Point Defiance Zoo--July 2012

With summer's arrival school got out!  Which means extra play time with our good friends Kelly, Justin and Anderson.  Kelly and I decided to take the boys to the zoo the first week of July.  It was a decent day weather-wise and the trip to Sonic before (and after) was a nice splurge as well!

First stop:  the elephants!

 Anderson and Ethan checking out the sleeping tiger.

 The otters were inside on this day and they were all snuggly in a little dog house.  It was really cute!

 We stopped to watch some people take a ride on the camel.

 The penguins were right by the fence, so it was fun to stand and visit them.

 Carter loved any of the big glass aquarium windows.

 Ethan and Anderson telling Carter about the fish.

 Cute little smirk

 Visiting the sharks

 Lovin' the colorful fish!

 Anderson found this empty sign holder and just went over there on his own and was standing in it, so I had to get a picture!

 E.T., the Walrus

 I tried to get a picture of the boys by this life-sized polar bear, but as you can see, Ethan was less than cooperative!

 Last stop was the little play area, where Ethan found a little nest to snuggle up in.

Everyone was worn out from a fun day with friends!

Random June Fun

There are so many funny moments that I can't get to the camera fast enough for, but I still manage to catch some good ones.  One day Ethan and Carter were just playing in the bathroom.  Ethan was fully dressed in the empty bathtub and Carter was practically naked just itching to get in!  Carter loves the bath tub!

 I don't know what it is about boxes, but Ethan is constantly trying to climb into them!  He is just plain silly!

 I think Carter was propped up like this drinking a bottle while Ethan watched cartoons.  He just looked like such a big boy!

 Ethan saw that the camera was out and wanted to get in on the fun!

 The garden really started booming!  We started harvesting our lettuce and it has been such a nice, fresh treat to go with our meals.

 My dad has strawberry plants that Ethan loves to eat off of.  My dad actually told me the other day he's never eaten any of his strawberries because he saves them for Ethan because he knows how much he loves them...what a dedicated Papa!

 Enjoying his strawberries with breakfast!

 Carter finally got really confident about standing and pulling himself up.  He loves to watch out the window.

 Ethan always wants to hold Carter, which is very cute.  Unfortunately, Carter very rarely wants to be held now that he's so mobile!

 My tomato plan started getting fruit!  These are sweet yellow tomatoes.  They are small like cherry tomatoes.

 The carrots started really sprouting as well!

 Carter is pretty much done with baby food and will eat anything you put in front of him.  The thing I love about this phase:  he can feed himself.  The things I hate about this phase:

 There is always such a huge mess to clean up!

 Carter loves the laundry room and the bathroom.  One day I caught him being devious in the laundry room digging in the clean laundry and playing with the rug.  Just look at that face...he knows he's such a cutie!

 Ethan still loves playing with his cars.  For some reason he likes to take rugs from all over the house and turn them upside down to drive on them.  He has a rug that is meant for driving cars on that has roads and all and he even turns THAT one upside down.  Such a silly boy!!

In case you couldn't tell by all of the pajama pictures, June was a pretty laid back month after all the Father's Day celebrations were over.  We just hung out, enjoyed the pretty weather when we could and played!

Father's Day

On Father's day this little cutie turned 9 months old...I can't believe that he's almost 1!  You can see he got a little sunburned at the airshow the day before...I was a bad mom and didn't use sunscreen.

 Carter is laughing or smiling most of the time these days (far different from his infancy).

• It is rare for him to be fussy or clingy for no reason.  He is starting to have some separation anxiety, but overall he does great.  
• He stands for several seconds on his own and has one tooth that finally broke through.  
• He is loving finger foods and will try anything that we put in front of him.  Thankfully, he doesn't have the same sensitive gag reflex Ethan did.  
• He LOVES Ethan and wants to be in the middle of everything Ethan is doing.  
• He also loves baths.  He will come crawling as fast as he can the minute the bath water is turned on. 
•  His sleeping is still hit and miss, but we are definitely on the good side of things.  He's ready for bed by 7 most nights and usually sleeps until 7 in the morning.  He might wake up once or twice but rarely needs more than a pacifier to go back to sleep.  He still takes 2 naps a day--usually one around 9 and then another around 1 for about and hour or an hour and a half.  Ethan always complains that he wants to play with Carter when I go to put him down.  I'm glad they are good buddies!

 We celebrated our "Super Dads" on Sunday morning before church since we don't meet until 1.  Since things didn't work out to celebrate with my dad on Saturday we had my parents over for brunch on Sunday morning.

 My mom and dad brought some super yummy pastries for us...maple bars are Tristan's favorite so I asked for some as a surprise for him.

 I made a new recipe--this egg ring from Pinterest.  It was actually really good and kept well for leftovers.  I will definitely be keeping this in my recipe box!

 Ethan and Carter before church (sorry about the lighting).  Ethan refused to cooperate and get in the picture so Tristan is pretending to just have one son here.  The boys got the tie he is wearing for him for Father's Day.

 After dinner--beef stroganoff (another of Tristan's favorites)--we went over to the cemetary to visit Tristan's dad's grave with the boys.  I finally snagged a pic of the 3 of them before we left.

 Then we came home and had Key Lime Poke Cake for dessert and an early birthday celebration for Tristan.

It was a full weekend, but it was fun to spend so much time celebrating what a wonderful person and father Tristan is.  I am so grateful for him and all he does to support our family!

Olympic Airshow

For obvious reasons, our family loves to go watch the airshow every summer.  It always falls on Father's Day weekend, so it's a great way to spend time celebrating with family and friends.  We made plans to meet Tristan's family to picnic and watch, but actually ended up meeting up with a group of our friends on accident so we had a rather large group!  The kids played, adults napped and visited and we had a great time...even when it poured at the end of the show!  Tristan got some great shots of the airplanes as they flew overhead.  Some of them get so close to the ground you think you could reach up and touch it!

 There is a bark distributor across the street from the airport so Ethan always likes to go see the diggers when we go to the airshow.

 Hangin' out it the back of the car

 This was a BIG plane!

 Ethan plugging his ears

 Daredevil stunts are always fun to watch.

 How many kids can fit into one wagon?  Poor Caitlyn...a wagon full of boys and they are making her do all the work.  Look how Ethan is trying to squeeze on by sitting on the handle.  It was pretty funny to watch!

 The airshow includes helicopters as well, which is always a highlight for our family.

 We had originally invited my dad to come down and watch with us as well to celebrate Father's Day with him but he had some other things he had to take care of.  But he did stop by to say hi and Ethan, of course, wanted to take him to see the diggers.  Funny story:  So my dad took Ethan and Caitlyn for a little walk and right about that time the Hornet, which is SUPER loud flew over.  The next thing we know my dad is walking back with a screaming Caitlyn and a rather confused-looking Ethan.  He said that when the plane flew over, they both started crying and ran in opposite directions.  My poor dad didn't know what to do.  I don't blame the poor kids, my ears hurt when it flew over.  After that we put earplugs in Ethan's ears and they stayed in the rest of the day.  Ethan didn't want to take them out!

 Tristan's brother and his wife, Nicole, came down to visit as well!  That's his sister Desiree in the background.

 Tristan's mom and sister, Tennille.

 More helicopters!

 I think this might have been the one that was really loud, but I can't remember.

 Channeling Top Gun...

 Carter did great.  He even napped in the Ergo for about an hour.  This is the end of his battle with Hand, Food and Mouth disease so he's got some blisters around his mouth still.  Poor guy!

 Laughing with his Uncle Kelsey.

 We had a great time with our family and friends and I know that this is one family tradition that our little family will always enjoy!