In Honor Of

See our other blog too! http://www.inhonorof.com/ We kind of got caught up in the busyness of summer and the posts slowed up a bit on this blog, but we are ready to get back on it, so hopefully there will be more for you to read!

Volcano!!
One day Lily said she wanted to make a Volcano, so we did. Then we exploded it.

Soccer Time
This year both kids are playing soccer in the Fall. We bought them their soccer shoes this weekend. Tajie is really into his gear.

9th Anniversary Moonlit Kayak Trip

There is so much to do in Sunriver and so to celebrate our 9th Anniversary, Todd and I signed up for a guided Moonlit Kayak Trip up in a high mountain lake. The guide picked us up in Sunriver at 8pm and drove us to Sparks Lake where we kayaked in the dark for 2 hours. We even stopped at the shore for a campfire and cocoa. It was wonderful!

Our 9th Anniversary!
This year we were in Sunriver during our Anniversary, so upon encouragement from Todd and his Mom, I brought my wedding dress so we could do our annual Anniversary picture there by the Quelah tennis courts! Lily LOVED being my helper. She knew exactly what to do. Tajie wasn't too hot on the idea of stopping what he was doing (playing Nintendo DS with his cousin, Wyatt) and didn't get as involved in the photo taking. Lily on the other hand, went nuts!

Lazy Sunriver Moments
This year Sunriver consisted of the regular family, Krista and Brian flew home from Amsterdam for the trip, and Aunt Kathy and cousin Lindsey from California made it this time! It was sooooo much fun, like always!
I forgot to take pictures, but Lily went around and captured some moments around the condos. Hopefully I will get more pictures from other family members of Lily, Taj and Wyatt riding the ponies, of all of our biking, visiting the sweetshop Goodies, playing tennis and all the family! There may be more posts of Sunriver later!

Sunriver Pool Time

Braxton keeping warm in his cute wetsuit!

Taj and Lily leaping into the pool. No fear now!

Our Last Night in Sunriver
Taj got a giant Shirley Temple and was very happy. These were just some dinner pictures we took on our last night at one of the lodge restaurants. Todd, the kids and I stayed one extra night and booked a room in the Sunriver Lodge. It was so much fun. We swam, hot-tubbed, went to the restaurants, used the Lodge for everything it provided and even ordered a room-service breakfast. This was the kids first time in a hotel room and they loved it! Just the 2 beds with a giant TV in front of them was exciting to them! I highly recommend Sunriver and the Lodge too!

A Weekend with the Jacksons
Ang, Reg, Steele and Mason came down to visit for the weekend! It has been so long since we've seen them and had a weekend together. It was fabulous! We decided to drive the scenic waterfall drive in the Gorge and do a couple kid friendly waterfall hikes. The kids LOVED it! So off we went, piled in the minivan!
Oh...and for those first seeing the hair-doo, I am growing the fauxhawk out and in the process of getting long hair, have decided to change it up a bit to make it more interesting during the growout stage. Right now, it is Tinkerbell Blond.

Above: Taj, Mason, Steele and Lily. Notice Lily came prepared with her purse for the hikes.

Below: Reg and Steele at Latourell Falls. One of the many waterfalls along the gorge.

Above: The gang (Todd, Reggie, Angie and the kids) in front of Multnomah Falls. They are on the bridge with their hands up just left of center.
Below: I had to take a picture as Tajie would not stop kissing me! I loved it!

Wiggly Tooth Video

In the car ride coming back from the waterfalls, Lily pulled her own wiggly tooth out! Her first tooth to be lost! All morning it was an 8-person effort to get that tooth wiggly as Lily would have Ang, Reg, Steele, Mason, Taj, Todd, Me and herself wiggle her tooth along our waterfall hikes and during the drive. It paid off cause the kind-of wiggly tooth became a very wiggly tooth. When it was Ang's 100th time to wiggle Lily's tooth, Ang said, "I can't wait to pull your tooth out when we get back to the house." It had never dawned on Lily that you could actually pull it out. So she grabbed it herself, gave it a yank and said "I got it!".

After the waterfalls

After a day of hiking waterfalls, it was time for some relaxing and playing in the pool! Ang, Reggie and Mason above.
Steele below getting ready to rocket down the waterslide.

Below: Todd rocketing down the waterslide only to move the whole pool. Look further below!

We encouraged Taj to try goggles when playing in our neighbors pool and all of a sudden we had Water Baby #2! So the next time at swim lessons, Teacher Jae had a new student in Taj. Everytime we'd look over at his swim lesson we couldn't find Taj. Reason being is he was always underwater. Watch him wave. It's cute.

Goggle make a Difference

This is a cute video as you'll see, he even walks underwater to get back to his place in line. He never wants to come up!

COMA

C.O.M.A. Round 3
C.O.M.A. keeps getting bigger! We're up to 17 adult and 12 kid members. And yet I have not taken a picture of us all gathered, but have a few pics of the few of us.

I had to get a picture of Judson and our friend, Gary, who stopped by on C.O.M.A. night. You'd have thought they planned the hairy catepillar's on their top lips.

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See our other blog too! http://www.inhonorof.com/ Changes keep coming to this weekly so keep following!

2009 STP!
I completed my first STP, Seattle to Portland, bike ride and Todd did his 3rd just this last weekend! It was a fantastic ride with Todd and our friends, Judson and John. Here are a few pictures of our trip, but to see more with commentary, check out our Picasa Web Album for more STP!!! Above: Todd and I about to board the bus to that takes us up to Seattle, only to start riding back home the next day.
Below: The starting line with Todd, Judson and John.

Above: Todd doing taking a self-snapshot. It was a cold, rainy morning the second day. Here we were stopping for coffee with every other rider on the road!

Above and Below: PORTLAND! 202 miles in 2 days on a bike seat....OUCH! A HUGE thank you to Todd, Judson and John for cheering me through the 200 miles. I am very lucky to have experienced my first STP with them. They all kept me laughing!

Swim Lesson Time!
First Taj and Lily do the "Dailies", swim lessons everyday for two weeks and then move on to swim lessons just twice a week for an additional 3 more weeks. Lily has always been very water cautious and will even tell her swim instructor that she simply will NOT do what she asks. Lily will choose timeouts on the edge of the pool over trying something her instructor is asking. The Instructor's rule is..."If you don't try, then you have to sit and watch until you are ready to try." No bouncing around in the water choosing what you want and don't want to do. As usual, Lily will try to negotiate with her teacher, but thankfully, this is the same teacher Lily had last year and she remembers Lily's tactics. She works sooooo well with Lily. As you will see in the videos in the other post, progress has been made! It made me tear up then and still does watching these. Tajie working on a back float above and Lily watching Taj's swim lesson.

Taj and I making use of our time during Lily's lesson.

LILY: Swimming At First

What A Difference A Week and a Half Makes!!
Watch this first then the second video below!
This is Lily during the first few days in swim lessons and a year out of the pool in regards to lessons. Teacher Jae is GREAT!

LILY: Swimming 1.5 Weeks Later

Go Lily, Go! This is in her new class (the 2x week) with Teacher Sara.

Tajie Kickin' Away

Taj Having a Good Time in His Swim Lessons!

4th of July!
Well, it was quite the weekend. Tajie had the flu- fever, vomitting, etc, Lily was under the weather, and Todd was catching the bug. Super Mom was still healthy and very excited to light just a few fireworks and get the annual "Sparkler" picture. Lily really got into the fireworks this year too and her and I made a second trip to the fireworks stand nearby to get a few more. We started at dusk, not knowing if Tajie would stay awake, but he really wanted to see them and he lasted longer than we thought. It was the longest he had been out of bed for 2 days, being about 1 hour.

Our annual "Sparkler" picture. This year BOTH kids held the sparklers! We know, we know....this was NOT a good idea to have a blanket on Taj. We quickly realized what we were doing and took the sparkler and all fireworks far away from him.