Summertime... and the Living is Easy!

Greetings. This is an extremely busy week for the Oregon Holts. Actually it's been quite a busy 3 weeks: Adam's birthday, two out of town races, Father's Day, our anniversary on tuesday and Noella's SIX MONTH birthday on thursday! Whew!

Let's rewind to Adam's race weekend. I, unfortunately, did not get any pictures from Adam's Xterra Triathlon last weekend. Let's just say it was quite frigid (air temp was 49 degrees when we arrived and the water could not have been up to 60 degrees). Adam did great! He finished strong and was thoroughly dirty and dog-tired at the end. So was I! Wow - that's probably the last time we take Noella and the dog to a 4+ hour event like that. I felt like I had raced as well.  Hence, the lack of photos from the race! Sorry honey :)

Noella is just too much fun these days. She's got two teeth now (I'm starting to pray to the tooth gods that she gets all these teeth out of the way soon. She does not handle it the best I'm learning!). She's scooting all over the place and babbling up a storm (e.g. 'bababababa' or 'dadadadada' or 'wawawawa'). She makes her speech pathologist mama proud. Here is her latest photo shoot. Thanks Auntie Sara for the cute outfit!

Live Long and Prosper.

This is what happens when I try to take pictures of her.

This too. I feel that this is just the way its going to be. She just won't SIT STILL! 

Summer is finally here! We've just been enjoying the sunshine and trying to be outside as much as possible. Looking forward to Grammy Ruth coming to visit at the end of July!

And finally, here are the boys of the household! 

Scootin'

So.... this video is way long. We realize this. However, we also think all of it is cute. None of you get to see her on a day to day basis anyway! Feel free to skip most of it. But.... Noella is getting to be too big for her britches. Not even 6 months and getting around already!

The Dirty Half....

Hola family and friends!

Our first road trip with Noella was a success! As was the race that prompted the road trip. The weather was beautiful (finally!), the beer was good, dog and baby were on their best behavior -- all in all in was a good weekend.

We arrived in Bend saturday afternoon to pick up my race packet. We then promptly went to dinner at 4:30. I guess with an infant, we are also on a senior citizen meal time schedule. Noella sat in her bumbo chair and shared mommy's sweet potato fries and daddy's avocado. Her first tastings of food other than what I have prepared at home. It amused her for a while.

Next, we checked into the hotel where we rushed to get to the swimming pool before bedtime was upon us. NoJo absolutely LOVES the water. She gets this wild eyed look on her face and splashes and kicks and just tries to go, go, go! She laughs when we go under water and pop up right next to her and say "boo"!

Then, of course, by 7 it was bedtime. When you share a hotel room with your baby who goes to bed when the sun is still blaring it's a little disappointing for the adults, to say the least. Especially when you're in such a kick-a@! town like Bend. Oh well! We just watched TV with the sound off for a couple of hours :)

We then had to WAKE HER UP to get started for the race. Road trippin' makes Noella tired I guess. We arrived at the start with 30 minutes to spare!

Here is Noella wishing mommy good luck.

Daddy was such a trooper and lugged dog and baby around for 2 hours while I ran free in the woods. AND he did this on his birthday. What a guy! We love you daddy!

We had a great time. The post-race all-you-can-drink beer garden wasn't half bad either. I think we'll do it again! Next weekend: La Grande! Here's hoping daddy doesn't freeze in the sub 60 degree waters at the Exterra triathlon!

Just had to throw in this last picture. Noella is starting to notice Zeb more. She thinks he's funny!

Back to Front!

Rollover Beethoven!

So..... lots of news out here in the PNW! First off:

Meet Zeb. He's the newest addition to the Holt Family. Zeb is an adopted Border Collie. So far, he's a great dog. Comes to his name and stays away from Noella. No barking (except for the occasional quiet growl when a suspicious male comes into view --- something we're working on). Zeb is a keeper. 

In other news, Noella is growing like a weed. She's on to eating sweet potatoes once a day, in addition to her rice cereal. She's begun sleeping through the night (6:30-6:30) for the past 3 weeks or so (off and on - teething has become a middle of the night awakening culprit. Well that, and the intense desire to practice crawling and rolling over in her crib!)

All that practice must have paid off, because she's mastered rolling from her back to her front. I'll post a video after this blogpost. And the teething seems to be paying off as well, as I can now spot a white cap under her gums! FINALLY! This teething thing is crazy. 

I am also training for a trail half marathon on Adam's birthday weekend. I had to do a 10K for the training a few weekends ago and actually placed 2nd out of 77 women in my age group AND 15th out of 405 total women. Not bad for a mom, eh? Let's hope the trail run goes as well. I'm expecting it to be much harder, with much stiffer competition. It will be in Bend, OR which is an awesome place to go anyway, so its a great excuse for a mini-vacation with Noella! Daddy's Ex-Terra triathlon is the following weekend in La Grande, OR, so she's going to become an experienced traveler here in the next few months. 

Well, that's about it for now. I promise to keep you informed more often. Noella is just so hard to keep up with these days (and I know it's just the beginning!).  

Much love from: 

Adam, Liz, Noella and Zeb (the dog)