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So, in case you don't happen to speak 10-month-old gibberish... Allen Jess just wanted to thank his Moe-Joe & Dad-Oh for such an amazing vacation at the "Etheridge Center For Advanced Learning," and to tell everyone how much fun he had! He also says to stay tuned in to the blog for more posts about all his fun and exciting adventures he took part in while visiting his Moe-Joe & Dad-Oh.

Random Cuteness (part 12)

Creepin' up on ten-months already and Allen Jess sure is a happy little fella! He's crawling all over the place, getting into trouble, standing himself up, walking around (with a little bit of help of course!), talking (his own language) with no sense of volume control, and loves to play and be silly with his mom & dad!

Clean-cut Daddy...

and his punk-rocker son!

(I had nothing to do with the mohawk!)

Just another typical day at the Etheridge house for young Allen Jess:
A little breakfast in the morning while watching some cartoons...

And then an afternoon filled with smiles, laughter...

and of course, some wild & craziness!

Followed by some more cartoons on the big screen...

And then after some dinner and a few of his favorite prime-time shows, the little guy just doesn't have any more energy left and calls it a day.  

He may not be Superman...

but he sure is growing super fast!

"Ate all the crackers...???

I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Uh-oh... now I'm in trouble!"

Allen Jess does his best to help out around the house when he can... like helping Mommy sort and fold laundry!

"Hey Mah... I think you might have to wash this one again.

I just blew snot and drooled all over it!"

Beautiful 'Wela' and her handsome Grandson...

spending the day together!

"Okay Allen... time to go to the doctor's office,

and get some more shots!"

"Hah-hah... just kidding sweet boy! Time to go play!"

Jei's favorite time of the day...

when Allen goes down for a nap!

Gotta love the crossed feet.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey just completely sucks you in!!! 

BING! How'd he get in here again!  =)

As you can see... 

Allen hasn't quite gotten the concept of puckering just yet!

I must apologize for the amount of skin showing in the pic(s) below, but it was a hot summer night... and Allen and I were sharing a moment or two.

All I simply asked was if he was ready for bed or not... but apparently Allen took the question very seriously and thought real hard about it before answering.

Obviously, his answer was no... and decided he wanted to monkey-around with his Daddy some more!

Every so often Allen will get sucked into watching the television... but put a computer screen in front of him and he'll be glued to it for just about the entire day!

"Ah-hah! So that's why they named this movie 'Black Hawk Down!'"

Just can't seem to get enough of that adorable little smile!

Go Daddy Go! (Part 2)

...So after several months of diligent research and exhaustive searching, seeking and scouring the Internet for just the right deal... we finally found what we wanted and an "upgrade" was made indeed!

Technically, it's a travel trailer... but for those who "camp" and know a thing or two about the RV world... it's commonly referred to as a "toy hauler."

It's actually a little bigger than what we were looking for... but we got a good deal on it, and it still fits nice and snug on the side of the driveway. (Don't worry, we don't store it there so it isn't a permanent eyesore in the neighborhood!)

Hence the name... "Toy Hauler!"

Packed up, loaded, and ready to go to the races!

It took him a little while to figure it out... that he wasn't at home, and he wasn't in the back of the truck! He was crawling around in his new trailer at the motocross park... and Allen absolutely loved it!

A queen size bed up front...

perfect for laying down a tired and hungry nine-month-old!

The U.S. Police & Fire Championships (a.k.a.: Fire & Police Olympics) were held at Pala Raceway in Pala, California this year... so even though the two day event wasn't very far from home, it was the perfect event (excuse) to go racing, camping with some friends, and try out our new trailer on its maiden voyage with the Etheridges!

Unloading, getting the trailer all situated, and organizing camp was the easy part... getting mentally prepared and focused to race was the more challenging obstacle come race day!

Especially with a cute little attention-whore crawling around everywhere!

"Haaauuuuuwwww (yawn)...

I'm bored dad, aren't you supposed to be racing already?"

The weather was absolutely incredible... warm but not hot with a slight breeze! Perfect for a sleeveless onesie, which Allen made sure to wear his orange & white one to match his Daddy!

Allen Jess had a front row seat for all the exciting racing action!

And speaking of exciting racing action... as you can see, I didn't quite get the holeshot in race (moto) one... heck, I didn't even finish race one! I ended up crashing out about halfway through the race...

But I came back strong in race (moto) two and took first place!

Allen chillin'-out in the shade of the awning like a boss!

"Mom? ...Dad? ...Anyone? Hey you over there... how 'bout a push?!"

The first day of racing ended with a medal ceremony... and as you can tell from both my facial expression and my body language, I was in complete disbelief that I heard my named called as a medal recipient... but it wasn't just any medal, it was for the gold medal!

The first day... my first race... our first camping trip... 

and my first gold medal! Not bad... not bad at all!

Daddy wasn't the only one who needed a shower that night!

"C'mon Mom... I told you I can do it myself!"

I can't tell you how nice it was to just wake up, open the door to your trailer, and step outside only to be right there ready to ride... as opposed to waking up hours before you really want to, loading up the truck, driving to the park, finding a decent parking spot, and finally unloading your gear to get ready to ride! So even though it hurt getting up early the morning of day two... it felt really good to step out from our trailer and go strategize about the day's race with our neighbors!

So while I woke up tired, sore, and a bit cranky... Allen woke up quite the happy little camper, which inevitably rubbed off on me!

Monkey'ing around with my boy...

where he gets his silliness from I'll never know!

Monkey time was over...
for it was time to get serious, suited up, and go racing!

Race (day) two was a GP race... which meant not only was the track super long, but the race itself was long too!

The GP race covered three separate tracks at the park...

and was 60 minutes long!

Needless to say... I was just happy to finish the darn thing! So while everyone else gathered around each other and bragged about how good they raced... I quietly sat down alone, meditated for a moment, and totally felt like I was going to throw up!

The races were over, the medal ceremony concluded, and our inaugural camping trip was rapidly coming to an end. I honestly don't think we could've had a better time. The weather was fantastic, the racing was fun, the trailer worked out great and was an absolute blessing, but most importantly... our little Monkey Boy had a great time!

Of course one of the highlights of the trip for me...

was medaling in both races (gold & bronze),

along with two other friends, colleagues, and fellow campers!

The medals were cool and all, and they looked good around our necks... but the real satisfaction was being able to represent our agency with a heck of a lot of pride and honor!

The absolutely last thing I ever wanted or expected from entering the championships and doing so well in them, was to get attention or gain acknowledgement in any way! So you can imagine my surprise during the following week when I see the picture below in San Diego Sector's (SDC) sector-wide newsletter! Not only did they have our picture there and what races we each medaled in... but they had me jumping in the air in the background! Needless to say, for the next couple of weeks I walked around the station like I was Billy Bad-Ass himself!