Washington Travels

I have been on the road a lot these past few weeks. First my parents, Grandma Dyk, and I traveled to Seattle to visit my aunt Carrie and her boyfriend, Mike, and also a friend of my parents, Sarah, who lives in Seattle as well. I got to visit a couple really neat parks and also went through the Seattle Aquarium. Lots of fun stuff to look at there!

While we were at the park near the Key Arena, Grandma Dyk spotted a tattoo expo going on nearby and decided we should go get matching tattoos! Here we are out front of the expo waiting to get in!

The next weekend I traveled to Yakima, where my great grandma and grandpa Northcott live. I got to know their dog, Jill, a bit better and had fun running around outside in the backyard, hoping that one of the neighbors' horses would come over to say 'hello' to me.

Then yesterday, I had to say good-bye to my grandma Dyk and send her home (that being Dallas, TX). We had a lot of fun having her around, but I think the most fun we had together was when we went to the Sandy River with Kate and Sara. I loved playing in the sand with the shovel and also with the sticks I found lying around.


Hope you all are doing well and that we can catch up real soon.

Love,
Jonah

Let me clear up a few things here...

I am guessing some of you may be thinking, "What is Jonah thinking, moving all the way out to Gresham?" Well, I gotta be honest with you. East County was not my first choice on the list of Portland area neighborhoods. However, after much careful consideration, my family and I have realized that it is not all bad. Dad wanted to continue to live near the MAX line and Mom wanted good schools. And as most of you know by now, we are not the fix-it types nor do we enjoy spending our Saturdays doing yard work. Thus, a townhome seemed like a perfect fit for us. Though we still long to live in downtown Portland someday, downtown Gresham has its' perks too. Within walking distance there is a library, park, Saturday farmers market and lots of cool shops and restaurants. So, we are not completely selling out. We will be right next door to Portland and will visit its' other neighborhoods often.

In my last post, you may remember that I casually mentioned that Kate was caught kissing some other young men. Well, I have proof (see picture below)! You may have thought it bold of me to accuse her of such a thing, but I feel I must let the truth be told so that other men are aware of the antics of beautiful women. FYI, we have decided our relationship is worth preserving, so please keep us in your thoughts as we work to rebuild the trust that was once there between us.

I also thought you might wonder what a typical day for me looks like. Well, I usually wake up around 7:30-8:00 a.m. (sometimes even later). After many months of stealing precious hours of sleep from my parents, I decided to give them a break and I think they appreciate it quite a bit. Then I have some breakfast with Mom (and sometimes Dad if he is still around) and play for a couple hours before going down for my morning nap at around 9:30-10:00. At 11:00-11:30 I wake up fully refreshed for the day ahead and so after lunch, Mom and I usually go out and run errands, visit friends or family, or sometimes we just stay in and dance and sing to a little Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. At about 3:00 I am ready for another nap and that lasts until about 4:30-5. Then we usually start working on dinner and hang out as a family until my bedtime at 8:00. I pretty much always get a bath at night, then we read some stories together and finally I nurse and go to sleep. Not a bad life, huh? After I am asleep, a lot of times Mom will go out with friends to a movie or something as she tells Dad she 'needs time away too' (whatever that means). Just last night she went out with Sara and Aunt Mary to the Clark County fair to see a concert. Grandma and Grandpa Anderson watched me until my Dad came to pick me up, take me home and put me to bed. Oh, and because I heard there was some concern about me being left home alone with all this talk about Mom going out... no, she does not leave me alone EVER! Though I wish she would. Think of all the fun I would have if I had the place to myself!

Potluck Picnic in the Park and more...

Today the fam and I went to a little park near our place to meet up with some friends for our second annual 'Potluck Picnic in the Park.' Bodhi, Isaac, and Kate were there along with a bunch of other cool people, so naturally I had a lot of fun. Here's a photo of me trying to impress Kate under the tree. I don't think I had much luck, though, because I'm pretty sure she was later caught kissing a few of the other boys there.

A few days ago, Mom took me out to Clark Rifles, a shooting range my Grandpa goes to, as they had a 'Family and Friends' day. They had a BBQ potluck, a raffle drawing, and a penny jar guessing game (I didn't win that, by the way). I had fun meeting some of my Grandpa Anderson's shooting buddies and running around outside. Here's a photo of me with my Grandpa and the bench he donated to the gun club.



This coming Wednesday my Grandma Dyk is coming into town and I'm so excited! She's coming with us to Seattle (where I will get to ride the train for the first time!) and then we'll pick her up in Yakima the next weekend. Stay tuned for updates on these upcoming adventures...

Love,
Jonah

Travelling man...

I've been keeping busy these last few days visiting new friends and old. On Monday I got to meet Hunter, who you may remember me mentioning before in a blog. He was born in December and because he lives in Houston, TX, I haven't gotten a chance to meet him until now. I also got to see Hunter's sister, Hailey, and my friend, Luke, who lives in Spokane, WA now. Mom and her friends, Mindy and Tara, grew up together in Camas and so we all got together for lunch since they were all in town.

I also got to go out to Brightwood, OR to visit my new friend, Meadow. Mom, Kate, Sara and I made the drive out there to have lunch with Meadow and her mom, Jocelyn. Mom worked with Jocelyn at Family Solutions. While we were there, we walked down to the river behind Meadow's house and afterward played up in Meadow's dad's drum room. It was really fun to play with those drums!

Besides all that, we have decided it's time to move and just last week we put our cozy little condo on the market. Well, even though we only had two people come to look at the place, we got an offer this Tuesday. It looks like we'll be moving into our new Gresham townhome at the end of the month. Before the move, we are planning to visit my aunt Carrie in Seattle and also the Northcotts in Yakima. It's going to be a busy month for my family! Here are a few photos of the place. We can't wait to invite you over after we move in!

Fun times with family and friends!

I've been on a roll lately with the whole blogging thing, huh? Well, here's another one.
This past week has continued to be a busy one with lots of activities involving family and friends. On Friday I went to the Westfield shopping center (a.k.a. Vancouver mall) with Mom and Grandma Anderson. After we spent some time shopping for Dad, I convinced Mom to let me run around a bit in the kids play area they have in the middle of the mall. It was there that I got to try out my driving skills on a car for the first time!

Later that evening Mom, Dad, Aunt Mary, Grandma Anderson, Uncle Bill and I went to Camas Days where I got to enjoy my first Teriyaki stick. Yum!

Then on Saturday I went to a birthday party for my friend, Melanie. Now this party made mine look like a bore! There were all sorts of games to play like bocce, croquet (which I enjoyed trying to play), water balloon fights, etc. and lots of good people to hang out with, not to mention all the food! Kate and I got to enjoy our first wagon ride there too!

Oh yes, and I almost forgot to mention that I've gotten a few more teeth this past month. I finally popped out my other front tooth yesterday so I won't look as much like a snaggletooth. I have one more coming any day now so that'll make six (four on top and two on the bottom)!
Hope this message finds you well and that you are all enjoying your summer as much as I am!
Lots of Love,
Jonah

I love summers in the NW!

I know I just posted a blog not too long ago, but I wanted to share with you all why I love summers here in the great NW. First of all, the weather is perfect. It's not too hot (at least yet) and just beautiful. We even got a few patches of rain here these last few weeks, which in my opinion, was welcome. :)
Secondly, we have a ton of fun stuff to do here! Mom and Dad took me on a walk over in the NW area of Portland and we stopped for dessert at Rose's, a little restaurant/bakery that has been serving our community since 1956. I got to try some of their yummy banana cake and chocolate eclair. YUMMY!

I also got to be part of the festivities at the opening of the Portland IKEA store. Mom, Sara, Kate and I rode the MAX train over to IKEA and walked through the whole store. My favorite part was going into the Children's department. They have a special tunnel just for kids to go through. Pretty sweet!

Lastly, someone came up with this brilliant idea to schedule concerts at our very own Oregon Zoo and I just happened to be invited to one. Yep, Dad's work, Moss Adams, invited all the Portland employees to a Los Lobos concert there. I enjoyed hearing the music, getting to mingle with other Moss Adams employees, and I even got to see a few zoo animals. It was the best!

Summer fun!

Hi all-

I've been enjoying this year's summer season and have been up to all sorts of fun things. Kate's thrown a few pool parties in her back yard and you know I was there for all of those. At first I wasn't sure about the cool water (my bath water is always nice and warm, ya know?), but I enjoyed it much better the second time around. Here's a photo of me in the sweet pool Kate owns. Yep, as you can see Mom's got me decked out in my spf shirt, hat and swim diaper, not to mention loads of sunscreen as well.

I've also been spending quite a bit of time with the fam. Mom's fam, to be exact. We've visited the Camas Burgerville, a little fast-food chain out here in the great NW, a few times recently due to the fact that they have a kid's play area equipped with a fun grill to practice my burger flipping skills and they also have a coin-operated motorcycle that I've gotten to ride on a few times. Don't tell Mom I plan to get my own someday!