Lately

Since we're in the process of buying a house and packing up our current place, there just isn't a whole lot else going on around these parts. But here are some photos from recent Erickson life that might be enjoyable.


When my Grandma Zina sent Bryce this bear for his birthday, she worried that he might be too old for it. But that is so not at all the case! Since my mom's visit in July, he has really started responding to his soft toys. He will bring them to me to snuggle, and then ask for them back so he can snuggle them, too. It is one of my favorite phases so far -- I'll be sad when he really is too grown up for his Bear. (The bear Grandma sent is just called "Bear" for now until Bryce is old enough to name it himself.)

There's a park not too far from our house which has a splash pad. Bryce HATES having water poured on his head, and he screams bloody murder if ever we meets with a shower, but it was just so blasted hot one day that we took a chance on taking him to the splash pad.

He LOVED it! He stood with a stream of water coming straight up into his diaper for at least 2 full minutes. Daddy got soaked, too!

Just a little slice of my everyday life. Bryce in my current favorite shirt, soft toy (in this case, Monkey -- I know, we're really creative with the names around here), pacifier in mouth (actually, that's pretty rare unless we're having a really rough day), debris scattered all about.

Bryce is in a stage where he will refuse to eat things not because he doesn't like the food but because he doesn't like the way it's presented. Most of his protests arise from his food being presented differently than Mommy and Daddy's food. So I let him have the corn cob, since he wouldn't touch the kernels I cut off for him. He was pretty darn happy about it. Silly goose.

Other recent happenings include Preston being called to the Elders Quorum Presidency, Angie and Libby coming for a visit, and me joining in for workouts three times a week at the Stake Center. Life is good in our little corner of the world.

All for now, more to come later.

In which Bryce goes a-camping

Well.. I haven't blogged since June.

I blame Instagram, because I feel like I've already shared things, but I only halfway did.

Anyhoo...

It has been a great summer so far! We've been keeping busy with swim lessons, camping, church service, work (for Preston. non-stop.), and getting better acquainted with the awesome people in our ward!

Here are a few photos from our recent camping trip on the coast. We went to Tillicum Beach, not far from the Cape Perpetua area. It was so much fun, we're already planning on doing it again next year! We tagged along with two families from the ward who are our closest friends in the area so far.

We drove a couple of miles to the Cape Perpetua visitors center and took a little nature walk to the tide pools. It was extremely rocky, so I didn't venture too far in for fear of spraining my ankles. There were sea urchins and anemones, along with quite a lot of tadpoles (polywogs?) hanging about in the tide pools. We left when the tide started coming in, violently.

Daddy and Bryce off on another whirlwind adventure.

Urchins & Anemones

Tadpoles

The sea was angry that day my friends...

We then took a long (well, long when you have 6 children along with you) hike up to the Giant Sycamore. Bryce, mercifully, napped in the Ergo on Daddy's back the entire way there and only woke up when we were headed back. The Giant Sycamore lived up to its name, and had a tunnel underneath where the kids enjoyed getting dirty while the adults got ready for the return trip.

All in all, we just had a lovely time, and I'm already jazzed to do it again next year. Bryce did so well most of the time! The beach was right there, but we didn't have to camp on the beach, so if you ask me it was the best of both worlds. On our last night, the other families headed home but we stayed behind. While I relaxed by the fire, Preston headed down to the beach to get some shots of the gorgeous sunset. This is the life!

Cute boy!

Solo exploration

This is what happens when Mommy gets bored in the car and there are pipe cleaners handy...
Bryce is so long-suffering.

The view from our campsite

Stairs to the beach

Have I mentioned that we love living here?
Because we do.
A lot.

One. Year. Old.

In just one short (and incredibly quick!) year, we've gone from this

to this.
 

Can you believe it?!?

To celebrate Bryce's first birthday last Friday, we invited our families to tune in via Skype for Bryce's first taste of cake and ice cream. It was so much fun, and we so appreciate everyone who took the time out on a Friday night to make it really special!

The birthday boy with all his birthday trappings and loot!

We started with presents from Momma and Daddy. We got him some peg puzzles and a classic corn popper walking toy. He seemed to like them, though I think both are going to take some growing into.

I made carrot cake -- that's healthy, right?


For Bryce's "smash cake", I used some cookie cutters to shape it into a bear shape. It was so much fun to make!

He's intrigued...

Yep. He likes it.

This was when he shoved the entire nose in his little mouth. Cracks me up every time I look at it!

And then he spit out the entire nose... silly boy!

Just a couple of cake eaters.

The remains of the day.

The aftermath.

And now, a short video presentation.

Happiest Birthday to my Brycers!

These boots are made for walking

Bryce took his very first independent steps while we were away in Utah, but he's been shy about it ever since. Tonight, he got up the gumption to show off for Daddy -- and I got some (ahem, very blurry) pictures!

Such a big, brave boy!