The big hike

The last few weekends we have been taking mild to medium hikes around the valley. Omar has always been ready for "more". He often takes on the boulders chanting "I can do it!" with fists in the air.

Today we took him to Camelback Mtn, a 1 mile constant climb to the top. The hike, which takes just under 2 hours for average adults, took 4 for our trio. Omar did bouldered to the top undaunted. Stopping to look at an occasional scratch on his leg, he was pretty much a steady, yet slow, go the entire time.

The summit served as footage for our annual holiday video, due out shortly before the holiday:) We are excited this year to share our holiday wish from last season, our little O boy.

Needless to say, the kid is SLEEPING sound tonight! Thank goodness;)

Last weekend we celebrated O's big "5" with lots of friends! Kids ran wild, adults chatted and cake was had by all. The day after his 5th birthday he asked for the car keys... when asked "why" he said, "Its time for me to drive"... uh-oh!

Where does the time go?

The last two months has been a whirlwind... It's hard to believe Omar has been with us now for 5 months!

Halloween has now passed and Omar's 5th birthday is next weekend. We have about 25 people RSVPed for his dinosaur birthday party. We will be spending the next week getting ready for the festivities.

Our first Halloween with Omar was terrific. He went out as a triceratops, despite the fact that Mokie (aka the Stiner TRex) tore the costume within days of it arriving...eating off one of the eyeballs. Initially disappointed, Omar didn't think twice about it and in fact, really didn't even care about trick or treating. Instead he struck up conversations with the people handing out the candy, engaged kids in discussions about their costumes and chatted it up with the adults accompanying their little ones. He is a chatty guy.

We anticipate a continued fast pace for the rest of 2008 as we enter the holiday season, and brace ourselves as Aaron finishes his last 6 weeks of his graduate program, which has proven to be a significant chunk of time and energy this semester. I think we will all be ecstatic when he can return to devoting his time and energy to us as a family.