Brookings Oregon

We had a GREAT time at the coast. I don't remember the beach ever being that perfect. There was no wind, and the temperature was in the mid 70s. Wow. It was Zoë's first time and she was in heaven. Emmett slept pretty much the whole time - so I had a wonderful time too :)

Zoë and Julia

Let's GO fly a Kite! She LOVES kites.

Zoë was all over the sand and loved the feel of it. I wish we lived closer so that we could take her there more often.

Right after this picture was taken, Julia fell face first in the sand. It shouldn't have been funny - but it was.

She had no fear of the ocean and ran right up to the waves and I had to chase her down.

This is How you do it, Emmett!

This is one of my favorite pics of the little ankle-biters.

4th of July

Zoë started off the day doing her favorite thing!

Zoë and our friend Nikita playing with the sparklers. Nikita was VERY brave to hold her while Zoë twirled it around. She actually was having a great time until the big fireworks went off and ran in the house saying, "No it's not scary - fireworks fun".

This is my sister Whoop and Zoë in the back of the truck on the way to the BBQ

I love how all the adults are enjoying the fireworks...except the kids!!

Mt. Shasta

It's been said that the "top of this hill is just the bottom of another mountain." For this past weekend, I'll have to flat-out disagree. A few of us decided it would be neat to climb a big mountain - so the results are shown. We bit off a bit more than we possibly could chew, but there's nothing like a Winn and his stubbornness when it comes to finishing a presented challenge.

Here's the group (minus one taking the picture) at the vehicle parking ~ 6,900 ft.
Here's our base camp: ~ 3.2 miles hike from the car - ~9,000 ft

Here's the view looking back on base camp: ~ 10,500 ft (if you look real close you may see the yellow speck of a tent right of the big snow chunk.
Here is yours truly: cresting the saddle that leads to a very gulping view of 2 more hours to hike! ~13,200 ft.


Here's the view from the saddle crest: 2 hours to the summit - I almost turned back!

But, this is proof that I didn't! I was a tired little boy at this point. Mt. Shasta summit - 14,126 ft
This is the view from the summit looking back at the saddle.


This is an aerial view of Mt. Shasta and the route we took: West Face. The red dot is base camp, the green line, our path of accent. There's obviously a bit more snow in this picture.

It was an amazing experience, extremely difficult from an endurance and mental standpoint, but well worth the effort. Coming down was a lot easier because we slid down on the snow: rough, but made you feel a lot better escaping the altitude effects. One 14er down!

family reunion

My Allen Family Reunion picture. We look pretty good actually - unfortunately about 20 of the family members are missing in the picture! We had so much fun though!! And with all those people we didn't have any drama. I can't wait for the next one in 3 years.

We went to Emigrant lake and I actually wake boarded for the first time! I was really proud of myself until Alex got up and started doing tricks. He's such a punk - a really cute punk. Zoë loves makeup and stole my mom's lipstick and put it all over her lips. She's my princess!

My cousin Rachael is holding Ethan (I've blogged him before) and my sister Whoopie is holding Emmett. Good looking group huh?

All the great-grandkids went to a farm with a bunch of animals.
Zoë had SOOO much fun with the horses - she pitched a "little" fit when we left too. She actually liked the big horses more than the kitties, dogs, goats or pony.

We had a talent show on the last day. My dad came out dressed as Donald Duck. The great-grandkids just loved it and wanted to dance with him. Zoë wouldn't let him touch her.

One Big Boy

Last night hopefully marked a momentous change in my life ... Emmett slept until 6am!!!! I think he read my last blog and thought he'd give his poor mom a break. I'm flying with the kids by myself to Oregon tomorrow and have to say I'm a bit nervous.

Zoë's been on 40 flights (seriously) so I'm not really concerned about her - it's Emmett. He throws up all over me constantly. He can shoot 2ft away without taking a breath. It's gross but true. So somehow I have to nurse him on the plane without having the aftermath all over the seat and me.

On a lighter note - Zoë is so sweet with Emmett. She always wants to cuddle him and help me take care of him. Emmett just grins from ear to ear when he sees her near. Oooh and Emmett is two months old and weighs 14 lbs!!!! He is wearing 6 month clothes now.

No Sleep

For those of you who've had a colicky baby - my hat is off to you. I cannot function lately. I try to have a normal conversation with my family and friends and most of the time I can't think of what I was going to say and what word I want to use. Alex is really nice and said that I can go work out tonight and he'll watch the kids. It's tempting...I have 17 more pounds to lose. But nothing is more enticing as my bed. All day long I think about how nice my pillows would feel and how comfy my mattress is. I keep saying to myself that I will sleep all through the night someday. Emmett did not sleep Saturday night at ALL! He finally passed out at 6am and slept until 10am. That was his only nap until 10pm Sunday. The only way I can get him to calm down sometimes is to lay right next to him and curl my arms around him to help his little tummy. I feel so bad for the little guy.


Lack of sleep is an interesting test of character. I'm at my absolute worst lately. I was thinking as I was grumbling to whoever could hear me at 3am that I wasn't going to breastfeed anymore and if I had throw-up catapulted on me one more time I was going to lose my mind. During the day I handle it - but at night I turn into the most ornery person. Just because of lack of sleep! It's crazy if you think about it. Make me clean for 12 hrs straight - ok. Have me juggle two whiny kids all day - ok. Even force me to do all the laundry for the 3rd time that day because Emmett threw up on everything again - I handle it. But you take away my sleep and my world collapses. Why? I don't know. Does my body go into self preservation mode when I know I'm only going to get 4 hrs of sleep? I don't know. If you have any suggestions or magical fixes let me know. Until then - just don't try to rationalize with me or bring anything up that would be in the slightest bit disagreeable after the hour of 9pm....through 7am....and only during the time that both kids are taking a nap...and I've had a shower........so pretty much next year sometime around February!!!