Mr. Happy

Final Layover

Our final stop on our week long trek was back in Chicago. This time, Uncle Tony and Aunt Lisa were around to meet up with us. Tony and Lisa have had a busy summer as they prepare for their wedding on September 6th. On the Sunday we met up with them, they had just returned from their home in Michigan where their wedding will be.

So we all met up and went to Egg'lectic Cafe‎ in Rolling Meadows, IL. If you couldn't guess by the name, the menu is full of egg dishes. Perfect place for brunch. While the adults enjoyed our breakfast/lunch combinations, Camden chowed down on his own version of brunch which consisted of peas, cheerios, and grapes. And after all the food was gone, of course we had to take some pictures.

Camden shows off the Sindt/Hill commemorative coozie.

Happy to be with Aunt Lisa.

"Mommy, I'd much rather ride home on this, than the minivan!"

Trouble Sr. and Trouble Jr.

An Eggsellent visit in Chicago.

Marsh! Marsh! Marsh!

We took Camden to Lebanon, OH to visit my good friend Evan and his son Blake and brand new daughter, Peri. Well, as brand new as Camden is. She's about 3 weeks older. Unfortunately, their mother, Mandy wasn't around but it was nice to see as many Marsh family members as we could. Blake is 4 years old and, as you can see in the pictures below, a Carson Palmer fan.

Peri is such a cute little chunk of a girl. Obviously, not something anyone should call her later in life, but it's an appropriate description of her at this stage. She couldn't be more different than Camden. Where Camden screams bloody murder when he wakes up from sleeping, Peri is content to just lay in her crib. Just patiently waiting for anyone to come get her. Where Camden is walking and on the go, Peri barely crawls and is happy to just sit and watch her surroundings. Where Camden is very communicative with his own words, Peri just charms you with her smile.

It'll be fun to watch Camden and Peri develop over time.

Left to Right: Evan, Peri, Blake, Daddy, Camden

Peri's beaming smile!

Camden sharing his ball with Peri.

Camden and Blake.

Playtime with Maxwell

During our trip back to Ohio, Camden finally got a chance to meet, hang out, and play with his good buddy Maxwell Myser (go to his blog and check out his pictures of Max in his tuxedo. Freakin cute!). It was long overdue, but I think it was a good age for both of them to interact with one another. Max is about 4 months older than Camden, but he seems like he's about 10 times bigger. It was fun to see Max and interact with him.

There were just too many good pictures to choose from. The sampling below is actually just a small subset of what we actually have. If you want to see more of them, you can always peruse the thousands of pictures in our Flickr photostream :)

Max offers Camden some advice in negotiating the staircase.

B and Camden. Reunited again.

Max is such a cutie.

Max celebrating his triumphant ascent to the top of the stairs.

Bigger, bluer eyes. Camden gnaws on a door stop.

"Man, that kid is huge!"

Daddy gets used to holding two kids at once. Camden's not sure about sharing his daddy.

"I got your nose!"

From left to right: Bethel/Scarlet, Steve/Camden, Mike/Max

Summer in Ohio with the Grandparents

The Nguyen family hit the road beginning the night of Friday, August 1st. My good friend Eric Myser was getting married in Columbus on 08.08.08 so we decided to make a week out of it. We left early in the evening so that Camden could sleep in the car and we could keep him as close to a normal sleep schedule as possible. Our plan was to drive the first six hours and stop somewhere near Chicago.

Katie did really well getting us to Rockford, IL on one tank of gas. Camden woke up at our pit stop and we took some time to give him a bottle and change his diaper. We packed him back up and went another hour or so to Schaumburg, IL just outside Chicago and found a hotel for the evening.

The next day, which happened to be mommy and daddy's 5th wedding anniversary, we departed Chicago with Dayton, Ohio being our goal. We made one stop at Purdue University just to get Camden out of the car for a bit during the day. We had a nice picnic on campus and got back on the road, anxious to get to Ohio.

Ong Noi and Ba Noi were anxious to see their baby boy. They got a lot of good bonding time with him as they discovered all Camden's new abilities. My parents' house is pretty spacious so he had a lot of room to roam around on foot and on all fours.

Camden discovered the door stops and just had a ball with them. I'm thinking we need to make some kind of toy that's a board with a bunch of door stops stuck to it. He would be entertained for days. Later in the week we took Camden to a friend's house and he was immediately drawn to their door stops too.

Overall, Camden had a great week with his grandparents. They loved seeing all his new developmental milestones and it was great to see him interacting with them so happily. The drive back was relatively uneventful. Except that the Chicago to Minneapolis leg took 9 hours when it should only take about 6. Parts of the interstate were shut down because of accidents, so that made it a little more miserable for all of us. All in all, the trip was a success. We'll post a few more highlights from the trip soon.