Toregon

From Aug. 5-12, Lars, Tor, and I hung out with the Karpluses (and those entrapped by our wiles) in Three Rivers, Oregon, about 15 miles from Bend. It was an awesome week for unwinding, enjoying natural beauty, and catching up with/getting to know each other better.

Left to right: Christina, her fiance Caleb, me, some guy I know, Tim, his wife Caitlin, and my mom Karen

Needless to say, our little ham reveled in the attention.

The perennially popular Opa ride

Funny, Opa heavily censored Hop on Pop when he was the dad

Favorite aspect of the multi-featured Little Penguin: its tag

Great, now the hands are free for havoc-wreaking

Both Hansens remained skeptical of the
Lava Cast Forest's geological narrative

Repping for Tante Caitlin's med school--can we get some free pens over here?

"A stroll! Oh boy oh boy!"

We checked out a waterfall near our rental house and took a few family photos.

Oma and Opa brought along a sleeping bag that we parked Tor on while we had adult time. He's legitimately crawling now, though, and he was close then, so he tended to stray.

To cap off the trip, Lars, Tor, and I joined my dad in a long-realized dream of hiking up South Sister (10,358 ft; 6 miles and 5,000 vertical feet one way). Boy, do we need to get more exercise. Dad jogs five times a week and was fresh as a daisy. Lars and I were sore for the next five days. Tor did better than expected, but it still took us 11 hours car to car.

First water break

See that mountain behind us? It was tough to walk up.

For the final mile and 1,000 elevation gain,
the kid insisted on riding in the front carrier

With the summit behind us! (I'm saving the good view
photo for the Christmas card. Take that.)

Scree: even worse on the way down (note Tor
occupied by rattle attached to pack with dental floss)

Definitely the two happiest of the four hikers at this point

Working on the calorie deficit from his trek

Next post: Tor goes canoe camping with five dirty hippies! Styling his nautical best:

I

Pray for us.

Intercalary Post

What with finishing up the summer term, wrangling the tiny one, and traveling to Oregon for Karplus family time, I have been terribly remiss in keeping TorTales up to date. Here are some snaps from our month in Minneapolis between flying to San Francisco in July and heading to Corvallis in August.

A few mentions of moment: Tor has made it onto his knees (without forward motion) and popped out not one, but two bottom teeth! Nursing has begun to produce anxiety, but hopefully I can train him out of nipping (literally).

"Okay, what now?"

Unfolding the laundry

Tooth photography: harder than you think

 Solid foods continue to be added to the repertoire. The list now includes rice cereal, banana, apple, apple juice, avocado, raspberries, squash, and sweet potato. He has not yet gotten the hang of the pincer grasp, but that's supposed to roll around by ~8 months, so he's got a little time.

All set up to toss some avocado onto his pants 

It's been oppressively hot and muggy in town, and when Lars's adviser invited us to his cabin an hour north of Grand Marais, we jumped at the chance to get away for the weekend.

Stopping for pizza and a brief wiggle

A Superior baby

Scaring away Daddy's fish (excuses, excuses)

For one so small, Tor is a surprisingly harsh taskmaster

Photos from Oregon to follow soon! 

Tor's Family Bonanza

On July 8, Tor boarded his first flight ever as he and I headed to California for Christina's bridal shower. I now know for sure that God sympathizes with solo-baby-wrangling mothers, because the seat next to us was empty on the way there, and we got bumped up to first class on the way back. Tor was a trouper on both flights, nursing on takeoff and landing to prevent ear pressure, playing with the seat belt for a good half-hour, taking a nap in the sling, and offering up a wet, but not dirty, diaper. Stylish.

The weekend was absolutely packed with family time: Christina's shower on Saturday, a pizza party afterward, a visit from Grandma Charmaine and Grandpa Chooch on Sunday, and Chinese food with the Karpluses Sunday night. This made for a lot of good pictures.

Interrupting the bride's beauty rest 

Grandson trumps coffee! (Mom, I'm sure you're thrilled I'm putting this out there.)

"This is not the Tor you're looking for"

First encounter with Mormor...

...and the first four-generation photo

Shaking hands with Morfar

Seems he'd already gotten to Laura's name tag by this point

"Consider yourself a Karplus, kid"

The center of attention--and loving it

Norm and Charmaine hadn't seen the munchkin since January 10--at just two weeks old--so we were all thrilled that they could make it over to Orinda for the day!

It was a good thing Grandpa Chooch remembered his croakies

The best attempt I've seen so far to make this hat look cool

Below, Grandma Charmaine gets some good lovin' in at the Karplus house and then at the Andersens'.

                                       

To wrap it up, here's my Grandma with the Torito, and another four-generation shot. Thanks for hosting us, Grandma!

I give Grandma mad props for having SEVEN of these

Daddy's Home!

Lars got back from Spain just before bedtime, to Tor's great delight.

He (Lars, not Tor) returned desperately wanting to smoke some ribs, so we had a few people over.

Lars's stunt double, Joe

Passed out in the heat

Keeping it tasteful

With Madeline in her hot-weather jumper

In other news this week, Tor thinks he's an airplane. And I keep trying to get candid pictures of him in the pose, but he sees me coming with the camera and starts hamming.

Later, he knocked this poster tube onto his head and screamed about it

As you can see, he's moving all over the place. No more setting him down on the blanket and going to the bathroom. Now the only safe places are the crib and the playpen.

Drool monster!

"Lord of the Rings Risk?! You guys are NERDS!"

Tor and I are about to fly to San Francisco for Christina's bridal shower, where we'll see all manner of relatives! I wanted to get this post out now, since I anticipate that for the next one, I'll have lots of pictures from the weekend. Wish us luck in the air!!