Floating (all by himself)

Henry is now an expert floater. With his life vest he likes to "swim". He thinks this is very cool.
Francie turned 1 month old this weekend. In the next post we will have side by side 1 month photos of Henry and Francie.

4th of July

Colleens sisters Jenny and Katie and their families all came to Oregon for the 4th of July. That makes for 8 kids ages 6 and under! We managed to get one group picture with everyone in it including Great Grandma Gertrude. However, Henry would not come out of the restaurant.
For the weekend we all headed to the beach. Grandma rented an extra house to fit everyone. Manzanita had a really cool parade on the 4th. Joan and Brian helped carry a giant American flag along the route and had to learn some pretty intensive choreography. The kids had fun picking up tons of candy.
The weekend was kinda rainy. Well really rainy which is tough with 8 kids and not much to do so we headed to Seaside which has all the rainy day "attractions". The highlight of the trip was the aquarium. One of the main exhibits at the aquarium is Victor. He is a 28 lbs lobster saved from the boiling pot and donated to the aquarium by the local grocery store 20 years ago. He died in an attempted abduction in 1994. RIP Victor. Not quite the Georgia Aquarium but...

Back at the house we had some family time.

Chilling at the Beach

On Sunday we headed to the beach for a couple days. It was very relaxing as the main objective of the day was to make it to the beach as many times as possible. Henry likes to play soccer, football, baseball and make sand castles each time he goes to the beach. Not neccesarily in that order. He is pretty good at soccer. His idea of football is to throw the ball and then go and dive on it.

Francie did some sleeping and woke up for some story time with Henry.

Tuesday night we went to dinner in Wheeler were they have really neat dock. Henry wanted to look for fishes in the water but all we saw was seaweed.
Wed. we headed back to Portland. Jenny, Chrissy, Mary, Billy, James and Kate are all coming down from Alaska on Thursday so we are going to have a really full house.

Busy Friday

We were all out and about on Friday. We met up with Janis at Westlake Park. Henry was very excited to to see Janis who he has missed for the last couple weeks. He was even more excited about the cool sticker books that Janis gave him.

Henry is sometimes very camera shy and refuses to be photographed. I know its hard to believe. So most of the pictures turned out really well except for Henry who refused to look at the camera. I finally snuck a quick picture of Henry sort of smiling.

After our an afternoon nap Brookie arrived from Seattle. She is staying with us this weekend and getting to know little Francie. Henry and Brooke had a silly face contest. Not sure who won.

Then we were off to Jamison Square downtown to play in the fountain with friends Ann and Audrey. Henry was pretty wary of the water but after a while he loosened up and ended up going home drenched from head to toe. That was after an ice cream cone. Francie mostly slept.

Working on the Swing

Henry played golf in the front yard for a good 3 hours yesterday. He wanted to be Rocco and I was Tiger Woods. His shots are actually getting pretty good and I am having to chase more balls that end up out in the street. He is open to any swing tips.

Francie continued to sleep but is starting to open her eyes more and more.

Coming Home

Monday morning was time to come home. Francie (the nickname that seems to be sticking...) got dressed in her new yoda outfit and was strapped into the tiny car seat. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get a non-cafeteria food sandwich for lunch. Colleen was happy to be home as Henry was not happy about leaving her last night and said "but, Mom, you have to come home so we can be a family".

Francie continued to sleep most of the day. She seems to really enjoy sleeping.

Before dinner Henry was really working on his golf game after watching Tiger win the US Open. I tried to teach him the double fist pump but he still needs some work on it. Dan gave him some good tips on his swing though. He does have yelling "IN THE HOLE" down after every swing.

At the Hospital

After a full day of laboring and delivering followed by a quick visit from Grandma and Papa (interesting...Henry was awake still when we called at 11:00) and Henry we moved to our recovery room around 2:00 AM. (Henry's first reaction....."But I wanted a boy"). Needless to say everyone was a little tired included baby Francie.

But after a good nights sleep everyone was ready to go. Colleen was on the phone. Great Grandma Gertrude came to the hospital the very first chance she got. Henry was very excited to meet his baby sister (sort of), he said he liked her nose best of all.

It's A Girl

Frances Eloise Reuland

was born on June 14, 2008

at 10:45 PM

in Portland, Oregon

7lbs - 12 oz

20 inches

New Trick

Henry learned a new trick. Check out the video. We are getting ready to head to the hospital on Saturday morning. Check back for many updates in the near future!

Dan & Emily's Wedding

We had a great time at Dan and Emily's wedding and associated events this weekend. Friday started early with golf at Riverside Country Club at 8:00AM. Andy won a 9 skins on the 18th. Afterword we went to PorQue No? for lunch. That night was the Rehearsal Dinner at Alexis a greek restaurant downtown.

The wedding was at 1:30 at the church we had our wedding in. Colleen did a great job of reading the prayers. Then it was back to Riverside for the reception. Norman Sylvester who played our wedding headed up the band and he even gave us a shout out.

Sunday morning Henry was in a rockin mood and he pleasured us with many a song on his guitar.