On Sale At Target . . .

Alexis' Camp Rock picture that was in People Magazine is also in this week's Target ad. To give you an idea of how much they photoshop these pictures, take a look at Alexis' smile in the ad compared to this smile.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll notice Alexis' missing tooth. This same tooth was missing when they took the picture for the ad and they photoshopped one in for her. They also had her smile two times: Once normal, and again showing her bottom teeth. Then they fused the two smiles together for the ad. I think they added some age to her too, because she looks way too grown up!! I can't believe she's almost 12!

Videos

Seriously, just when we got used to her crawling, now she's climbing. How come we got the most active little girl ever!??!?!

This is a pretty funny trick (habit?). I don't know what this is all about, but yet another reason why we now use Method cleaning products.

Random Pictures

Here are a few cute pictures from this week:

Let's Go to the Park

Now that the weather is glorious, Reagan and I have started to spend more and more time outdoors. Our first adventure to the park on Tuesday ended shortly after it started. Somehow, sunscreen got rubbed in Reagan's eye and her poor eye got all red and watery. We made a quick journey back home to clean out her eye with lots of water. After her eye cleaned itself out, we spent some time out on our lawn instead.

On Friday, I took Reagan and the jogging stroller out for a run ~ The first time I've gone alone with the jogging stroller. While it is incredibly easy to manuveur, the jogging stroller makes your run incredibly intense (or maybe it's just because I've barely run in the past 11 months!). I planned our run with lots of pitstops along the way. First, we ran/walked to Caribou where we enjoyed some water and a cold press coffee. On our return trip, we made a stop at the park to play on the playground. We tried the swings and the slide, but they were in the sun and really hot. The winner was the rocking pony (it was in the shade). It really made her giggle, but I had to hold on to her, so no pics. After a 15 minute rest, we made it the rest of the way home.

Method Household

I went to Target to buy all new cleaning supplies for our house after I read a blog post of a friend of a friend who read that newborn babies were tested and 287 chemicals were found in their bodies, 180 of them cancerous chemicals. For those of you who don't know, Method is a "green" company. Their products are environmentally friendly and non-toxic.

This was the main reason for the switch. Reagan seems to like to lick the refrigerator . . . Is my kid weird or have other people's children done this too?

I don't understand. She also tried to eat the wallpaper at my mom's house, but that's another story.

So anyway, because she likes to lick the refrigerator and puts her Nuk in her mouth after she rubs it all over the floor, we made the switch to non-toxic.

ECFE Friends

Last Monday we had all our friends from our ECFE class over to our house for a BBQ and to let the babies play together. It was amazing how much they all have changed! At our last class, most of the babies (except Reagan and a little boy, Mathison) stayed in one spot. Now, all the babies were all over the place. Since Reagan isn't usually around other babies, she was intrigued by them. She wanted to play with the babies' shoes and hair and faces and not with her toys. The funniest part of the evening was when the babies all started taking each other's Nuks out of their mouths, even if they already had one in! I think we need to work on sharing before the fall session starts!

Since it was so nice out, we set up our garage as a make shift play area. John cleaned the floor really well before everyone came over.

Group shot at the neighbor's house because their driveway was shaded and ours wasn't.

7 Months Old

Reagan turned 7 months old last Saturday and couldn't be busier. Every day she entertains us with new skills, new babblings, and of course, her huge smile! It's amazing to think that only a few months ago she couldn't sit up or really go anywhere and now she's all over the place. Right now, Reagan is almost 17 lbs. and about 26 inches tall. She has officially grown out of most of her 3-6 month clothing, although there is the odd piece here or there that still fits. I'm really loving this age!

Other pictures from that night:

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the dads and dads-to-be!

John had one request for his first official Father's Day . . . To watch Tiger Woods in the last round of the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, he didn't get to watch the whole round because he also wanted to spend time with his family.

We did see the end of what was supposed to be the final round of the U.S. Open and what an end it was! I'm not even a fan of watching golf, but excitement was building in me as Tiger Woods got ready to hit his final putt of the round to tie Rocco Mediate (where did he come from?).

Tiger making his putt was a good gift for the first Father's Day of both John and Tiger. Tiger's putt made it in the hole to force a tie breaker giving him one more chance at winning the U.S. Open and John gets to watch his favorite athlete play another round of golf.

Even after all of his wins and amazing shots, I love how excited Tiger still gets when he gets the ball in the hole. He doesn't take anything for granted.

Our Own Celebrity in People Mag

If anyone subscribes to People Magazine, open your June 23rd issue (with Elizabeth Smart on the cover) and flip to page 8 or 9. There's a full page Target ad for Camp Rock which I guess is a new Disney show. Anyway, Alexis, our very own future babysitter, is the star of the ad! Her picture is bigger than most of the celebrities in the magazine! I couldn't find a picture of it to post, but you can check it out as your waiting in line to buy groceries.

6 Month Pictures Revisited

Here are the rest of Reagan's 6 month pictures:

http://www.jackieboldtphotography.com/client.html

gallery password: reag6mo

They're pretty cute!

Catching Up

I've fallen a bit behind and have pictures to share from before the family reunion. I'm just going to put them up with a quick sentence or two about each one.

Daddy's Little Helper

Trying the new sippy cup . . .

Still a work in progress.

Fun with magazines.

My friend Sarah and I took her son, Will and Reagan on a walk to Dunn Bros. last Friday afternoon after they got some play time on the floor at Sarah's house. Both babies were pretty tuckered out by the time we got home. I forget how much bigger Will is than Reagan until I see them side by side. At only 4 months older, there's quite a difference between the two.

This picture doesn't really do any justice to the storm we received on the first day of June. I thought all the windows in our house were going to break. I had never seen hail this big. It was literally golf ball sized hail. Luckily, John had just pulled his car back in the garage after washing it.

Waiting out the storm in our basement bathroom.

Cameron Family Reunion

Last weekend, June 4-8 was the Cameron Family Reunion, held at Custer State Park, just south of Rapid City, South Dakota. We departed our home on Wednesday night, after Reagan's bedtime, and made a nice quiet drive through the storms that were soaking southern Minnesota, to Sioux Falls where we spent the night. On Thursday morning we woke up with the only itinerary of arriving at Custer by the evening. That meant we had time to stop at what should be two of the world's seven wonders: Corn Palace and Wall Drug.

The bottom says "Acting Corny. . ." Ha ha ha.

We will admit that we were quite a bit disappointed in the Corn Palace. The only part of the structure that is made of corn is the facade. We were ready for an entire structure to be made of corn.

For those of you who may be wondering, "where the heck is Wall Drug?" Google it to find out more. This was truly a remarkable place full of everything you could ever need. Since there was so much potential, we decided to have a contest with everyone, my parents and sister Kathleen included, to find the best gift. John's gift was quite unique so we took a picture:


In case you can't read it, this statuette reads: "Ya keep calling me ugly, but you're the one that is using me for decoration!" Classy. Thursday night we arrived at our destination:


Following dinner, there was much revelry with an exchange of white elephant gifts. John should have actually purchased the pig from Wall Drug as it would have made a great gift. On Friday, we drove the Wildlife Loop at Custer National Park before heading to Mount Rushmore.


The Wildlife Loop is probably a windy 25 or 30 mile drive through both the forests and the plains where all the wild life "hang out." Lindsay was so excited to see the buffalo (or is it buffaloes?). Although she wanted (1) to pet them and (2) to bring one home, we decided better after being advised of the following:

There was a herd of them and one was lying down very near the road. For most of the drive we sang "Home on the Range" inspired by the wildlife -



A pleasant surprise was our encounter with the wild antelope followed by the wild mules.


The mules actually turned out to be one of the more entertaining and surprising experiences of the day. As you can see, they all walked toward us. As some passed on my side of the car, Lindsay was trying to get come close-ups.

What she didn't see was these two guys sneak up on her side of the car. The shriek was enough to wake our sleeping baby! And then again, as i began to put the window down to see what would happen, I was quickly reprimanded.

From there, we headed to Mount Rushmore where we had a baby that was very happy to see the sight. We did the short trail, saw the Sculptor's studio and enjoyed lunch and ice cream.

This time Lindsay won the tacky souvenior game with her 3D buffalo pillow.

On Saturday, my dad joined us for a drive through the Black Hills National Forest and did the "Needles Highway" where we saw the following: Road sign:

The Hole in the Wall

A pretty creek (of which there were actually many throughout Custer and which we had seen on our drive to Mount Rushmore - we just happened to photograph this one)

John, according to Lindsay, "risking his life and climbing on rocks." Good thing the life insurance is paid to date.

The Cathedral Spires

A tunnel through the rock (again, there were many throughout the park, we just had my dad along to photograph us for this one).

And the Needle's Eye rock formation.

The drive ended a Sylvan Lake, scene of the climax in the movie "National Treasure." This was a pretty lake with a nice trail around for walking. Reagan loved the Baby Bjorn carrier (as she had the day before at Mount Rushmore) so it was amusing to listen to her nearly constant giggles! Thanks to my Dad's help we were able to take several family photos!

After the adventure, we headed back to "camp" and took a McCarthy family nap - Reagan didn't sleep well at all for any of the nights she was away. That, in turn, means that neither Lindsay nor I slept well either. On Saturday night, the Cameron Clan celebrated my cousin Ruth's engagement to her fiance Adam with a wedding shower. The, early on Sunday morning, we began the long trek back home. With a 6:30 departure, we arrived home almost exactly 11 hours later, at 6:30 PM (thanks to the time change). Just in time to get ready to face Monday! We had a blast - thank you to all the Camerons for making it so much fun! And, if you have any pictures to share, send them on up!