It is official, we are moving to Indiana. I flew out on Tuesday, interviewed/toured the area on Wednesday, and flew back to Washington on Thursday night. We are looking at houses in a town called Fishers right now...seems to be out best option.
Realistically, this is somewhat bittersweet. We have established a nice life in Washington. The views are incredible, the ocean is only an hour away, there is tons to do/see, and we have meet some wonderful people and feel like part of the community in Tumwater.
We will also be leaving Hayden's first home, he has lived here his entire life. This is also where Amanda and I first started our family. I sit on the Tumwater parks board and have been pretty involved in community activities. The people I work with are incredible and as an Administrator, I couldn't ask for a better staff.
I understand that we will meet many new and wonderful people and have the same experiences, but is always hard to say good-bye.
Now we have less than 30 days to get packed up and out of Washington.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Halloween
Saturday we took Hayden Trick-or-treating. We worked with him for about a month to wear his horse costume and didn't think he would wear it. So, we took a back-up costume for him just in case. Earlier in the day, we stopped and bought him a cowboy hat. That is what sold him on the costume. So he was a cowboy on a horse for Halloween this year.
The first couple of houses he wanted to go inside. People would open the door and in would go Hayden. He got better at waiting outside and getting candy. He got "trick-or-treat" down and he would hold his bag out. Some people were silly enough to let him pick out of the bowl. 3-4 pieces of candy later he was happy. Then, there was the guy that answered the door with his dog. Lets just say Hayden thought he was getting a dog from him. Hayden wasn't happy when he found out he just got some tootsie rolls.
Hayden has also gotten a lot better with his speech and communication. Sentences are getting a lot more clear and he has no problem telling you "daddy stop now" or "mama sit down" or say "my mama" and throw himself on top of Amanda. On the word "now". It has been added to almost everything; "all done now"...etc. Also, he is able to say his name. (That started a couple weeks ago, but we forgot to mention it.) He loves to go on the computer and talk to "Daby", (Gabi) "nana", "papa", and "Haiee" (Hailee).
Well, thats all the time I have, will update more later...there is so much new happening it is hard to tell everything. Hope everyone has a great week!!!
The first couple of houses he wanted to go inside. People would open the door and in would go Hayden. He got better at waiting outside and getting candy. He got "trick-or-treat" down and he would hold his bag out. Some people were silly enough to let him pick out of the bowl. 3-4 pieces of candy later he was happy. Then, there was the guy that answered the door with his dog. Lets just say Hayden thought he was getting a dog from him. Hayden wasn't happy when he found out he just got some tootsie rolls.
Hayden has also gotten a lot better with his speech and communication. Sentences are getting a lot more clear and he has no problem telling you "daddy stop now" or "mama sit down" or say "my mama" and throw himself on top of Amanda. On the word "now". It has been added to almost everything; "all done now"...etc. Also, he is able to say his name. (That started a couple weeks ago, but we forgot to mention it.) He loves to go on the computer and talk to "Daby", (Gabi) "nana", "papa", and "Haiee" (Hailee).
Well, thats all the time I have, will update more later...there is so much new happening it is hard to tell everything. Hope everyone has a great week!!!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
New Hayden Moments
First of all we are trying to update the blog as much as possible. Midterms have begun to work their way into my schedule. Which means less leisure time (not that I had much before) and extra study time. Jon has been a great help, taking Hayden to the park in the evenings and helping with other things around the apartment.
Hayden has been pretty good with everything. He has been at play school more this term then the last. So he is being a good sport about everything. His new words now are I love you which sounds like olive. Also when he watches Cars, after the tractor tipping scene he wants more tractors. He looks at you with the most sweetest face and will ask for more tractors until he gets more tractors. I have decided that he gets that look from Jon. You know he is trouble but he is too cute to resist.
Anyway, this weekend we are going trick-or-treating. Hayden is going to be a little cowboy with a horse, well if he wears it. I will take lots of pictures and hopefully post again soon. Hope everyone has a great Halloween!
Hayden has been pretty good with everything. He has been at play school more this term then the last. So he is being a good sport about everything. His new words now are I love you which sounds like olive. Also when he watches Cars, after the tractor tipping scene he wants more tractors. He looks at you with the most sweetest face and will ask for more tractors until he gets more tractors. I have decided that he gets that look from Jon. You know he is trouble but he is too cute to resist.
Anyway, this weekend we are going trick-or-treating. Hayden is going to be a little cowboy with a horse, well if he wears it. I will take lots of pictures and hopefully post again soon. Hope everyone has a great Halloween!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Side Note for the Day
So this morning Hayden clearly said two new words. First it was applesauce. Which he use to call just apples, this morning he reached into the fridge and pointed and said applesauce. The second word happened on the way to play school. Every day we look for buses, trucks, and tractors, while we are driving in the car. This morning I saw a bus and pointed it out to Hayden. I said look Hayden here comes a bus. Once the bus passed he said "scoolbus." He distinguished the difference between a transit bus and a yellow school bus. I was so excited I said yes that is a school bus. From then on he just kept repeating "scoolbus, bye bye scoolbus, mor scoolbus." It was the best moment of the day. Thought I would share with everyone else!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Taking a Sick Day
Well... Hayden has a little cold so we are out of school today. Which gives me time to finally update the blog and and flickr. So I have uploaded about 25 pictures to flickr, from the State Fair the first part of September, to our trip to Wisconsin, and finally this last weekends pictures of the pumpkin patch.
Hayden is getting a little more fluent with his speech. He still struggles sometimes when he is trying to tell us what he wants, but this morning he did pat his head and told me "hoz" which means hot. So that is defiantly a plus that he can finally tell us what is wrong.
He has a little peoples dump truck that goes everywhere with him. Every time we leave the house he has to take his "tuck." We found his new favorite movie is "rarr" or Madagascar II. We have tried to get him to watch other movies, but Bolt is now out of the picture, although he still watches Barney occasionally.
Anyway Jon and I are doing well. We are both extremely busy, me with school and Jon with work and helping me with Hayden. Everything is going great and we will try to keep you all more up to date.
Hayden is getting a little more fluent with his speech. He still struggles sometimes when he is trying to tell us what he wants, but this morning he did pat his head and told me "hoz" which means hot. So that is defiantly a plus that he can finally tell us what is wrong.
He has a little peoples dump truck that goes everywhere with him. Every time we leave the house he has to take his "tuck." We found his new favorite movie is "rarr" or Madagascar II. We have tried to get him to watch other movies, but Bolt is now out of the picture, although he still watches Barney occasionally.
Anyway Jon and I are doing well. We are both extremely busy, me with school and Jon with work and helping me with Hayden. Everything is going great and we will try to keep you all more up to date.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Almost October?
It has been a busy couple of weeks.
2 weekends ago, we took Hayden to the Puyallup fair (the Washington state fair). Of course, he loved all of the animals. We took him on three rides and he wanted "more" of each of them. The little guy made it pretty much all day. He even took an hour nap in the hobby barn.
Then early last week, we made a last minute trip to Wisconsin. We took a red-eye Thursday night and got into Wisconsin at about 10:30 in the morning. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, Hayden slept the majority of the flight. He did wake up in Houston and had breakfast with us. Even ate a breakfast burrito and watched the buses. Our time in Wisconsin flew by; not the best circumstances, but it was nice. We got back into Washington on Tuesday night about 8:00. Again, Hayden slept most of the flight. We got our seats upgraded which was extremely nice, plenty of extra room.
This weekend was great. We did n-o-t-h-i-n-g. Relaxed at home and did some errands. Little man is doing new things by the day; his vocabulary is expanding and so is his attitude. He takes after his mother. The leaves are starting to change so next weekend we are probably going to take a drive though the mountains and go apple-picking. Nothing like some fresh Washington apples.
I think we will leave Hayden at home.
2 weekends ago, we took Hayden to the Puyallup fair (the Washington state fair). Of course, he loved all of the animals. We took him on three rides and he wanted "more" of each of them. The little guy made it pretty much all day. He even took an hour nap in the hobby barn.
Then early last week, we made a last minute trip to Wisconsin. We took a red-eye Thursday night and got into Wisconsin at about 10:30 in the morning. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, Hayden slept the majority of the flight. He did wake up in Houston and had breakfast with us. Even ate a breakfast burrito and watched the buses. Our time in Wisconsin flew by; not the best circumstances, but it was nice. We got back into Washington on Tuesday night about 8:00. Again, Hayden slept most of the flight. We got our seats upgraded which was extremely nice, plenty of extra room.
This weekend was great. We did n-o-t-h-i-n-g. Relaxed at home and did some errands. Little man is doing new things by the day; his vocabulary is expanding and so is his attitude. He takes after his mother. The leaves are starting to change so next weekend we are probably going to take a drive though the mountains and go apple-picking. Nothing like some fresh Washington apples.
I think we will leave Hayden at home.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Road Trip - Ollmann Style
Amanda and I decided last Tuesday that we were going to take a road trip with Hayden. We have been talking about how we both wanted to check out the Redwoods. So we called around, rented a cabin for labor day weekend and took off after work on Friday. We knew it was going to be a challenge keeping little man occupied for the proposed 8+ hour car ride.
When I got home from work I saw that Amanda had packed up the entire place. There were 2 suitcases filled with clothes, 2 laundry baskets filled with odds and ends and of course, Hayden's entire toy box. The term "everything but the kitchen sink" comes to mind. But then I looked in one of the suitcases and she packed the sink too. (Amanda: It wasn't that much stuff. I just wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.)
Friday night since we didn't take off until 6:00, we decided to stop at Grandma Melissa's for the night. It worked out great, plus she had this shampoo called "Big Sexy Hair". Let me tell you, it works! On Saturday morning we headed out on the 5 hour trip to Port Orford, Oregon. We stopped there to see a friend and took US 101 along the coast. What a beautiful drive. If anyone has not driven the Oregon coast, I would recommend it. After a couple hours visiting with Shelia, we said our good-byes and finished the final hour and a half drive to Crescent City, California.
We stayed at a KOA campground and rented a cabin that had a full size bed and a bunk bed. Seriously, that was it. It was about 15x20 and we had to bring our own bedding. Simple, yet just what we needed.
The campsite was surrounded by small Redwoods, walking paths, and of course a playground. There were berries growing all over. Some nice fellow campers showed us where huckleberries were growing as well as a ton of blackberries. After Hayden ate half a bush of blackberries, we took him to the swing to go "wee". That night, we cooked hot dogs and marshmallows on the fire.
After we put Hayden to bed, I taught Amanda how to play Rummy 500. Of course, I won every game, and now she is hooked. We didn't get to sit by the fire very long, it started raining. Luckily there was a large porch on our 15x20 cabin.
On Sunday we went to the Trees of Mystery. There were three paths all under a mile and some monster trees. It was humbling to look up at some of those 350ft trees and realize just how small you are in this world. Hayden had a great time, running in the woods. Amanda also had a great time chasing him down the paths. I got some great pictures of that.
Monday morning we headed home. It was a quick trip, but well worth it. I forgot how much fun camping is, and it was really neat to see how much fun Hayden was having. Amanda is putting up a bunch of pictures on Flickr, so check them out. There are some great scenery ones.
Quick Hayden updates:
- He loves Disney's "Bolt". Watched it almost 13 times in the car, kept Amanda and I sane.
- All the boy needs is berries and a forest to have fun. Add some puddles he can jump in and he will have the time of his life.
- The ocean in northern California is cold, but Hayden will still run into it.
- He is talking in consistent 2 word sentences. Most common one so far is "nono dada".
- He is extremely good at putting puzzles together. Kind of scary, really. Some seem way too hard for a 20 month old.
- He ate dirt this weekend. Evens out the puzzles...think "not as smart as advertised".
- This is a really fun age, seeing him react to new things in the world just make me smile.
OK, well that was our redwoods weekend. I would recommend to anyone reading to go see time if you haven't. Breathtaking/humbling/awe-inspiring are really the only way to describe the views we saw.
This weekend Grandma Melissa is coming to visit and we are all going to the Washington State Fair. Should be a good time as long as Hayden doesn't eat any of the brown "dirt" there. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!
When I got home from work I saw that Amanda had packed up the entire place. There were 2 suitcases filled with clothes, 2 laundry baskets filled with odds and ends and of course, Hayden's entire toy box. The term "everything but the kitchen sink" comes to mind. But then I looked in one of the suitcases and she packed the sink too. (Amanda: It wasn't that much stuff. I just wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.)
Friday night since we didn't take off until 6:00, we decided to stop at Grandma Melissa's for the night. It worked out great, plus she had this shampoo called "Big Sexy Hair". Let me tell you, it works! On Saturday morning we headed out on the 5 hour trip to Port Orford, Oregon. We stopped there to see a friend and took US 101 along the coast. What a beautiful drive. If anyone has not driven the Oregon coast, I would recommend it. After a couple hours visiting with Shelia, we said our good-byes and finished the final hour and a half drive to Crescent City, California.
We stayed at a KOA campground and rented a cabin that had a full size bed and a bunk bed. Seriously, that was it. It was about 15x20 and we had to bring our own bedding. Simple, yet just what we needed.
The campsite was surrounded by small Redwoods, walking paths, and of course a playground. There were berries growing all over. Some nice fellow campers showed us where huckleberries were growing as well as a ton of blackberries. After Hayden ate half a bush of blackberries, we took him to the swing to go "wee". That night, we cooked hot dogs and marshmallows on the fire.
After we put Hayden to bed, I taught Amanda how to play Rummy 500. Of course, I won every game, and now she is hooked. We didn't get to sit by the fire very long, it started raining. Luckily there was a large porch on our 15x20 cabin.
On Sunday we went to the Trees of Mystery. There were three paths all under a mile and some monster trees. It was humbling to look up at some of those 350ft trees and realize just how small you are in this world. Hayden had a great time, running in the woods. Amanda also had a great time chasing him down the paths. I got some great pictures of that.
Monday morning we headed home. It was a quick trip, but well worth it. I forgot how much fun camping is, and it was really neat to see how much fun Hayden was having. Amanda is putting up a bunch of pictures on Flickr, so check them out. There are some great scenery ones.
Quick Hayden updates:
- He loves Disney's "Bolt". Watched it almost 13 times in the car, kept Amanda and I sane.
- All the boy needs is berries and a forest to have fun. Add some puddles he can jump in and he will have the time of his life.
- The ocean in northern California is cold, but Hayden will still run into it.
- He is talking in consistent 2 word sentences. Most common one so far is "nono dada".
- He is extremely good at putting puzzles together. Kind of scary, really. Some seem way too hard for a 20 month old.
- He ate dirt this weekend. Evens out the puzzles...think "not as smart as advertised".
- This is a really fun age, seeing him react to new things in the world just make me smile.
OK, well that was our redwoods weekend. I would recommend to anyone reading to go see time if you haven't. Breathtaking/humbling/awe-inspiring are really the only way to describe the views we saw.
This weekend Grandma Melissa is coming to visit and we are all going to the Washington State Fair. Should be a good time as long as Hayden doesn't eat any of the brown "dirt" there. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Guess when Hayden will arrive!!
