Landon's Baptism Weekend

Hello everyone! We are excited to tell you about Landon's Baptism. Landon is turning 9 months on the 23rd of this month, and let me tell you, he is definitely growing.

We started the weekend by greeting Grandma Bourgoine, Aunt Shannon, and Uncle Jake (both godparents) at the airport. Landon was very excited to see his family from Minnesota. We headed from the airport directly up to Cooper Spur Resort located on the East Side of Mount Hood.

The cabin was perfect, it slept approximately 10 people, and of course it allowed dogs. We really enjoyed our time on the mountain. We were able to really get out and enjoy the sunny - 50 degree weather. Ty had a blast catching snow balls and Landon enjoyed time in the snow with his Godmother Shannon Jacobson. After exploring the snow next to the lodge we decided to take a walk on the cross country ski trail that wound up and around the woods. The views were amazing! You were able to see Mount Hood (11,300ft), Mount Adams (12,300ft), and Mount Rainier (14,400ft).

During the day we enjoyed milling around the river front town of Hood River and playing in the snow. At night we enjoyed the finer things in life... like beer and wine! As you can see from this picture Grandma Bourgoine and I are having a blast. Landon was also able to enjoy some of the festivities. We bought him a saucer sled from a local sports shop, and he loved hanging out in his diaper pretending he was on his way down the big mountain. The cabin was great, because we were able to cook our own meals and make fires. I would definitely recommend staying at this resort if you are headed up the mountain in the future.

On the way back to Beaverton we were able to stop off at Timberline Lodge and walk through the famous place where parts of the "Shining" were filmed. When we returned home we got everything ready for the purpose of the story, Landon's Baptism. We are a faith based family, and this is a very important step in our kids lives.

We baptized Landon at our church, St. Piux X, in Portland, Oregon. Landon was a hit with the mass audience. Mass began by having Godparents, Jake and Shannon Jacobson, Landon, Janice, and I stand up in the front of the church for a declaration of our commitment the church and our child. Landon was quite the character and really made people laugh with his contagious smiling and his happy clapping! I think he realized that everyone was there for him! He ate it up, and he smiled from ear to ear. We were asked to sit back down for the homily before the anointing part of the baptism. Whenever the choir began to sing, Landon would giggle and clap his hands excitedly.

Finally, we came to the main event. When Father asks us to come forward, we were letting Landon hang onto his favorite toy. As we proceeded forward we tried to take it away, but he started to fuss... so we let him keep the toy. At one point Landon dropped the toy, and Father stopped the ceremony and gave it back to Landon. Pretty funny! Landon was then anointed with oil, and then baptized. When the water hit his head he smiled playfully! It gave me chills. It was a pretty cool experience. Landon wants to thank Grandma Bourgoine, for the beautiful white robe that he was baptized in. Landon also wished that his Godfather Uncle Dan could have been able to be at the ceremony, but Landon's hero is off getting ready to fight in the Middle East next month. We love you, DAN!!!

After the ceremony we headed back to our home in Beaverton for a small celebration. Landon was such a trooper the entire day. He loved everyone being there on his very special day! We want to thank everyone for helping out to make the day so special.

Thank you from the Bourgoine Family, we will write again with another update very soon.

Christmas Vacation in Manzanita, Oregon

We arrived in Manzanita, Oregon the day after Cristmas. The Studio was our first destination. A small unique beach house right on the beach. We chose this beach house because it allowed dogs, which is a requirement for our family, being we have two Golden Retrievers.

After checking out the pad, we all headed right to the beach! The dogs were very happy, since they had been locked in the car for nearly 3 hours. When we go for walks I usually pack Landon in a front carrier. As you can see he is very snug and happy next to his daddy.
When we got to the beach house we put Landon down for a little nap and enjoyed the beautiful Oregon coast from our window. As you can see, so did the dogs. If you look close enough you can probably see why Luke is about ready to go through the window. During the day you could see people bringing their dog for walks on the beach. This moment in time Luke witnessed some lucky dog getting to play fetch with a Tennis ball. Lucky Dog!

As the day came to a close the weather started to kick in! The winds were reaching speeds upto 60 mph. As you can see from the beach house picture, it is a couple stories high. With the wind beginning to speed up, all the windows in the house began to rattle making it a little uneasy. As we listened to the radio and watched Landon play in his jumper we tried to make an educated guess as to were we wanted to sleep. The cabin had a full size bed which resided at the highest point of the cabin. As we were sleeping you could feel the cabin moving, we got scared and headed down to lower level. Lucky for us it was a twin bed. Janice, Landon, Luke, and I all slept in the twin bed. It was tough, but Janice and I both agreed that it was worth it because we got to sleep next to our handsome baby boy, Landon.

Everyone is probably wondering, what about Ty? Well, he didn't want to be cramped so he slept next to the front door. He likes to protect to the family.

The dogs really liked the cabin because of the stairs. Our house in Beaverton doesn't have any stairs. The dogs spent most of the time going up and down the stairs all the time we were in the beach house, which was a majority of the trip because the weather didn't mellow out until we left.

Janice and I are going to make Christmas Vacations a tradition in our family. Who knows where we will travel next year. As we try to grow the family (we are hoping to have 4 kids), I assume we will stay close to home until they all get old enough to enjoy something like Europe.

Wishing everyone a great new year from Oregon,

Love,

The Bourgoine's (Ryan, Janice, Landon, Luke, Ty, and Nolan)

See you next time!