Art A La Auntie Jenn Jenn

I think I am finally caught up with all that has been going on around here. Christi, I don't want to hear you gripe about how often I blog for quite some time. Go back and look, I think this makes post number three for this week alone.

This week was the first week we haven't had a million and one things going on, and I have to say, it's been sort of nice. I feel like our summer has been packed!

Auntie Jenn took advantage to this break in busyness and got the boys started on a project she's been itching to do with them. I've had red painted canvases hanging in our entry way for a while now. We got them shortly after we were married and they've just sort of followed everywhere we've moved. I don't have much red in my house...ask anyone that knows me. Blue and green (in any variation) are my go-to colors. Because of this, the red canvases have stuck out like sore thumbs to my interior designer sister. After weeks  (maybe months) of begging me to let her re-do them, I finally gave in and let her do what she wanted with them.

She started by sitting Drew down with some paint colors of her choosing. She handed him a paintbrush, and let him have at it.

Drew loves to paint anyway, so it didn't take a whole lot of convincing to get him to help Auntie Jenn out with her project.

When Drew's paintings were dry, Jenn handed Collin a few colored pencils and let him scribble away over the top of each painting. Collin hasn't had a chance to color much, and he loved it!

Finally, when the boys' artwork was all finished Jenn put them over the old red canvases and hung them back up in the entryway. (Sorry about the glare on the artwork. I couldn't get rid of it, they have a gloss coating).

Truth is, I'm glad Jenn re-did them for me, and I love the little kid look to them. They'll be a fun way to look back and remember my boys at this stage in life. :)

The other highlight of this week was a birthday party for Drew's best buddy Noah. Noah had a fireman themed party, and at the very end of the night, a real live firetruck full of real live firemen showed up to let the kiddos check it out. I can't even find the right words to help you understand just how excited Drew was about this. It was adorable. Birthday boy Noah even got to wear his Halloween costume early and was an exact match to the firemen that showed up. So cute!

Engine 85

Not sure if the big boys or the little boys were more fascinated by all of this

Noah and Drew

The birthday boy and his matching firefighter

Even Collin loved it!

These firefighters were so great! They answered the boys' millions of questions and at the end even let them hop into the drivers seat. Do I even need to write that Drew ate this all up?

And finally, three things about the boys this month:

Drew:

1. Has just started saying "Homy Cow!!" (Holy Cow) in response to everything.

2. Loves to build "nests", which basically is a fort without the top portion to cover it.

3. Loves to tell you that you scared him. This usually happens when we walk into a room he is in by himself. He'll turn to us and say, "Oh! Mom, you scared me!". I think I've only actually startled him once, but he loves to say it and then laugh at your reaction.

Collin:

1. Loves (seriously, delights in) getting into mischief. We currently have all of our toilet paper rolls sitting on counters instead of hanging where they should, thanks to Collin's delight in unraveling them as fast as he possibly can as soon as he gets into a bathroom.

2. Says banana (or rather, "nanas") and some form of "Hi Wrigley", which is what we say every morning to our dog Wrigley who is laying outside the sliding glass door next to his highchair.

3. Can now point to his nose and bellybutton when asked.

Date night all around

Have I mentioned yet, that Drew and Collin's Uncle Dana is the football coach for Riverdale High School? If I haven't, he is. And he's pretty amazing at it and creative...a few weeks ago, Dana's players were all wearing camouflage jerseys with a military service member's name on the back in honor of the people that have or are fighting for our freedom. Pretty cool and all thought up as a football fundraiser by Dana. Anyway, Drew spent last Friday night on a date with Grandma and Auntie Kim to go watch one of Uncle Dana's football games. He even got to go down to the field to hang out with Uncle Dana while the players warmed up before the game. I wasn't there, but from what I heard and what I saw in the pictures that came back on my camera, Drew had a blast (it's always fun when your team is the winning team too)!

Auntie Kimmie said that Drew was a wee bit intimidated by all of the players in uniform once he was up close. This photo sort of says it all...

LOVE this picture! Drew and Uncle Dana 

And of course, what trip to a football stadium would be complete without a photo with the mascot?

Anyway, the intent was that while Drew was off playing with Grandma and Auntie Kimmie, Nathan and I would have a date night. Well, date night took on a slightly different form than I had originally planned this week:

Thanks to a fractured/dislocated thumb, we spent most of the night here, in Urgent Care. To make a long story short, Nathan smashed his thumb at work. He thought it was fine until he couldn't get the pain and swelling to subside. So, on his way home from work he stopped in at the Urgent Care. Wouldn't you know it, a simple stop in turned into a "Hey hun, can you come pick me up?" phone call and hours in Peachwood Medical. Anyway, Nathan's fine now. All that wrapping seems like overkill for just a thumb, though doesn't it? A guy at Costco told him it looked more like his thumb had been amputated than broken, and I have to say, I sort of agree. Nathan had a follow up appointment this morning and although he was hoping to ditch the soft cast in lieu of a simple splint, that lovely cast will be sticking around for four more weeks. I'm thinking Drew won out on the whole having-a-fun-time-for-the-night thing.

And where was Collin for all of this? Thankfully, Auntie Jenn and Uncle Burke were able to drop me off to pick up Nathan at Urgent Care and then take Collin home and tuck him in bed for the night. The next morning he was back to his usual antics...

Pay no mind to Daddy's bum wheel there Coll, just keep on climbing all over him :)

A huge thanks again to Grandma and Auntie Kimmie, Drew loved his date with you two!!

Working at the cow wash

Yep, you read that right. The cow wash. As in a full grown, 1300 lb (as of his last weigh-in) cow. Maybe I should explain...

A friend of ours, Dionna, over at Nathan's office, has a daughter that is raising a steer as an FFA (that would be Future Farmers of America for all you city folk) project. Somehow, in talking with Nathan's mom one day, Dionna asked if Drew would like to come out and visit her daughter Cayla's cow before it headed to the fair in October. Kathleen thought Drew would love this and passed the invite on to us. Well, come to find out, not only would Drew be visiting Cayla's steer, he would also get to wash it!

Now, if I were to be honest here, I'm not sure who was more excited about this, Drew....or his Momma. I try, really I do, to be a city-loving girl, but there is nothing (and I do mean nothing) better than a barn. I love the sounds, smells, and most of all animals that fill them! And believe me, in multiple barns filled with all sorts of baaing, mooing, oinking, and neighing FFA projects Drew and I were both in Heaven!

Saying "Hi!" to the sheep...

...the cows...

...and of course, the piggies. We also tried to say hi to the mini horses (yep, they had those too), but they weren't up for leaving the tall grass at the end of the field just to come look at some little kid and the adults tagging along behind him.

After we had made our rounds and said hello to most of the animals around the barns, we said hello to this fine fella. Meet Kenny. The introductions were minimal as Drew was itching to get to work washing him. Kenny was very patient and stood still, which gave Drew very little reason to feel scared. In fact, he made Drew feel so confident that he insisted on washing the steer all on his own. We compromised with Mommy standing a step or two behind him, but honestly, Drew wanted nothing to do with a helping hand or a piece of advice on how to wash (unless of course, it was from Cayla...and then he was all ears).

Kenny got a really good wash....on one side. I managed to convince Drew that he could at least use a lift to wash the top of the steer. Not help, just a lift.

And of course, he did the bottom on his own

The other side of Kenny just got a good rinse. 3 yr old's attention spans are only so long...no matter how much fun they are having.

After a good bath, Drew got to feed Kenny a bucket of grain. Happy cow. Happy boy.

And as if the sheep, cows, pigs, and mini horses weren't enough, at the very end we went to see the piglets...

...and Cayla's show rabbit (along with the rest of the rabbits in the rabbit house)

Thank you again Dionna and Cayla! Drew loved every minute of his time out on the "farm" (as he has come to call the ag area at Clovis East high school).

Crater Lake

I realized after the fact, that Nathan and I were so busy with bridal party duties, that I never took any pictures of Christi and Ty Ty's actual wedding and reception. Oh well. I do, however, have plenty of other pictures from the rest of our trip in Oregon. Nathan was able to stay for a week of much needed vacation time after the wedding and we made sure to take full advantage of the time we had with him home during the day.

As promised, we finally took Nathan with us to go pick blueberries, which was fun. My grandma, Nammy, and Poppa John were also able to come with us. Drew loved having Poppa John come along. All weekend Poppa John had been Drew's go-to person for all things show and tell. "Hey Poppa John, look at this!", "Hey Poppa John, follow me!", "Hey Poppa John, want to come play in the sandbox with me?". John was more than willing to go along with all of Drew's adventures and Drew of course loved him for it!

Naturally, Collin is eating blueberries. Would you expect it to be any other way at this point?

Collin and Poppa John

My mom and Drewski

Nammy and my Dad

We did plenty of other things besides blueberry picking (I won't bore you with all the pictures), but hands down our favorite day trip this time around was our trip to Crater Lake. Nathan and Burke have been asking to do this trip for a while now, and since the lake is a few hours away from my parent's house, we've somehow never found the time to go. This trip though, we made a point to plan out a day to go and it was so worth the little bit of drive time it took to get there! It is beautiful!

Yep, we like self photos. We even drag the kid into it.

My parents and the boys

The water there was so blue! I learned while I was there, that Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S., which is part of why it's so blue.

We decided to hike up to the Watchman's Tower and were surprised to see that part of the trail still had snow on it.

Collin; always riding in style. Thanks Auntie Jenn Jenn for volunteering to trek him.

Aw, aren't they just the cutest little Lala and Poppi? ;)

The island in the middle of the lake is the bigger of the two islands in the lake. This one is Wizard Island.

I couldn't get over the color of the water in the little island inlets!

Aw, Jenn and Burkie, babies look good on you! :) :)

The end of our hike: Watchman Tower

The tower is in active use year round to watch for things like wildfires

The monitor on the top of the podium is used to measure the size of fires that are spotted and also can tell where exactly in the park the fire is located. The woman on the right was the person on duty at the time we were up there, and of course Dad had to ask her a million and one questions on how everything worked.

This oh so technical little stool is where the watch person has to sit when there is a lightening storm. They sit on top of the stool and the glass insulators on the bottom of the stool's feet protect them if (or more like when), the tower gets hit by lightening. Um, no thank you.

After our hike we met up with Nammy and John for some lunch at the hotel on the lake. The hotel was gorgeous and reminded me of the Awahnee on the valley floor in Yosemite.

And of course, so that you could take full advantage of the view, the hotel had rockers out on the patio for guests to relax in.

Anyway, I could post a zillion pictures of our trip to Oregon this time around, but suffice it to say we had a ton of fun. Our time up there is never long enough.