Memorial Weekend

We'll start with our daily log on Friday

Friday morning, I took the boys to Fitness Friday at our church gym. I've never gone before because I didn't know how the boys would handle it but they played well while I got in a good workout. Charlie also said goodbye to his friend Teo who is moving to California.

Right when I got home Max met us at our house so we could take our couch back to Costco, we've had it for over two years but it broke down pretty fast  so Costco said we could return it, we finally ordered a new couch last week so we could return ours.

After that the boys were able to nap a bit and then Madeleine and Isla came over while Kerri and Corbrett went to Corbrett's graduation from Law School. Isla wasn't happy most of the time but we survived and Charlie and Madeleine had fun with their last play date before they move to California. (Charlie had to say goodbye to two friends that were moving to California today)

Notice how we don't have a couch?...Haha,

And here is a photo of Charlie and Madeleine when they were just babies. 

We were able to visit with the Hosdons for a little while when they picked up their girls but it seemed too short and they had to leave, he will miss them a whole lot.

In the evening Max and I had a memory lane date. We had to clean out his trunk full of high school memorabilia to make room for all our blankets that were stored in our old couch. We had so much fun reminiscing about school and sports and homework and rafting trips. But then we found the jackpot, apparently Max had kept a daily journal for the first half of high school. I had no idea these journals existed and he had seemed to forget. We read a ton of them and laughed so hard at some parts but overall I was super impressed with his maturity as a 15 year old. We are still reading them but they include the time frame when Max and I became friends and went on our first date. Seriously, it's been like the best book I've ever read, and I have a really hard time putting it down, even though I know how it ends. So, that's consumed a lot of my life recently.

On Saturday, we made a yummy breakfast of German pancakes then Charlie and Max went on a Father/Son date to the Farmer's market. They had a great time and came back with fresh strawberries, chocolate milk, caramel corn, and honey sticks.  Charlie also got to play in the big fountain.

As soon as they got home, we all jumped in the car to take the boys to my friend Noell's house so we could go on a date to see the Phantom of the Opera, thanks to my mom and Don. I've seen the play once but I was pretty young and don't remember it too well and Max had never seen it so we were really excited!

I got in trouble for taking a picture of the stage before it started. So I deleted those pictures. During intermission we went out in the lobby and Max became the Phantom .Yep, we are just out of control wherever we go. 

Max sneaked these photos during intermission

A night on the town is always good! Haha, Max's face! We may have had to push our way through some crowds of other people wanting to take a photo by this sign.

The play was amazing! And we found out that Wicked is coming in August so we are pretty tempted to go see that again! After the play we all went to Olive Garden for a delicious dinner.

On Sunday we had a lovely day, church was great and afterwards Max wanted to have some friends over so we invited our friends the Heaps who are always good to come over at the drop of a hat. We had fun visiting with them. Then it was time for bed. We did our usual planning and budgeting then called it a night.

Memorial day! It is so exciting to have Max home for a day. We started the day with lots of yard work. Max got Charlie to do a lot of weeding while I got Miles ready for the day. Eventually we went out to help but ended up in the hammock. When the boys went down for a nap...yep Charlie too!! I felt like I could do anything. I should have done my workout and shower but I ran outside to prance around Max and let him know how excited I was that both boys were sleeping. He then asked if I wanted to do yard work with him (This is his ideal "romantic" date) I decided that it would be fun to work on the yard together while the boys were sleeping. I got to mow the lawn, probably only the third time in my life. It was a fun and satisfying project and Max was able to clean out the shed.

Then we came in and showered and had to force Charlie to wake up. We loaded up and went to my Red Grandma's house for a BBQ. I didn't take my camera out much but we ate well, played outside, and I got to play Phantom music on my Grandma's beautiful piano. Miles discovered the carnivore in him.

After my Grandma's house we went over to Cabellas because my brother Austin (who works there) said they were having great deals on tents. We need a bigger tent for our camping trips this year. It turns out that they closed early for memorial day so we made our way over to Dick's sporting goods. We found a tent we are really happy about and got it. Then we went home and put the kids to bed then spent the evening in the hammock together, enjoying the progress we had made on the yard.

And while I'm doing a daily log, I'll throw in Tuesday while I'm at it.

It was a rough morning with Charlie waking up at 5am but we survived, we set up the tent in the yard and played in it until both of my children pooped their pants and we had to go inside. I was able to get both boys down for early naps while I got in a workout. Miles woke up earlier than usual and had to get in the shower with me, Max came home for lunch and then when Charlie was awake we all went to meet Herschel, the baby deer. Max came across a lady through his work who lives on a farm and took in an orphan deer to raise domestically. It's kind of adorable. So Max arranged a time for us to come meet the baby deer. Miles was pretty nervous and Charlie was excited but lost interest quickly.

When Max first met the deer, he sent me this text.

We then went on our way to piano lessons. Then Max had to work late so I fed the boys and got them in bed. When Max got home we went to check out the tent and we read his journals by (LED) lantern light. When we came back in the house he found Charlie in the laundry room really upset because he couldn't find us. He was supposed to be sleeping but he got up looking for us and he had gone far from the baby monitor so we couldn't hear him. We felt like pretty lame parents but he seems to have gotten over it. 

Reading Max's journals has made me want to document more of the little details of life so that is what I seem to have done here. HAHA, thanks for bearing with me. 

Sticks and Roots

Sometimes Charlie wakes up too early (and sometimes he sleeps until 10) but on those days, if I decided to give him a nap he will be up way too late...oh toddlerhood! Anyway, I had the great idea that if I just let him run, I could put him down for an earlier nap and it wouldn't affect his nighttime sleeping. (As if I really needed another excuse to go to our favorite forest.) Anyway, it's springtime  and we are ready for tons of trips to the forest!

Charlie can't pass this mountain without surmounting it!

I can't help but think of Harry Potter when Charlie waves a stick around. 

Charlie wanted to add something to our blog and since I was tired of saying Don't touch the computer...this happened. 

op[iuyttttttt0rmnnfffccccccccghhhhhhharlieoihhhuouoouuouiojbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasj,? ?

Moving on....We tried another new trail, that took us down to a bridge that crossed the creek. I was a little nervous as we went down the hill because it was steep and I knew we would have to go up pushing a stroller. I just hoped Charlie would be able to make it. We were so glad we went on this trail because it crossed with an equestrian trail and we got to see a horse. and the rider was kind enough to let us pet it. Charlie has never really seen a horse up close so it was a fun experience. 

We then played on the bridge.

He has a beautiful bright world around him! I love seeing the excitement of little ones as everything is new and wonderful to them.

He then decided to hike back up the big hill. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, and Charlie climbed like a champ. 

We took a break midway. 

 

On our hike, a woman had seen Miles hobble along the trail and she stopped to share that her son (now grown) had learned to walk on these same trails, I could tell it was a special memory for her. I've been thinking about it a lot and took some time to document Miles' wobbly steps.

We finished our hike at our new favorite climbing root. Miles got to climb a bit too. 

I am just loving this boy's age right now. He is so happy and curious and loving.

I don't know why but I'm completely fascinated by this root. It's still attached to the fallen tree and you can't see the end of it.

Another fun memory from this outing is Charlie singing "Follow the Prophet" in Armenian. It's his favorite primary song so we sing it all the time but at some point I attempted to translate it and sometimes I sing it in Armenian, Charlie caught on to it and started singing Hetevek Margarey while he was climbing! It made me happy!

We stopped on a bench for snacks before buckling up in the car. After we had sat there for a couple minutes we realized there were quite a few mosquitoes. I said "we better go soon so the mosquitoes don't eat my boys!" Charlie responded by saying "Yeah, because we're men!" 

And in case you were wondering both boys napped when we got home, I got in a great workout, shower and then I got to sit in the sun on the deck before they woke. It was a magical day!

Mother's Day!

Mother's day is fun, it's the time of year that I start to consider having a whole bunch of kids. Haha, then that feeling passes pretty quick .

In the morning we ended up with our bed full of kids so Max went down to make breakfast with the boys and I got to shower...in the morning!....before Breakfast!....It was a treat! 

We had a delicious breakfast of Cream of Wheat with fresh berries. We then got ready for our afternoon church but realized both of the boys were really tired so we put them to bed and enjoyed some quiet time to ourselves. It's another rare treat for the boys to nap at the same time. We then had to pull them out of bed to head to church. 

I love church on Mother's day, I really love it every day but it's especially great on Mother's day! The talks were great but my favorite part was when Charlie got to go up with all the primary kids to sing some Mother's day songs. He did't really know the songs since he was gone last week and sick on another week but he confidently stood up on the stand, pushed his way forward and made faces during each song.  

I got to spend the rest of church with Charlie in his sunbeam class. After chuch we played in the gym and then in the grass while we waited for Max to finish up a couple things. It was a beautiful day.

We went home and ate an early dinner. Max cleaned up the dishes and I made cookies, Charlie was supposed to help me but he took too long eating dinner. We then packed up for a cookie picnic. 

I'm kind of getting obsessed with taking pictures,. It seems that the more I practice, the better my pictures turn out. I'm still quite the amateur, but it is so satisfying to have increasingly improved photos of your favorite people. Anyway, I told Max that I wanted to go to the field right next to his work and try to get some photos with the boys. 

There is this magical field that we drive by every time we visit Max at work and I've wanted to stop thousands of times but it seemed complicated with two kids so we finally made it happen when Max could come. 

We used the remote for the first one...haha 

Charlie was more interested in running through the field than sitting and eating cookies. 

And then there are these two, the sweet boys that my life revolves around. 

The sky became more ominous the longer we stayed.

PS...Max is getting pretty great at taking pictures!

We were looking at birds. I love that Miles points at things then gets giddy!

Miles had gotten pretty intense when he saw the cookies which resulted in his face being covered in chocolate.

Exploring with my big boy!

He's getting heavy!

The sugar was hitting Charlie hard and he was acting goofier by the minute. Max caught a few of his faces.

PS...Anna, I totally realized that I subconsciously copied this from you. Max took the photos and I formatted them like this then later I realized this is what you did on your camping post...sorry about the tangent, just think you should have credit :) 

And we threw in some Daddy pictures too!

Miles isn't always in the mood to fly but he was on this day!

We decided to leave after Max expressed his slight worry that our kids would get attacked by the coyotes that he's seen in the field. I guess that was a good reason to leave. But I think I love this field, and Oregon skies.

We came home and put the kids in bed and enjoyed the fact that Max had already cleaned the Kitchen. So we just sat together on the couch, watched some shows, worked on some photos, balanced the check book all while Max brushed my hair. It was a beautiful day spent with my favorite gentlemen.