Caleb, the World Traveler

Our Italian Adventure...

As most of you know, we just got back from Italy a few weeks ago. We managed to squeeze in this trip just before Caleb turned 2, which was yesterday the 28th. I still can not believe he is already 2. One of our neighbors thought he looked more like a 3 year old. Crazy! Anyways, our trip to Italy was amazing. Overall, Caleb was an All Star traveler. He only got his own seat on 1 out of the 6 planes we were on. We were hoping for his own seat on the overseas flights, but to no avail. Thanks to "Thomas the Train" videos, cars and truck toys, stickers, crayons and snacks we managed fairly smooth flights. It took Caleb and Mommy a few days to settle in once we got to Torino (Turin). Meanwhile Josh was on the go and climbed Mt. Blanc 2 days after we arrived with Andrea's brother, Anthony. I am still not sure how he pulled it off with such little sleep, a sore throat and jet lag. While he climbed Caleb and Andrea hung out with Nikki (Andrea's sister-in-law), Siena (4 1/2), Sammi (2 1/2) and Asher (5 mo). Caleb loved getting to know his cousins more and playing with cars, trucks, and trains with Sammi.

We started our vacation travel around Italy on Saturday by heading to the seaside. We stayed the first night in Bogliosco, a small, charming beach town just south of Genova. From there we drove down to Piombino to catch a ferry across to Elba Island. It was quite the travel day. The kids all loved the ferry ride. We made our way to our Bungalow (kind of like a little cabin). Elba is a very kid friendly island and a place where Italians like to go on holiday. Heard very little English spoken there which made it feel less touristy. We spent 3 days and 3 nights on Elba and explored lots of beautiful beaches. Caleb was quite the fan of the water. He loved it. On Wednesday morning we caught the ferry back to the mainland. Our original ferry boat broke down so we had to drive around to the other side of the island to catch another one a few hours later. Gotta love Italy! This was another long day of travel. It took us many hours to get to our farm stay on a beautiful vineyard in San Gimignano. The drive to S.G. was breath-taking. Josh just kept commenting on the Tuscan beauty. Our farm-stay was fabulous. Everyone there was so friendly and hospitable. We made our way into town for pizza and gelato. This was Caleb's first encounter with gelato. Let's just say he was a big fan. We were so impressed with San Gimignano (city of 7 towers) that we decided to spend another night there. We found another incredible farm-stay apartment nearby. We enjoyed watching the beginning of the grape harvest in this region and did a wine tasting while we were there. It was the first time any of us had been to San Gimignano and we ALL loved it!! I highly recommend it. From there we swung by Pisa for lunch and some photos of the tower and made our way back to Bogliosco to spend another night at the beach house. The next day Andrea's family took Caleb to the beach and Andrea and Josh took the train to Cinque Terre to hike and explore for the day w/o the little one. This was a HUGE blessing. Between our 4 train rides and hikes we can't imagine our stressful the day would have been with 1 or 4 children. Josh had never been before, so we knew we had to at least get him there to see it. We had a great day just the 2 of us. That night we headed back to Turino. The next day was Sunday and we got to go to A & N's church and hear Anthony preach in Italian. The name of their church is Il Refugio and we loved being a part of it for a morning(well, actually it is more like a half day community experience which is very different from our 1 hr. services in the States). We got to meet the faces of the names we always hear about. It was such a blessing to be able to go. The next 2 days we just hung out and did some sightseeing around Turino. It was great to be able to chill a few days with those guys before we came home on Tuesday. We are all now back to our normal routines and talk about our special memories often. As much of a stretch the trip was for our little family, we were so glad that it worked out to go. We have been wanting to go visit them since they have been there for 5 years.

Here are some fun pictures from our trip...

Caleb and Daddy on the Ferry boat over to Elba Island. Check out those curls on Caleb thanks to the wind!


Caleb and Mommy playing in the Mediterranean Sea with of course, a dump truck in hand. It was like bath water.




Uncle Anthony, Sammi and Siena exploring at the pebble beach near our Bungalow on Elba.



From the vineyard at our farm stay in San Gimignano. Tuscany was AMAZING!!



The city of 7 towers, San Gimignano, Italy. We all fell in love with this medieval Tuscan city. A must see if you ever visit Italy.



Caleb enjoying some of his first encounters with Gelato...yeah pretty sure he was digging it! What's not to like. We found our favorite Gelaterria in San Gimignano.



The family at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We stopped long enough for the kids to run around, grab lunch, and snap some pictures. Too fun!!



Josh hiking between Riomaggiore and Manarola city, in Cinque Terre, Italy. Absolutely beautiful!

Caleb Update

Wow, once again time passes so quickly. We can not believe our little Bubs is almost 2! We have had quite the summer. Lots of fun memories to look back on. We recently visited Andrea's brother and his family in Turin, Italy and are adjusting back to our normal routines. We will post another blog in the next few weeks all about our time in Italy. Wanted to show you some of our highlights from this summer. Caleb is the star of the show of course, at least for the next four or so months. Andrea is 20 weeks along in her pregnancy and we have decided to wait until the end to find out the sex of the baby. We are eager for this wonderful surprise! So...we will let you know around the 30th of January! Here is a snapshot of some of the highlights from our summer...


Caleb doing what he likes to do best: play with his trucks and cars on the ground. This was captured after Uncle Jason's (Josh's brother) wedding in August. Caleb was the handsome ring bearer. Thank goodness for washing machines with little boys!Family photo outside of the wedding chapel. Hard to get a 23 month old to smile for the camera, let alone want to stop playing long enough for a photo.

I am still amazed that they make such small adorable tuxedos. Caleb ran down the isle with his truck in hand. Hey, whatever works!


Great-grandpa Schmidt playing with his great grandson in our backyard. It was such a gift to have the Schmidt family out for the wedding. We got to spend a few days with family prior to the wedding.

Caleb in his glory! We stored Uncle Jason's big blue truck through the winter months. Caleb was thrilled when the blue tarp was taken off and he could see what was underneath. He even got to drive the truck. Whenever Caleb hears Uncle Jason he says big blue truck. I think we have a match!

We have spent many fun hours at the Children's museum this summer. This picture was taken when Nana Nancy and Papa Sam came out for a visit this June. We had a blast!

Caleb and Andrea went to Portland in July to visit Andrea's good friend and her family. We went berry picking one day and here is Caleb reaching for a ripe rasberry. He really got into it and had fun running up and down the berry patches.

So the theme here is trucks, cars and...trains. We went to the Denver Zoo with Nana Nancy and Papa Sam while they were out. Caleb likes the animals okay, but he LOVES the train and all the zoo vehicles more. Good times!

Caleb visiting Great Gram in Chicago at the end of May. We happen to discover these fun construction trucks across the street, what are the chances? Caleb got to drive the paver. He could have done this for hours! He and Great Gram had a so much fun together.

Liberty Ridge Climb

LIBERTY RIDGE
June 15-18

This year Josh began his 20th year of mountain climbing as well as 30th year of life. His first peak climb was on Mount Tabeguache in July of 1989. The 5,500-foot Liberty Ridge on Washington's Mount Rainier looked to be a great challenge to commemorate a milestone in Josh's life. Rick Inman and Paul Bjork were eager to give the route a shot (for Paul, a third try), so the team was set. After several months of hard training, we were ready to attempt this classic route. Overall, this was Josh's third trip to the mountain. His first try was unsuccessful in 2001, but was able to summit on a second attempt in June 2007.

"Bowling Alley" on the way to High Camp

This year was particularly dry and stable for the 'early season' on Rainier. However, the nice weather melted out the lower part of the ridge which led to almost impassible rockfall danger. We literally dodged oncoming rocks as we passed through a 1500-foot ramp we called the "Bowling Alley." We reached our high camp at 10,500 feet after a 12 hour climb on June 16th.

High Camp at Thumb Rock

Avalanche on Rainier's Willis Wall

Our summit day, June 17th, began unusually late (10:50 a.m.), but we knew we were climbing into stable weather. The upper 2/3's of the ridge was in great shape, and even included some interesting ice climbing. The Liberty Cap bergshrund was the technical crux of the route at 13,500 feet, and the rest of the route was simply great mountain climbing - 40 to 50 degree snow slopes with several pitches of low angle alpine ice.

Josh on Liberty Ridge

Upper Liberty Ridge

An Alpine Ice Section
Liberty Cap Bergshrund Pitch

We summited Liberty Cap (14,122 feet) at 8:45 p.m. after a nearly 10 hour ascent. We witnessed a gorgeous sunset on top. Because of the late hour, we were forced to camp in windy conditions near the summit at 13,700 feet.

Liberty Cap Summit

The next morning, June 18th, we strolled up to Rainier's main summit at 14,411 feet. The views were spectacular and we had finally reached the highest point on Mount Rainier after nearly 3 days of hard climbing. We descended the Emmons-Winthrop glacier route (Josh's 2007 route) and rested at Camp Schurman before hoofing it all the way back to the 4,400-foot trailhead.

Summit Camp at 13,700 feet Columbia Crest - Summit of Mount Rainier

Emmons-Winthrop Glacier Route from Camp Schurman

Some Newer Photos

Some recent shots of our little world...

Mommy & Caleb Working on a Puzzle

Come on Ride the Train!

Dadda & Caleb Setting up the Tent (in the living room!)

More Tent Time with Mommy
Andrea's 31st Birthday Dinner with the Girls

Caleb Playing with Trucks

Here's our bubs playing with his favorite assortment of trucks. Caleb is a little over 18 months in this video. Enjoy!!

Caleb at 18 Months

Caleb Stats
Weight: 27 lbs 3oz (67th percentile)
Height: 2 ft 9 in (80th percentile)
Head: 19.7 in (still a dominant feature on the little guy)

Caleb continues to astound us by his growth and exuberance. He's a lively fella, focused, and a quick learner. We're amazed by Caleb's eagerness to explore just about everything. He loves going to church and wandering off whenever he spots a window of opportunity. The little guy loves to be chased by Dad (see below), spending time with grandparents, reading, and playing outside - it's been a long winter!

Caleb, Mommy's little angel

This is a long overdue blog entry...so sorry! I can not believe we are already into February. Wow...Caleb is already 16 months old. Yesterday, Josh commented on how fast Caleb is growing up and how he doesn't want Caleb to grow bigger and older. The cliche, kids grow so fast, is fairly accurate as all of you seasoned parents and grandparents out there already know. A lot has happened since our last entry. So here is an abbreviated update. Caleb has a great passion for books (we must have read over 40 books together today), trucks and anything with wheels, wrestling his stuffed animals and Dada, exploring outside, and playing chase. He is quite the little man. I know we are slightly biased, but he is such a gift. He brings so much joy to those he is around. Even the nursery helpers comment on what a special boy he is. I only wish our out of town family could be around him more to experience his sweet spirit. He is started to say more words and sounds, especially those mentioned in his books. We think that once he starts really talking, watch out. He is going to have some vocabulary for as much as we read to him. Here are some fun pictures from the last few months.

Caleb reading one of his favorite books, My Big Truck Book. He will seriously look at his books by himself for 20 minutes at a time. He LOVES books!

Caleb loves to be outside with Dada. This is his train teeter-totter that makes the train sound...choo, choo.

A few weeks ago we went up to Keystone, CO to stay in a friends condo. Caleb was not sure what to make of all the snow. We have not had snow banks taller than him in Denver. Does he look like a little mountain man to you?

The Schmidt curl. Josh and Jason both had it on the left side too. I am hoping this means he will get Dada's curls!

This is a 4 generation picture taken when Grandpa Charlie Schmidt was out around Thanksgiving. The family resemblance is striking, don't you think?

Mommy wasn't present for this one. This is what happens when Aunt Stacey and Uncle Jason get involved. JK. Again, Caleb's train now seating the birthday boy, Josh, and company. I am guessing this may be a photo we share with Caleb's class when asked to bring in an embarrassing photo someday.

Pure sweetness. This was Christmas Eve at our home. Caleb was more interested in the truck ornaments from Grandma than the other big gifts. Go figure, he knows what he likes. Simple.

Lincoln Falls Ice Climbing

Front Range Sunrise

To kick off the new year, my friend Rick Inman and I (Josh), took to the road in search of some ice. With little precipitation so far this winter, Lincoln Falls was one of the few places near Denver with good ice.

Lincoln Falls from Trailhead

We enjoyed 7 or 8 pitches on solid ice with the falls virtually all to ourselves. This would be my last winter outing before breaking my hand (practicing a church skit!) in February.