{c}

Two teeth down...

 

A whole mouthful to go...

Today

The husband is in Denver.

The kids are at Grandma and Grandpa's until tomorrow.

The house is absolutely quiet.

It's weird.

Anywho, for the first time in goodness knows how long I am going to sit at my nice, clean scrap desk and get scrappy with no guilt, no deadlines, and no pressure to create stuff for someone else. I'm soooo done with that, finally.

It's one o'clock in the afternoon and I'm going to break out a cold bottle of wine, open all the windows to let in the beautiful summer air, and get my scrap on :)

Look!

She finally got one out yesterday!!!!

 

The one right next to it should be out anyday as well.

*sniff* My baby is growing up too fast!!!

And just a side note: I have watched my husband jump out of a plane, and I have held a 4 1/2 lb baby in my arms, but I have never been as nervous as I was last night playing the tooth fairy for the first time. I was so scared my little girl, zombie of a sleeper that she is, was going to wake up and catch me lifting her pillow and stealing her tiny tooth.

First Day

Our first morning at the cabin began at the ungodly hour of 5am. Overly excited kids mixed with new beds and big windows that let the morning sun shine in the moment it came up was not a fun combination. One of the first things they wanted to do was go down to the beach and play in the water. It was maybe around 8 before we were all up, dressed, and fed and the morning mountain air was still fairly cool, but that didn't stop Devyn and Trevor one bit, and into the water they went. It was maybe 9am before I had to have them go inside and change into their swimsuits because they were getting their clothes drenched in cold lake water. Crazy kids.

 

Trevor throwning rocks in the lake, one of his favorite pasttimes at any beach or river we go to. Sadie in the background? Discovering what would be the bain of our existence the entire week: a dead fish.

 

I'm sitting far back thinking "oh how cute, she's rolling in the warm sand". Ha. I joked out loud "Did you find something good and smelly to roll in?" and Trevor answered "Yeah" for her since he was a bit closer than I was. Sure enough, a nice big rotten fish lay just waiting for our clean dogs to roll in. We disposed and moved it several times throughout the trip but they just kept finding it (and the grass/marsh filled with duck droppings was another favorite hangout) Sadie got a total of three baths (and countless rinses in the lake) in four days. She wasn't a happy camper.

 

Devyn, stealing the spotlight :)

 

He found a giant rock that would become his favorite the entire trip. He would throw it in and re-find it over and over again.

 

Searching...

 

Found!

 

Getting ready for the toss...

 

Where'd it go?

Oh ****, wrong direction... This was the end of giant rock throwing for the morning. Mom having a heart attack while watching this through the lens was not the way to greet the 9 oclock hour.

 

 

 

Summary and a Campfire

In a very large nutshell, here's what we've been up to:

Scott's family owns a cabin up on Lake Conconully in Washington, about 40 miles south of the Canadian border, and we were recently able to spend a week up there. It was absolutely amazing. Having grown up on Lake Oroville, I have missed being around boats and water more than I ever could have imagined the last 14 years that we've lived in Oregon. Around these parts, we just don't have many options. The Willamette? Ick. Hagg Lake? Ick. Columbia River? Brrr! So being around a clean, quiet, peaceful lake again was just what I needed.

The cabin was perfect for us, depite having a deadly-steep staircase (I literally held my breath every time that D or T went up or down it) and at times being without toilets or showers (that's as close to "roughing it" as I could take). No TV, no phones (or cell reception), no internet... just peace. Good laughs, fun adventures for the kids, and an all around great time spent with family. I can only hope we get to make this a yearly tradition.

Ok, back to the pictures. Since the cabin was literally right on the lake, and the water was down a bit, we had a nice sandy beach to play around on during the day and build campfires on at night:

 

Mmm... campfire hotdogs. Gourmet cooking at it's best.

 

Trevor wasn't too into the hotdog thing, he mostly enjoyed kicking the sand into the fire (and our food) so he got banished and pushed back about 10 feet.

 

This caused quite a few tears and screams, but ultimately he got the giggles when Devyn pointed out this:

 

Bug had a face- and mouthful of sand almost the entire trip from playing too much ball.

 

Dev roasting marshmallows, uber-yum.

 

Trevor decided to continue with his tantrum so I left Devyn with her daddy and grandpa, giggling over burning marshmallows and good ol' campfire talk and walked back to the cabin with T. While up there, he finished his dinner at the table and I started picking up from the day and went to go take a water floatie outside when I heard some rusting in the bushes. Looking over, I saw a deer about 20 feet away nibbling on some leaves out of a tree.

Don't get me wrong, we saw dozens of deer on our trip, they're a common sight around the lake. Heck a few hours earlier we even saw the baby fawn pictures on the last post. But this was the closest I had seen one so far. I sat on the deck and watched as it ate, just mezmerized, when suddenly she began to walk closer. Next thing I know she's standing at the steps about five feet away from me. I slowly walked forward, expecting her to run away at any moment, but she let me walk right up to her and pet her nose. After a minute I remembered having some sliced apples in the refrigerator for the kids and I turned to go get them, again expecting her to turn and run. When I came back out she was right there waiting and let me hand feed her two apples. Simply amazing I tell you! Everyone else was still at the campfire but I softly called for Scott to have Devyn walk up slowly (they had all been watching from a distance). Devyn, being the five year old that she is, doesn't really know the meaning of slow and quiet and ultimately scared the doe away when she got too close, but it was a pretty darn magical experience for us all :)

 

This was taken about 10pm so it was darn near pitch-black at night with only the kitchen light for illumination, but you get the idea, she was close and gorgeous :)

First Fishing Trip

Will be back with more pictures and a full story later, but I know of a certain grandpa who is waiting with baited (ha!) breath for these pictures of the kid's first fishing trip:

 

 

Trying to find the perfect fishing spot... She picked the spot right below the horse ranch, making her aunt Katie proud :)

 

Probably goes without saying that he spent 2/3 of the trip in this exact location.

 

Catching her first fish! It was a little too chaotic during the actual reeling in and no one heard me shouting "MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!!!! NEED A PICTURE!!!" so this was the best I could do :) She reeled it in all by herself and was sooooo proud!

 

This was taken as I was trying to distract her from what came next for poor Mr. Fish. It wasn't pretty.

 

He was a nice looking fishy though, my girl did good!

 

Eager to go back and catch more, she caught a total of three fish in under an hour.

 

Bubby just wanted to reel in the line over and over, he wasn't interested at all in waiting and actually catching a fish.

 

 

This one cracks me up. On our way back to the cabin he kept looking out the corner of his eye with this expression and I couldn't figure it out, then Howard mentioned that the bundle of fish was laying on the floor and Trevor wasn't so sure about it...

 

Devyn? Didn't mind the pile of dead fish one bit, she just kept smiling the whole way home.

 

Our proud fishermen with their catch, nine total!

Ok and one more because it's too cute not to share right away:

In a nutshell...

1.    Trevor is talking. A lot.

2.    Trevor has decided to become potty trained. Practically overnight. YES!!

3.   Devyn has two loose teeth, should be out any day now. I am pushing apples on her like crazy.

4.    Last day of school is this Friday... soooo not ready for that.

5.    Leaving for a week-long family vacation in just over a week... soooo not ready for that either.

6.    Grandma's birthday was last Monday. That hurt a lot more than I thought it would.

7.    New work schedule for both Scott and I, I'm home at nights again, yay!! 

8.    The dog stinks and the cats are driving me nuts.

9.    There are exactly 7 loads of laundry to be done today.

10.    I'm tired.   

California: The Pictures

Lots of pictures lately, not so many words. These were taken in Redding, CA on one of our many In n Out Burger runs that turned into a mini family reunion at the same time. I got to see my brother and his wife whom I haven't seen in 9 years, my dad and Carol, and Carol's daughter and her new husband who I haven't seen in probably 12-13 years... good times :)

Devyn was hesitant for all of about 5 seconds until she found out that big, tough looking guy was my big brother... then she latched on and didn't let go.

 

The bond between these two was instant and pure. Absolutely priceless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look!!! A picture of Scott and I!! I kid you not, this is out first picture together since our honeymoon (and those were cheesy self portraits taken at 1am on the bow of a cruise ship... not exactly quality images)

 

 

 

Great Wolf Lodge: The Pictures, part one

The story will come later.

 

Six stories high... waiting in line for River Canyon Run, the largest slide that she was allowed on.

 

 

She loved it. Over and over again.

 

 

Trevor... not so big on the slides. In fact I don't think he went down a single one. His entire water park experience could pretty much be summed up by these:

 

That didn't stop him from asking to go back first thing this morning though.

 

Devyn? Couldn't keep her off a single one once she got over the fear. She's in that picture somewhere.

 

Beach Pics

Sunny days mean frequent trips to the beach for us, and today was no exception. It was flippin windy and cold, but the sun was shining so we couldn't complain.

 

(by the way, his foot is healing fine. He's walking, running, jumping, and generally getting over it, although he' still got a nasty scab that's working it's way off)

 

The jacket that works in the snow is sometimes necessary on a sunny day at the beach as well... only in Oregon.

 

My camera got sand dumped on it pretty much the second we sat down, so it had focusing issues all day. But hey isn't the detail on the log great?? (*sigh*)

 

I digress, even her back side is cuter than me. No wonder the camera focused up there... Let's not even mention the fact that it was avoiding the glare put off by my legs reflecting the sun...

 

The look on Lane's face pretty much sums up how the boys interacted all day... One just waiting for the other to put down a toy for a split second so they could steal it away... back and forth all day...

 

Da' Bug... just chillin with her adorable crossed paws and lip stuck on her tooth...

 

Me and Dev, struggling to get the hair out of our faces... and of course Bug by our feet, playing the ever faithful "heeler" to the extreme.

 

Just because it's fun to get artsy once in a while :)

All around awesome day... lots of laughs shared, lots of taffy bought, lots of sand in the car and in the food and in the ears (etc) (you don't want to know where I'm still finding it on poor Trevor) Even though daddy had to work we brought him back his favorite cheese curds from Tillamook so all is well :)