Happy 30th Max

I've been struggling on how to blog about Max's 30th birthday, he had 2 pretty exciting celebrations. The first of which was in San Diego. Over the weekend of his birthday he went with some friends to participate in a Questival Scavenger hunt. I don't really know how to explain what this even is but basically it is a 24 hour race where you have to complete tasks from a long list of tasks and you document it with videos or photos. Each task has a point value and you try to do as many as possible in the 24 hours but also make good quality videos because that can give you more points. The grand prize, if you won was a trip to South America to do it again. Max's team was in the lead for most of the race too, then lost some momentum at the end with some car issues. The tasks include many different things like..."compliment a stranger in a foreign accent (Max's favorite), pick up 20 pieces of trash, hike to potato chip rock, challenge a stranger to a race, do 100 push ups in a row, create a masterpiece using food, explain what to do if you see a stroke victim, challenge a stranger to a dance off, bowl a strike and do the moonwalk...Yes, random but fun things that took them all over San Diego. Max had seen his friends doing this a couple months ago in Seattle and got really interested. When he asked them about it, they said they were doing another one in San Diego in September and it happened to be over Max's 30th birthday weekend. We debated on all going together and spending time at Disneyland and Harry Potter World but decided that wasn't in the budget but I was excited to send him off to do something so exciting and unique for his 30th birthday (Remember that time I went off to Armenia for 2 weeks to do something I loved and he gave me his full support?) Plus it got me off the hook for planning something epic for his birthday! haha! Don't worry we still had a pretty great party a week later...

Anyway, If you want to see some of the videos from their event look up teamquestivus on Instagram, you can watch some of their great videos and then I think there is a link to see all of them. Seriously do it since I can't figure out how to get the videos on here and they had some really good entries! But here are some screen shots to pique your interest.

And while Daddy was away in Sunny San Diego...we made sure to send him plenty of pictures of us in the rainy Northwest!

And doing a whole lot of rainy indoor activities. (We had to put our large "gender reveal" box to good use)

And we showed him his birthday presents that arrived while he was gone.

And the boys made their own puppets and put on a puppet show.

On Max's actual birthday, The day after the event and after he got a good night's sleep. It was Sunday, they attended a church meeting then went to visit the San Diego temple grounds. It was Max's first time visiting that temple.

They then spent the afternoon on the warm beach and in the warm ocean.

On Monday, it was his day to fly home but not until the evening so they spent the day checking out the San Diego zoo.

He got home late so his brother picked him up from the airport and even brought him a birthday balloon. The boys were already in bed so we crashed once he got home and then did a little celebrating with him the next morning. (the boys were super excited to have Daddy home and give him his presents.)

We had made him some pumpkin cookies but he didn't want much because we had a little party planned for him a week later with some friends.

Oh, and for as long as I've known Max, he's wanted a disco ball and I finally got one for him. Seemed like a 30th birthday was a good occasion.

And at some point when he got home we pulled out the chess set I got in Armenia and played while eating dry Golden Grahams. A perfect home date! I should also mention that the disco ball was on too, in case anyone was mistakenly thinking this is a lame date.

Anyway, even though we spent Max's 30th birthday apart from each other. We are so excited that he got to have such a unique and memorable experience. And not to get all sappy or anything but now I'm married to a 30 year old man and it is the best ever. (I guess that wasn't sappy but I'm tired and going to bed and will have plenty of time to get sappy on the next birthday post...coming soon!) Love you Max! Thanks for always reading our blog!! and for being an amazing and hardworking husband and father!!

Preschool

A little over a month ago, Charlie started going to his own preschool. I've been doing preschool with him for about a year a half. IF you read my blog I'm sure you already know this. i decided that it may be good for Charlie to have some time away from me for preschool which would help him make the transition into Kindergarten next year. I visited a whole lot of preschools back in February and we felt great about a couple. We ended up choosing one in Tigard which happened to be in the same building I went to preschool in. I was super nervous about it but I really felt like it was the best thing for Charlie. I knew he wouldn't have any issues about leaving me but I was a little more worried about letting go of my control and having him be influenced by others. I know it is inevitable, but whatever, I just want to keep him so pure and innocent for as long as possible. Anyway, We picked a co-op preschool so I get to go help in the classroom a couple times a month which has helped with my transition. So the point is, My little Charlie is a preschooler and loves it a whole lot. I have been enjoying the time helping in his class and also the time I get with Miles before this next little baby boy comes. Each day, I feel that we made the right choice. So here are some photos from his first week of preschool.

Youth Beach Trip

The morning after our Gender Reveal Party (see post below) we got to go to the beach with the youth from Church. Max needed to go as a leader so the rest of us tagged along. I also invited Elizabeth because she came in town for our party and we wanted to have more cousin time. Elizabeth ended up inviting 2 of my cousins and their families so it ended up being a family beach party as well. Max invited his cousin Jordan too who is the same age as many of the other youth. Anyway, a day at the beach in perfect weather is always a good time. We got there and the boys quickly "helped" the Bishop put up his volleyball net.

 The youth got right to work putting together the ultimate sand castle.

I chased around these little monkeys. 

 Running around with cousins.

Max and Jordan. 

 Youth group photo (at least some of them) with their sand castle while it was in progress.

  

Kaden, Gwenevere, and Lexi making their own sand castle. 

We had BBQ hot dogs and played volleyball and hiked up the huge dune. It would have been very hard to climb the huge dune with my camera but I wish I had. It is so gorgeous from the top with so many photo opportunities. We hiked with the boys. Max carried Miles for part of the climb and Charlie went on my back as I crawled up part of it. I think Charlie was bothered by how hot the sand was (or maybe the steepness) because he wanted a million brakes, but we eventually made it.  I'm bringing my camera next time for sure...and maybe leaving the kids behind...and hopefully the next time, I won't be pregnant.

The rest of the time we spent playing with cousins and swimming and digging in the small side water hole. And i didn't take many pictures, except for when Miles and Levi were bonding over volleyballs.

After some good fun in the sun, we said goodbye to our cousins and made our way with the youth to the Tillamook Cheese factory. We enjoyed some good ice cream and cheese samples, then made our way home. We all had some pretty intense sunburns too, who knew you could get a sunburn in Oregon in September?

Gender Reveal Party

So, we debated over the many ways we could surprise our boys when we found out if they were getting a brother or sister. They had enjoyed my previous ultrasounds so we thought we could just bring them but I knew the appointment would get too long for their attention spans so we debated on some other ideas. At some point Charlie and I watched a video of someone cutting open a gender reveal cake. Charlie LOVED this idea. I told him we couldn't do it until we found out if we were having a boy or girl. HE looked at me in total seriousness and Said "MOM, that's how we find out if it's a boy or girl, we need a cake!" I thought that would be fun but my cake skills are super lame and Marissa said she would totally do it if we found out the gender before they moved to Nashville. Which didn't happen. So we opted for the tried and true balloon in a box method because what little kid doesn't love opening a giant package? We decided to make it a family night and do it at our favorite Park. And then we had lots of people asking about if we knew the gender yet so I just started inviting them to the park and made a whole party out of it with friends and family. And that's the story of our somewhat unintentional but incredibly fun Gender reveal party. And here a random assortment of photos from the event.

So earlier in the day, my mom had come down to watch the boys while Max and I went to the ultrasound appointment. I was super anxious. Max was sure it was a girl, and he has a talent for guessing anyone's baby. A perfect track record really. I tried to be ready for any possibility, I really was going to be happy with a boy or girl, but I found myself already thinking it was a girl. At the ultrasound. the tech started at the brain and moved down so we didn't have much glimpse of the gender until later in the appointment. In this time, i was becoming more convinced it was a girl. And then the big surprise....in case you hadn't heard yet....  

 

 IT'S A BOY!! I was somewhat surprised when the doctor sad, yup, those are definitely some testes right there! I was happy but a little shocked! haha! The boys were excited, Charlie had said he wanted a brother and Miles said he wanted a sister. I think Charlie just wanted blue balloons because that is his current favorite color, and Miles just wanted to choose something different than Charlie. But either way, they are happy since they got balloons.

 In their massive balloon package, they also got some blue silly string. I wish we got more for all the kids but I wasn't thinking that far ahead and we just had 2 for our boys. They loved it even though Miles couldn't push the button on his own.

 We enjoyed cupcakes with all our friends, (there really were a lot of people there, but I wasn't doing so great at taking pictures) we had both my parents, Elizabeth and her kids, my cousin Stephanie, Todd, and their kids, Joe and Lindsay and their girls, The Heap family, the Taylor family. and Richard and Marissa were present over FaceTime.

 

And, surprise, I was able to upload the video, enjoy it with our annoying voices and comments and all.  

And there you have it, I'm surrounded by a house full of boys and I'm pretty sure I love it. I've really been enjoying the ages of my boys and how they can enjoy the same activities together and it will be fun to add another boy to the mix. Hooray for the Baertlein boys and for me being even more outnumbered!