Monthly Archives: August 2010

Balloon Ride

Planner that I am, I have a bucket list, despite the fact that I am still young and in good health (knock on wood). For my 30th birthday, Jonathan’s parents helped me cross one thing off my list. They watched to boys for us, and Jonathan and I woke up at 4:00am, tanked up on coffee, and headed to Newberg, OR to catch a hot air balloon at dawn.
I have to admit, I was a little nervous watching them fill up the balloon with hot air. The basket looked awfully small, and the flame looked really big. Before long, it was all set to go, we jumped in, our pilot unhooked us from our anchor (a van) and we gently lifted off the ground. According to him, the winds were “squirrley,” but I didn’t notice – it seemed like a smooth takeoff to me. The ride was a breeze, so to speak – very peaceful and still. We drifted over the Willamette river (where we attempted a “splash and dash”), just over the tree tops, and on over farms and beautiful houses on large lots. We even saw a couple of horses in a corral get spooked by a curious deer. After our flight there was a champagne toast followed by a delicious homemade brunch. This was definitely an experience I will remember. Thanks Jenny and Bill!












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Mr. Smiley

Kieron is about 3 1/2 months old now and he changes a little bit everyday. He’s quite talkative and enjoys having conversations by ooohing, aaaahing, and squealing. He grabs onto objects and can switch them from one hand to the other. His legs are very strong and he prefers to be vertical, so last week we put him in the Jumparoo, and now it’s his new favorite thing. What we enjoy most about this age is Kieron’s smile. He’s a really happy little guy and it seems like most of his waking hours he’s smiling at us.








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Back to the Beach

We spent a few days in the beginning of August at Nana and Grandpa’s place on the Oregon coast. Avery was so excited to go, he packed his backpack in the morning all by himself. Of course, all he packed was toys, but Mommy helped him sort it all out. When we got there Avery could hardly contain himself while we unpacked the van. The wait must have seemed like an eternity to him, but it wasn’t long before our feet hit the sand and he was busy building castles and fishing with a small net.


Avery loves to play in this creek that leads to the ocean


Avery had fun demolishing this sand kingdom

Then he started to rebuild his own

Waiting for pizza with Grandpa

Haystack Rock

Avery climbed about halfway up this sand dune and ran down with us


Hugging Nana

Mr. Smiley

Hunting for treasures

On our last evening at the beach, Nana and Grandpa watched Kieron so we could have some time outside with just Avery. The clouds cleared and the sky was so pretty. We ended up taking a ton of pictures. This is the least I could reduce it to:


In front of Proposal Rock


Saying “hello” to the starfish


Waiting for a wave…

Retreat!














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Adventures Blueberry Picking

At the end of July we returned to Bybee Farms in North Bend for a second season of blueberry picking. The farm is beautiful, tucked right at the base of Mount Si. Avery was excited to go, and we thought that with another year under his belt, he would make a fine blueberry picker. But after picking and eating about 20 blueberries, he declared that he was tired and wanted trail mix. So he spent the majority of the time camped in a fold-up canvas chair while Mommy and Daddy got the goods. We had a great time anyway, and still have ten pounds of blueberries in the freezer.







Kieron did his part to help us gather lots of berries. He slept in the stroller the entire time. We didn’t get any pictures of him that afternoon, but here are a few from earlier in the day.





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Soccer

There’s a high school within walking distance of our house. When we can, we like to walk over there with the boys and run around the track and/or kick a ball around on the field. Here are a few shots of Daddy playing defender against Avery.





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