June

June has been a busy busy month! We've done lots of walking and playing at parks. We're so glad the weather has cooperated (mostly). :)

Playing at the park with friends - Brookie's trying out the Pippi Lingstocking doo. :) I'm having a lot of fun with her hair now that (sortof) fits in braids and pigtails... :)

Walking to the park

My cool hair doo

Still Brookie's favorite thing to do at the park

Cole's favorite thing to do at the park

Proud climbers - Daddy's proud too :)

Picnicing

Cole and Tyler were both staring to look a little scruffy, so we decided it was time for haircuts. Cole hates haircuts (we've now discovered why - when you're all worked up and sweaty, hair sticks to your skin and is doubly itchy). We solved the problem this time with a two fold strike - First, Ty told Cole he could cut his hair and second, we used a "magic cape" to keep all the hair off. :) Worked like a charm. Ty even sweetened the deal by letting Cole use the wet vac to clean up after. :) Very fun! Way to go Dad!

BRAVE BRAVE Dad!

Even Braver

By the end , everyone was covered in hair (except Coleman) and we did a lot of wash, but we got a 2 for 1 haircut deal, so it was all worth it!

Cleaning up (wish I could get him to like to do this all the time)

The way Brookie likes to wear big girl pants.

We haven't pushed the potty thing too much. When she's interested, we work on it. After wanting Cole to be a potty-er for so long and working so hard, I think we're going to take another approach this time - child directed. So far, we're not super consistent, but now that summer's here, maybe we'll be wearing big girl pants more often. We just have to find a comfier way... for Mom's sake, if nothing else.

Our little girl is growing up!! :) We're so proud of you Brookie!!

We went in Cole's room one night and he was ready for bed - with a whole stack of books to keep him company. He's developing a funny habit of reading himself to sleep. I guess he's always had books in his bed, but this was a little over the top. He's sometimes up for hours looking at books after bedtime... must have a bad mix of Daddy's and Mommy's genes 'cause I think we both did that.

Still loving the dress-ups. Here he's a pirate.

Brookie's the bubble lover of the family. She can do this for hours! She sometimes even blows a bubble. She's pretty patient and tolerant of the yucky taste.

Cole loves playing outside - even in our weed covered grass!

We took a hike at Silver Falls to see more of the waterfalls. Our good friends, the Olsens, came with us. After the hike Peter and Tyler ran the trial while Ann and I played with the kids at the playground. A fun day!

Starting the hike. We rested on a nice bench 5 minutes into the hike - mostly because it was a cool bench! :)

Snacking

Winter falls

Snacking at ?Falls

? Falls

Brookie did really well hiking, but we carried her toward the end. She likes to ride in the backpack and she loves to be with her daddy. Overall, a winner of a situation for her. :)

What a fun hike! Thanks Olsens for the great company. It's always fun to play outside with friends!!

Brookie (Rapunzel) combing her hair. Yes, this is an outfit of her choosing...

Playing in Coleman's incredibly messy room all by her lonesome and having a great time!

We got a surprise visit from my parents this month too! It was a real treat! My grandma finally sold her Gladstone house - which was a bittersweet accomplishment. I even feel sortof attached to it. Mom and Dad came up to clean up, sign papers and get ready to close. We hope the new owners love it.

While Mom and Dad were here, I think we did a little more playing that we really should have. I feel bad we didn't help out more. We mostly played. Here are a few pictures from the week.

Eating cake balls and popcorn while Grandpa was at a meeting. This was the pre-lunch snack. They really spoiled us while they were here. Brookie's cake ball was, of course, pink.

Coleman enjoying his chocolate nut cake ball.

We went to lunch at Burgerville per recommendations from friends. The bike rack was the kids' favorite part. :)

While we were up that way, Mom and Dad took us to see the dam and the fish hatchery. Very cool! Coleman especially was excited to see fish. He begs me all the time to take him fishing... someday I will.

What a fun day! We had a blast seeing the fish counting station, the fish ladders, the hatchery and the dam. The water was incredibly powerful looking. I guess it must be high this time of year! One of my favorite parts was listening to my dad being an impromptu tour guide. My mom reminded him that the kids are little and have little kid attention spans, so I guess he didn't feel the need to over-explain to them, but he talked to lots of people while we were there and I had fun listening in when I wasn't chasing some little fish lover to then ext exhibit. :)

The next day we went to Portland again. The kids and I rode with them - just because we like to be with them. In hindsight, that was probably silly, but we had a good time. While Dad signed the papers, Mom and I took the kids to the Portland Temple. It was so beautiful and I've been wanting to do it for quite some time. I was hoping to take them in cute church clothes and get reverent pictures to hang in their rooms to remind them of our forever family and Heavenly Father's love for us, etc. Well, it was really fun, but the pictures were more exciting than I thought. Oh well. I'm excited about eternal families! :)

Touching the temple door.

Grandma, Cole and Brookie at the Portland Temple

Touching the temple doors

Happy to be at the temple

Trying to be reverent

Happy to be at the temple

Trying (hoplelssly) to be reverent

The fountain (I was about as excited as they were to see the fountain. I remember coming to the Portland temple when I was 12. We brought my Dad's cousin to see it. I remember sitting on the edge of it and thinking it was so beautiful!)

I didn't try to swim in it though. Guess my parents have better parenting skills...

Thanks Grandma for keeping us mostly dry.

Flowers on the temple grounds

I'm always amazed at how beautiful the temple grounds are kept. These flowers and the trees were so very Oregon and very beautiful!

Grandpa, Cole and Brookie at the house.

While Mom and Dad were here, the kids did a lot of cuddling! Brookie was especially happy to sit on Grandpa's lap and watch Rapunzel. :)

Grandpa and Brookie (wearing her new Rapunzel/princess/fairy costume)

Grandpa also helped put Cole's bike together again. He hasn't wanted to ride it, so Ty took the crank and everything off so he could push it with his feet like he does his little green 4-wheeler. He's still a little too short to keep it upright, so we decided to opt for pedals again - this time with real training wheels. Thanks Grandpa for putting so many pieces together to make it work.

Brookie was digging the bushes while Grandpa and Cole worked on the bike. It was a success though. I don't have pictures, but Coleman pedaled for the very first time! He's since done it a couple more times and is getting better and better!!!

In the middle of their stay, they had some business to take care of at the house and we went camping. We'd had a trip planned with some cute friends in the ward.

Friday evening we drove out to Cape Lookout - out by Tillamook, OR. It was a long drive, but quite beautiful. We got out there in time to hang out, go for a walk, help with dinner, burn dinner, eat dinner and take another walk to the beach. It was a beautiful night and the company was great. We stayed up late with friends talking and laughing (the ranger even had to come tell us to keep it down because it was quiet time - I felt like a kid again). The kids slept well in the tent (as in they actually went to sleep and stayed asleep 'till it was light in the morning). That was refreshing!

Roasting hot dogs

Eating a delicious dinner of foil dinners, fruit and muffins - I love camping food!

Cole was pretty excited to put up the tent

Our walk to the beach that night. Aren't NW beaches amazing?

More of the beach walk. The kids sure love the beach!

The happy campers in the tent in the morning :)

Sadly it RAINED starting early in the morning and our plans to hike and explore were back-burnered. Our kids were up at the crack of dawn, so we went to the beach again at about 6:30 in the rain. Brookie was a little cold, but Cole stayed for a long time collecting shells and pieces of crab and sand dollars that were left along the beach. We walked over to some tide pools to explore a little too. He was especially excited about the little crab and all the huge starfish that we saw! So neat!! We were soaked through, but it was fabulous!!

At about 9:30 we piled in the car to head to Tillamook to see the cheese factory. We hit McDonalds on the way to wait for the factory to open (it opened at 8 but we didn't know). We laughed that we couldn't get our kids to eat a sausage and egg McMuffin. It took us more than 30 minutes to feed them each a half - and still they didn't finish. I'm sure we'll laugh about that when they're teenagers and we can't keep them full and they find a love of fast food. (I guess I should just be glad they didn't really like it...)

Brookie pretending to be a cow at the factory

Riding in the Tillamook delivery truck

Checking out the factory

Checking out the cows

Tasting the ice cream (a definite highlight) - we tasted cheese too. It was so yummy!!!

Ty's going to type a funny story about favorite colors here.

After the Tillamook factory, we headed home. It worked out to be perfect for our schedule. My mom and dad came down to watch the kids and Ty and I went to a dinner for the incoming 3rd year medical students and an interview for ________ trying to encourage more doctors to take students for these next years. Ty and his classmate Jesper have had such a wonderful experience here in Salem and we're really grateful for the many doctors who have shown interest in them and their education. It was a nice dinner and the kids had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. It's so much easier to leave them knowing that they'll have such a great time!! Thanks Mom and Dad!

We were lucky to have my dad with us on Father's day too! Mom and Dad came to church with us, and we spent a relaxing day together. We made dutch oven lasagna and homemade frozen yogurt to celebrate. I'm so glad I got to spend the day with two of the most terrific men I know!! Cole and Brookie gave Tyler special Father's day presents this year - Cole gave him 2 Nerf guns and Brookie gave him "chokat" - they were both so excited. I hope Ty was excited. Ty is a wonderful dad and we both have terrific dads and grandpas that have played a great role in our lives! It was a great day to remember these wonderful men!

Grandpa playing catch with the kids while they wore off their sugar energy after dessert.

Ty took this weird picture of me with my hair all wonky... oh well.

Brookie chillin' with her dolly while watching a show. We all started to get colds, so we kindof took it easy a bit.

Brookie blowing spit bubbles out the noise maker Grandma brought. She thought it was soooo fun!

We made one last trip up to the house with a trailer to bring some furniture down for us and for friends. Kelly met us up there to pick up the piano. I'm so glad it's going to have good home. It's been in our family for many many years. We brought home a bed and a dresser for us and a bed and a dresser for some cute friends in our ward. Brookie loves her new bed and sleeps in it just fine (yay)! (Thanks Raegan for helping me get it all set up - that was quite a job). Cole now wants a big bed. He didn't complain that Brookie got one and he didn't, he just said afterwards how neat it was and how I should look at how big he's getting. :) Cutie! I thought he would be better off with a smaller bed and more room to play, but it looks like we need to work on getting him something bigger too. Wow! Can't believe how fast these kids are growing up!!! Yikes!! Thanks Mom and Dad (and Grandma) for all the help and for the great furniture! I think garage sales and antique shops are the only places you can get real wood furniture these days... :) We're sure enjoying it!

Even the last day Mom and Dad were here we still had to play and have fun. We ran some errands in the morning, then went to Costco for lunch and to the park. It was so fun to be with Grandpa and Grandma! Thanks so much Mom and Dad for all you did for us and especially for spending time with us and making it special. You're making so many fun memories. We miss you tons already and it's only been a couple days! Please come back soon!!! xo

Grandma pushing Brookie at the park

Carpooling?

Our for a drive

Chasing a squirrel

Brookie in the crooked house

Cole down the slide - he's been so much more into climbing up EVERYTHING lateley. He's really into slides and playground equipment. He likes to play pirates and Billy Goats Gruff.

Coleman in the crooked house

Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma! We all love you lots! I need you to come back so I can redeem myself in another game of Shanghi... that was terrible! I call a rematch! You pick the time! Love you with all our hearts!!!

These two little monkeys love to play with the craziest things. Guess I'll wait to put the blankets and pillows back. They're having too much fun!!! :)