Camping

Kevin and I decided to take Ethan camping for the first time. Friends of ours wanted to take their son as well, so we made plans to go together. Morgan didn't get to go this time since she would have ended up eating most of the dirt, rocks, sticks etc around our campsite. She stayed home with Papa and Nana. Our friends also have a little girl a couple months older than Morgan that stayed home with her grandparents. It was fun to have a couple days just to have fun with our boys. Their son Lance is a few weeks older than Ethan.

Here the boys are sitting in time out. I'm not sure what they did anymore, but when Ethan saw the picture he remembered that they were both in trouble. I had actually forgotten that I took a picture of them in time out. I thought it was just a cute picture of them by the campfire:) Good thing three years olds don't forget anything.

Ready to head out on a hike. This is actually the cleanest the boys were all weekend. They were covered in dirt and loved every bit of it:)

We camped up at Pinecrest. There is a nice lake for swimming and fishing. There is a trail that goes all the way around the lake, its about a 3 mile hike. We had hoped to make it all the way around the lake, but we ended up just hiking about a mile of it.

The boys did some of their own hiking, but spent a lot of the hike on their daddy's shoulders.

A family pic on our hike.

Ethan and Lance enjoying a snack after our hike.

There were a few other families that we are friends with that were either up for the day or camping with family. We all hung out on the beach for a few hours on Saturday. All five families have one or two boys so there were lots of boys playing with lots of trucks in all the sand. They had a blast!

All in all it was a successful camping trip. We had a blast and so did Ethan. Ethan slept really well both nights, and mommy and daddy did the second night. The first night our considerate neighbors arrived at 11:30, started a campfire at 1:30 and finally went to bed at 2:30 after we asked them to "please go to bed.":)

Canada

Ok, so Lyndsay has been on my case for a few weeks now to recount the events of "the boys" trip to visit my folks. The problem is she has never really taught me how to create a post on her blog. Some may call it censorship while others may feel it is not a husbands place to write on his wife's blog. Whatever the case, here's a few details about our trip.

EJ and I flew up to Edmonton for two reasons: The first was to visit my parents (accomplished) and the second was to win the Herman Bodewitz Classic Golf Tournament (ditto). This was a great time for a little male bonding between father and son. No girls to spoil our fun or to tell us to "grow up" and "act our age". Nope, this was pure, unadulterated man time...except my mom was there too.

For the most part we just chilled around the house, hit golf balls into "the forest" (as EJ calls it), and did a bit of four-wheeling.

For the few weeks leading up to our trip EJ couldn't contain his excitement over the prospect of making a fire with Opa. As this picture shows EJ has very strict standards by which Opa should make a fire and he wasn't afraid to voice his opinion over the job Opa was doing.

Another highlight of the trip was the opportunity for EJ to take Uncle Ryan's quad out by himself and spin 360's through various mud puddles. I'm just kidding Lyndsay. I was with him as we wreaked havoc across the Canadian wilderness. EJ enjoyed the flying mud, blazing down trails, and swallowing whatever insect managed to get in our way.

EJ teaching Uncle Ryan how to play golf (well).

So aside from our family visit, I had the opportunity to play in our 6th annual family golf tournament which my uncles have put together in memory of my Opa. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with family and kick their tails (in a loving way). I'm kidding. Dad, Ryan, my cousin Tom, and I shot a 7-under round to once again get our names engraved on the hallowed trophy. I was debating trying to smuggle the trophy back across the border but from as you can see, hiding a six foot trophy in a carry-on is not an easy task. Well...it's almost six feet.

The Holy Grail.

Overall, we had a great trip and are looking forward to my parents visiting us soon. The girls were glad to have the boys home safe and sound and EJ and I enjoyed the wonderful "family hug" we were able to share when we walked in the door.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

On Tuesday our little boy turned 3! It is pretty hard to believe he is 3 already. I can so clearly remember coming home from the hospital with him and many of his "firsts." He continues to be our sweet little boy. He is pretty obedient for the most part and loves to please his mommy and daddy. He loves his little sister and can't wait until she can really play with him. Ethan continues to be a little timid when he is around a lot of people, but he warms up quicker these days and isn't as afraid to join in the fun. We have great conversations with him lately. He still asks a million questions everyday. Sometimes we have answers and sometimes we don't. It is fun to watch his mind try to grasp the world around him. He has such a tender heart and will often say, "I just love you mommy." And that makes it all worth it!

Here are some pictures of the festivities. Ethan again celebrated his birthday 3 times. Enjoy the pics.

Ethan's first celebration was in Canada with Opa, Oma, Opapa, Omama, Omama, Uncle Ryan, Auntie Jessica and Daddy.

He got a lot of fun movies, cd's, sticker books, cars and the promise of a bike.

Sitting by Auntie Jessica while everyone sings.

Here is the cake I made for Ethan. It was a lot of fun to try my hand at something creative. All the kids had a great time requesting which part of the golf course they wanted to eat. Papa and Nana picked up the golf cart in Pebble Beach.

We had a few friends over on Monday for some swimming and playing.

Enjoying his cake!

He got spoiled by his friends too!

When Ethan woke up on his birthday we had a couple presents waiting from mommy and daddy and lots of balloons.

He can hardly contain his excitement.

Here Ethan is pushing his lawnmower, the present we got him.

And one final celebration. We had Papa and Nana over for pizza and cake on his birthday. He got a laptop game and a vest from them.

All in all, I'd say it was a great birthday. Ethan was showered with love and special presents and activities. Happy Birthday big guy. We love you!

Cousins

Kevin and Ethan were up in Canada this past weekend. Kevin golfed in a family tournament and Ethan had a blast with Opa, Oma, Auntie Jessica and Uncle Ryan. Kevin will be posting about their trip soon, so stay tuned.

While they were gone Morgan and I tried to stay busy. It was nice to actually have and make time to sit down and read books with her and play with her. Kara and Annika came up for a few days so it was fun to catch up with Kara and to watch the girls interact a little bit. Their interaction pretty much consisted of Morgan getting SO excited (kicking and squealing) to see Annika, Morgan grabbing Annika's face, arms, legs etc, and then Annika blinking rapidly wondering why her mommy let this terror of a baby near her:) Kara kept saying it was good for Annika, but I'm sure it was nice when cousin Mo went home. Morgan absolutely loves other babies and kids so she was in heaven having another baby around to "play" with. We keep saying that it will be so fun to watch these two together as they grow up. Both of them have a lot of spunk and personality, so I think when they are playing "quietly" we'll know some trouble is brewing:)

Annika was safest in the excersaucer, even then there were a few eye pokes now and then. Annika loves to bounce in the excersaucer and then Morgan would bounce with her on the outside. Pretty cute.

Trying to stay cool with this 100+ weather we've been having. The pool felt like a bathtub. The babies loved it, and so did the mommies.

This picture doesn't show it very well, but Annika was just relaxing in her boat. She had her head resting on the back of the seat and she was chillin'.

My mom bought the girls matching outfits a few months ago so we had to take a cousin picture. This was no small accomplishment either.

The video is of Morgan stealing Annika's binky. Even though she had her own, she was sure Annika's tasted better. We only have video of them doing this once, but Morgan swapped several times. For the most part Annika didn't care, but this was towards the end and she was done with her cousin stealing her binky!

This and That

We have just been busy doing life here. I am tutoring 3 mornings a week, it is amazing how adding 8 hours of work outside the home makes life that much busier. We are loving having Kevin home. I've mentioned to him a few times that a certain little boy is going to have a really hard time when Kevin goes back to school in August. Ethan has LOVED having daddy home! Kevin is also doing some tutoring and golf lessons and some work on his thesis.

Ethan was invited to his friend Kate's 3rd birthday party at a park. Here he is with some of his little buddies. I love the picture where they're sitting down because both boys have their arms around the girls, so sweet.

The park we were at has water fountains for the kids to play with. We have been there a few times before and Ethan usually wants nothing to do with the water. He finally got wet this time when he had this bubble wand to whack the water with.

Here's my little crazy girl. Morgan has so much life and energy. I have to give her a couple things to play with when I take her weekly picture otherwise there is no way to get her to sit still for even a couple seconds. She sure keeps us on our toes:)

One of Morgan's favorite things to do in our house is to stand by her highchair and take all the bibs out off the little shelf and throw them on the floor. She actually loves to empty anything she can, baskets of books, trashcans, drawers...It keeps her busy though, so we let her do it and clean up afterwards.

4th of July

We had a pretty traditional 4th of July yesterday. We joined my parents at their country club where they had a bounce house, music and dinner. Ethan had a great time in the bounce house and even got to golf a hole, which he absolutely loved.

Morgan decked out in her stars and stripes. She loved exploring everything outside and thought she was pretty cool when she climbed on the chair and then later climbed up by Papa and Nana's golf cart. She could have spent hours out there. It was nice and cool under the oak trees.

Papa and Nana and the kids. No picture is complete these days without Ethan's super cheesy smile. He was itching to golf with Daddy so he wasn't real cooperative with the picture.

This year our town did not do fireworks because of budget cuts, so we decided to have a show of our own. We invited a few families over for ice cream and fireworks. Everyone brought a few so we had about an hour and a half worth of sparklers, poppers and fireworks. The last 45 minutes Ethan kept asking to go to bed because he didn't like the fireworks. He liked the nice quiet ones, but hated the noisy ones, which stays true to his personality. The week leading up to the 4th he was just so excited for fireworks, but he had no idea what they were about. Hopefully next year he will relax a little more and enjoy them.

Before we started our fireworks our neighbors started lighting off theirs. We had 7 little boys (one was in the bathroom for this pic) over and they all ran down the street to watch the neighbors. They had a blast together.

Here is one of the fireworks Kevin lit and another little boy watching. I don't have any of Ethan near any fireworks, because he never got close enough:)

Summertime!

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos trying to stay cool this summer. While June has been unseasonably "cool", the last week more than makes up for it. Last weekend started a heatwave of 100+ for 5 days. We've been spending lots of time in the air conditioned house and a little bit of time at my parent's pool.

The kids love to play on this little slide. Ethan jumps off the slide and Morgan just laughs and laughs at him.

Just a sweet picture of Mommy and Morgan.

Our little dude...almost 3 years old!

Morgan LOVES the pool. As soon as we get her suit on and get her close to the pool she starts to kick her legs! She is wearing a little string bikini in this picture. You can't really see it, but it's pretty cute:)

This was how Morgan was taking her nap the other day. Her legs crossed and up on the edge of the crib.