Seven Pounds

We welcomed our baby boy Chase Andrew into the world this morning at 0746. He weighted 7 lbs. 15 oz and was 18.5 inches long. Megan is doing excellent, much better than either of us had previously thought. For now I'll dispense with the info and show you a pic...

And some videos...

Notice the goofy shape of his head. Lot's of math brains I guess :)

For those of you that are interested if you click on the first video it will take you to the video's webpage. Below the lower right hand corner there is a hyperlink that says "watch in high quality" this will allow you to see much higher quality version of the same video. It may take a bit longer to load but I think it's worth it.

More pics and info will be coming!

Belly Pictures

Here's the baby, due in 2.5 weeks.

Andrew's amazed at the dramatic differences in my tummy.  So here's me sucking it in:

And puffing it out:

I'm still here!

Just an update:

We finally got internet!

Baby is due in less than 5 weeks, on 19 Feb. We never chose to find out the gender, and there's no more ultrasounds left, so it will be a fun surprise for us. I'm feeling really good and fairly energetic. Andrew seems to be doing well too. :o)

I'm not going back to work until the fall. I've been tutoring some math students. Mostly home-schooled students. I like it.

I spend a lot more time at home. Surprisingly, I still feel pretty busy. I'm glad Oliver isn't home alone as much as he used to be. He's a good buddy. I've been working on organizing each room in the house. The next to work on is the room where Mom & Dad will be staying when they visit in March! Our friends gave us their queen mattress for my parents, but Dan will have to make due in the office on an air mattress. :o)

Andrew got me a keyboard for Christmas. I've been having a lot of fun developing the musical side of myself. I'm on page 142 of my beginner book. I've been keeping up with my exercise class and doing some walking. I'm in training for labor, and thinking of it as this huge upcoming sporting event/physical challenge. I'm even hoping to have someone braid my pigtails like we used to do fore soccer/rugby games when the time arrives. I feel (and am) pretty big - hopefully I'll have some pictures for you soon!

Andrew and I are hoping to go on a little trip very soon. He'll ski with some buddies, and I'll play in the snow with Oliver (I'm super-excited that we found a dog-friendly place). I've maxed out my skiing time, but did get a little bit in this season.

Merry Christmas Oliver

Aunt Sharon sent us a very nice house warming gift and Oliver really likes it. What's funny is that he almost immediatly claimed it as his space.

Oliver has been growing in a thicker coat for the winter and as a result has been shedding. I mused that instead of vacuuming all of his hair off the carpet and furniture we should just vacuum Oliver. After I said the joke a light bulb appeared over my head.

Oliver's face says it all...
We probably won't be trying that again.

No Knead Bread

I found this recipe about two years ago and always wanted to try it. Until two weeks ago I wasn't sure it was worth the price of admission. The bread must be baked at 450 degrees in a 6-8 Qt pot that had a lid.

I love bread, especially fresh bread. In college I found a bread machine at a garage sale for $5 and made quite a few loafs with it. The problem with the machine is that for one it's loud and annoying and second, the shape of the loaf was circular so all of your sandwiches, toast, etc... had to be circular. The shape also made it hard to cut without smashing it. To remedy the shape problem, I started taking the dough out before the baking cycle, shaping it myself and then baking it in the oven. This ended up being quite a bit more work and the luxury of machine automation was now gone. The one thing my bread machine kneaded, oven baked bread lacked was was an excellent, crispy crust. ( I tried spraying water in the oven every fifteen minutes but never had a noticeable effect.)

The recipe is extremely simple, mix water, flour, salt and yeast then 24 hours later bake it for 60 minutes. Time does the work for you. Indecently it actually takes less of my time to prepare than the bread machine bread. Here are two things I've learned after making a half dozen loafs. First, regular flour will work but bread flour rises much more and produces a loaf that is about 30% bigger. Second, don't use tap water. The chlorine in the water gives the bread a very slight chemical taste (I always had this taste in bread machine bread but didn't figure out it was the water.) I use distilled water from the grocery store.

The bread from the no knead recipe is nothing short of exquisite. The crust crackles to reveal a delicious crumb...

I also made a pie...

Helicopter

Megan and I live right next to Christmas tree farm. The farm, which has been bustling for the past few weeks, uses a helicopter to move trees from the field to the trucks. We've really enjoyed watching them work, the helicopter doesn't stop moving for a second. It puts the trees into the truck and heads back to the field in one fluid motion. In fact, the only time we saw it hovering at all is when they hook the cable up to a new bunch of trees.

Here is the view from our home...


The helicopter bringing in a bundle of trees...


Dropping the trees into the trucks...

Hiking, Backpacking and Moutain Biking

I love getting out in the fall, as the days get short and crisp they seem much more precious and energizing. The past few months we've done a pretty good job of getting outdoors once or twice a month. In September, I went mountain biking on the Mckensie River Trail with my friend Scott. This trail is legendary amoung mountain bikers across the country for a very good reason. It's 33 miles of dirt single track. No fire roads, no double track, no gravel, just dirt. The only downside to the trail is that it's one way. So we rode 15 miles one way, then turned around and rode back.








----------

Megan and I went for a hike on Cascade Head near Lincoln City, on the Oregon Coast. This is a short hike with very nice views of the beach. We took Oliver and Molly, my parents dog, with us.

Here is a picture of Molly and Oliver in the back seat of the car...


On the trail...


Looking south...


--------
We also went backpacking on 25 October. The weather was cool but we had the place to ourselves in the evening and morning. We chose Pamelia Lake since it was less that three miles to the campsite and very little elevation gain.

We took a side trip to the point where Milk Creek intersects the Pacific Crest Trail...


Here we are warming and stoking the fire...




As you can see Megan and I are wearing alot of clothing due to the colder temps. To keep warm, Oliver dug a shallow bed for himself and curled very tight...


He was scared of the fire.

Ultasound

Profile...

Aparently this baby thinks a little to highly of itself...

Preggy Meggy

Here she is at 23 weeks...


And here she is at 27 weeks...

It Snows on Mars?!

I was listening to NPR the other day, and this was really big news to me.

They think it snows on Mars! Now gravitational force there is about 38% of ours, so this could make for some really boring (slow) or exciting skiing (how many back flips can you do?!). Now that would be a ski resort you could brag about having visited.

Not very many posts lately - work and no regular internet at home! All is well. Baby Boes is growing just fine, and feels like he/she's doing skiing back flips in my tummy.