Father's Day

That's right, this post is nearly 2 weeks late. I've been meaning to do it for awhile but got stuck with getting some pictures off Max's phone that I need to use for this post. Anyway, I still haven't solved the picture issue but life must go on and I need to catch up on all our busy summer adventures.

I'm loving celebrating Father's day for Max because A.) he is an amazing Father B.) He should always be celebrated for just being himself. and C.) It's so fun to make him feel spoiled.

Father's day did not go according to plan, however, Max ended up celebrating the epitome of being a father. Max woke up with Charlie as he usually does on Sunday mornings while I was downstairs making a delicious and healthy breakfast of Cream of Wheat with fresh strawberries. A family favorite in our house. Max fed Charlie some milk and shortly after, Charlie threw up on Max. Charlie seemed pretty healthy and had no fever so we figured it was just a reflex and called it good. We ate a nice breakfast together then got ready for church. As a small gift for my boys, I got them matching ties. Max has wanted matching ties since he knew we were having a boy and I was having a hard time finding somewhere that sold them. Also, as an early Father's day gift we splurged and bought our first TV a couple weeks earlier.
Charlie seemed Healthy enough to go to church and it was Stake conference so we figured it was a good idea to take him. After church we came home and it was time for everyone to take naps. We love our Sunday afternoon naps! Charlie had a good long nap but when we woke up he was burning up with a fever of 103 degrees. He gave him Tylenol then he just cuddled with Max watching movies while I barbecued for my boys. Charlie never sits still and watches movies. Max enjoyed holding his baby boy all afternoon. I made some great burgers. As we were sitting down for dinner, Charlie decided to throw up all the fluids he had previously drank. He still ate a little bit at dinner. Max enjoyed his barbecued burgers. That's all I can remember because it's late and this all happened so long ago!

So the pictures that I was trying to get off of Max's phone were of my boys in their matching ties at the temple where we went last Sunday. Just try to imagine...pretty adorable.

At the Beach

On day three of Anna's visit we went on a journey to a large forest and the beach. Anna had been craving a NW forest so we tried to find a good one. We decided to stop at Tillamook Forest on our way to Tillamook cheese factory and the beach. We went to the forestry center where Max and I had never been. Another free and exciting outing!

 After exploring the forestry center for a little bit, we went outside for a nature walk and to throw rocks in the river. 

 And then, those two adorable kids started holding hands and didn't want to let go. Form the look on their faces, I would think they were pretty excited about this.

 Exploring leaves, they still didn't want to let go of each other....

The cutest ever.

 June was a natural at throwing rocks in the river, Charlie wanted to dive in...makes for one nervous mama on the rocky shore.

 After exploring part of Tillamook forest we went and stopped at a grocery store for lunch then onto the cheese factory.

We watched them make cheese, ate some samples, and ate some delicious Tillamook ice cream cones.


And then, to the best part of all. We went to the beach expecting rain and mentally preparing ourselves for cold wind and being completely covered. We were pleasantly surprised with, perfect weather, partly blue skies (much more optimistic than saying partly cloudy right?) and the whole beach to ourselves!

Charlie loved running into the water and he probably wouldn't have stopped running if we didn't make him. June would walk up to the wave then run when it got close. After Charlie was playing in the water for a little bit we noticed he kept tripping, we realized his feet were probably numb so it was time to take a break in the dry sand. We went through this cycle about 3 times. Each time he started tripping when his feet got numb. 

 After some great fun hours at the beach, we decided we needed to get some food. First we were going to stop by Captain Dan's Pirate Pastry shop because it was closed when we went to the beach for our anniversary but it ended up being closed again. Weird random beach hours. Oh well, we will have to try a 3rd time some day. We then went to Mo's for some clam chowder and a view of the sea otters.

 After dinner we walked on the pier to get a better view of the sea otters before the long drive home. Luckily the babies did pretty well on the drive home despite being a little sleep deprived and it being past their bedtime.

On the last day of Anna's visit we decided to go to the zoo, mostly because Anna wanted to see more sea otters! Apparently the Oregon zoo has sea otters and river otters, which I never knew the difference. We got a good look at the river otters and a couple of other animals before a horrendous cloud burst. We then saw some sea lions and the area where the sea otters would be but they must have been hiding since it was so rainy.

 We decided to leave a little early since we were all soaked. This left us enough time to go to the Original Pancake House for lunch before the kids had to take naps and then we had to take them back to the airport.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I didn't have a voice at all this day? I started to lose it when we were driving back from the beach and it was pretty much gone by the next day.

We got back to the house and let the kids take quick naps while we cleaned up a bit. Then we woke them up and it was off to the airport to see our good friends leave us. The drive to the airport was a whole other exciting (stressful) experience. The freeway was completely backed up so we found an alternate route with the GPS. It turned out that all of the power was out in NW Portland including stop lights. This caused a lot of traffic and we were both worried Anna would miss her flight. We would have been happy to keep them another day or two (or more) but it would have been pretty expensive to change the flight and she had gone days without seeing her husband, (and June not seeing her dad) so she was pretty excited to be reunited as a family. After being stuck in traffic for awhile, Anna decided to say a little silent prayer, immediately the traffic lights worked where we were and traffic started moving... This girl has powerful prayers, (she is the same friend that fasted and prayed for us after we had two miscarriages and what do you know, along came Charlie...) Seriously we couldn't have been blessed with a better friend. Anyway, we made it to the airport just in time, she was also blessed with not-too-long lines and after a good sprint, they made it onto the airplane and had a whole row to themselves.

We really feel so blessed to have such amazing friends, and a great prospect for Charlie's future wife. We will be happy to have Anna's family visit anytime and we hope to have Buck come too in the future.

And let's not forget about all these amazing photos that Anna took!

Also, if you haven't read about the first half of Anna's visit, keep reading below.

Anna & June

We had a fun and action packed week last week. Some of our favorite people came to visit us. Anna and June. Anna is also known as the famous Anna Pew who kept me sane while serving in Armenia. She became an awesome friend then and we have missed her family since moving away from Utah. We were bummed that Buck couldn't make it but we were happy to take what we could get! We have been lucky enough to spend time with this family about 4 times since moving away nearly 2 years ago, good thing too, Charlie and June have got a handful of dates under their belts and a whole lot of great pictures for their wedding slide show.
You may remember this precious one from over a year ago...

Thanks to Anna's amazing photography skills, the whole week was documented in beautiful photos.  

Anyway, we were excited to greet Anna and June in the airport with bright red balloons. That way we knew June would have to be excited to see Charlie. I was happy to see that they interacted quite nicely with smiles and giggles.

 We came back to my house and played a little bit in the back yard then ate lunch. Charlie tried to woo her by pushing her on the bike.

The kids then went down for naps. It was fun to visit with Anna again. When the kids woke up we were off to explore Tryon Creek State Park. It's a really close forest in the middle of the city that I haven't been to since I was a teenager. Charlie and  June loved running on the trails. Last time we visited June, Charlie couldn't walk yet so I loved seeing them run together.

 We then took a break to blow cotton around...trying to make some artsy pictures...

June even got in on the cotton action. 

 

We then went home for dinner. After dinner we went together to the Portland Rose Gardens. It's a free beautiful rose garden that Max and I have a lot of fun memories from. Anna also has a healthy obsession with fresh flowers so it seemed like the perfect place to take her. She was in Heaven. It was also the best time of year that Max and I had come. The flowers were all blooming and we had never seen it so colorful and fragrant.

I'm a fan of comparison pictures so the following two picture are old ones we had taken in the same spot. You can also tell that this time when we went to the Rose Gardens there were way more flowers blooming. It's neat to see our family grow. 

May 2004

October 2011

June 2013

I'm not sure if we were going for serious or awkward right here

This kid just likes to be free and run around...especially when it's nearly past his bedtime. 

Charlie could never get too far from June, he kept coming back to play with her (or her stroller) 

 Seriously though, if you have never been here, go right now. It's perfect and FREE!

When we got home, we put the kids in bed, we were so happy to see that June adapted really well and slept great during her visit. 

Then, Max wanted us to leave so he could do his workout! Haha! Actually he wanted a donut and so did we so we went on an 11pm donut run. Can't say that I've ever done that before but we were feeling young and spontaneous. 

Note to self, when you buy donuts at 11pm they are a little stale.

We then had more time to kill and somehow we ended up stopping at this place...I blame this on Anna's spontaneity. A little more bold than what I'm used to.  

According to a sign on the street, the psychic was having a sale on readings, and it is one of Anna's life goals to have her palms read. I don't know why it was open so late but we did it, we rang the doorbell, but thankfully no one answered. Good thing too, we now have families that we need to stay alive for. 

Anyway, we made it home safe and sound to have a nice donut binge then call it a night. 

Day 2 When the babies woke up we made our way to OMSI! Of course one of my favorite places which we knew Anna and June would love!

We ended up staying in the toddler area the most because that is where June and Charlie were having a blast. 

This kid does not mind getting a little wet!

After naptime, we went out to eat at this silly little restaurant down the street. 

Another fun date for these two!

 But then there are a whole bunch of pictures that look like this...June being a bit bossy and Charlie confused at why June is being bossy.

And then June ate a hot french fry...

After dinner we drove up to Multnomah Falls. It was raining up in the gorge, but just like crazy tourists we trekked through the rain and up to the bridge.

We then headed back and called it a night. 

I'll post this for now, because the next day we went to the beach and there are a whole bunch of great pictures to look forward to.