August

A small Sisters Reunion was organized for my first mission president, Cliff & Linda Jones, at their house in Newport Beach. I think it looks like a fairy tale.Since I haven't made it to any of the reunions so far I really wanted to go to this one. Only four of us made it. Tilane, Sarah and Wendy all served before me.I braved the 7 plus hour drive with 8 month old Q and went to SoCal. I stopped to visit an old High School friend who had twins a week after I had Q on the way. SO good to see her. Pres. and Sister Jones were awesome it was wonderful to visit with them. Of course they adored Q!They took us out on a tour of Newport Bay in their little electric boat called a duffy. Quintin was adorable, even though he HATED the life vest which cranked his head and pushed on his chin. He fell asleep pretty quickly, so that was good. Q smiling at Sis. Jones. Who wouldn't love Sis Jones? I don't know about you but I wouldn't want a huge, stinky sea lion sleeping on my sailboat. No matter how cute he was.
Near the beginning of August we learned that Ian's district manager had been killing ALL of his attempts to move jobs in FedEx for the past 6 months. It was quite disappointing. We determined that we needed to move back to WA in order for me to stay home with Q. So, we started the process of getting ready to go. Ian also decided that he would finally apply to grad school.
Quintin was making tremendous progress with his bowen therapy, when I told his therapist we were moving out of state her solution (since she's one of the only pediatric bowen therapists) was for me to take the intro Bowen class that she just happened to be teaching in her office (1st time!) that month. What a blessing. We forked out the dough to keep our kiddo from being an invalid. I learned so much, it was awesome. (so far he hasn't regressed too much under my ministrations) People flew in from the midwest and the caribbean to take the class, luckily I only had to commute 45 minutes! We were hoping I could use it on Ian's back, too, but my arthritis has been a hindrance so far. :(

Packing was quite a chore. Q was unusually fussy the two weeks I was trying to pack and get us ready to load the truck. Unbeknownst to us Q was teething! The day we loaded the truck he cut his first tooth! It was another 2 months before he cut another! Several sisters in the ward volunteered to babysit Q to help, which it did, but when the day came we were still long from done packing. Some VERY good friends came over to help us finish. I don't know if we could have done it without them. We rented a 26 foot truck because it was the cheapest route, and we ended up needing it. If we had packed to the ceiling we might have had a few extra feet left over.
Here's the crazy scenario we planned out because our apt. manager wouldn't let us stay another month:

• load the truck on Friday
• Drive to WA on Saturday, me in the car with Q and Ian in the truck and the cats.
• Unload the truck Sunday with family help.
• Ian fly back Monday, to keep working to maintain medical benefits for all of Q's big tests in 3 weeks in Sacramento, Q and me home alone. Ian staying in an extra room at a friend of ours.
  
• four days later Q and I fly to Denver with the in-laws for a Walker reunion, meet Ian there.
• one week later Q and I fly home to unpack for two weeks alone.
• Q and I fly back to Sacramento for a week to do his tests.
• We ALL drive home together, finally, taking two days this time.
  

Is that crazy or what? I don't know why I thought I'd ever be able to do all that and maintain sanity. It ended up taking us two days to drive the moving truck to Wa, so that was crazy, too. When we stopped for food along the way Q showed his skills sucking on a straw for the first time. The stress of all this actually cut my milk supply by 90%. I'm so glad that's over. I believe my behavior in the month of September was reprehensible, so I apologize to everyone who had to experience it...I'll probably repeat this in the next post as well.

July

The one and only park day we went to in Davis was at Manor Pool, one of the coolest pools I've ever seen. Not only do they have a water slide and lap pool, but they have a wading pool and a fun sprinkler section for the little kids to play in. It was about 102 degrees that day, so getting in the water was heavenly. I laid Q back and he fell asleep! He didn't mind the splashing and noise at all. I figured it must have been like the womb or something because he was out. I tried to go lay him on a blanket and that woke him up. I always planned to go back, but oh well.
Our neighbors Laura and Kenny introduced us to some succulent fresh garden food so I finagled my way into going to the garden with Kenny one day to partake some veggies for myself. I had no idea fresh lettuce was SO good! Mmmm, yummy.

My parents flew us over to Oahu to visit for a week. Grandma and Q got to play a lot.We got to see a cool Buddhist temple, (Can you believe this is all painted concrete?) a 'spitting' cave, (if you look real close below you can see tiny Ian on top of the rocks above) Hawaii Kai, Q's first ocean experiencethe Missouri (full tour-let me know if you'd like more pictures of that, I've got lots! Wow, I could never be in the navy -CRAMPED and HOT!) and Bowfin and the house addition my dad helped build for a friend of theirs.
We climbed to the top of Diamond Head. Ian finally got to see Waikiki beach. Q got to see his first parrots and koi pond. Q did all right on the plane rides.

Our trip to Hanauma bay was remarkable. Of course the parking lot was full and there wasn't any within a mile. We stopped to turn around at this shooting range and there just happened to be this guy with a van picking people up who gave us a ride, for a mild fee of $10. He said we had to be back up in the lot in two hours to get a ride back. For those of you who've never been there, the parking lot/entrance to Hanauma bay is at the top of the cliff. You have to wait in line to pay to get in, then wait for your session of the intro/safety video before you can even get into the park. Then you have to walk down the cliff to get to the beach. Then get all your gear on and get in the water to snorkel. (I didn't include time renting gear because we bring our own) This alone takes at least 45 minutes, so that would have given us maybe an hour to snorkel and get back up the hill for our ride. WHY would I pay 20 bucks to get into the park if I was only going to be there for an hour? Needless to say we didn't get back up for his deadline time. On top of that the surf was rough so the water was cold and murky and you could hardly see anything. :( Bummer. They really need to close that park for a couple years so it can recover from the damage millions of people do to it every year. When we finally finished and headed back out we discovered a cut on my foot and one on Ian's leg. Anticipating a mile walk along the sweltering hot road in flip flops to get back to our car was not enticing. We happened to see the van driver pull in when we'd climbed to the gate so Ian took off after him to get a ride back to the car. The guy didn't want to! He said he'd drive Ian to Waikiki for 20 bucks! Ha! Ian's like, why would I go to Waikiki when my car is here???? So Ian's walking back up the hill to 'waiting me' and the guy stops him to say he'll drive him to the car and he can come get me, but I had the car keys, so the guy finally says yes and we made it back to the car. Phew, what a hassle.

My parents live next door to the LDS tabernacle and there's this flock of green parrots that comes in to spend the night in the surrounding trees then fly back up in to the mountains the next morning. That was really cool, a whole flock! They make quite a ruckus on departure.

We went to meet the neurologist and get Quintin evaluated. Nothing set off a red flag for him until Ian told him that Q was right handed. Apparently babies aren't supposed to be 'handed' so he ordered an MRI to make sure Q hadn't had any strokes to inhibit one side of his brain. Great, way to set our minds at ease.

I finally made it to one of our Stake Picnics, after four years! It was alright, very hot. My car died again and I had to hitch a ride home with the Bishop's wife (Switching the car seat to her car with a sleeping Q inside was craziness! There's this stupid foot on the bottom that flips out easily but wouldn't go back in, grr.) then get it towed to the shop. WOULD YOU BELIEVE that the only thing that was wrong was that it was OUT OF GAS!!!! The gas gauge had died a few months before so we were using the odometer instead, and somehow Ian had gotten something confused and the odometer had not been reset correctly so that when I thought we had tons of gas, we had NONE! Stupid car.

I SPY

Can you tell what is special about these pictures?

I spy a Q sitting back in his exersaucer!
(instead of slumping forward)
Miracle 1 for today!

AND sitting up!
Another miracle!

I spy an Ian diving for the ball!

I spy Q playing with Kenny and William from next door at the volleyball potluck dinner Ian organized last Friday. It was awesome, about 15 people showed up, most of whom played. It was real rally's back and forth!

I spy adorable little eyes peeking out from under a blanket (from Corda).

I spy a 'rubber band wrist' escaping covers.

I spy wild and crazy hair blowing in the fan after bath time, making a smiling Q and a smiling Daddy!

Oooo, what is that? The camera?

I'm in love.

This was yesterday. I love this giggle! Q grins from ear to ear when he watches this!

We think he's going to be a pretty fast runner when the time comes.
Those legs are always kicking!

Video's of Q

Yeah! Ian figured out how to get the video on! Here's what we've got:

1) The end of his 1st meal.


2) Laughing at himself in the mirror.


3) Giggling with Daddy.

4) Another problem with Houston, can't get the teether in the mouth.

4th of July

Last weekend was our ward campout. This was the first one we've been able to attend due to scheduling and it was Q's first. I've never been hot while I was camping before, that was weird, I'm usually cold! Q fell asleep in Grandma Walker's sling at the campfire.Our tent was on an incline and I was at the bottom of it. That made for an interesting night. I ended up with about a foot of space by the end of the night. It was wonderful to hear the river and be in nature...it's been too long!In the morning Ian helped cook breakfast and went on a body rafting trip down the river. He came back pretty shaken up. There were a lot of rocks and logs under the surface to bang your legs/feet on and a few spots where the current goes over your head. My fear of drowning keeps me from ever doing exciting things like that. Q was pretty enraptured by his first river experience.On the 4th we went to a potluck with some friends and Q got his first real swing ride! He wasn't too sure about it, I think the 100 degree temperatures didn't help.I just had to include this picture of my baby who's almost outgrown his first car seat.
It looks like Q is going to pull a 'cousin James'...his undergrowth is coming in blond while the long stuff is brown!He rolled over from his tummy to his back yesterday! Way to go buddy!
His six month check up was this week: 20 lb 12 oz, 28 inches long. The pediatrician is sending us to a neurologist to check out his delayed developments. I think by the time we see them he'll be all caught up!