It's a......

BOY!!!!!

I cannot believe I'm a mom to 2 precious boys.  We're super excited....more to come.

Camping with Poppy & GongGong

 Last Thursday Peter took off a tiny bit early from work and we headed up toward Bend to meet his parents for a couple nights of camping.  Originally, when the whole idea came up I wasn't terribly excited because it was starting to get pretty cold at night.  And the last time we went camping Benjamin didn't sleep too great and I didn't want him to freeze.  But it looked like it was going to be around 85 during the day and no colder than 50 at night so off we went!

We got a great site right next to a little creek and we all arrived just after 5pm that night.  We set everything up before we headed out to Clear Lake for a bit.  Funny side note though, Poppy forgot the poles for his tent....so he and Peter had to get creative and managed to improvise a solution that would make it so they at least didn't have to sleep in their van!

Clear Lake

Benjamin spent A LOT of time throwing rocks in the water.  At the lake, at the river, at the creek....he would do it all day if we let him.

We came back to the site to eat hot dogs, green beans, peaches and smores.  We cozied up around the fire after Benjamin went to bed then we all called it a night.  Benjamin slept great and woke up only at 6:45am for the day.....compared to last time, this was great.

We ate breakfast then headed off to take a nice 3 or so mile hike.  We did the hike last time we went camping and it wasn't crowded at all this time so it was great!

 an earlier morning meant he was ready for a tiny catnap in the morning hike...so cute!

 out of the pack and walking for a bit with Poppy & GongGong

 Benjamin loooves the waterfalls and the rainbow!  He talks about them quite often

 my sweet boys

 GongGong getting a closer look at the beautiful water

such power!

We ate a picnic lunch, then went for a bit of drive while Ben napped in the van.  Peter was supposedly looking for a good view of Mt. Jefferson but never really found it.  Instead, we drove for about 40 minutes up gravel, bumpy roads and ended up at a trail leading to Anne Lake.  You can imagine that this almost 20 week pregnant lady was not super excited about a second hike of the day but we went anyway.  Only the hike was pretty steep, not very pretty and the lake was nothing spectacular.  Nice going Pete....

 I made Peter take a picture at his infamous trail.....that we found after driving on roads that will probably cause our van to need an alignment, ha!

 oh, what a beautiful trail......not!

 family picture in front of the "ho hum" lake

this picture almost makes the lake look pretty.  Okay, okay....it wasn't that bad, it just wasn't beautiful.

We headed back to the campground to eat some hamburger helper, corn on the cob, and pineapple before calling it a night.  GongGong of course cooked for us the whole time, and Poppy was a great wood chopper!  Benjamin just got into everything, got dirty and looked cute.

I bundled Benjamin up pretty good that night so he wouldn't get cold, though it was definitely warmer than the night before.  This is the cute, but kind of pitiful face we woke up to in the morning (he slept great again!)

He was definitely pretty stinkin cute in the morning walking around in his pj's......

We ate breakfast then packed up all our stuff.....

 the guys using their great weight, I mean, abilities to flatten the tarp

 even Benjamin helped by carrying his chair back to the van

stealing (and eating) Poppy's apple while he loaded up his stuff!

We headed off in search of the Pacific Crest trail.  Poppy wanted to walk on this trail so that's where we headed.  Unfortunately, it's been mostly ruined due to forest fires.  So, I was just delighted to walk in at least 85 degree heat, uphill, on a trail made of sand, with absolutely no shade.  Fun fun!  Ha ha, we love giving Poppy a hard time....it wasn't exactly the most beautiful hike either.  But it's a memory right? :-)

 He once again fell asleep on the way to the hike

 the content dirty face of a boy who loves camping

 my boys looking cute in their hats

 yep, this is our beautiful hike

 lots of burned down trees

 looking so grown up and cute even after soaking himself with Mommy's water

 dirty boy!!

 Ben, Poppy & GongGong all walking along the Pacific Crest trail

 quick photo op (though you can't see the mountain in the background)

great memories made on this camping trip!

We stopped for another picnic lunch then headed home.  It was soooooo nice to get a warm shower, we were all really dirty and probably smelly.  We had a huge spaghetti dinner and all looked forward to sleeping on a real mattress.  Of course, we had to celebrate GongGong's birthday with the only kind of cake she will really eat.....a bite size Milky Way! 

Happy Birthday GongGong!!!

Sunday we enjoyed a great church service, a roast lunch, relaxation in the afternoon and an evening service.  The boys stayed and played vball while we got Benjamin home to bed.  They left a little before lunch on Monday and we were sad to see them go!  It was a great visit, Benjamin looks forward to you coming back so you can read to him again :-)

Dumb allergies

Today I was feeling pretty miserable because my allergies decided that they haven't been annoying enough all summer and decided to mount a full-scale attack on my sinuses today.  I seriously think I went through an entire box of Kleenex today.  It started at about 4am last night making it so I couldn't sleep....lovely.  Claritin usually helps but today, nada.  I'm contemplating the idea of just chopping my head off so I don't have to blow my nose anymore or smell another Kleenex, ugh.

Other than that, the day was filled with cleaning, playing at the park with Benjamin (it was around 80 today!), attempting to take an afternoon nap which failed, Ben happily taking an hour long bath tonight, and some Ramen noodle soup for dinner at 8:30.  Oh yeah, and lots and lots of Kleenex.

Last night though, Peter and I got to go on a date!!!  Woohoo!  It had been since my birthday in June since we'd had a real date.  It is soooo fun to eat at a restaurant without a child.  I miss my boy like crazy while we're out but I love just talking with Peter and not having to cut up food, move glasses of water, pull out snacks to entertain him while we wait for the check, etc.  We ate Hungarian, browsed Target, went to Goodwill, walked by the river and finished with an ice cream cone and a sundae (bought with a BOGO coupon, even better!!)  Benjamin was with his friends Elijah, Haddie, and Micah and their parents and had a blast.  I don't think he missed us one bit.  He loves those guys and so do we.

Sorry for the no picture post.  I'll take some new ones soon, it would have been hard to keep the camera steady with all my sneezing today.  Benjamin always says "bless you" afterward though!  Tonight at dinner, before he ate his grapes he looked at me, closed his hands and said "Pway, pway"  He reminded me that we hadn't thanked Jesus yet for the food.  Also, I usually ask Benjamin "Guess what?"  And he says, "I love you" and I'll say "I love you too!"  Though sometimes when he says "I love you" I'll say "what?" and he repeats "I love you!".....we do this over and over and he thinks it's funny.  Well tonight, I told him I loved him and he was over in the corner with his toys saying "I love you.......what?!........I love you......what?!.....I love you!"  It was pretty funny.  This boy doesn't miss a thing.  And I sure do love my smart, articulate, sweet boy :-)

Off to go make sure my nightstand is fully stocked with Kleenex!

Finally Friday

I am so glad that tomorrow is finally Friday.  It just seemed like a bit of a long week so I'm glad for the weekend, especially one where we really don't have that many plans.

This week we went to the library!  It's becoming more and more fun to go because he loves all the toys, and books, and now we can sit and do puzzles together too.  We check out lots of books and spend the rest of the day reading them........again.......and again........and again :-)

Wednesday night was our Connections small group.  Melissa made pot roast/prime rib and it was delicious...I may or may not have had 2 plates worth :-)  We're doing a survey of the Bible this year.  Looking at topics like who wrote the Bible, what is true about the Bible, how did we get the Bible, and then a general overview of the Bible.  It should be really interesting and enjoyable.  We have about 15 adults in the group so we've expanded to quite a good size.

Today I spent the morning with Kristen taking care of an issue with one of the girls we know.  Well, we didn't really get to take care of it like we would have liked to but what can I say, sometimes the legal system is just silly.  It made the morning go by quickly though.

No real plans for tomorrow.....probably just some laundry.  I know, I know, you're all so jealous of my wildly exciting life.  Oh, and I'm going to try out a crockpot version of chicken and dumplings.  See?  I do live a crazy life....laundry and new recipes.  We'll probably just rent a movie or something and keep it low key.  I do think we're going to go on a date night on Monday (woo hoo!!!!!!)  It's been awhile!

Anyway, now that I've bored everyone with my recap, here's a few pics of my sweet boy.

 I thought it would be fun to take the cushions off the couch and jump on them on the floor.  We both had a blast!

 soooo proud of his tummy

 Muscles!!

 this is a sweet, but ornery look (and kinda dorky too, sorry Ben!)

oh sweet boy, your Mama loves you!

A Week Away Recap

Okay, so I didn't blog while I was gone to Idaho.  But I was actually with 5 of my 7 blog readers so I figured the real live Benjamin was better than pictures!  At least that's my excuse.

We got a later start than we wanted heading off to Idaho on Friday but we made it and Benjamin did pretty well on the 8 hour drive.  We had a nice low key day with a bit of shopping on Saturday with my family.  We went to church with Peter's family on Sunday and spent the rest of the day with them.  Monday we spent half the day with each family, ending with a picnic in the park with most of my siblings.  It went by too fast though because right afterward Peter had to take off to come home :-(

Monday morning Benjamin had woke up with a fever and was super fussy.  For the next 2 days his fever was somewhere between 101 and 102.5 most of the time and he was very clingy and just not his normal self.  I finally took him to Quick Care on Wednesday morning but they didn't see signs of an ear infection, strep, etc so it was just a virus.  By Thursday afternoon his fever was gone, but he was still super needy and clingy.  But that was due to the fact that he was incredibly sleep deprived.  This is how my sweet little darling would take naps....

Seriously.

He would absolutely refuse to lay down.  I tried discipline, I tried being rational with him (um, yeah, that really worked with a 19 month old), I tried songs, I tried begging....nothing worked.  My son is incredibly stubborn so I finally left him to cry until he fell asleep.  Only he fell asleep standing up.  And it lasted for a 1/2 hour at the max before he'd wake up and cry until I came and got him.  At night he woke up about every 3 hours crying and though I didn't have to get up each time, I was still woke up.  And he was up crying most mornings at about 6:20am.  So the quality sleep I was hoping for apparently didn't make the drive to Idaho with us.  Between the interrupted sleep and a very clingy child, I was close to putting him up for auction on ebay.  I'm only joking.  Mostly.  His demeanor made the week a bit long.

However, we did have lots of fun in between.  We shopped at thrift stores, ate at restaurants, played with Elmo, went to play in the river, played at the mall playground and lots more fun outings.  In my sleep deprived state I didn't take any pictures except for the last day I was in town when I was packing my camera and realized I hadn't used it at all.  I stole a few from my sisters facebook but I don't have any pictures of Benjamin with his Poppy and GongGong which is sad :-(  Next time for sure though!

 This picture makes me laugh because Benjamin loved this book (thrift store for 25 cents)  He insisted that Grandfather read it over and over.  He kept saying "again, again, again"  Eventually my dad hid the book so he could at least read something different to him.  Ha ha, love it!

 Benjamin adored spending time at Nana's house

 so much love for Auntie Amanda

he's a great Grandfather to our little boy!

I stole these pictures from my sister....

 Benjamin is smiling in this picture but he hates it when I'm holding another baby/toddler like I was with my niece Azalea.  He just gets sooooo jealous......and it really makes me nervous for when his little brother or sister comes this winter!

all the cousins!  Benjamin, Azalea, Alexander and Aiden.  Not easy to get a picture of these 4, but they're sure cute :-)

We flew back on Saturday and Benjamin was SOOO excited to see his Daddy.  And so was I!  It was so good to be back with him.  We got home at 8pm, I quickly unpacked while Daddy got Benjamin ready for bed and we all went to bed early. 

Sunday we went to church and then afterward our EPIC girls group went hiking at McDowell Creek.  We had a fun time!  I came home and went for a bike ride with my boys, then after Ben went to bed Peter and I crashed with a pizza and watched some football and tv.

Today (after Benjamin finally slept until 7:30.....Hallelujah!) we headed to WinCo to restock our fridge.  The rest of the day was low key, a small walk, dinner, picking from our garden and a few stories and songs on the piano.  It is great to be back home with my hubby!  I think he's kinda glad I'm home too....if only because I just made him some fresh brownies and chocolate sauce, ha :-)

Here's a few more cute pics of my little guy who is growing up soooo fast. 

And notice that he's not wearing a bib?!?!!  You can see in the pic that he still drools a tiny bit but he's not soaking his shirts so he hasn't had a bib on for about 5 days now.  It's so fun to actually see the front of his shirts now.  Apparently it's the little things in life that make me happy :-)