When You Marry in June...

On June 24th, 2006, Tim and I got married.

 

My only regret for that day was wearing nylons in 100 degree weather.

(Seriously, what was I thinking! Nobody could see my legs under that full dress)

Eight years, 3 boys, and 1 cat later...

Oh, they say when you marry in June, 

You're a bride all your life.

And the bridegroom who marries in June Gets a sweetheart for a wife.

For they say when you marry in June,

You will always be a bride.

- Taken from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Nighttime Findings

  During the hot days, Tim and I usually put the boys to bed with their windows open to let the cool night air into their stuffy room. I usually go in when I am heading to bed to close up the windows and make sure that everything is all right in their room. It's also a perfect time to look at how big my boys have grown and pray for them.
  The other night, I walked into the bedroom and found Elijah laying like this...

Apparently, someone fell asleep while playing!

Spelunking with Babies

  For the past couple of months, Tim and I have been attempting to spend one weekend a month having an "adventure" with our boys. This month, we decided to drive up towards Mt. St. Helens and go explore Ape Caves. Beniah and Elijah were super excited about this adventure and asked questions for days before our trip. (Yay repetitive questions!) Beniah asked if we could invite Grandpa and Grandma along (who were more than happy to accommodate their grandsons request). This past Saturday, we picked up Grandpa and Grandma and rode rather snugly up to Ape Caves.

Isaac and I don't get to look at each other during car rides, 

so this was a fun experience for both of us. 

 "Will somebody talk to me?" Elijah asked at one point during the trip.

 Beniah saw this view on the way up and begged me to take a picture of it for him.

 Flashlights at the ready for Ape Caves!

I had thought that having Isaac strapped to me would make him comfortable to walk (or rather ride) into the dark cave. He could feel my hand on him, my voice in his ear, and see the light from my flashlight bouncing off the cave walls, but alas, he became more and more agitated so that by the time we were 1/3 of the way through, he was full blown wailing. I decided to turn around and let Tim, the boys, and the grandparents finish the exploration of the cave while I took the wailing baby out to the sunlight (fyi - the tears did stop once we were outside of the cave).
About 30 minutes later, we were all back together again. The boys were thoroughly impressed with how dark the cave was and were ready for lunch.

 The car ride home was with a much more subdued and tired crowd.

Adventure complete. Mission accomplished!

In the Past Couple of Weeks...

We've gone to the park...

...to swing ...

...to play fight with Daddy...

...to run on the swinging bridge...

... and to lay back and watch the trees sway in the breeze.

Photoshoot with Chelsea and Ezekiel

     I met two of my closest friends in the sixth grade (my husband Tim and Chelsea). Technically, I knew Chelsea before 6th grade, but my first strong memory of her was when my teacher (a.k.a. future father in law) asked those of us who transferred from the other Christian school in the area if we knew Chelsea. I piped up that I knew Chelsea and was awarded a new seatmate. Fast forward 18 years (has it really been that long since sixth grade!), college, marriage, and who can count how many other life changes between the two of us, and we're still close friends.
  This has been a big year for Chelsea. Not only is this her 25th year of being in America, she also graduated college, and Ezekiel turned 7 and has lived almost 5 years longer than the doctors said he would when he had liver failure. Every birthday for Ezekiel is a huge reason to celebrate.  So, Chelsea wanted to get some photos done to commemorate these huge events and I was more than willing to play around with my camera and work on my photography skills.

In the Month of May

"The world's favorite season is the spring. 

All things seem possible in May."

-  Edwin Way Teale

May Date!

If you have been following my blog for the past few months, you might remember my Valentines gift to Tim.

This month was an interesting date idea (at least to me). While trying to think of different date ideas to do in the Portland/Vancouver area, I stumbled across stacylaughs.com which has a section of her blog devoted to  interesting date ideas in the Portland area. Perfect, right?  Nope! I followed the roulette rules and the number generator came up with the date idea of dinner at a specific restaurant in Portland and walk in a specific park. However, as Tim put it... "Who is Stacy and why should I believe her when it comes to deciding which restaurant we should go to!?!" 

Somebody didn't read rule 4!

We decided to that we would head out to Hillsboro and enjoy our three year old certificate to the Orenco Station Grill (especially since we didn't use it in March like we originally planned).  This time around, all three boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa!

So over dinner, French pressed coffee, and dessert, we were able to enjoy an interruption free adult conversation that was filled with "would you rather" questions.

We did end up walking around a beautiful neighborhood park near the restaurant, so I guess we did fulfill the stacy laughs date idea even if it was at a different location.