I want to apologize first for the fact that I have been remiss in writing again sooner- we've been out of town for a fair portion of the last couple of weeks and I haven't had good access to computers. I noticed that our last post had more than 650 views- I find it hard to believe there are that many people who are following our day-to-day lives, which means apparently someone or someones have been trying to find an update on what's going on by continually checking in, so here you go. (I'll do my best to work on making my supply meet the market demand from here on out.) Since I've last reported, Drew has gone on his first two big trips and had his one month check-up with his doctor. Andy and I were placing bets on whether Drew would be in the double digits weight-wise when we went in last week (I thought he would be just over ten pounds)- and it turns out he was 11 pounds 5 ounces!!! Our little beefcake is clearly well-nourished and growing like a weed. Doctor says he's in great health and looks wonderful, so all is good on that front. His next check-up will involve his first set of vaccinations, so will probably be a slightly more traumatizing experience for us all...

Drew's first big vacation was to spend the week up in Los Alamos with the family at Grandma and Grandpa's place there. Other than the 120 degree heat it was fabulous (actually, to be honest, Drew loved the 120 degree heat, it was just Andy and the dogs and I that refused to wallow in it with him). We hung out playing scrabble, swung in the hammock swing in the front yard (which Drew loves) and discovered the joys of swimming. We set the hot tub to 95 degrees and took Drew in for his first non-bath related water experience. Apparently, Drew is interested in becoming a fish when he grows up- he LOVED the water! We have never seen something that so consistently elicits huge grins and giggles from him, so have determined this must mean it's his current favorite thing in the world (sorry to Auntie Laura for having your stained glass window usurped- although you had a good monopoly on favorites for about a month).



Drew was so tickled with the experience that we went out and bought a little crabbie plastic pool/sandbox for our backyard. One of the great advantages of living in this hot stuffy valley is that with 100 degree temperatures consistently throughout the summer, all we have to do is keep the pool full and it is a very pleasant temperature for swimming in the evenings. So our current ritual is to wait until the sun starts setting and then let Drew float around on his back in his own private swimming pool, which he adores. Manu also thinks the swimming pool is the bomb, and is quite peeved that we won't let her jump in with him. We think it's just a matter of time before she figures out how to remove the lid in our absence and we come back to find her wading in it.



Drew also attended his first bluegrass festival/wine-tasting event while we were in Los Alamos. All of the other attendees were quite impressed that he was already working on developing a refined palate He definitely enjoyed the sunshine, the heat, and the loud jamming music (as he always does), so we termed the festival a huge success. Andy and Jake spent the weekend hard at work making some really great scale models of the solar system- Drew is going to have a LOT to learn from his big cousin once he gets older! The rest of us just spent our days eating a lot (one of the main prerequisites of staying up there), laying on the cool tile floors, and vegging out.



Our second exciting trip involved Drew's first plane flights- we went to Texas for the Durkee family reunion. Drew was a great flyer- slept through all four flights- and a great traveler overall. It's great to know that he's easygoing about being in new surroundings and being dragged to different places (not that we had our doubts). It was really fun to meet all of his distant Durkee relatives and a really amazing event- almost 150 people from all over the country were there, and a whole mess of babies! The last time the family had a big reunion was in 1934, so it was a pretty big deal. Drew also got to meet Great-Grandmother Billie's brother Uncle Ed and his wife Aunt Billie. While we were at the reunion, one of the largest thunderstorms Texas has seen in a while struck the lake we were at- and a tree right in front of us on the lawn! It was wuite impressive and the deluge made Andy nostalgic for the crazy rainstorms we used to get in Samoa- although it was nice to have this one only last an hour instead of 4 months.



We are enjoying this week of down time- Andy's last before returning to work at Decore on Monday- before Drew and I again hop on a plane to go visit family and friends in Chicago and Michigan for the week and to share in the joy of his sort-of-Aunt Shoshie's wedding. It's proving to be an exciting and incredibly busy summer for all of us, and we're having a great time. That's all for now but we'll try to post again before we take off.



Andy put up lots of great new photos of our adventures as well- check them out!

"Drew and Friends" has been updated (and we finally got some good photos of Grandma Rudi to add!): click here to see.

For photos from our trip to Los Alamos, click here.

For photos from the Durkee family reunion, click here.