The end of vaca and Harry Potter

Still catching up on posting, whew!

The end of our trip we spent in Illinois with my family.

Two of my little cousin's sharing Benjamin

Nap Time!

Amie likes little Benjamin - even though he pooped on her. HA!

Brodie rode his bike w/o training wheels in the front yard. He didn't have a helmet so he had to stick to the grass but this kid will be rollin' in the streets before we know it. Watch out!

....well maybe not Too fast.... he did crash rather soon after - but it wasn't the riding that got him, it was the trying to get off of the bike... Erica is a great mom, she's just making fun of him about it. :)

Benjamin had a Swell time meeting all of the family, didn't ya little man?

Looks like a "yes" to me!

...Awww sibling love.

.....While in Sterling... I found, on my mom's bookshelf... a few Harry Potter books. Now, I should preface this by saying that I have seen the most recent movie and I enjoyed it throughout until the ending. There were so many things that weren't tied together yet! So many things that that ah!! I was angry about it by the ending! SO... when I saw the books on the shelf... well I just knew I had to read the last book so I could understand why so much was left ...hanging at the end of the last movie. That said, within a couple days, Benjamin had already been read 200 pages of Harry Potter......... Jared and I get really really excited now for evening reading time. haha... :)

Family Photo!

Ohio part 2

By humpledinger that vacation flew by!

We learned a few things while away visiting family.

1. We need to someday have a little covered porch to drink coffee under and listen to the rain.

2. We need super cute lawn decorations such as this trike.

3. Jared takes really nice photographs!

4. plan in ample extra minutes... extra half hours even... when you are trying to get yourself, as well as an infant ready to go to a wedding.

There was plenty of time - it seemed. Until right before I was about to get a chance to shower... Mt. St. Helen erupted out the side of Benjamin's mouth. While both Jared and I were getting ready, we didn't notice that it had happened. When we go to pick him up, the back of our little man's head was covered in regurgitated milk. Then came the question... Who needs a bath/shower/cleaning worse? Mom? or Benjamin? Ben won the coin toss. We gave him a bath in the sink and there was just enough time that I could dunk my unruly bed-head under the tub faucet. fortunately I don't think anyone Really noticed...

A pretty picture of Jared's Mom's gazebo...for your enjoyment.

5. Traveling long distances with a 6 week old isn't SO bad...as long as one is willing to pump her boobs while riding along in the car. Yes - I did it. All the truckers driving by... got a peek - or at least received a new curiosity of "what the hell does that woman have attached to her?" I hope they googled it when they got home... BUT by doing this... we could pop a bottle in Ben's face behind us to quell his screaming, wait until the gas/bladder stop to burp him and get the dirty dirty diaper changed, and hardly any time was lost!

6. We need 83 diapers for a 12 day trip, not...80.

Ohio, Part 1.

Okay, there isn't much time to talk Too much about the photos. Or to do too much of the writing that I've taken notes and "plan to do"... BUT! To keep you from forgetting about us, and to keep me from getting backlogged with photos!

We arrived in Ohio on Wednesday evening.

Thursday we went to Rhonda's mom's house to visit Jared's dad and Rhonda and that side of the world. They had a ton of fun with Benjamin and we went shopping for an outfit that Ben could wear to the wedding.

Too cute.

The wedding for Jared's cousin was Friday and Jared FINALLY got to wear his kilt... All of the groomsmen wore them and... I've never seen Jared or Josh so excited to get out of bed and get dressed. You'd think it was Christmas or something...

They looked Very handsome.

Benjamin also got dressed up, but...not without giving us the look of "uuuh yeah my belly is big... whats it to ya?"

In time, the crew of us was ready... I'm taking the picture... but I was ready too. Jared was off somewhere probably not entirely ready.......

There are more wedding pictures, but they are on another camera so we'll get them soon.

Back to Jared and his kilt... (i really should make him write this...) ...he wore it alll day.

And the next day.

He didn't just wear it the next day, he swore he was a Scottish [zombie] warrior.

Believe it or not...His mom saw him like this and her only response was "well don't they wear blue paint though? You need some blue paint on you somewhere"

Jared went inside only to return with blue paint upon himself. ha. :) What a good lady his mom is.

The wedding reception was in the backyard on Satudray. It is a really nice backyard... really fantastic/amazing/beautiful gardens everywhere!

And there was food... oh Lord SO much food! Most important... there were SO many desserts!!

all homemade by jared's mom, grandma and aunt. Busy busy ladies!

As the reception neared an end, we took off to the backyard,

through the woods and to the waterfall. it is dry now that it is the middle of summer but we were there over christmas and it was all kinds rushing!

We let our traveling companions take cute pictures of us

Such a peaceful place. i looove the water and woods.

And pictures that dont really fit anywhere...

This is uncle Bruce... i think this photo really encapsulates him...... you would understand if you met him.

This is just one of the many swords Jared and his cousins have....and still play with

aaand me playing with it too... I think this picture... encapsulates me pretty well HA. :)

Time to move on! Ben is getting fussy and dinner will be ready soon... Stay tuned for more!

His Voice

Our sweet, magical, wonderful little creation

has found his voice.


I meeeean, he has known about it, and used it to be fussy, but this kid has FOUND his voice.


And like any good parents, we immediately do our best to silence it. Actually... This is one of the first points Jared and I differ on in terms of parenting styles. Jared will sit with Ben in his lap letting him screeeam until Benjamin turns almost purple. Eventually, Ben will get bored, or jared will stand up and start swinging him around.....not in like...a Swinging him around way but... you know... more rocking him! And it works! And as my grandma always used to say "let 'em cryyy! Builds good lungs!" But generally, Jared lets Ben cry a bit longer than I do. And for the most part... after a few minutes, Ben really is perfectly fine, just needed to burn some energy off (ut oh... a future jared on our hands??)
I am much more of the problem solver mindset... does his diaper need changed? Wrap him in a blanket? Where is the pacifier?? Does he not like the color of the onesie that he's wearing today!?!?? Does he have gas??
The examples may be a bit exaggerated, but we do each have our own way of dealing with the evening rage of a 1 month old. I also have the upper hand in that... well... I can offer Ben instant sustenance which equals instant comfort! ha! But the difference is really fun to look at and think about - and we are both well aware that neither way is right or wrong... so it has been just a fun way to learn from one another and to appreciate the balance that it creates.

------------

In other news...
We've been going on all kinds of adventures. To the coffee shops, to London Underground, to Brookes, to the Toyota Dealership, Fareway (grocery shopping!), Swimming out at Peterson Pits!, and even out to the Bonne Finken show. She's really great, btw... y'all should check her stuff out! :)


Happy trails everyone! Maybe we'll see you along our next few adventures!!

Where did the week go!?

It has been almost a week since we've blogged...
eeek!
Sorry!
It isn't the end of the world, I suppose - but we enjoy doing it, so it is strange that we haven't had time! What have we been doing? Taking care of a 4 week old kid or something?

Not many new photos have been taken... oooh but a few have, We'll post them when we get to it.

Poop has been squirted, Ben even peed on himself the other day (of course RIGHT before we were about to leave to meet someone somewhere at a designated time..errr!), and spit up has been collected on the couch.
But we're doing wonderful and loving [most] every minute of it!

Until we have time for some more photos...just assume we're doing fine, things are great, and Benjamin is growing. Use your imagination for how he looks. Double points to anyone who submits a picture of what you think he might look like at this point...... quadruple points if you submit a photo of how he will look in 125 years!!

Happy Trails!!

We'll be in Ohio in 5 days! Illinois in... a bunch/soon after that!

4th of July

Kim: Hey Benjamin, guess what Drew is over doing today? He's going to roast a pig!


Benjamin: What!?!???? No Way!!!


Benjamin: Okay guys... my campfire shirt is on, I'm ready!! I'll be out to help after i eat!


Yes yes, we may have an infant, but we still know how to have fun! ...Okay, well actually we still have a yard, and Drew likes doing crazy/awesome things and it works out for everyone... but ANYWAY. The unfortunate (but adventure adding) part was that it was raining all night and all morning. The boys however, devised a lean-to of sorts to protect the pit.


Drew was over at 6am on Saturday morning to prepare the pig. With a bit of Jared's assistance throughout the morning... we were roastin'!!


In the meantime however (since this particular pig took 10 hours to roast...) we trekked on down to the parade with maria, kris and robyn.


There was word on the street about free pancakes at the bandshell however... with the rain, we never did find them. Not to fear though, there is always the GROVE!! Kris and Robyn went and saved us seats at the parade while we ate. And when you can't get a free pancake... well a giant pancake is clearly the second best solution!

Maria has a tendency to document most all eating activities... so:

We took one of her and ben, too... it only seemed fair!


After a nice and filling breakfast, we finally made it to the parade


Hi Kris


There were a lot of really cute floats, smiles, wet candy and rain...Good thing we had an umbrella to sit under.


We made it home, and there were people already over at the house, intrigued by the roasting pig. 6pm rolled around and... it was almost time to chow!!


So many people brought over so much food! Holy buckets, we'll be eating for days! We had homemade coleslaw, homemade bread, pineapple upside down cake, pound cake, toffee bars.... watermelon, beans!, uuum i don't even remember what else, there was so much! Thanks everyone for coming over and celebrating the 4th!

Who says the fun has to end when a newborn arrives!!! *cough, troy??* *cough*

The more the merrier, I say. ...We hardly even had to know where Ben was all day!...Which is probably why there aren't more pictures of him from yesterday! He was being held by Angie or Bob or Sarah or anyone else, Kris was changing dirty diapers.. we were golden!