Who needs a pool when you've got a ....

....SLIDE

Simply disassemble the slide from the ladder.... Filler up....
and JUMP IN!!!

What could possibly be more fun than playing in the water fully-clothed? The kids created their very own WATER SLIDE!

And to think Shawn and I were actually talking about getting a wading pool for the kids.... and we already had one.

Reporting to Texas!

Ian finally left for the Air Force, yeah!

We are all really excited for him. Not that we ever doubted he'd make it, but man, the hoops they had him jumping through! The biggest worry was his weight. He's not big by any means! But they had their guideline and he was getting pretty close. The day before he had to check in he was 2 lbs OVER. My mom and I were freaking out, but Ian was as calm as ever. He did it though. He weighed in under and was sworn in Tuesday morning around 10:30am. He caught is flight around 1:30pm and I'm sure he's in Texas right now getting yelled at. He's got what it takes though, he's had his share of people yelling at him :-) Anyways, I'm so proud of him.

My mom threw him a going away party. Of course, she outdid herself, as usual. She found out I was coming and said "oh good, now you can help me prepare." I get there and EVERYTHING is done. She decorated her house so cute, got all the food prepared... EVERYTHING. I decorated the cake, that's it. Everything else was my mom and she's amazing!


My mom was pretty stressed and nervous... I mean Ian is her baby and this is a HUGE step for him, I don't blame her. This is proof that we did have some light hearted moments :-)Ian's girlfriend, Clarissa couldn't make it to the party, or to his swearing in and send off. She's been in the hospital with pneumonia. Poor thing! Ian was able to stop by and say hi to her. We all had to wear masks, but he took his off for 3 seconds to take this picture.

A lot of people came to say goodbye to Ian.....Brett and Ian. These two go WAY BACK. All the way back to when I would catch them at my mom's house ditching school. "Dude Kristina, it was so crazy, when we got to school, they were loading everybody up on the buses to take them home, I guess they were evacuating the whole school 'cause of some sort of threat." You would think they could have at least come up with a better excuse. The Reeves Family. Lorrie was Ian's day care provider for a few years so they've helped shape Ian to who he is today. We are so blessed to know them, they're the kindest family!

Carrie and Ian. Ian with his dog Cubby (barking as usual). The Family. Joe and Donna with their boys, JD and Nick. Joe is my mom's brother. The boys, JD, Ian, and Nick.Dan Kotyk and Ian

Me and Ian. I think I surprised him by flying down . He said his girlfriend told him someone was coming who he hadn't seen in a long time, so he had suspicion..... CLARISSA, if you weren't in the hospital I might be angry with you!!

Ian with his Aunts, Pat and Bobbie (my mom's aunts).

Ian, Nancy (my mom), Pat, Me, Joe, and Bobby. My friend Melissa said, "oh, I don't think I've met your family." Well, here they are, look around, this is all of us, this is it!!! My mom's neighbor, Bill, giving Ian some words of advice. He's been a real mentor to Ian through this entire process.

Of all the pictures I took, I was silly enough to forget my mom and dad, how sad. Luckily, the got a picture with Ian after he was sworn in.

I was lucky to have my friends come over for a bit. Here I am with Carrie who just brightens my whole day. Just a small dose of her and I am smiling for weeks. Her happiness is completely contagious.

And Melissa. You'd never know it, but there's an adorable tummy there. I'm already in love with baby Ella Claire. Oh, I had to rub her belly, and for a second there I was feeling the baby fever. When I got home though, Shawn gave me a good dose of medicine and I've been cured. All it took was the screaming car ride home from the airport.

I'm so glad I got the opportunity to fly down to see Ian off. Just spending those last couple days with him meant a lot to me. Based on his enthusiasm and the fact that he couldn't stop talking about the Air Force, I know he's going to do well. He's been waiting so long for this opportunity. I know it will be an adjustment for him, but he'll do really well. Oh we love him so much!

The real highlight of my trip though, if you can believe it, was discovering this in my mom's garage. This is a statue of my mom when she was a little girl. Hilarious! The only people I know who have these are members of royalty.... and my mom. I definitely think it deserves better treatment than time-out on the floor of her garage. Perhaps along the rooftop as a gargoyle, or in a fruit tree to scare away birds. any ideas?... send them my mom's way.

I'm off...

This afternoon I leave for California.... ALONE!!!

no kids, no baby, no husband, no one

I've racked my brain to think of any time I have ever left Shawn with the kids for longer than an hour or two. I can remember 1 time, when Jefferson was 10 months old I went away over night with my sister-in-laws. Other than that, never. And I can only think of 2 times I've left Shawn and taken the kids. We are just hardly ever separated.

THIS IS MONUMENTAL!

Note: Shawn is the greatest dad in the world and I don't doubt his ability to watch and care for his kids for a second! As for myself, I feel a silly worry feeling. Like a lack of control. What if this, or what if that. Will I'm just a goof.

My mom is throwing my brother a going away party this weekend... he's joining the Air Force. A week ago Shawn asks me "how would you like to go see Ian off?" NO WAY am I going to drive back down there with my kids, I tell him. "Well, you don't have to worry about that, I bought you a ticket to go down by yourself!" WHAT? How thoughtful, maybe he's not so bad after all, ha!

I am going to have absolutely NO responsibilities for 2 whole days. What am I going to do with myself? I may possibly even be able to sleep all the way through the night and even sleep in!! The thought makes me gitty. It's the small things that bring me complete happiness.

Ian doesn't know I'm coming, so he'll be surprised.

Yeah, I can't wait.

Time to pack, then I'm off....

27, holy cow!

Last Wednesday was Shawn's 27th Birthday

YEAH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

This year has been a stinky one for birthdays. It started with Reagan's 1st birthday which was put together at the last minute, we didn't even have candles. Poor Grant got a deformed cake. I got deathly ill and was in bed most of the day on my birthday. We celebrated Jefferson's birthday 2 weeks prior so when his real birthday came he was disappointed we weren't doing anything... won't do that again! And now Shawn's birthday... I didn't even really start thinking about it until 2 days before. To top it off, on all these birthdays I didn't even bother to wrap the gifts. I am a horrible horrible wife and mother. I have 6 months until the next birthday... plenty of time to get my act together!

Shawn is an awesome guy though, and thought his birthday was the greatest!!

Here he is with the greatest breakfast ever. What guy wouldn't love a bacon placemat? Yes, that's an entire package of bacon. And Yes, Shawn ate the whole thing (without getting sick)!

He got the day off work and spent some time alone... more like 6 hours!!! Oh, to have 6 hours to myself (I'm a little envious). In the afternoon he took the family to Safari Sam's. It's an indoor jungle gym/arcade. The kids LOVED it. Jefferson said "this is my best birthday ever," I had to remind him it was Daddy's birthday, not his, "I know, but this is still the best birthday ever!"

Here is Shawn playing with the kids - what he does best! They ADORE him!!

Happy Birthday to the greatest husband and father!

27, wow... do you feel old?

I promise to make next year unforgettable.
Absolutely no mention of Safari Sam's!

Fun with family

This last weekend was a blast!

Shawn's parents came up to visit us from California. The kids spent the entire day outside in the front yard watching for them to drive up, they just wouldn't come inside. Boy were they excited to see Grandma and Grandpa. The second they arrived, Jefferson started talking to them, and he never stopped the entire weekend.

We went to the beach on Friday. It was scalding hot here in Hillsboro so we all dressed for it. But it was windy and freezing at Seaside, bummer. Of course the kids didn't seem to mind. Jefferson went straight for the water. He and Grandma spent most of the time running in and out of the waves.

Peggy tried taking Grant out into the water to fill his bucket when an itty-bitty wave came...

and this was the result...

Note to self... keep Grant away from the water

The smart ones stayed under the umbrella

The smarter ones sat like this...

Don't get me wrong, it was really fun, I'm just a baby! We stayed for a few hours while the kids played in the sand and the grown ups 'people-watched'.

The next day was the Fourth of July. This has got to be one of my favorite holidays. I love celebrating this wonderful country. I love American History, heck, we named our kids after Presidents! There is no better way to celebrate the birth of our country than with a PARADE! Yeah. We weren't actually planning to go to the parade, we just wanted to get some berries at the Farmer's Market. But since we were there, why not.... The kids loved it. More than me? I don't know.

Loud music, marching bands, horses, big trucks, flags flags flags, dancers and....

CANDYJefferson was an awesome big brother and got candy for himself and Grant. My favorite thing about the parade was yelling the boys names. Sounds weird. I usually feel uncomfortable shouting out my kids names in public. But it was almost patriotic. I don't think there's any other place more appropriate to yell "Jefferson, Grant, Reagan!"

That night we set off fireworks. The boys had a hard time waiting until dark "Can we do 'boom boom' (fireworks) now? Now? Can we do them now? It's getting darker, can we do them now? Please? Please?" They rode bikes and played outside to pass the time until the fireworks. Here they are practicing for the American Bobsled Team.

Coming from an area in California where they're illegal, we had a ton of fun setting off our own. Reagan even got to set off sparklers this year, she loved 'em. Here's a video of her with her first firework. Silly me, I filmed it sideways, but you can still hear her excitement!

My mom gave me this idea of drilling a hole in a cup and placing the sparkler through, so the kids could safely hold it. Genius... thanks Mom it worked like a charm!

Jefferson and Grant enjoyed ALL of them. We didn't spend too much on fireworks though, we don't have to when we have neighbors who spend tons of money on illegal fireworks. We have our own personal show in our front yard. These suckers are Fireworks Show quality. The cops drove through the neighborhood, but that didn't seem to stop anyone.

Watching the show

Monday we took a drive up through the Columbia Gorge and visited Multnomah Falls.... which never ceases to amaze me. The beauty is breathtaking!

Here we are at a lookout along the road. SOOOO beautiful, and peaceful!

Reagan taking a peek

Taking a walk with Grandma and Grandpa

We stopped at Latourell Falls and hiked in for a closer look. Check out those rock formations, (and Shawn's head). I wish I knew more about geology to know what happened to cause that, but I do know it's amazing.

The crazy's actually walked to the bottom of the falls to get an up-close-and-personal look.

We got wet.... very very wet

Then it was off to Multnomah! Here's Monty and Peggy enjoying the sight.

The other two were lost at this point

Jefferson, waiting for the family to catch up along the trail

The kids favorite things about Grandma and Grandpa's visit....

Going to the parks,
Riding in Grandpa's car

Riding pet horses with Grandma (named Moon, Star, and Blood... can you guess which one was Grant's?),

Making homemade ice cream "but I didn't like it" (Jefferson) We had sooo much fun. Thank you Monty and Peggy for spoiling us :-) You guys drove all the way up here which was kind enough! The kids loved having you around and we enjoyed visiting. We love love love you guys and can't wait until Christmas when we see you again

XOXO