Oregon Coast Family Reunion

Last weekend we took a family trip down to Gearhart, Oregon. We did this last year and had a blast so we thought we'd try it again. We went with my parents, 3 of my sisters and their families. To make a long story short, the first day was so hot that it brought out flying ants that covered the beach, then it dropped 30 degrees and was so foggy we couldn't see much, but all in all the kids had a great time!

One morning while my mom and I went to run errands, Shelby and Jonathan took some of the kids for a walk. The cousins in this pic are Roman and Britton.

Dean is kind of in a "mommy" stage right now, so it's fun to see him have bonding moments with his daddy.

We didn't have a ton of wind for kites, but the kids liked it anyway.

Here's Dawson playing with his little cousin Duke. Dawson absolutely loved playing in the water and especially playing with wet sand.

Me and my babe.

 

Dean and Dawsons's favorite thing to do in the pool was to jump off the side into our arms. Last year Dean was too scared to do this, so it was great to see him become more brave.

My beautiful sister Shelby

Progress?...Oh Yeah!

Our backyard is so close to being finished, but we wanted to post some pictures of the current progress.  This place was seriously a jungle 6 months ago!

The new grass we planted is almost ready to be mowed for the first time.

We used the existing bricks to make a border for the play area.  We will be putting down some pea gravel or play bark where the climbing toy or swing set will go.

I think it's almost time for some BBQs!

At Outing at Lewis-McCord Base

It's Jonathan here.  Dean and I took advantage of some much needed one-on-one time and tagged along with the young men's activity to the Air Force base.  I used to joke that Dean loved me more than Caprice because he ALWAYS wanted me for everything.  He's become quite the opposite lately. 

We toured a Chinook helicoptor.  They trasport troops and supplies in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dean had a blast!

You can tell in this picture how big these helicoptors are!  I tried to get them to give us just a short ride in the air...it was a no go!

Thanks Dean for the fun outing!  Maybe you will let me read you stories tonight instead of Mom?...that will probably be a no go as well!

Fun in the Sun

So far our summer has consisted of 2 very warm days that occured about a week ago. Since then, it's been cloudy and rainy. Really nice. Anywho, I had my sister's kids over and they had a blast playing in our sprinkler.

Dean and Britton: best buddies

Dawson wouldn't even play in the sprinkler. He just played with the water that squirted out of where the hose meets the house. Awesome orange ear plugs, huh?

These two cute girls are Sydney and Mya.

The Boys

This is Jonathan here giving an update on things.  The boys are finally smiling for pictures these days, so I took a few shots of them last Sunday.  Caprice likes to dress them the same.  I think we need to have some twins next...NOT an announcement! 

They have the coolest shoes, wish they made them in grown-up size.

This kid loves to smile!

We were invited to our neighbors the other day for dinner and were asked to bring a dessert.  We decided to pull out the big guns and do something impressive.  A chocolate trifle with raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries is one of our favorites. 

These next pictures make me so proud to be a Dad.  Dean and Dawson have been obsessed with baseball and basketball lately.  We found a basketball hoop and baseball tee at a garage sale.  They love playing!

Yeah, still trying to get them to understand which ball goes on the tee.

For being so short for his age Dean is actually REALLY good at shooting hoops.  I just showed him once how to throw the ball in and he's suddenly Lebron James.  I'm serious!

It's actually starting to warm up a little in Washington, so stay tuned for more outdoor pics once the never-ending cloud finally passes over us. 

Progress, kind of

So, we've been trying to plant grass in our backyard. BUT, the weather hasn't been too cooperative. And we kept putting it off. We finally decided that Memorial Day would be perfect to lay out our dirt and seed the grass. Well, it really turned into shoveling and raking mud because it kept raining every 20 minutes. It was so disappointing! We got as far as laying the dirt and smoothing it out, but we're waiting for a better forecast before we seed the grass so it doesn't wash away. Boo hoo. We are learning to be patient before we get the backyard of our dreams. Here is a "before" picture for all you folks at home:

This was back in February right after we bought the house. Pretty wild and overgrown to say the least.

And here is what it looks like now. A special thanks to my dad and sister Shelby for coming over to help out. I found out that raking mud is hard.

Here's poor Jonathan working his tail off. What a guy! This is the same area as the picture above.

One fun thing that we discovered was our first garder snake! I picked it up to show the boys. Of course none of them would touch it, but they liked it anyway.

We're so excited for summer to actually show up here in Washington so we can get this grass growing and show you the after pictures!