Portland

Tim had to go to Portland to take a review course last Thursday, so James and I joined him and made it a mini family vacation and stayed through the weekend. Our friends Jenna and Dawn and their son Bennett live there, as well as our friend Brianne. It was fun to see everyone and to see a new city. We liked Portland a lot, but it was cold and foggy! I think Denver has us spoiled with all of the sunshine, even in the winter. This was state #6 for James, and he was a champion traveler. He did great on the plane rides, slept great (for the most part), and was very flexible when we went way off of his normal routine everyday. We had an adjoining hotel room with some of Tim's co-residents and James loved running between the two hotel rooms and having people to go visit every morning. It was also nice to have a room to hang out in when he was sleeping. Here is James and Tim enjoying some new books we bought at Powell's.
I tried to get a good picture of Bennett and James when we were at Jenna and Dawn's house, but Bennet told me that I was not his friend anymore after I took this one because he does like getting his photo taken, so I did not press my luck. He also told us, "Baby James' voice is hurting my ears right now," when Bennett was ready for bed and James was still running around playing. After Bennett was in bed, we all lost track of time catching up, and James was like the Energizer bunny playing with all of Bennett's toys so we accidentally kept him up until midnight-oops! James never got whiny or anything, he just kept on playing happily. I think he could have gone all night, but we were tired! Clearly we are not all about keeping a rigid schedule when traveling.One day while we were out shopping, James had a massive blow-out (thanks disposables). It required an immediate/emergency trip to buy more wet wipes, new pants, and new socks. This is James waiting in the car pantless until Tim could track down a pair of baby pants that cost less than $70 (we were apparently not in the cheapest part of town).
Tim bought him a pair of sweat shants that I think are meant for a 3 year old. The rest of the day, everytime we turned around his pants were either around his ankles, or he had just walked right out of them and would be walking around a store in just a diaper and we would have to go track down his pants. Apparently we could have just avoided buying him new pants all together because the lack of pants did seem to bother James in the least. Oh well, hopefully they fit him someday, because they are pretty cute.

Busting some moves in the hotel lobby.

We drove out to Maltnomah Falls one afternoon, which was beautiful. James slept in the car with Tim while Kelsey and I got to check it out.

Since I am always the one taking the pictures, I feel like there aren't that many pictures of just me and James. Thanks Kelsey for being our photographer/nanny for the trip :-)
We took the lightrail around to check out the city on Saturday-James first experience on public transportation.
Bundled up to battle the cold-although everyone in Portland kept saying how warm it was. Brrr!
James cut his first tooth while on vacation in Minnesota, and first molar came through in Portland, which accounted for his one poor night of sleep. It was not as bad as I was expecting molars to be though, so I hope the other 3 come in just as easily!