Barbershop Harmony in Portland

I love it when separate plans come together into one great big, fun event. Our Fourth of July vacation was like that.

We decided to go to Portland, Oregon since my mom was going to be there with her friend John for the International Barbershop Harmony Competition. Our trip ended up being a mini family reunion: Micah's sister Emma and her family lives there, we stayed with Emma's in-laws, Micah's parents drove up from Humboldt, Eric and Colleen--friends from UC Berkeley--drove down from Seattle with their adorable two-month old, and we met up with one of Micah's friends from high school.

Over the course of the five days we were there, we went sailing, bouldered at the local bouldering gym, shot off fireworks in the driveway, soaked in the hot tub, made and ate amazing barbecue, watched John compete in the Barbershop Competition, got some running in, drank lots of beer and wine, and watched the cousins run around.

Portland knit-bombers strike again.

Some highlights:

John's chorus, the Sounds of Concord, was great. They were one of twenty-eight choruses competing.  Micah and I got to watch, and were amazed at the quality of the choruses, including John's. My dad sang in Barbershop quartets and choruses for many years, and hearing the music after nearly a decade was really nice.  Check out this video of John's chorus singing All Aboard for Dixieland:

Xander did some rock climbing at Circuit Gym. The kids section was great. Even better: Colleen and I bouldered V1's and V2's while Eric and Micah watched Xander, Kai, and Milo.

Micah spotting Xander on the kids bouldering wall.
He made it all the way to the top, then did it four more times!

Xander and Kayman played hard every day. These boys completely rile each other up. And love to take off their clothes and run around naked. Oh, to be three again.

Emma with 1-year old Walker Falcon

And a miracle: while we were there, Kai started sleeping through the night. Not sure what triggered it, but it is just in time. We were going to do cry it out when we got back from vacation.

In other news, Kai can now sit unsupported on his own. He's getting his belly off the ground, and is rapidly making progress toward crawling. (We're betting on two weeks from now.)

I'm sitting up on my own, mom!
And moving so I'm all blurry.