Special Dessert

Making homemade strawberry ice cream with our new ice cream maker...

The finished product

Yummm! It was so delicious!

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

We celebrated Aaron's 34th Birthday after church on Sunday. We all enjoyed his requested lunch of chili dogs and Fritos (: For dessert we had a giant chocolate chip cookie and ice cream.

Josh and I rode our bikes to church that morning with the kids in the bike trailer. From there we rode to my parent's house for the birthday celebration, and then to our house after that. I was pretty tired by the end of the day, but it felt good to get some exercise!

Here's the birthday boy surrounded by his sweet kids.

Griffin and Cohen looking for worms.

Kenton helping the kids search for bugs and worms.

Finn's response to Sadie & Ronan saying that they found a tarantula. No worries, Finn, it was just a really big, black spider (:

Duck Pond and a Nature Walk

On Saturday, while Josh was working on the house, the kids & I went to Alton Baker park with Becca, Kelly, and their kids. Each of our husbands were busy that day, so it worked out well for us moms to band together and let our kids enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. It was a beautiful day! We fed the ducks and had a little picnic (some of us got to sit and eat). I'm learning to accept that, in this stage of my life, a picnic can mean eating while standing & holding one kid and running to keep up with the other kid who decided right away that one bite of food was enough for him! I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was overwhelming!

Griffin loved the ducks! Thankfully we brought somewhat fresh bread, because he wanted to eat the bread instead of throwing it to the ducks. (:

Becca with Sadie, Cohen, Ronan, and Griffin--all trying to sit on her little blanket since I forgot to bring one. Kelly ended up having a blanket too, so we were able to spread out.

Next we walked to the Nearby Nature area of the park. The kids had fun exploring and searching for bugs and worms.
John, Sadie, and Ronan led the way.

They came up with some funny ideas about what was in that hole (:

siding and lighting

My dad and Josh's dad came over on Saturday to help out with the house. Josh was excited to have their assistance, and put them to work installing siding. (: They were a good team and made a lot of progress!

Josh installed the fireplace and worked on framing the mantle. He has some great ideas for lighting around the fireplace and throughout the house, which means that he creating more framing work for himself! But, I think it will look cool and it will be worth it in the end. (:

Griffin, the littlest worker, was doing some landscaping with an excavator we're housing for our neighbor. (:

On friday night...

...Josh and I went to listen to our very talented friend, McKenzie, play music at Gutenberg College. (Grammie watched our kids for us.) He performed pieces that he composed himself, and opened for a group called Science Heroes. It's always a delight to get to hear McKenzie play!
Here are a few flash-free pictures (:

Ashley joined him for a few songs.

This was the first time we had heard Science Heroes...we really enjoyed their music! Josiah, pictured below, is McKenzie's roommate and half of Science Heroes.

Fun Friday

We scheduled a play date with Kelly, John, and Eli Turanski on Friday that actually turned into a really fun adventure! We started by going to their house to play for awhile, then we surprised the kids by taking them to an open house at a Fire Station. Kelly had heard about it from another friend and we knew that Ronan and John would love it...so we went for it knowing that it could be kinda crazy. (:

It was so much fun seeing the looks on Ronan and John's faces when we told them where we were going! They were SO excited. When we got there the fire fighters showed us the trucks and gave us a tour of the station. The kids even got to sit in the firetrucks, so of course I took lots of pictures. (:

Griffin was really into the trucks. He kept pointing at them and saying "wow".

Griff in a firetruck.

John and Ronan
John and Eli

Ronan carried on conversations with several of the firefighters...it was neat seeing him so comfortable with them & also respectful. I tried to get Griffin to look at the camera in this picture, but he would not take his eyes off of this firefighter! (:

This guy was showing the kids what he looked like in his fire suit and what he sounded like with his mask on. They want to make sure that kids won't run and hide if they are ever in a situation where a firefighter is trying to help them. In this picture he is letting the kids come up and touch his suit. John was nervous about it, so Ronan is guiding him there and "helping him be brave". (:

When we left the fire station we realized that we still had some time to kill before the kids would need naps, so we picked up lunch and went to a park. Again, it was fun to be a little spontaneous and do some things that were fun for our kids...and for us too. (;

Thursday Morning

On Thursday I watched my friend's son, Marcus, for a few hours while she went to an appointment. They live right down the street from us and we have gotten to know their family really well this year. Marcus is a very sweet little boy! He is just 6 months older than Griffin, so they play well together and are interested in similar things. Ronan took on the "big brother" role with Marcus and wanted to help him do everything.

The three boys played with cars together for a long time.

Here's Griffin peeking over the couch. His hair is so thick and long...it really makes him look like a big boy!

Ronan insisted on feeding an apple to Marcus. He would hold the apple and say, "here you go...take a bite...good boy." I think Marcus liked the attention (:

Griffin had fun playing with toys that had been hiding in the bottom of the toy box...thanks to Ronan emptying it to show all of the toys to Marcus. (:

When Marcus was getting ready to leave I saw that Ronan was starting to get sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I thought we were gonna get to keep Marcus". It was very sweet (:

Snow in April !?!?!

When I was checking in at the airport in Las Vegas I heard that it had been snowing in Oregon! I couldn't believe it! I don't remember it ever snowing this late in Spring! I was a little sad to leave the 80 degree weather in Vegas to go home to snow...

Knowing it would melt soon, Josh let the kids play in the snow before going to church on Sunday. He's such a fun Daddy!

Griffin is very attached to his blanky and he usually insists on taking it outside with him. To keep it from dragging on the ground we tie it around his neck like this...and he likes it. (:

Our boys in their jammies and snow boots (:

The next day...

We all slept in on Saturday morning, which was definitely necessary due to our previous night! Kari's mom hosted lunch for us all at a poolside cabana at the Paris hotel. The weather was perfect! Warm and sunny with a slight breeze...it was wonderful!

After lunch, we had a personal shower for Kari. Here's a picture of the entire group all together:

Jaimi and I at the pool.

It was such a fun afternoon just relaxing by the pool! Afterwards Jaimi and I went shopping a little and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for the evening. We all met for dinner at the Planet Hollywood in Caesar's Palace.
Kari, Danielle, Tamarah, Jaimi, and I

Kari wore this huge, fake diamond ring all night (:

Leslie and Renee
The four of us trying our luck at the slots (: Several of the girls played Black Jack and did pretty well!
Here's my big win from the Butterfly Sevens maching (:

We hung out at Caesar's Palace for most of the night as people gambled and shopped a little. From there, Kari's Denver clan went back to Harrah's for more dancing, and the rest of us made out way back to the Flamingo. Leslie, Renee, and Tamarah played Black Jack and Roulette at our hotel, and Jaimi & I went to our room. We stayed up late talking. I'm so glad we had the chance to really catch up on each other's lives. We don't get to see each other enough, so we really made the most of our weekend together!

I had a hard time saying goodbye to my friends, but we all thought of things to look forward to. Although some of us are unable to go to Kari's wedding in Colorado, I think most of our group will be together again in July at Renee's wedding (in Sunriver). And Leslie will be in Oregon for the next month visiting her family before starting residency, so we're going to try to hang out. (:

I flew home on Sunday with Tamarah, Debby, and Kira. Our flight was delayed about an hour, and then once I got to Portland I had to drive all the way home to Eugene. (: It all went very smoothly, but by that time I was just ready to be home, so it felt like a really long day of travel! I had a very sweet reunion with my boys. It was great to be home!!

1st Night Continued...

After dinner we all got ready to go out on the town. Everyone decided to go to Harrahs where there was an outdoor stage with live music and dancing.

Here is Kari being ever SO excited about being in Vegas!! I forgot how much fun we all used to have together, and a big part of that was Kari! She seriously is one of the most fun & funny people I've ever known!

This picture turned out kind of crazy, but I thought it was still cool. The girl on the right has two daughters who are the same ages as my boys. Ronan and her oldest were born just days apart, and her younger daughter's name is Rowan and was born a month before Griffin. There were only a handful of us in our group that were married and had kids, so it was neat to find those little connections (:
The band turned out to be really good. The mostly played 80's rock music, and then while they were taking breaks the DJ played hip hop music. It was so much fun! We all stuck together and danced the night away (:

Jaimi, Renee, and I

Leslie and I

Jaimi and Tamarah were the first ones to go back to the hotel around midnight. I was starting to feel tired at that point too, but Renee and I somehow managed to stay up until 3am! The rest of the girls got back around 5:00 in the morning. It was crazy...but so much fun!