Blocks, Blocks, Blocks

Brody & Colt both love playing with their blocks. It's so fun to watch as Brody becomes more interested in building stuff instead of just knocking it down (although he still does that occasionally). It's cute to watch Colt's chubby little hands try to manipulate the blocks to go together and when he finally puts a piece together he is beaming with pride. He is so proud of himself.

Fort Flagler

We spent a week up at Fort Flagler with the Andresen family and a few of our friends. We had lots of kids and plenty of action to fill up our week. Brody played on the jeeps, rode in the wagon, explored the bunkers, built a dam at the beach, and watched the mamma deer and the baby deer. Colt joined in when he could. My visions of relaxing and reading books didn't quite happen but we still had an enjoyable week with some absolutely beautiful weather.

Here are a few of the many pictures that were taken.

Bike Riding

We have been working with Brody on his bike riding. He seems to get the hang of it now and can actually move pretty quickly when he has a hill to his advantage.



He's getting some good exercise.



The "gate" is a branch that is hanging over the sidewalk.

The Moon is Out

This morning (around 10:00) Brody and I were outside. He was riding his bike and I was walking along with him. He stopped, pointed up to the sky and said "Look the moon is out, it must be past my bedtime."

Bedtime Reading

Part of our bedtime routine is reading stories to our boys. While Brody would prefer to read as many books as possible we usually limit it to 2. Currently his favorite book is What makes it go? What makes it work? What makes it fly? What makes it float? If you haven't heard of this book it's because it is a book published in 1971....similar to The Way Things Work. Brody could read this book all day and is always interested in how the record player works.





Colt's favorite book is anything that Brody is reading.

Mommy's sick

I haven't been feeling very well so I went to the doctor. Brad was with the boys. Colt was up from his nap when I had left but Brody was still sleeping. After my doctor appointment and a quick trip to get some antibiotics I came home. Brody came running into the kitchen and gave me a hug. I picked him up and he said "Sorry, you feeling not well, mommy!"

(absolutely no prompting from Brad. He only told Brody that I was at the doctor's because I was not feeling well)

Boys & Guns

I have been told that with boys it doesn't matter what you do they discover guns. A stick or anything else will turn into a gun. Although Brody lives a very sheltered life, we have proof that he is a true boy. He did not find a gun, but instead created his very own gun.



This gun also turned into a space ship and an air compressor.



Yes, he is in only his underwear....again.

Clean Up with Mr. Lamby

We are really trying to do a better job of making Brody clean up his toys before he goes to bed. But who really wants to clean up? Most of the time he does a pretty good job but sometimes it seems to take forever. Mr. Lamby decided to help Brody clean up his blocks. My favorite part is listening to Brody laugh.

This is the way I crawl....or get around

Colt did crawl about 4 crawls but has now reverted to this method of getting around.

You can also hear him talking in this video.

4th of July whirlwind

We had a whirlwind of a trip to Oregon for the 4th of July weekend. On Thursday afternoon we drove to Portland to visit our friends, Karl, Lori, Annika & Ryker. We left early (around 3:30) to beat the traffic only to realize that everyone else had the same great idea. It took us two hours to make it to Olympia and the boys were not happy. After spending a great evening with our friends, we packed up our stuff and left on Friday around lunch time. We drove from there to Prineville, Oregon. This stretch of driving was a little better but still a long drive. We made it to Grandma Denton's house around 4:00. We had a great time visiting with her and as usual she treated us to some very tasty food. On the 4th of July we went to Uncle Denny's house. Brody loves Uncle Denny! Brody probably could have stayed all day like this.... After naps we headed over to Leslie & Dean's (Brad's cousins). They have a gorgeous place and it was fun to see all the work that has been put into building their house. We roasted hot dogs and enjoyed a fun time hanging out with them. We didn't stay up late enough to enjoy the fireworks and thought we might see some one our way back to Prineville. Instead we were stuck in Prineville traffic. Fortunately the boys were already asleep so it didn't matter. Sunday morning we ate a yummy breakfast and then packed up to head back to Seattle. We made a brief stop in Yakima to visit Grandpa & Grandma Barquist. It was great to see them. We hardly hit any traffic and made it home at a reasonable hour. A quick video of Brody playing with Grandma Denton and fixing the picture frame that fell down.

Thank you Sounders!

We have been enjoying our tickets to the Sounder's games. One of my favorite parts is when they flash on the big screen the free haircut promotion. If the Sounders score 3 goals in one game everyone gets a free hair cut from Great Clips. While they are playing I like to yell "Come on Sounders...I want a free hair cut!"

As luck would have it I passed up my ticket last week to just watch from home. (the ESPN broadcast did not start on time since a College world series game was going into overtime....I was not very happy). And of course the Sounders scored three goals and tied!

We cashed in Brad's ticket and got another one from a friend. Brad and Brody both got their haircut. Brody was a little scared at first, but there is nothing like a sucker (covered in hair) to help ease the anxiety. Brody's haircut turned out great...the verdict is still out on Brad's hair. :)