It hasn't been that long since I've posted, has it?

Don't answer that.

Well we're in the final week before coming to Toronto for a few days so I thought I would flood the netwaves with more images of adventure and excitement. Starring Sage! Here he is just before bugging the cat, as he's apt to do.

We watched fireworks on the 4th of July on Bass Lake from Donna and Terry's boat. Here is Sage wondering why he's allowed to stay up so much later than normal.We went to San Francisco for a weekend away in early July, here are a few shots of the cable cars in the city by the bay.
We all drove across the Golden Gate Bridge for some evening photos on the other side. We also got to pose for a few. There was a heat wave going on in the Central Valley at the time, but it was so freezing cold and windy up there, we couldn't believe it. We had sweaters on the whole weekend.
The money shot!

Amy and Sage while wandering around the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

And a nice shot of lily pads.

Sage's first encounter with sand.

Back in the hills, Sage went in the spa with Donna.

Here's a photo from our weekend in Los Angeles. Amy and Jessica are posing on the grounds of CalTech University on Canada Day.

Sage isn't sure whether he likes solid foods yet...definitely not avocados. He does like plums, peaches and cucumber slices though. We're not giving him anything pureed, choosing to do a child-led introduction of solids, which means we give him real whole food. If he wants to take a taste then that's cool, if not then it will probably end up on the floor and life goes on!

Taking a bath in the sink...to be small and flexible like that!

Almost a peace sign!
Just yesterday he made his first shaky attempt at a crawl!
That's it for now!

It's Mommy's Turn!

So all afternoon I'd been bugging Chris to post on his blog. I finally got tired of all the foot-dragging and decided to do it myself!

Sage was seven months old yesterday! He is quite mobile, even though he doesn't crawl yet. He pivots and rolls to get where he wants to go. No interest in solids yet, but he certainly isn't missing them. He weighs close to 22 pounds! And we're baffled at the absence of teeth, as of yet. He's been teething for 3 1/2 months!

Well, here are the cute pictures:

Squeaky Clean!

At Grandma's birthday dinner
Mommy and Daddy decided to pick cherries on an
UNBELIEVABLY hot day, so Sage is making sure
to stay well-hydrated.

Somebody LOVES his nekkid time!

Enjoying the interesting texture of
Grandma and Grandpa's Lawn


The following photographs were taken during an impromptu photo shoot. We were chillaxing at Grandma and Grandpa's and Daddy suddenly realized how cute Sage looked sitting naked on white sheets. Enjoy!










If that last photo doesn't make you want to have a nice warm boob full of milk and snuggle into bed, then you have our pity. Sweet dreams!

Passing 6 Months

Hello all you folks in internet land,

Sage recently passed 6 months of age. This kid is doing awesome. Here are some photographs!

He can now sit up on his own. And he smiles a lot. An awful lot.

He's got the concept of crawling down, but doesn't yet have the ability to move the hands and legs in a way that would cause him to do anything other than...

...flop over!

He really enjoys being in his high chair!

Really REALLY enjoys it!

He's so sweepy!

One of his favorite toys now is a wet washcloth.

We've started taking him for short swim lessons, although they're more like water familiarization classes at this point. He does look cute in his blue trunks.

He's got a lot to ponder.

Anyway, that was our son! meanwhile, Amy's brother Adam has just announced that he and Chivonne are getting married! The wedding is booked for September 9th at Bass Lake, and they have asked Amy and I to be the best man and maid of honor.

We've decided to rent a cool car to drive from the wedding to the reception (at Terry & Donna's place), and when I say cool, there is a couple close to Bass Lake that has a small fleet of old Model A & Model T Fords which they rent out, and we'll be renting a 1928 Model A Touring Car. Since I'll be the chauffeur (like I would let anyone else drive it), Amy, Sage and I took a ride up there yesterday. I got a few good pictures and a quick driving lesson. It was so strange and exciting to drive!

Anyway the owner and I have now made plans that when the busy summer season is over, we're going to get all the cars together and do a mass photo shoot of their fleet for their website and marketing matierals. This is so excitingly awesome.

1928 Ford Model A Touring Car - The 2nd oldest Model A known to exist in the United States...I got to drive it!

Well that's all for now. We've confirmed that we will be coming to Toronto for the August long weekend, so everyone gets to meet Sage!

See yuhs lay-ter

Le Grand Voyage

So for those of you who don't know, we took a grand voyage, excuse me, Le Grand Voyage, to visit Amy's brother and father up in the city of Vancouver, Washington which is just north of the Oregon border and the city of Portland.

Originally intending on driving, we found rather inexpensive plane tickets from the city of Sacramento (about 3.5 hours drive north of Coarsegold) to Portland which saved us about 10 hours of driving each way.

The main downside was that the flight there was at 6am, which means we checked out of our hotel at 4am to head to the airport. Sage's first flight was in a Canadian-built Q400, the 70-seat stretched version of the popular Dash-8 aircraft. He slept through most of the flight and seemed to have a good time! Here is a picture after we got to Portland.


Amy's brother Adam and their father met us at the airport and drove us to Vancouver to stay with Adam and his girlfriend Chivonne. She has 2 daughters, aged 3 1/2 and 2, named Azriel and Irie. Boy did they keep Sage busy! He's never slept so well as after being worn out by the two of them. Here they are having a good time.


For some reason, this Friday, everyone had the day off so we hit the road and drove 90 minutes to a lookout point close to Mount St. Helens, which had been closed for almost a year due to fear of volcanic activity and had just recently reopened. Here is a photo of the mountain...clouds covered the top, but you can clearly see the blast crater and the desolate valley below. It was really amazing to see how the eruption that happened 26 years ago still affects the landscape. Mount St. Helens can easily be seen from Vancouver and Portland and Amy's father told me about looking up from playing tennis and seeing what looked like an atomic bomb exploding over the mountain in 1980 while Donna was pregnant with Amy.


Here is Sage meeting his Grandpa Bryan. It was the first time he got up close and personal with a beard and he couldn't help but grab it every now and then!


On the second day there we went for a very scenic drive through the Columbia River Gorge. It is a whole string of State Parks with hiking trails and more waterfalls than I have ever seen in such close proximity. Here is a photo on one of the hikes showing Bryan, Amy with Sage on her back and Adam.


On the Oregon side of the gorge, I got a shot of the river valley from a scenic overlook.


Amy and Sage at one of the many waterfalls we saw along the trip.


And here is what I think is a beautiful and scenic shot of a top of one waterfall.


The next day we spent in the environs of Portland. We stopped for awhile at Washington Park for some playground time. Sage spent it rolling around on the green grass.


We then went on a bit of a city hike, crossing bridges over train tracks and the river to stroll along the waterfront. Here's 'the gang,' Amy and Sage, Chivonne, Azriel and Irie, Bryan and Amy's Aunt Sharon and Uncle Joey bringing up the rear.

Later on we went to visit Amy's grandmother who recently got out of the hospital. Here is Bryan, Aunt Sharon, Sage and Amy.

Sage got a kick out of his Great-Grandma Alice!

The next day was limited as we were flying back in the early afternoon, but we hung out at Clark College where Bryan works and Adam attends classes. Adam took an algebra test and then we headed to the airport.

Amy says I can't put another plane picture on my blog so I guess you'll just have to imagine that we flew back in another Canadian-built plane, a Canadair CRJ-700 Regional Jet. Sage didn't like that flight too much because he had ear problems during descent and did quite a bit of howling. Anyway we drove home, rather tired but overall we had a really great weekend, saw a lot, and even went as far as to title the blog in French.