Puddle Time

I have to share these pictures Ryan's mom just sent me from our visit last weekend!  There is a great park across the street from their new house and of course with all the amazing play structure equipment at their disposal the boys chose to run in puddles instead!  I don't think the puddles were there when we first got to the park but the sprinklers came on and the run off made a GIANT puddle around one whole side of the playground path.  Silas discovered it first and started taking some puddle laps then Noah joined in and by the time we were ready to leave the park there was a herd of seven or eight kids running crazy in the puddles!  So much fun!

The ever cautious Noah had to remove his socks before
getting too crazy in the puddles...

They all ran circles around the park
for almost an hour (good naps :) 

So happy!

Of course he had to sit in it too...

Tarzan

Lunch Conversation Today
Noah: Hey mom, can you teach me how to climb a tree after quiet time?

Me: Sure, which tree do you want to climb?

Noah: I tried to climb that big one yesterday but it didn't work.  Do we have a giant rope?  

Me: Why do we need a rope?????

Noah: I think I need a big rope to help pull me into the tree, I really want to climb a tree!

So, after quiet time today Noah and I set out to climb some trees in our yard.  It has been quite a few years since I have climbed a tree, and I totally forgot how much fun it is!  Noah was very cautious at first, trying every tree in the yard on for size before he settled on the magnolia tree, which is the perfect climbing tree.  It was amazing how fast he went from being scared as soon as his feet left the ground and wanting me right there to a huge swinging dismount!  I told him he looked like a monkey out there swinging from the branches and he said "no mom, I am a monkey spider!" 

Trying to figure this climbing thing out...

Why are you taking pictures like it is my senior prom or something???

Getting the hang of this! 

Climbing higher!

His swinging dismount!!

Starting to make me a little nervous...

The best kind of car rides...

Three Sisters

Ever drive by those scenic viewpoints and think, that would be a great photo op???  I always did and now that we have a potty trained little dude, we have an excuse to stop at all those beautiful places for potty breaks!   We do have frequent stops at places like McDonalds and the always stinky rest stops that we did not usually have before but there are a lot of really amazing places that I am excited to visit along our usual drives!

The beautiful Three Sisters!

Caught him for a picture...

We had to bribe them with milkshakes to get them back to the car!
Noah came running (of course) and Silas did not seem to care...

They probably would have ran around this little strip along the
highway all day if we would have let them!

Helping out with wildfire prevention!!!

Have TV will travel!

One of the highlights of road trips for the boys is that they get to watch a movie or two in the car.  We recently bought removable DVD players for the car that magically appear for the longer drives to visit the grandparents.
Noah decided his Cozy Coupe needed to have a DVD player so he could watch Cars while cruising around the house.  We have a seriously creative little man on our hands!!!

Good thing George has a carseat in the back, these roads around
the house can be pretty dangerous!
Wondering how he drives??????

Ace Ventura style!!!

Had to add this one.  Silas was like a little Jack in the Box, every time
I would try to take a picture of Noah in his car Silas would pop
up in front of the camera and say cheese...  He thought this was
the funniest thing ever.  
Why don't they ever do this when I ask them to?????

Night Away (Rare Occasion)

It has been a while since Ryan and I have had a night away and since some friends were getting married in Sun River on Friday evening we decided it was the perfect excuse!  We attended a beautiful wedding with seriously amazing food (&beverages), stayed the night  at the Sun River Resort (going to make that an annual weekend getaway) and even managed to fit in some shopping and a movie (we finally saw The Hangover II) before heading back to Mayme and Boppa's house for the rest of the weekend!
Thank you Mayme and Boppa for hanging with the little guys, we really appreciate it and they had a blast!!!

Inside the Sunriver Lodge Great Hall.  The picture is totally blurry
(taken with Ryan's phone) but the room was seriously breathtaking!

I am completely in love with my black & white dress and would
like to find an excuse to wear it every day :)

We need to get a little better about taking pictures of the two of us!
These were all taken with Ryan's phone so not the best quality...

Instead of signing a traditional guest book all the guests put a fingerprint
on the tree and wrote their name next to it!!!
Maybe I am completely out of the wedding loop but  I thought
this was the most brilliant idea ever!

Somebody may or may not have had 2 or 3 too many martinis...
Not my fault, their signature wedding drink
was a Blueberry Lemondrop and they went down pretty easy :)

To nap or not to nap???

Noah has gone over a week now without a nap and it is killing me and my to do list...  Nap time has always been my two hours of get everything under the sun done and I am afraid it is coming to an end.  Silas is still napping like a rock star but Noah seems to be on a nap strike.  A few weeks ago he started calling it quiet time and then it was work time because I always tell him that I need to get my work done while he is in his room, the last couple days he does not want to do either, grrrrrr!!!  I have managed to get him in his room every day but it the quietness only lasts about 10-15 minutes before I hear "Mom, mom, MOM, I feel a poop coming up"  of course I get him into the bathroom and sometimes he goes and sometimes he doesn't but after the poop commotion there is no getting him back down, double grrrrrr!!
The last few days I have told him that he could come out but that he needs to entertain himself for a while so I get my things done.  The first day was a little rocky as he just wanted me to play but the last couple days he has actually played quietly by himself for at least an hour.  I guess he is going to be four in a couple months so maybe I just need to accept that he is growing out of naps but this is seriously difficult!!!
Although, yesterday I was down in the office catching up on my bookkeeping & payroll and noticed the house got really quiet and this is where I found Noah!  Maybe there is still a little bit of nap hope!!!

You can't really see it in the picture but he is laying
on top of his bag of Sun Chips and about half the
chips are crushed under him.   Apparently he
must have passed out halfway through his snack...

Last day of school...

Today was Noah's last day of school for the summer!  He is going to be there quite a bit for summer camps but today was his last actual day of class!  He was super excited to bring his teachers the flowers he picked out for them and the special cards he made (I love that he loves giving gifts & cards so much)!!!  They had a party packed class today complete with a bounce house, cookie decorating, sidewalk chalk and bubbles, he was just a little hyper and excited when I got there to pick him up!
I had told him that on his last day of school we could go have a treat somewhere, anywhere he wanted...  He asked for Jamba Juice, a chocolate milkshake, an ice cream cone and a doughnut...  We compromised with a Chocolate Moo'd at Jamba Juice.

Getting his special number and color books from Teacher Jenelle!
The number book is all of his math work sheets and the color book has
his hand prints in every different color, super cute!

"It's my last day of school!!!"

George

After 3 1/2 years we have had our first George casualty...
George was given to me from a former co-worker at one of my showers.  I remember when I opened it I thought it was the silliest/weirdest little thing ever.  A teddy bear that is just a head with a little blanket and no body, a little creepy if you ask me. I honestly never thought we would even cut the tags off the strange little bear...
However, George became a fixture in Noah's life in December of 2007.   We were sitting by our Christmas tree watching It's a Wonderful Life with our sweet new baby Noah who was a little fussy.  We brought out our arsenal of toys to try and entertain him and for whatever reason he fell in love with the silly little bear with no body.  We named him George after George Bailey on It's a Wonderful Life.
When Noah was about a year old George started becoming a little ragged and I made it my mission to find George II to have just in case of a George catastrophe.  I found an exact replica of George on Ebay and paid a small fortune for him but it was worth every penny!  We have been rotating the Georges ever since.
George came to the Rose festival with us yesterday to hang with Noah in the stroller but was not in the stroller when we got back to our car :(   Lucky for us there was another George waiting in his special hiding spot at home and Noah never even realized that George stayed at the Rose Festival.  For some reason I have been so sad about George falling off the stroller.  It seriously makes me want to cry when I think of Noah's little George laying on the ground somewhere on the waterfront getting trampled or kicked aside, but thank goodness for our backup...

My favorite picture of Noah and George!

Rose Festival

Our friend Jason from high school is a Lieutenant in the Coast Guard and his ship happened to be at the Rose Festival this year so he invited us aboard for a behind the scenes tour!   The boys have been so excited about this all week!  Noah had some pretty good questions about the ship but was mainly wanting to know if the engine was bigger than his bunk bed??  Answer - YES!  They were a little scared of the engine room (it was super loud) but the engine was definitely bigger than his bunk bed.  Silas has been talking about the "super (uber) loud boat engine" all afternoon!  They got to pick out some snacks in the galley and hang in Jason's Captain's quarters, Noah even got to go potty on the ship (pretty big deal)!!!

Jason's ship, the USCGC Henry Blake, it is
hard to believe that at 175 feet long it was
one of the smaller ships there!

Beautiful morning for a walk on the waterfront!

Hanging out on the bridge! 

Listening very intently as Jason explained how to drive the ship!

"Hey mom, this is the silliest steering wheel ever!"

Checking out all the cool ships!
Jason gave the boys hats and Noah wore
his most of  the day, super cute!

School Picture

Noah had his first ever school pictures this spring at his new school.  Based on the look on his face I am guessing he was a little nervous about it!!  I'm not sure what the wagon wheel is all about either...

Wedding Season

We have several weddings happening this summer so Noah has had lots and lots of wedding questions lately.   The boys are going to make their first attempt at being ring bearers in my brother Jordan's wedding on the 4th of July and Noah is getting seriously excited!  After a major wedding question session yesterday morning I decided to get out my perfectly preserved wedding dress and some pictures to show the boys!
What do they do??? Turn it into a highway of course...

Spring Flowers