Tuesday, June 2, 2009

24 Hours of Fun

As I looked through my pictures, I realized all of these were taken within 24 hours of each other...from Sunday evening to Monday evening.....I love summer!!

While folding laundry Sunday afternoon, I looked out the window to see that Shane had discovered an interesting way to keep Eli entertained.

Then after he gave Eli his bath and got him to bed (while I was still folding laundry!) , he surpised with me our first fire in our new fire pit AND dinner....isn't he the best? Then on Monday, the boys got off work early. Ryan and Mandy needed to stop by our neighbors to look at their puppies, so why not just have a BBQ?
Michael, Eli and I hung out while Ryan, Mandy and the girls checked out the puppies. Eli was so sweet with Michael! He kept rubbing his face, giving him kisses and telling him, "boo!"

Nothing beats roast hot-dogs! (Especially with lots of ketchup, if you're Eli!)

A little after dinner entertainment...

And then SURPRISE! Youngren's had asked us a while ago if we would be interested in their swing set, since their kids have outgrown it. (Lucky us!) Joey, Maddy and Wayne (lovingly referred to as Big Funny Wayne by Trevon) arrived with the swing set on their flat bed trailer.They had it set up in a matter of minutes! I only wish I could have caught the look in Eli's eyes when he first saw a slide in his yard..priceless!

First trip down the slide!
Trying out our new swing!


If I hadn't forgot our camera, I would have also had pictures of our Sunday afternoon hike at the beach!

Memorial Day Weekend

We headed over the hills to Moses Lake to be with my family on Memorial Day weekend. It took us 6 hours to get from Kent to Moses Lake, but it was so worth it for the fun, sun and good times we got to enjoy.


We all invaded the hotel pool where Sara and Luke stayed. Unfortunately, we ran out of things to do. Fortunately, we had children's swim rings to keep us entertained!

Look closely and you'll see the ring Shane is jumping into...



Oops....it got stuck!
Dan demonstrates yet another use for baby's floaties...taking a break after I gave him a solid beating in our floatie race.

And then there's my mom....I love her!

Meanwhile, Lilly observed and wondered if her floatie would be spared....
Kailer is so small his swim trunks kept falling off. Who needs them when you've got underwear as cool as these?!

Heather and the birthday girl,Lilly. A good aunt would have pictures of her opening her birthday presents and eating her first cake. A bad aunt lays down and accidentally takes a nap with her son instead!


Eli's favorite thing to do was stand on the edge of the pool and yell, "go" as he jumped into Shane's arms.

On Saturday night, all the girls decided to take the kids to the Moses Lake Parade (since it sounded like it would smell much better than the carp shooting the boys were doing). Lucky for us, it was an evening parade and it had just cooled down. We had a chance to walk around Moses Lake before the parade kicked off.

Sweet Sara!

Eli and his cousin Rylee ride in style...What's a parade without icecream? Nana and Kailer sharing a bite. (Isn't he the cutest in those glasses?!)


My adorable nieces, Maddy and Lilly, sharing icecream.

Brr! That's cold!Eli insisted on sitting on the curb with the boys who sat beside us (I have no clue who they were!). It was so much fun to watch him as he watched the parade...I can't think of one entry he didn't wave at!
On our way back to Stanwood, we stopped to hang out with the Youngren's at their summer house in Desert Aire. We had so much fun just relaxing in the sun, enjoying the view. They set up this little pool for Eli, though there might have been a few adults who took a dip, too.

Beach Bums








A couple weekends ago, we got together with our favorite Stanwood cousins for a Sunday afternoon picnic at Camano State Park. What a cool park! The kids hunted for shore crabs and other sea life the whole time. Every time they tried to pick up a crab, they let out the appropriate "I'm-not-so-sure-about-this" squeal. Apparently, Eli thought that's what you were supposed to do everytime you saw a crab...silly boy! How can you beat sunshine, good company and a beautiful park?

Eli is 20 Months!

My little dude,

Last weekend, someone asked how old you were. When I replied that you had just turned 20 months, their comment was, “Wow! Almost 2 years old!” I can hardly believe that you will, indeed, be two in just a few short months. You seem to be learning everything exponentially now, yet we’re still surprised and amazed at each new achievement.

We’re pretty sure that a parrot now lives in our house! You try to copy everything we say, sometimes with hilarious results. You’re the master of the word ‘no’ and after using it indiscreetly for the past two months, you’re now much more selective and serious about it. Now I often find you chasing Bailey around the yard telling her, “Nnnnnnoooo Bay-yee, nnnnnooo!” (Though I’m never quite sure what her wrongdoing was.) You’ve also learned to say ‘uh-oh’ and it seems that it’s taken over the status that ‘no’ once held, acting as a noun, verb and adjective. After spending a week with Kaylee, you also learned to say her name. Amy said that any time she went out of the room, you wandered around calling, “Kay-eee, Kay-ee” until you found her. Each day brings new attempts at talking, but my favorite of all happened yesterday. I was putting away clothes in the closet and could hear you ‘singing’ (well, as close to singing as a toddler gets). When I walked out, you were carrying Daddy’s bible with both hands, walking around and pretending to sing hymns. I can’t even begin to tell you how much it touched my heart to see you developing a love for what we value most in our lives.

Summer agrees with you, little man! We traveled to Auntie Heather and Uncle Andy’s for Memorial Day and had a chance to do some swimming. You took to the water like a duck! Your favorite part was standing on the edge of the pool waiting for Daddy to count, “1, 2…” then you’d yell “Go!” and jump into his arms. You don’t seem to have any fear of the water and that makes me feel happy and terrified simultaneously. And it seems that your fearlessness doesn’t end at the pool. Last night, the Youngren’s generously gave us their outgrown swing set. Before I could turn around, you’d already climbed the ladder and were flying down the slide! You should have seen the look of pride and glee in your eyes! And even after you took a spill off the ladder, you kept right at it. Since it’s been so warm, you’ve been wearing shorts a lot…your bruised and scraped knees are evidence of how many times you dust off and keep going in a day. I hope that it will always be so easy to pick yourself up and try again no matter what kind of spill life brings you.

There are so, so many things I want to remember about this time in your life. Like the way that you taught yourself how to open an Oreo cookie and eat the frosting first, how you ask for “dip-dip” (ketchup) on everything then gleefully lick the ketchup off whatever you are dipping. Or the way that you like to slurp green beans like noodles. Or the way you concentrate while you are making your giant 5 block tower. Or how you kissed my hand during meeting, then looked up and smiled at me. You are a precious, sweet, wonderful little boy! When Joey dropped off the swing set, he stood back with a look of wonder and exclaimed, “It was just yesterday that I put that swing set together for my kids.” And I can see how I, too, will be saying the same. I just wish I could capture every moment and memory and hold it forever because I know you are growing up much too quickly! I love you, Littles!