French Creek Test Run

no this is not a post about some incredibly insane marathon through the muddy woods... this weekend melissa and aubrey and i decided to go for a safe and easy (we could always just drive home) trial camping evening at one of the campsites at french creek state park. we arrived at the campground just as it was getting dark and quickly discovered one of the hardest parts about taking a crawler camping is that they want to crawl around in the dirt and eat everything they shouldn't (dirt, leaves and salamanders)... needless to say the first thing we did was set up the tent and throw some toys in. my biggest fear was that she would cry all night and the "neighboring" campers would gang up on us and throw us in the lake. as it turned out they were louder than we were... college kids and their partying! i disapprove! GRRRMP! (did that sound old and crotchety enough?)... i digress. getting aubrey to go down was the tricky part but it didn't prove to be any harder that some nights at home. so it was a great time. aubrey went to bed and melissa and i got to sit by the fire in the crisp fall air and actually have a romantic cup of coffee and conversation. it was awesome. (by the way my wife is the best ever because it was all HER idea!) our next concern was that aubrey has never really shared a bed with mom and dad and we weren't sure how asleep she would stay once she woke up and saw we were there (which happened a few time during the night). but all was well and it turned out to be a fun night and morning... so for all you who read and have little ones, take them camping!... don't worry, it has been tested and it's worth it.

Positive Self Image

aubrey has been taken to giving kisses lately... her uncle rob also taught her a new game called "GIANT EYE!" this is where you put your forehead against someone elses so that when you look at them their eyes blur together into one unblinking... well hence the name. so as you can see here we are not quite sure what exactly is going on. but we definitely thought it was something you should see.

Adventures at Smith Rock

Here is Matt looking for a couple of climbs for us to do.

Me waiting for Matt to rappel (rap‧pel–verb 1.(in mountaineering) the act or method of moving down a steep incline) after lead climbing for us.

Matt....climbing. It is HUGE!

My very happy husband!

Family Photo

We are back from Oregon...and we had a blast. Aubrey perfected her crawl just in time to fly across the country, and she perfected standing up on her own in time to fly home. (And here I hoped that she would wait for these two milestones until after we got back). We spent much of our vacation, grabbing on to the corners of "pointy" furniture. I trust we are in a whole new ball game now... Babyproofing. Now I get to begin padding the corners of furniture and sticking plastic into outlets... Or I could just buy the kid a helmet. (I saw one in one of those baby gear catalogs. It was hilarious.... looked like a giant diaper on the kids head.)

In any event... We are home and happy to be home. There is nothing quite like your own bed. Now we just have to go about catching up on life here.

We will be out of the office.....

Hey All,
Tomorrow we are heading to Oregon. Yeeha!
I wanted to make sure that we posted something before we left, just so you weren't sitting there thinking. Gosh, it's been a while since the O'Malleys posted anything (or the Schusters, or the Tudors, or the Lusbys....etc). ;o)

Here is photo of Crater Lake National Park.
No, we didn't take it...We won't take credit for it.

I would have put up a photo from our last trip out there, but with all the packing that we have had to do "last minute" (because we waited until 9:30 tonight)....I just didn't feel like looking for them. Believe it or not our last photos of Crater Lake were on film. (What the heck is "film"?) Google is so amazing... Search "Crater Lake photo", bang, you got it!

Anyway ~ Pray for safe travels and an easy plane ride with Aubrey. We will post lots of pics when we get back.
Love, Missy & Matt

Meet Cousin Brooke!

Brooke Jeanne is the newest addition to our family...
She was born on August the 28th at 11:43 am.
Weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz and 19.5 inches long.
Aubrey got to meet her new cousins for the first time this past weekend.

She found her new cousin quite fascinating.
And with all things new and fascinating,
she looked her over once.... then tried to eat her hand.

Mom and baby are doing well.
Welcome to the family little princess.

aubrey-bette soup

so aubrey and i were discussing her options for a halloween costume this year... here is one of the options that we came up with, alphabet soup with our darling little girl as "the noodle." what do you think? it may be a little cold in october... so we may have to look at some other options

Labor day weekend...

this time last year... we had an aubrey but she was not nearly as cute. she was in the cutest package ever... but it's not like we really had an aubrey. i was reflecting on this as we were driving home from the bridge tonight... aubrey was in the back seat singing to us making quite a racket... which eventually turned in to crying at us ( it was past her bed time and she had a poop that needed changing). in any event i just can't imagine life without my little girl. everything's more fun. carrying her around on my shoulders with her yanking my hair out at the roots, sitting at a restaurant and sharing some of my sweet potatoe with her... and the humming/ singing that ensues as a result. life is just fun