I'm back!

Yes, I know. It's been a LONG time since I last blogged. Sorry about that - but even bloggers have to take a vacation, right? So Cam and I headed up to the Pacific NW and had a great time. There are four different posts below with pictures from each "leg" of our trip. I got sick at the end of the trip and was down for the count for a few days after that. Between that and work, which is really busy right now, and getting ready for graduation, well let's just say it's been hectic. So let's see, not much else is going on. Cam is still going to skate camp. Friday wrapped up his 4th or 5th week of it, I can't even keep track anymore. He loves it, obviously. The last week at camp he won an award - a new skateboard! His coach nominated him and it was for his attitude (really?) and always willing to try new things and not giving up. Very proud and he was pretty excited. Been working in the yard a lot, and doing some things around the house. I guess the sort of things that I didn't have time for when I was in school? :) And yes, graduation is next weekend. Cannot believe it is here, and I honestly don't feel like I'm done yet. But I am. There is no way I am going to further my education any ... further. Looking forward to the party Saturday night with family and friends. I'll be sure to post pictures. From the ceremony? For sure. From the party? We'll see ...

Seattle

I finally met Henry! Kim, one of my girlfriends from high school, moved back to the NW from Connecticut with her husband and son a while ago - I was so excited to see them! This was the first time I had seen Henry since he was born so it was great. Pete was in LA for business when we arrived, so it was the boys and moms! Cam wasn't there more than a half hour and already made a friend. He lives in the neighborhood and Kim is friends with the family, so ... they hug out for a while, started out by playing basketball, then come in the house to get his skateboard. I swear, he can sniff them out ... Kim put Henry down and it was time for wine! We BBQ'd steak and crab and had such a great dinner. The wine went down WAY too easy! The next day we headed into Seattle for some sightseeing ... we started out with the Space Needle and Seattle Center. I cannot remember the last time I was here, probably when Grandpa Kenny took us kids on the train to see Aunt Cathy - YEARS ago! After much thought, Cam decided he wanted Kim to go on the log ride with him. :) It was cute. We left there, headed down to Pike Street Market and did some shopping. Had a great lunch after we were done and it was already time to go! It was not long enough, but we had such a great time. In fact, Cam had a few tears when we left ... he was going to miss Henry, and "Kim is so fun, mom. I really like her." I know kid - me too! :)

Port Orchard

We spent the next few days or so with Aunt Cathy and Uncle John! Cam gave Aunt Cathy a lesson on playing his Nintendo DS, and Uncle John gave Cam a lesson in wrestling. :) Cam was actually wearing his skatepads and helmet for a while. That is some serious wrassling! Friday we headed down to the waterfront in Tacoma. Cam was able to skate along, and we had a fantastic lunch at Duke's Chowder House.

This was just the beginning of our day! We headed over to Maple Valley to see Becky and Slider and went from there to meet up with Jim at work. Unfortunately, Jim couldn't make it to dinner with us because of work, but we were able to meet up with afterwards. He gave Cameron the grand tour of the police car! Honestly? I think Cameron was a bit nervous and was very adamant about NOT wanting to see a holding cell and to make sure there weren't any "bad guys" at the substation when we were there. :)

That was enough excitement for me, but certainly not the end of our day! Jim mentioned a skate park close by and asked if Cameron had his gear with him. Of course he did, and it was in the trunk. So we made a stop at Crossroads Park before taking Becky back to her house. We stopped at Starbucks before heading over, and Jim met up with us for a bit. Cam had a pretty confident demeanor about him, perhaps because he was walking into the skate park with a policeman. :) Jim headed off to tell some people to turn their music down and another guy on a BMX bike that he wasn't supposed to be there, but it was okay if no one else complained about it. Just doin' his job. There were a few other kids Cam's age, but not skating inside the bowl. The other kids were about 16? 17? and up. After watching for a while, we got the hang of the park etiquette and Cam was all over it. The skaters there were very polite to him and even looked out for him, telling him to go ahead and giving him the head nod of approval on his tricks. :) The other kids watching were calling him a "beast" because of the trick he was trying - a handplant - and that they wouldn't try that even with all the pads on. :) It was a huge boost for his ego to say the least. We left there, to drop Aunt Cathy off with Jennifer, and they were going to meet us back at their house. Unfortunately, this was the onset of a stomach bug Cam picked up. Got to Target and he puked. Dropped Becky off at home and he puked. Headed home and puked in the car, because we were on the highway and couldn't find a spot to pull over. :( My poor baby! We finally pull over and get things cleaned up, and Cameron is standing off to the side of the road crying "I hate this trip!" It was sad. Finally get home, give him a bath and put him to bed. A corona never tasted so good. Spent the next day hanging out with Aunt Cathy and debating on whether Cam was good enough to ride down to Seaside. He wasn't, so around 6:00 we hit the coronas, again and had a GREAT day catching up with Aunt Cathy! All in all - even with the little stomach bug - our visit in Port Orchard was great. The only thing that would have made it a bit better would have been if Uncle John had some cream of tartar ... :)

Seaside

The third leg of our trip was to Seaside! Because Cam was sick, our arrival was pushed back by a day. But we still had a great time with Grandma! Grandma and I enjoyed our whiskey and beer until 4:00 a.m. Yes, 4:00. Unbelievable! It was so much fun and something I will never forget!





Of course, it would not have been a trip to Seaside without hitting the bumper cars - the traditional and the air/innertube ones ...



and miniature golf. Despite Cameron's TWO hole in ones, Grandma still won!






And on top of that, she was introduced to air hockey - which she also kicked Cam's butt at! Woohoo! The Seaside skate park is conveniently located down the street from grandma's house, so of course, we hit this one too. :) We had a great time with Ichi on the beach, playing frisbee, and a nice visit from Connor and the kids. Cam was excited to see his cousins!



I'm thinking when the weather is cooler here, Grandma will have to head down this way so we can repay her hospitatlity! (I'll be sure my liquor cabinet is stocked!) :)

Portland

While the majority of the trip appealed to Cam's skateboarding passion, our few days in Portland were particularly awesome! Thank you to Heather for being such a wonderful hostess and event planner. She had already pulled up some of the skate parks in the Portland area for Cameron to test out and we were ready to wrap up our "Pacific NW Skate Tour"... The famous Burnside park was first on our list, and it was an experience! This park is quite well known with all the true boarders and is even featured in some of his skateboarding video games. The guys skating were hard core - mostly locals - and surprisingly polite. This park was pretty "old school."

The next park was Pier park and a bit more urban. Cam had fun at this one, but preferred Burnside. In fact, we ended up going back on Wednesday to Burnside before we flew out. He didn't want to hit a "new" park, he was pretty set on this one. (With the exception of the 7-11 parking lot.

Heth took us to the Nike campus for lunch - I hadn't been back there since I left Nike! Cam got a real treat when we headed over to her building. One of the developers in Golf used to be over with Jordan. He'd had a pair of Air Jordan's he'd been holding onto (Cam's size) that were apparently a pretty hot item when they came out. Similar to the Wii - they were gone and sold out before they even came out! Heather told Drew about Cam, and so they waited until Cam could fit into them. The timing was perfect and Cameron was stunned to get them! Of course, we headed over to the Employee store and did some unneeded shopping. :) We also had such a great time playing poker in Heth's voodoo lounge every night ...

lunch at Stanich's ...

our walks out for our morning coffee, BBQing, and of course the girly time that Heth and I took advantage of with all of our chats. I ended up with Cam's bug Wednesday morning, so it was not a fun "last day" in Portland for me. I was sick about every hour and a half and it really put a damper on things. Thank god for Heth - she stepped up to the plate with Cam and took over! This could also be why he walked out of the E Store with two pairs of skate shoes - mom was not in the mood to argue. Sure Cam, here's the Visa ... go for it. I'll be int he bathroom. It sucked to leave and end our vacation, but there is nothing like being at home when you're sick. The flight home was horrible - couple more bathroom trips - the barf bag was NOT an option - and one pull over after Bryan picked us up. This crap lasted until Saturday morning. I'm just grateful it started at the END of our trip and not at the beginning!

We had such a great time on our vacation and could not have asked for a better time with family and friends!