the birth of Zach and Karen's baby girl, *P. Early in August we were lucky enough to spend a little time with the wee maiden, her proud parents and celebrate her grandparents' birthdays!
Only two weeks old and already posing for the camera!

*P says, "I'm soooo comfortable, but if you guys bug me, you'll be sorry!"

Two daddies with their babies.

Family birthday barbeque: Grammy Rhyne with *P, Brenton with Alton, and second cousin *T demonstrating her walking prowess!

Alton and *T took a little time out to enjoy the swingset.

Auntie Katie with *P--you forget how tiny they are!

Little fashionista with her sporty khaki shorts

Fast-forward to almost five weeks old, and we have awake smiles!

We'll post more when we have 'em!

Belated Post: 9 Days with the Car9s

So things have been moving a little quickly what with the crawling and sweet potatoes and all, so I'm going to travel back in time to the end of July to tell you about the week-plus visit we had with Nonna and Papa Carnine. I can't mention every activity we did in detail because this post would be too long, but suffice it to say that we made sure our out-of-town visitors saw EVERYTHING. We (in no particular order) visited 6 wineries, went to the Portland Brewer's Festival, visited with Mom's cousin Barbara, hit the International Rose Garden, celebrated Alton's 6 month birthday, went berry picking, fed Alton his first food, had two picnics, went to Alton's first swim lesson, fed Mom a bucket of crustaceans, read books, had a barbeque, had two visits from a plumber to fix a leak, went to Powell's City of Books, ate some delicious berry cobbler made from our berry-pickin' berries, had dinner with Matt, Di and their boys, took Minerva and Alton for several walks, saw Mamma Mia (KT and Mom) and Batman (Andy and Dad), rode the MAX, ate burgers outside at the Helvetia Tavern, and had lots and lots of fun. Here is a selection of pictures of our fantastic visit....

We waited to do a wine-tasting trip with Steve "Just call me Bacchus" Carnine. Patton was one of the ones we visited.

Alton says, "Why walk when you could ride?"

The breathtaking view as we picnicked at another winery.

Our merry little band chilling on the grass at another winery.
Alton, Nonna said read a book, not eat a book.

Nonna's lap makes a good high chair.

Papa and Andy are strategizing at the Brewer's Festival.
No more beer. :-(

Alton's view of the Brewer's Festival

Ready for the swim lesson

In the water!

Mom with her Cousin Barbara; a breathtaking view of Lake Oswego

Who loves his Nonna and Papa?

Check out the rest of Steve and Pam's pictures here.

Sweet Potatoes!

We finally hit upon a food that he actually ate (as opposed to the other feeding method, which was to trick him into allowing the spoon into his mouth until he clamped his lips closed and turned his head away): SWEET POTATOES! Apparently orange is the new rice cereal. His favored eating style is to grab the stem of the spoon that I'm holding and try to wrest it from my hand and shove it into his mouth. I'm not complaining--he actually ate them once they touched his lips! (Also, I added a few pictures to the two recent posts below)


See, Alton, it's not so bad!

He's Crawling!

No sooner do I publish my previous post about Alton nearly

crawling than he surprises us all by pushing hard with his feet against the ground and officially crawling forward! So sorry that we do not have video yet of this feat, but I wanted to share the fantastic news. After all of mama's daily workouts on the blanket stretching, rolling, reaching for objects, Alton crawled for his dada when he was enticed with Andy's wristwatch! Oooh, shiny. We will try to get this on film soon. Hooray!
P.S. Still doesn't like the rice cereal. He also dislikes avocado and applesauce. Maybe I should move on to the Bs.

Alton is 6 Months Old!

We can't believe that half a year has passed already. July has been a very busy month with many family visitors in from out of town and Alton hitting so many milestones. So we wanted to catch everyone up on the latest goings-on of our little six-month-old man.

He Rolls
Earlier in July he got very good at rolling in both directions: from his back onto his tummy, and from his tummy onto his back. He likes to roll over and over to get where he wants to go, so if we lay him down on a blanket and turn your head for just a minute he's already across the room.

He Scootches
Besides rolling wherever he wants to go, Alton can alllllllmost crawl on all fours. He gets onto his tummy, reaches as far as he can with his arms (usually we are enticing him to reach with something...of course he prefers remote controls and cameras to his own toys) and then hitches his bottom into the air and his knees underneath him to do a little semi-crawl, scootching movement. We had to install our first "real" baby gate!

He Eats
Now that he is six months old, we started Alton on real food in addition to breast milk. His first food was rice cereal, and so far he really does not like it! He seems a tiny bit more tolerant of this spoonful of mush than he was on the first day he tried it, but not by far. When we get a bite into his mouth, he swallows it with this tiny little gulping sound and then looks at us like we just fed him a bite of mud. We're looking forward to trying other foods to see if he likes those better.

He Swims
Alton's six month birthday was also his first swimming lesson at our local aquatic center. So far he's had two lessons, one with Mommy in the water and one with Daddy, and he has taken to the water like a duckling! He smiles and has fun with all the fun moves and songs that the parents do with the babies in the water, and when Andy or I float him along on his tummy he "frogs" his legs out behind him the whole time. Andy even briefly dunked him last week and he just blinked the water out of his eyes and coughed out any that got into his mouth. Looks to be a future swim team member for sure.

Pictures to come....

Alton's Portraits!

Here is a link to the professional pictures from Alton's photo session. Beautiful work, as usual, by Brittany App, photographer and superstar.

Alton Portrait Session


All images copyright Brittany App, App's Photography www.appsphotography.com

Food, Falls and Physics with Cari and Julio

Next in our month-long lineup of July visitors were Aunt Cari and Uncle Julio, who jetted up to Oregon after their one-year wedding anniversary trip to Napa Valley. Since Julio had never before been to the Beaver State, some fun touristy stuff was necessary in addition to fun times with Alton.
Cari and Julio drove out to the coast to check out the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Cape Meares...

Then we were on the hunt for the best sandwich in Portland. A quick search online uncovered that such a place existed, so we checked it out. Julio ordered a BLUE cream soda and we all thoroughly enjoyed our lunch before hitting the famous Powell's bookstore in NW Portland and dropping by our favorite chocolatier for dessert.

But we weren't out and about all the time. Alton goofed around with Aunt Cari...

And showed her how good he is at jumping in the jumpster that she and Julio gave him! (video below)

We also took advantage of technophile Julio while he was in town and tapped his expertise about televisions so that Andy and I could buy a new HDTV as an anniversary gift to each other. Cousin Matt was also happy to weigh in on this decision, and I'm sorry to say that now our TV is so big that there's no way we could ever be considered Amish. I guess we'll have to turn in our plow and butter churn. Had a celebratory bbq dinner with Matt, Di and their boys before resting up for our hike the next morning.
Alton tells Uncle Julio how happy he is to have the new TV. Now if only Mommy and Daddy would let him watch it....

The next day was our big hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls, which is the second largest waterfall in the nation. We got out there by mid-morning with a borrowed frame backpack for Alton to ride in.


We admired the falls from the ground before beginning our one-mile ascent to the top.


We all proceeded to huff and puff our way up the trail, clumsily wiping the sweat out of our eyes so that we could people-watch and goggle at some of the sights (flora aside). We passed clumps of teenage girls languorously strolling upward in jeans and flip flops. We passed Croc-clad families where each adult's shoulders was adorned by a child riding shotgun. We were PASSED BY couples twice our age who were NOT huffing and puffing and didn't appear to have a hair out of place. We saw septuagenarians and babies in slings, tiny dogs being carried and Japanese tourists. We saw teenagers playing leap frog on the trail switchbacks (I had an "old" moment because I yelled at them as we walked by) and kids who apparently thought a one-mile trek up a mountain was a good place to make out. All in all, it was a fun trip, but you try telling that to my calves at the end of the day.
Our triumphant view from the top.

Exhaustion, thy face is Katie.

Even Alton our navigator looks tired.

We capped off Cari and Julio's visit with a trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, a place full of hands-on technical learning and rooms called "Turbine Hall." Needless to say, Andy and Julio were in heaven. There are too many pictures of them dorking out to include here, so click the link below if you want to see more of our two favorite pretend astronauts.

To see the rest of our pictures from Cari and Julio's visit, click here.