To Grandpa Herb...

Happy Birthday Grandpa Herb!

Love, Karsen

Camping in Entiat

We had such a great time camping this weekend! We went to Entiat, WA which is between Wenatchee and Chelan in central Washington. We camped on the property of my dad's friend, right on the water. The body of water is the Columbia River but they call it Lake Entiat because it's a reservoir of the Rocky Reach Dam.

My family was all there too and friends of my parents. We were all there because my dad's band was performing at a pre-harvest party that my dad's friend who owns the property was throwing on Saturday night.

Because Tim goes camping fairly often, we had pretty much everything we needed for the weekend, including a really cool tent setup. The tent attaches to the back of Tim's Jeep, which allows us to have lots of room for sleeping and storing things.

Here's our tent setup:

We borrowed an air mattress from my parents to put inside the Jeep for us to sleep on. We brought Karsen's playpen for him to sleep in and he slept there on Friday night but woke up at 3:30 in the morning with condensation all over his blanket and his hands absolutely freezing! So we brought him into bed with us and on Saturday night he slept with us the entire night.

Here we are inside the tent:

I guess there were a few people who were worried that Karsen would cry all night and keep everyone awake, but he was such a good boy! On Friday night he woke up at 3:30am only because he was cold, but I fed him anyway and then we all crawled back into bed together and didn't get up again until 8am when everyone else was getting up for breakfast. On Saturday night we went to bed fairly late because of the show, but Karsen didn't wake up until 5:30am to eat (he slept for 6 hours!) and then we didn't get up again until 8:30am or so. So overall I would say that he did really good! Plus he's not really a screamer at night, he just starts to talk and we know that he's up. Everyone said that they never heard him at all on either night. :-)

After breakfast on Saturday morning, Tim and Karsen decided that it was naptime. They're so cute when they sleep together!

It was sooo hot while we were there! It was around 100 degrees on Saturday, so Karsen spent most of the day in just his diaper to keep cool. He also spent a lot of the day underneath an umbrella to keep out of the sun since he's not old enough yet for sunscreen.

Karsen hung out with Grandma Dana underneath the umbrella while I was out on the jet skiis with my sisters.

Just chillin' on his own chair, enjoying the outdoors:

Luckily my sister, Dani, brought a small fan that we used to help keep Karsen cool since it was so hot!

After Tim and I got back from playing around on one of the jet skiis, my dad wanted to go take a tour of the Rocky Reach Dam just down the river. I thought it would be good to go and take Karsen, if only to get him out of the heat and get a ride in the air conditioned car.

We saw these mountain sheep on our way to the dam:

When we got to the dam it was about 10 minutes til 4pm, and apparently the tours close at 4pm but you have to go through security and what not, so we missed it! We decided to get ice cream in Wenatchee and of course Karsen had a meltdown in the car on the way so we ended up stopping at Wendy's for frostys since it was the first place we came across with ice cream. My dad and his bandmate, Arnie went inside to get the frostys while my mom stayed in the car with me while I fed Karsen (Tim didn't go with us).

Here is a shot of the dam that I took on our way back from Wenatchee:

After getting back from our little trip to Wentachee, we thought it would be fun to take Karsen down by the water. Of course he didn't go in the water (even though I did bring swim trunks for him hehe).

Here is Karsen down by the water, I think his hair looks very orange in this picture:

Here he is with his daddy in the water:
Here he is again with his mommy:
And of course he got fussy, probably because he was hungry:
Here is a shot of our campsite:

Before dinner, Karsen took a nap but it was so warm inside our tent because it was in the sun, I put him down in my parents' tent because it was in the shade. He actually really liked the feeling of their sleeping bag.

Since he was asleep, I took the opportunity to take some pictures and got this cute shot of his feet:

Dinner was setup just up the hill from where our campsite was, right next to the stage where the band was going to perform. We drove my mom's car up there while most everyone else walked so that we would have a place to feed and change Karsen during dinner and the show without having to walk all the way back to the tent.

On our way we saw a sight that you don't see everyday...

Who knew that roosters could climb trees?! Apparently they get up there to get away from racoons and stuff. HAHA!

On Thursday Karsen and I took a trip to the mall and I got him the cutest outfit to wear for the show! Grandpa Brad plays the drums so Karsen wore an outfit to support his grandpa!

In the picture it's kinda hard to tell but the shirt says "Make Some Noise" with a drumset on it. He also had a zip-up hoodie sweatshirt that said "Rockstar" on it, but he ended up not wearing it.

Before the show started, Karsen got to sit with Grandpa behind the drums. Maybe one day Grandpa will teach him how to play, except it will have to be at his house because I don't know if I can handle the sound of drums at my house! Haha!



I was holding Karsen near the stage when the band started to perform but quickly had to walk away because he didn't seem to like the sound of the cymbals. We ended up sitting at one of the tables in the far back and luckily Karsen had no problem falling asleep a little later.

Here is a picture of the band performing:

While the band was playing, there was a trailer that had karaoke setup and my siblings and their friends found great entertainment in it. I got video of everyone singing different songs and luckily for most of them, I still can't figure out how to get the videos off the camera and on to my computer.

Here is my sister Dani and my brother's friend Elliott singing a song:

The next day was spent packing up the campsite and getting ready to leave. The good thing was that it was fairly overcast and not as hot as the day before, which made things so much easier.

While Tim and I started packing up our stuff, Karsen hung out with Grandma and watched the duck that hung around the campsite all weekend. It was the weirdest thing to see this duck hanging around all weekend long by itself. He/she must have been lonely or lost or something.

Before really getting going on the road back home, we stopped in Wenatchee at the Sonic Drive-in. We had never been to one before but after seeing so many ads on TV for the place, I wanted to see what it was all about, especially since we don't have any near us.


After a 5 hour drive thanks to traffic (it should have only taken about 2.5 hours), we finally made it home around 7:30pm on Sunday night. Thankfully Karsen slept almost the entire 5 hours home and any time he woke up he would take a pacifier and go back to sleep, so we didn't have to stop. On our way to Entiat on Friday, we ended up having to stop in Leavenworth so that he could eat and that drive took us only about 3.5 hours (again thanks to traffic).

All in all it was a great trip and Karsen was such a trooper!

Love, Michaela

Gone for the weekend...

We're off to Entiat, WA to camp for the weekend! We may be crazy to go camping with a 5 week old! Hopefully we all come back with our sanity still intact...

1 Month Checkup

Yesterday Karsen had his 1 month check up at the pediatrician's office. I don't really look forward to these visits, mostly because Karsen always ends up screaming because he doesn't like being poked at - but really who does?

Because we have recently discovered the power of the pacifier, this visit didn't seem as bad as the last 2 times he's been to the doctor.

Here are his 1 month stats:
Weight: 9lbs, 1.5oz / Percentile: 25-50%
Length (Height): 21.25" / Percentile: 50%
Head Circumference: 38.3cm / Percentile: 50-75%

So basically he has a huge head! Haha!

I did manage to take a few pictures of the visit...

Here he is getting examined by Dr. Graham and apparently not enjoying it:

And unfortunately he had to get a shot, which is never fun either:

I'm glad that's over! Can hardly wait for our next visit next month when he has to get even more shots! :-\ Poor guy...

On another note - Today Karsen started wearing his 0-3 month sleepers! They're still a little big on him, but the newborn sized ones are just too small. I guess he'll grow into them.

Love, Michaela

Baby's First Independence Day

This year the 4th of July marked 2 different special occasions for Karsen;
1. It was Karsen's first ever holiday and
2. It was also Karsen's 1 month birthday!

The day started out pretty uneventful, mostly because we hadn't made any plans and also it was about 90 degrees outside and our house was really warm.

Karsen spent most of the day in just his diaper to try to keep cool:

Finally around dinner time we headed to my parents' house for a steak and crab dinner. It was just the 5 of us for dinner (Tim, me, Karsen, and my mom & dad.) Later on my sister Tori, my brother Brandon and my cousin Blake (who's in town from New York) showed up.

Here is Blake meeting Karsen for the first time:

After watching some fireworks displays on TV, we decided to set off a few fireworks of our own in the street outside my parents' house. (Karsen stayed inside with my mom while the rest of us went outside.)

Yes I took these pictures!

Tori wanted a picture of her with the sparklers:

Of course Karsen was festively dressed for the occasion (once it got a bit cooler outside) and I of course had to get some pictures of him. Tim has a really cool American flag blanket that I draped over the couch to use as the background for the pictures. I think they turned out pretty good, considering I'm no professional.

I got 2 different outfits for Karsen to wear for the day, mostly because I couldn't decide between the 2 but also just in case he spit up on one, we had a backup.

Here is the other outfit that he ended up not even wearing because it was just too hot:

And we couldn't forget about our first babies...the dogs! Jameson and Turi each got a special treat from the cute little pet shop in Mill Creek, where we also get their dog food.

These treats are called 'dognuts' and are very patriotic!

Karsen also got to try out a new bouncy/rocking chair that we finally took out of the box and put together.

Ok so this is from the next day (Sunday) and he just happens to be wearing the same outfit because he slept in it:

Nothing too exciting, but I couldn't not blog about Karsen's first holiday!

Love, Michaela

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Love, The Freitags

Week Highlights

What a week it's been for our now 4 week old!

Here are some of the highlights:

- On Tuesday he got to test out his Boppy playmat that even came with his own little Boppy...it's so cute! The big butterfly in the middle plays music and has lights in its wings, but it didn't hold Karsen's attention for too long.

- On Wednesday Tim got to feed Karsen his first bottle! At first I think Karsen was confused about what was going on and didn't take to it right away...


...but he finally got the hang of it and was able to drink some of the milk. He didn't drink the whole bottle though, but he did the next day!


- On Thursday he tried out his Rainforest swing. He has another little swing too but I'm coming to the conclusion that he's not really a fan of swings because he ends up crying everytime he's in one of them. He does love his bouncer seat though! During this swing testing, he was more enthralled with the TV than anything else, which is why he's looking to his right, haha!


- Also on Thursday, Karsen sucked on a pacifier for the first time! We've been trying for over a week now to get Karsen to try a pacifier and everytime he wouldn't even let us get the thing in his mouth. Maybe since he's had a few bottles now, he's more open to the idea of a pacifier.


Happy 4 weeks to my baby!

Love, Michaela