Remembering

I knew that today was going to be hard, and could very easily have been a really bad day. Today means that we have been without my dad for a year. I have dreaded every part of this day for a while now.

Instead of spending the day being sad I decided that it should be a day to celebrate the time we had with a great man and to provide good memories for Campbell. This is what my dad would want. Newport quickly came to mind as my dad had lived there, and I had visited there with him several times.

Jon and I both took the day off and Campbell's friend Gracie and her mom joined us for a Newport aquarium trip. The girls had a great time and I feel very fortunate to have been able to spend this day with family and friends.

All good things must come to an end...

With school starting two weeks ago our summer is officially over. Campbell has settled in nicely at daycare. I must admit my heart breaks a little when she reaches out for the daycare person then waves bye to me.

Each day that goes by Jon and I find ourselves asking where our tiny baby went. Campbell is looking and acting more like a toddler everyday. Our baby now talks, walks, expresses her opinion (sometimes loudly), shows affection, makes decisions (like climbing out the dog door) and is working on getting her first tooth! It still surprises me when she laughs at the dog then calls it by its name. Her other words include; mom, dad, hi, daisy, duck, dance, and no. She has also said "Hi dad" and "Thank You."

Campbell spent one of her last days of vacation helping me set up my classroom:

Campbell's best friend. Judging by the way these two play now, Gracie's mom and I are going to have our hands full!

Here are some 11 month old pictures:

Sailing!?!

That's right, Campbell can add sailing to the list of things she has done before turning 1! To be honest I am a little concerned about the precedent we are setting for this baby. I'm not sure we are going to be able to keep up this kind of excitement in her life for very long! Soon we will run out of things to do.



Great Grandpa even let her drive the boat. I'm pretty sure I have not even driven his car, hmm, maybe Campbell has a better driving record

Uncle Ron teaching everyone how to sail safely.

Jon came home with all his fingers thanks to Ron!

Summer

Here are a few highlights of our summer:

Campbell had a pool party with some of her friends:

We spent 2 weeks at the farm:



Campbell learned to stand and is determined to walk

Campbell made a new friend and spent quality time with grandma

I was able to relax and read while grandma played with Campbell!

Has it really been 9 months?

4th of July, Birthday, Surf Contests....

Campbell had a great 4th of July, she really loves a party and as always was the last baby standing! Here is what she looked like before the party:
And after:
Campbell has also added crawling everywhere to her bag of tricks. She is now determined to walk, unfortunately she has yet to develop any sort of balance or sense of gravity. I'm afraid Campbell is a daredevil. She will attempt to climb over anything, pull herself up to stand using anything within reach, (including the dog), really likes to be thrown into the air, swung around, and even be upside down. Our little adrenaline junkie keeps us on our toes. I am certain that this is some sort of payback as both Jon and I have pretty dangerous hobbies. I can only imagine what she will be like when she is walking.
This may be one of the last pictures I have of Campbell where she doesn't have a bump or bruise on her face!

This past month Jon had two of his favorite events, his birthday and a surf contest.

Campbell fit right into the surfing scene. She didn't even seem to mind the howling winds on the beach that day.

Picture Overload!

Here are some quick updates of what we have been up to (in pictures of course!)

Campbell decided to surprise her great grandpa with a visit on his birthday, it was such a quick trip that I didn't get too many pictures, and some how great grandma and grandpa managed to avoid the camera.


A couple of big things happened on our quick trip. First, Jon was able to go out with my grandpa on his sail boat. I can only hope that I will be sailing on my 80Th birthday!




Campbell also learned how to wave. In fact, her first wave was to her great grandma!

Recently we flew to North Carolina for my friend Leah's wedding.

We expected this to be a long and exhausting trip, but we had no idea just how long it would be. The night before we left Campbell had a little fever. We figured she was teething, gave her some Tylenol and went to sleep. To make a very long story short she became progressively worse. Against our better judgement we boarded the plane and flew overnight.

Shortly after arriving we decided Campbell needed to see a doctor. Jon was a trouper and took her to an urgent care clinic so I could still participate in the pre wedding activities. She came back with a diagnosis of double ear infections! After a few doses of antibiotics, a couple of really long naps, and some tears of guilt from myself, Campbell started to feel better. Jon should get an award for being such a good dad. Since I was involved in wedding things he had to take care of the sick baby.

Campbell slept through the ceremony but was not about to miss the party afterwards!

Since I am off for the summer, (and am fortunate enough to have a job to return to), there will be a lot of this in our future: