Max's Birthday!

 Well, a long time ago Max turned 34 and we fed him well and celebrated. We did some celebrations a little bit early since we sent our boys off with Grandma for the weekend. Max picked fondue for his birthday dinner and his usual apple pie for his birthday dessert.  And my picture-taking was as random as ever!

Haha, he smiles like this now since he has braces!

The boys and I made him this height chart. We'd been talking about making one for a long time so we were excited to finally do it. 

Then I dropped the boys off at Grandma's house and we got to start our postponed anniversary/babymoon/Max's birthday celebrations. I picked up Gyros on the way home and then we chowed down on that. We spent the evening in a quiet house. I think we even cleaned a bit so we could watch it stay clean for a couple days!  

The next morning we had creme brûlée french toast casserole. 

We made a to-do list for all the things we could do with our childless weekend...I won't post the list on  here because, it got detailed. 

moving on...

Apparently I only have the food documented here, but we ended up going to Mongolian grill on his actual birthday and they had some new COVID precautions so they just piled food on our plate and we ate as much as we could. haha!

We then walked around the park that was in our old neighborhood where we lived when we were in high school. We had some good memories there like when Max got his first cell phone and other teenage shenanigans. 

Its amazing that this was still 2+ months before that baby came out. I was so uncomfortable....but maybe that was partly from the Mongolian grill. 

The next day we had breakfast then went to get pedicures. 

Afterwards, we walked next door to the sports store and found a saucer swing on clearance so we bought that for our boys!

We then made our way to the mall. He had some Jamba for lunch (just like on our wedding day) and walked among the stores, which hadn't even been available with all the COVID closures. 

His mask kept getting all catawampus...

The rest of the weekend was spent with good food, the massage table, and some peace and quiet. 

It was such a great rejuvenating weekend to spend together. 

Back to School...at the Lake.

When all of Portland was starting distant learning in front of a screen, we made our way to the lake with our cousins again. This time to celebrate Edgar's 2nd birthday and the first day of school. Max was back at work but Grandma Sharolee was able to go so that was exciting. 

We had good food, gift time, lots of kayaking and a custom made Winnie the Pooh Piñata!

Oh, and there was a fish dissection. It was already dead when it was found.  

After a long day on the lake we weren't done playing with our cousins so we went to their house to play. And they had baby bunnies to snuggle!

 It was the perfect first day of school and reaffirmed our decision to homeschool!!

Cousin Lake Day

One of the times we were home from Prineville, we were invited to the lake by my brother's family to celebrate Gracie's 9th birthday. We were excited to soak up the end of summer with cousins. And for some reason, having a mini van and making many trips to Prineville had me feeling invincible. So we made our way down to Eugene area (about a 2 hour drive) and got to play all day at the Lake. (Max was still in Prineville at the time)  We got there before our cousins so we had fun on the playground.

When our cousins arrived (who we hadn't seen in way too long) Everett took Edwin under his wing and was giving him kayak rides the whole time.  

My boys were quick to hijack their cousins' kayaks. Luckily they have their own now so we'll be excited to play on the lake a lot more. 

The birthday girl seemed pretty fearless in the water. 

This guy enjoyed hanging out by the snack table. 

It was a glorious summer day spent with wonderful friends and family!