Oregon's sesquicentennial

As a native Oregonian, Eli insisted that we take him to the state's 150th birthday party on Saturday at the Capitol. There was free ice cream, hot dogs and cake, and lots of photo opportunities. Eli really really liked Smokey the Bear. Jess and Ben really really liked the live Gold man, who was supposed to resemble the Gold man on top of Oregon's Capitol building, who is supposed to represent all of the Pioneers who settled Oregon. The live Gold man, however, had put on too many pounds to be a true Pioneer.

Random stuff...

Eli spent this past weekend with his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Ben. He even let them put him to bed on Saturday night! First time for Mama and Daddy to be gone during bath/bottle/book/bed time. We survived OK and Eli did splendidly. In fact, he slept the entire night Saturday night. Whew...

Eli now nods his head "yes" but doesn't seem to know exactly what it means. He definitely likes to shake his head "no" when we ask him to nod "yes," and we all laugh at his joke.

He is walking more and more each day, but he still crawls for much of his mobile periods. He still loves to go up the stairs and shut the gate at the top. Then he wants to go back down the stairs and do it all over again.

We are headed to the coast tomorrow and we are looking forward to showing him the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Sea Lion Caves, tidepools and sand!