April Fun

April has been another busy month in the Flynn household. We had a great visit from my cousin Allen and his wife Charla. We were able to show them around Portland a bit and drove into the Gorge for the afternoon.

Easter weekend our great friends returned from their two year hiatus in Australia, we are so glad that they are finally back in Portland. We took Riley and Wilson to our neighborhood park for a crazy Easter Egg hunt. Of course they were the only two kids who enjoyed throwing the eggs more then stashing them away for the candy.

Easter Morning we opened the baskets sent from Grandma & Grandpa Flynn and Kennefick. Riley hopped around the house with his bunny ears.

Riley and Wilson continue to get along famously. While they have their moments, I'm sure they'll be great friends.

Catch Up.....

I guess its been awhile since our last update. Riley is doing great, and becoming such a busy little boy. We recently took a trip to Florida to visit Grandma & Grandpa Kennefick. Jeff, Michelle and the twins were there as well so the condo was a bit hectic, as you can imagine. Riley had a ball on the beach building sandcastles (really sand piles) and running all around. He was very taken with his cousins calling them babies. In fact, every morning we awoke to him jumping in his crib saying, "mama, mama, babies, babies, beach, beach".
He is starting to talk a fair amount. A few of his favorites consist of: No, Mine, Mama, Dadda, blanket, babies, beach, bubbles, ball (really anything that starts with a B), vaccuum, down, milk, cheese and please.
He LOVES playing outside and cries everytime he has to come back inside. Thank goodness that Spring is finally here, and we'll be able to do more outside activities. Hopefully he'll like camping this year as much as last!
Gabby (our nanny) and I take him to music class once a week, he really gets into playing the instruments and dancing around.
Throwing, catching and kicking balls around the house is still his favorite past time. Brendan is trying to teaching him the proper shooting skills (one can never learn early enough!)
Its amazing to watch him discovering new things and figuring out how this world works, everyday is a suprise!




Playing on the Beach with Claire and Grandpa

Lounging on the pontoon

Learning the ropes from Grandpa

Running around at the Naples Zoo...

Chicken fight with Claire.

Checking out the monkeys at the Zoo.

Beach buckets have so many uses

Riley at the Childrens Muesum

Brendan and Riley at the park, playing ball and feeding the ducks

Riley at the Oregon Coast in January

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff....

We are staying busy in the Flynn household! Thanksgiving went by with a blur, with many friends filling our home for the weekend. Its hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner.
We are rushing around doing our last minute shopping, getting ready to depart to MN on the 19th! This should be an interesting flight, as Riley is not a fan of sitting still.
We took Riley to see Santa at the mall this evening, he bawled and bawled but we got a pretty fun picture out of the deal!


He knows this is the closet with the hats......

He is obsessed with us wearing hats! Preferably multiple hats and the Ski Goggles.

Lovely Kate joined the Portland crew for the week!

I think he got my sweet tooth......

Thanks to Uncle Sweany, he'll always be motivated...

Halloween

Riley was a dragon for Halloween this year. He didn't know what to think about all the little kiddies showing up at the door! Once we took Riley outside, we were able to keep his dragon hood up without him pulling it down. He did like running up and down the sidewalk after dark. Brendan craved up the pumpkin, and Riley thought it would be a really good place to hide his trucks!

Riley Turns ONE!!!

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I cannot believe that a whole year has already passed! It went much faster then I could have ever imagined. Riley is now officially a toddler. We had a great time back in MN for Riley's birthday celebration and Steve & Marnie's wedding in Duluth. I must admit that a night away hanging out with other adults was also a treat! We were also fortunate to spend a full 2 weeks with the Sweany's who have been living the past year in Australia. They left on their adventure the day after Riley was born so we had a lot of catching up to do!

Riley is doing Awesome! He is now 22 pounds and 31 inches tall. He is walking everywhere and loves to play with his basketball and football. Every once in awhile he can even throw it forward. Brendan is trying to teach him to catch, but its more likely to just bounces off his belly! He has adjusted well to his new nanny, and as far as we can tell still loves spending his days with Wilson. They are sure to be best of friends.

As you can see Riley had a blast at his birthday party. Grandma K made him a tasty chocolate bear cake that he enjoyed destroying and stuffing in his face! The man was on a sugar high for a couple hours!

Enjoy!

Riley On the Move........

Here's a little peak at Riley walking! Sorry about the camera quality. A new camera is being purchased this weekend, so we should have better video in the days to come.

Flynn's First Family Vacation!!!!!

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We spent an amazing 5 days in the San Juan Islands for our first real family vacation. We renteda cute little cabin, "the petite amour" on San Juan Island for 3 days. The cabin was cozy and surrounded by three tiers of deck. The middle one hosted a hot tub and sauna the bottom deck had a salt water pool, complete with a big yellow slide. From there you could walk down to the dock/overhang to get a better view of the adorable harbor seal that I befriended. It was pure relaxation (well once Riley went to bed!). Friday we spent most the day exploring the Island. The highlight was our stop at Lime Kiln Park (aka whale watch park). We walked down to the lighthouse and watched Orcas swimming back and forth for two hours! It was so much better then seeing Shamu at Disney. There were numerous shouts of excitement. Saturday we just vegged out at the cabin taking turns walking around with Riley. Sunday before we took off a Bald Eagle dive bombed us, amazing. The forth night we took the ferry over to Orcas Island and camped at Moran State Park. We had a great walk in sight close to the lake. A deer even came by for a visit! It was very hard for us to leave such a beautiful place.

Riley is changing daily now. During the trip he perfected his dead leg crawl, waved to a lot of strangers, and enjoyed his nightly ritual of crib Olympics. I think he will earn a gold medal for best imitation of a Monkey (jumping on the bed that is).

He is now officially walking!!!! I promise to have video this week, and gates (I hope).

Hope this finds everyone well and relaxed.......