Camping!

We went camping last weekend as a family and had a ton of fun together. We packed up Saturday morning and went over to Cape Lookout on the coast. After careful review of all the open campsites we decided on what Tyson claimed to be "the best campsite in the whole place". I think he may have been right...well, at least it was the best one for us. It had grass and a hedge of bushes around it so that Kai was pretty well contained (which is always a plus!). We set up camp and then headed over to the beach. We hung out there all afternoon and were blessed with yet another beautiful day on the Pacific Northwest coast. We had lots of fun playing in the water and digging in the sand--and do I mean digging. Tyson decided we should dig a hole to China so we could see The Cube. I agreed that it was a grand idea and Kai joined us because, well, it involved digging in the sand. Although we did not make it to China or The Cube, we did dig a good size whole that we then watched fill up with water...oh the glorious entertainment! Here are a few pics of our fun on the beach:

After a while we headed back to camp to make dinner which was delicious...but isn't all food when you are camping? We took a walk around the campground to try to get the remainder of the energy out of Kai. And what do you know it worked. When it was time for bed we bundled Kai up, gave him kisses, put him in the sleeping bag, zipped up the tent and --- tada! not a sound, not a movement. The crazy kid went right to sleep. I literally pictured having to zip up the tent and let him run around like a wild animal in there until he fell asleep...but no, not a peep. Too good to be true right? Right.

We went to bed a little while later and snuggled into the tent with Kai (we had zipped our bags together). After getting hit in the face by Kai 4 times in the first two minutes I finally found a comfortable position. Just as I was about to doze off...or perhaps I had for 5 minutes or so I am awakened by crying from our boy. We reassure him he is okay but he is in that asleep crying mode and eventually I pick him up and rock him and he is okay...until I put him down again. At that point Ty suggests he is too warm. "How can he be too warm...we are camping", is what I was thinking in my head. But eventually I decided to take off his super thick sleeper and extra socks and that does the trick. It was a classic case of overdressing--guilty as charged!

This might be the end of my story but no. Kai is now happy as a clam but also quite awake having gotten just enough sleep to feel refreshed. He did lay still but he began to go through his entire vocabulary:

"beesh" (beach)
"wawa" (water)
"bee" (any type of bug he sees)
"babble babble babble" (I have no idea)
"bu duc" (big truck...said in a low "manly" voice)
"mama"
"dada"
"woo, woo" (fire siren noise...the worst and loudest!)
(and plenty of others I can't remember because--I was trying to sleep)
Me: "Kai you have to go to sleep...shh"
Kai: "shh" (over and over and over again until we would look at him...then a laugh)


It went on like this for what seemed like hours but it was really probably only an hour or so until he finally fell back asleep. I was then unable to sleep because it started to rain and my baby is stripped down to his diap, but he seemed fine and I was warm so he was probably okay too. Then I kept waking up from either a hit in the face or because he had creeped up out of the bag, and again, diap only...so I would pull him back down. We woke up bright and early to Kai trying to be quiet because he sees us sleeping...so in his not so quiet voice we hear "shh, shh", until he got our attention--clever kid:)

It was a long night but oh so funny and way worth it for the memories! However, we did pass on the hike we were going to go on and headed home for some actual rest. It was a fun weekend hanging together as a family celebrating our first official "Daddy doesn't work Saturdays anymore" Saturday!

Here are a few pics from around camp:


Thanks to my boys for the fun memories!

Labor Day Weekend

We headed home to Ellensburg to spend Labor Day weekend with the fam. This has become a tradition for us. We have been to Ellensburg for Labor Day every year since we started dating. There is a rodeo and fair and it is a crazy busy weekend but fun as well. Some years we have brought friends with us, three years ago Tyson asked me to marry him on a hike that weekend and last year we spent precious time with Troy and Kari. This year we knew it would be the last time we would see Taryn before she heads off to Spain for 9 months. Here are a few highlights:

Playing on the grass with Tess

Gardening with Gramma

Seeing the animals at the fair

(Kai actually did like this...the pig just startled him when it stood up...before this he was petting all the pigs that were laying down:)

Celebrating baby girl Greer at Alison's baby shower!

Bellingham (the greatest place on earth)

After leaving the boat we headed up to Bellingham to visit friends. Tyson went to college there and it is our desire to one day return. We used to be in a small group with one of our pastors who also used to live in Bellingham. Whenever he and his wife and Tys would talk about Bham everyone else in the group would make jokes about how after whenever you say Bellingham it has to be followed with (the greatest place on earth) because all three of them would talk about it that way. I realized for me this was the most time I had spent in Bellingham since Tys and I first dated and I was happy to remember that I did enjoy it quite a bit! It is a beautiful area and a great town.
But, the best part about Bellingham for us is the friends! We stayed with our friends Trevor, Kristen and Annabelle and were able to see other friends up there as well. Belle is about six months older than Kai and that had a blast together! It was so fun to see them play and interact. The differences between boys and girls were obvious watching them which was entertaining. We hung out in Boulevard Park (the best park ever according to Tyson), went to dinner, went to church, had a wonderful feast which included a meat salad (yummy, yummy) and had a great time hanging out and fellowshipping.

Throwing rocks...again.

Giving high fives on the boardwalk

Little Buddies
Big Buddies

Kristen and I are buddies too but moms rarely get out from behind the camera:)

Thanks friends for such a great couple days!

Some of God's Beauty...

A Few Favs

Here are a few of my favorites of Kai from the trip...

Sea Life!

We saw lots of amazing sea life out on the boat. There were of course the crabs...Kai had fun with those and I thought they were yummy!

We saw a really big jelly fish (at least I thought it was big)

We were told that there were no whales to see, but as we headed out our first afternoon we saw some in the distance which was very exciting. We could see them in three different directions...

Then a few got closer and we could see them even better! Aren't they just beautiful!Then we saw a few coming right at the boat. They came up then went under the water about 100 yards from our boat. Then all of the sudden the came up right next to our boat...three of them, including a baby. I snapped the pictures really fast and didn't even have time to look through the camera but here is what I got.



It was very exciting and we were blessed to see these gorgeous creatures up close!

Boating

Last week we headed up to the San Juan Islands and went boating with Gramma & Pa. We took the ferry from Anacordes to Friday Harbor and met them there on the boat. We went to a couple different islands and anchored in little bays. It was a wonderful time and Kai had a ball! He did so great considering he had a life jacket on most of the two days and we were in a small space on the boat with a lot of things that were off limits. Again, he amazed me and went with the flow and was a joy! He even slept (for the first time ever in his life!) with Tyson and I at night on the boat...right in the middle...boy that kid is an active sleeper! We didn't get much sleep but it was fun to experience and know we can handle it when we go camping:) We had a great time playing and hiking on the islands, crabbing, seeing lots of sea life and hanging out together. Kai learned lots of new words his favorite being "boat" and also "water". We were so excited he had a chance to experience this. Thanks Gramma and Pa for a fun few days!

Runners on your mark...

This weekend we had a fun trip down to Eugene to watch a day of the Track & Field Olympic Trials. My mom came up with the great idea of meeting up and going. It was so wonderful to see my mom and let her and Kai catch up...they had a fun time. It was also so much fun to watch some of best athletes in the country compete to go to the Olympics. We saw the final three events of the women's heptathlon, the finals of the women's 100, the men's shot put, a few paralympic events and more. I think one of the highlights was seeing the quarterfinals of the men's 100 m where we watched Tyson Gay break the American record with a time of 9.77...so fast! It was awesome. I did track in high school so I have an appreciation for it but this was a new experience for Tyson so it was fun to share it. He got into it, marking down times and who was moving on to the next round. It was extremely hot but well worth it! Thanks Mom for making the trip up and for the great idea...it was so great to see you!

Wedding Bells

We went down to Chico this weekend for my sister's wedding. It was a great weekend celebrating the love and marriage of Vicky and Marc. We flew down late Thursday night, spent Friday helping with decorations and other preparations, had a beautiful wedding Saturday and flew back out Sunday. It was a quick, busy trip but a wonderful time. We were able to see lots of family and friends I hadn't seen in a long time. I realized I barely took any pictures which goes to show you how busy we were. I will have to post some pictures of the beautiful bride when I get them...I can't believe I didn't get any. Here is what I do have:)

Here are the ladies getting their hair done.

Me and my little bro, Cecil

I was honored Vicky trusted me to do her flowers. I was also a little scared as I have no experience (except from my own wedding and I really didn't like mine). We were pretty happy how they turned out. Here is the bride's bouquetand one of the bridesmaids

The morning after the wedding we were able to enjoy the pool for a little while...Kai looked so cute in his board shorts

We flew in and out of Sacramento and we had a few hours to play around before we flew out on Sunday. We went to the Old Downtown and the Train Museum.

This train was HUGE and Tyson loved it!

Kai is trying to out crawl the train...hurry!

Christmas Joy

We had a wonderful Christmas with Tyson's family up in Ellensburg. We had a nice long weekend relaxing, playing games and being with family. One night we went Christmas Caroling to retirement homes with the church. Another night us "kids" had a serious game of Risk where we video taped confessionals during the game...very entertaining. On Christmas Day we had a house full of 19 family members...it was so good to see everyone and catching up. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Kai bringing some Christmas joy to one of the men in the retirement home. Snuggling with Gramma
Center of attention with Uncle Troy and Auntie Taryn

We woke up Christmas morning to this beautiful sunrise...what a wonderful way to start the day celebrating our Savior's birth! Attacking Cousin Eric

Kai chilling with his new Shrek that Gramma & Pa got him...he is now in Kai's crib and keeps him entertained in the morning until we get down there. They also had a small wrestling match before Kai went to bed last night:)Kai with his Great Uncle Kent

Kai and Daddy putting together his Radio Flyer Rocket Pa and Gramma got him

Auntie Taryn trying out the Radio Flyer Rocket
Kai and Great-Grandma Boppa