birthday girl!!!

last weekend we went camping at fort stevens to celebrate the birthday girl, tony! we had an awesome time riding our bikes to the beach and enjoying the nice weather.

the birthday girl and the crew...

we got to enjoy some amazing weather on the beach...
siblings....LOVE this picture of makenzie and tyler!
evie had lots fun playing in the sand with tyler...
amanda and makenzie...i still can't believe that mick is as tall as her mom and she is going to middle school this year!
checking out the many military forts...

chad and tyler in the army jeep...
uncle chad and aunt ashley watching miss evie do some driving :)
this was tyler's favorite gun, he asked if i would take a picture of him in front of it :)
having fun with grandpa...
present time for the birthday girl...
snaking on her favorite thing...blueberries!
gorgeous walk on the beach with the fam...
makenzie and evelyn....i absolutely LOVE this girl! she is so helpful with evie. it is so much fun for evie to have older cousins that adore her. she is a lucky girl!!!
birthday girl with her grand kids!
we couldn't keep this little rascal out of the sand or the water...she loved the beach.
the lovely newlyweds and their pooch abby...
there was miles and miles of bike trials were we camped, we were able to ride our bikes to the beach and to the military forts. auntie amanda still had her bike seat from mick and tyler, so evie was able use it and she loved it!
i love summer camping trips! thanks again tony for getting us such great camping spots, and for being such an awesome mother, mother-in-law and grandma...we are so lucky to live close to you again!

happy birthday, birthday girl!!!

how...

am i suppose to discipline this??!!

this is the look miss evie gave me yesterday when i was telling her no. :)

happy weekend!

ps-i did it! i signed up for the eugene half marathon on sept. 5th. a couple of girls that i have been running with talked me into it. :) we ran 9 miles yesterday, so i think we are on track...i will keep you posted!

summer...

what a busy fun summer we are having in oregon! we are loving being back in our house playing in the yard and eating dinner on the back deck. miss evelyn LOVES being outside, sometimes she even wants to go outside at 5am with the dog. :)

playing in the back yard with dad...

kisses for dada... every afternoon when she sees brian's truck pull in she runs down the driveway yelling "dada"!

playing in the water fountain in corvallis...

feeding allie sticks...this will enertain the two of them for hours! :)

brian came home one night with this treat for us...yummy!!!

we love summer fruit!

now that evie learned how to feed allie from her snack cup they are best friends!

licking her lips...

i love sharing with allie...

a while back we did a little craigslist shopping and got this awesome pool and a really cool play structure that she loves going in and out of...

she loves sitting on the seat in her pool....

we picked a lot of blueberries this season to freeze, i think it was around 30lbs. evie was more of a eater then a helper! :)

enjoying some fresh strawberries at the park...

she loves putting clothes, towels, underwear, or anything she can find on her head. not sure why, but for some reason it really enertains her! :)

miss evie has been giving us the funnest summer yet! she is so sassy and silly at this age. it is amazing to think back to last summer at this time and realize how much she has grown and changed...it sure happens fast!

here is a little of what she has been up to this summer:

-we have been taking swimming lesson this summer at osborn aquatic center. we were so excited when we realized they were outdoors and that we get to play at otter beach (the outdoor water park) after our lessons. they have a special time for kids under 7 which is awesome, so there are no big kids pushing the little tykes around.

-miss evie LOVES to talk, she will carry on conversations with us even though we have no idea what she is saying. :) she says mama, dada, shoe and allie... at least thats all we understand :)

-she is also really into shoes and thinks we should always have them on! :)

-the kitchen drawers have become her favorite toys...the last few days she has been playing with the potatoes, onions and metal bowls. its amazing how long she can entertain herself putting them in the bowls and then back in the drawer and so on.

-a few weeks ago she started needing to sleep with not only deer, but her quilt that my mom and sisters made for her and her pink fuzzy blanket that i made for her. sometimes i try to trick her with only one of the blankets and she totally gets stressed looking for the other one. she also lets me rock her now that i'm done nursing her, in fact she has even fallen asleep on my chest a few times...i love that she likes to cuddle now!

-evelyn has been enjoying all the summer produce as well, her favorites being cherries, blueberries and cherry tomatoes.

-it has been fun watching her personality blossom a bit, she has become quite the sassy and stubborn girl. my mom says she is a lot like i was as a kid, i'm not sure if i believe that! :)

hope your all finding fun ways to enjoy the summer!

xoxoxox

ahh bend...

i think i'm ready to live there! i have always loved bend, but being there during the week doing lots of fun kids things made me love it even more. i love how the town is built around active healthy lifestyles...it is such an easy town to be active in! we were able to run on the deshutes river trail both mornings we were there. it was so great to leave right from the motel room and have a gorgeous view of the river on a great trail to run.

we went to a great breakfast spot called victorian cafe, you should totally check it out if your in the area. my friend Elizabeth and her sweet daughter lauren meet up with us, it was great to catch up with her. then we were off to story time at the library. the bend library was built by the architecture firm that my sister sarah use to work at in portland. it is an awesome place for kids to hang out, they had a great play area were kids could just be kids. we hit up a few local toy stores and then it was off to the farmers market at drake park. we ate lots of yummy berries and treats from the market. i think every town needs a drake park. while we were visiting we also checked out the juniper swim center which had a great outdoor play area for kids. there was a great concert at the les schwab amphitheater on thursday night that we were able to dance and listen to in the old mill district. there was even people watching the concert in rafts on the river...i love it! oh bend, i think its my second favorite place to live...maybe someday!

evelyn being silly at the concert...she got lots of dancing in. notice deer is down her shirt, she just discovered that she could play peek-a-boo with deer in her shirt, it was a pretty funny game at least she thought so! :)

notice the big smoke clouds in the back ground...that was from the fire in sisters. it was a little smoky in bend, but nothing that keep us from enjoying the outdoors.

thank you bend and brians work for an awesome time!

my computer is in the shop this week, so i haven't been able to post much. i'm hoping is comes back super speedy because it is sooooo slow!

hope you all having a great week...can you believe its the middle of august already??!!!

cousins...

last week i got to watch my niece and nephew for a day, so we went to the local farm and picked green beans and cherries. the cherries were so high in the trees that i had to talk the kids into climbing the trees. they both had lots of fun being silly in the trees...it was fun to watch them giggle at each other :)
miss evie was a good green bean picker, but she also liked to play in the mud!

evelyn got to try her first "otter pop" while we were there...i think she liked it because it was gone it no time!
it is so nice living so close to family and cousins again. makenzie and tyler adore miss evie, so it is so sweet to watch them play together. it is also so nice to have an awesome babysitter that is almost always available...in fact they are watchering her this weekend for us while we are at a wedding...yeah for cousins!!!

Happy Birthday MOM!

my mom turned 50ish on monday, so we all went camping at east lake in central oregon to celebrate her special day. the weather was great during the day, but it got super super cold at night. the last night we were there it was in the upper 30s...miss sweet pea thought it was a little too cold for her, so lets just say she didn't sleep very well. :) we still had a great time enjoying central oregon, eating yummy food and visiting with family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

evelyn is daddy's fishing helper :)

feeding molly(my mom's dog) dog food kernel by kernel...

these two girls are bffs! evie loves feeding allie her snacks from her snack cup...its funny how they are such good friends now that evie can feed her! :)

eating breakfast by the campfire...

the dutch oven cooks of the weekend...

there was a company out of bend at east lake demoing all kinds of water toys, so we got to demo them for free. i think there marketing worked because brian and colton both want to buy one!

lucy and sas...

a fun swimming hole we found...

lucy and sas bought us all aprons to wear for mom's birthday dinner...

(the cute little blonde girl is sarah's boyfriends daughter...she is such a silly girl!

evelyn playing sift the dirt with amber...

round one dutch oven...raspberry peach cobbler for dessert and in the morning it was raspberry coffee cake. they impressed us all with their dutch oven skills

sunset on east lake...

getting warm by the fire with grandma the birthday girl...

camp rascal...

miss e had such a great time being grubby all weekend, she loved playing in the dirt and chasing the dogs around camp. we have another camping trip planned in a few weeks, so she will have a chance to get grubby again!

happy birthday mom, thanks for all you do for us, we LOVE you!

and we are off again for another adventure, we are heading to bend bright and early wednesday morning for brian's work retreat, wife and kids are invited as well. the bonus for us in that we just get to play while they have meetings! i'm sure we can entertain ourself in bend...i love that town!

happy early weekend!