Garden

This year is the first time I started plants from seed. I didn't know what I was doing and planted the entire packet of zucchini, crooked neck, cucumber, eggplant, tomato and basil seeds. This spring my counters were overflowing with starts. I gave many away and cultivated the rest. I now have 11 tomato plants, 5 zucchini plats, two crooked neck plants, 2 eggplant and a lot of basil. Only 1 cucumber plant made it through the wet spring.
Cooper and I also planted sunflowers, string beans, and sugar snap peas from seed in the garden.
Our work paid off we are getting lots of zucchinis now, eggplant is flowering and there are many a green tomato. Cooper eats the peas daily and we just picked some green beans.








Basil









Eggplant









Squash heaven









Crooked neck









Zucchini









String beans









Green tomatos







Sunflowers (8 ft tall)

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Wake

We had Grandpa Don's wake yesterday to celebrate his life. We have been telling Cooper that Grandpa is in heaven with his Angel Grandpa (my dad). When we pulled into the funeral home Cooper spotted Grandpa's car and said "Grandpa's here." I said yes that is Grandpa's car but he won't be here. He gave Grandma a big hug and was really good during the one hour service. When we sat down he looked around and said, "I don't see Grandpa anywhere." I again explained that he is in heaven and not here in person, even going so far to say he doesn't have a body. I am not sure what he is comprehending of all this. I expect him to keep asking about Grandpa when we visit Grandma and I will keep saying he is in heaven with his Angel Grandpa.
It's hard to believe that Don won't be at the table for Sunday dinner anymore or whip us in a game of Hearts.


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In Loving Memory

Grandpa Don passed away in his sleep this morning. He has been in and out of the hospital for the last few months with a bad heart. We spent a long day with him and Grandma Lindsay on Thursday. Cooper played cars with Grandpa a lot. We are thankful he went peacefully in his sleep.
We love you Grandpa.






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Fun day!

After a rather hard week with Cooper and his behavior, today he is stellar. We are having a great day with Larkin, went to a park and took them to the library. I am getting more brave with taking them on errands.
Yesterday Grandma Lindsay and I finished Coopersville, his town mat with roads, businesses, etc. We've been working on this project for months. Here are some pictures of our work.







Cooper was being a crazy boy in the pool today and I took some video.

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Progress

I finally took some pictures of the sandbox. You can also see the 3 yards of rock we hauled around it.








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Rocks

Here's our progress.



It actually looks like it is dwindling now. Maybe just a yard left??
Here is my helper. My other helper, Larkin, is napping. She helped pick up some rock this morning and directed the wheelbarrow for me.







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Weekend Wrap-Up

Great weekend, but it flew by. We bought a new utility trailer on Saturday! The old trailer is 15 years old and needs some minor work, like a new floor. Our new trailer is great. It is heavy duty, has bigger wheels two things we wanted to upgrade. Here's a picture.




We sold the extra sand we had
and delivered it to Beaverton. We also gave the plastic green turtle sandbox to our neighbors. I hauled at least a yard and a half of the rock Saturday. I still have more to move before Friday.

Sunday I had a band concert at a local festival. It went well but we were sweltering in the heat. I headed to Grandma Lindsay's afterwards to work on Cooper's matchbox city. We built the commecial buildings, railroad tracks and planned out the rest of the spaces. He already loves playing on it!


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Park

I took the kids to a nearby park this morning to get some energy out. They had a great time running around, sliding,
playing on the sand, climbing and swinging. Larkin really likes to swing.
I watched from afar while Cooper was playing with a little boy that was probably 1 1/2 or 2. They were riding in a car that has a steering wheel and taking turns driving. The little boy's caregiver was with him and communicating via sign language. Cooper was doing imaginary play with the two of them and it was so cool to watch. He drove them home the most, but also stopped at the ice cream store and bought all of us chocolate ice cream. He is growing everyday and it blows me away. I don't have to be spotting him at most parks, he climbs up play structures with ease and is so proud of himself. I love watching him play with other kids.
The other great success for us is he mastered potty learning. He has no issues with the toilet. Although he does like to go poo in the bark chips like Riley, when he is in the backyard.
Yesterday he helped me haul some of our rock to the backyard in his dump truck, wearing only his a shirt and underwear.


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August Fun

This summer is flying by.  July was a whirlwind of visitors, birthday, camping.  August started with Sharon's birthday and a planned camping trip.  We are having fun, Cooper and I went to Oaks Park for the first time a last week.  He didn't like the roller coaster or the Tilt-A-Whirl.  He liked the train and the motorcycle ride the best.  He also went on the cars and rockets.  It was a lot of fun.

Today we went to a Vancouver library for the Reptile Man.  I thought it was great.  Cooper lasted about 1/2 hour then had to go potty.  He saw the train table inside the library and threw a fit trying to go back out to see the rest of the show. He really wanted to hold the white snake.

Back to Work

Happy Birthday to my awesome, beautiful wife. I love you.

I am back to work watching Larkin three days a week, Monday, Tuesday and Friday. I am enjoying the two days off in the middle of the week. Monday and Tuesday we stuck around the house and took a walk in the morning. Larkin is a good napper so she slept after lunch until her Dad came.

This weekend we bought beach sand and built Cooper's new sandbox. We were using a plastic turtle but wanted to build a box to make it bigger and have it under the deck. It's great, Cooper loves it too. He helped shovel the sand out of the trailer and was jumping and laying down in the sand as we dumped it in the box. We ended up buying way too much sand and are now trying to sell it on Craigslist.

The garage sale I had last weekend was a great success. Cooper helped me out on Saturday throughout the day. He played with the toys we were selling and said "hello" to all the kids that came by. It was probably good that he was sleeping when the blue race car was sold.

This weekend we have to move 3 yards of rock to the backyard, it is currently in the driveway. We are going camping the 13th so we need to move it to get the trailer out.

Birthday Party

Boys

What a great 3rd birthday party.  The weater cooperated by the end of the party, and the lovely Janet hosted for us again.  Here are some pictures.

Blowing the candle

Present time

Grease Lightening

The party was Saturday the 17th. On Sunday we had more cake and presents with Oma, Grandpa, Rosey, Holly, Angie and Nona.  It was a fun-packed birthday weekend.

So happy with his new bike

Oma and Grandpa

Rosey and Nona

And here is most of the loot. 

The loot

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Favorite Bedtime Book

Our new favorite bedtime story is Kiss Good Night by Amy Hest. It's a sweet story.

After nap on birthday.

While Cooper was napping on his birthday party day, I put all his presents on our bookshelf in the living room.  When he woke up he was super excited to see all his presents.  This is what he said.
Cooper, "I like all my birthday presents. I like my birthday cake."

Birthday sayings.

Rosey, "Happy birthday Cooper."
Cooper, "My birthday is over."

Lake Almanor

Another great adventure at Lake Almanor this year.  We were gone for two weeks and had such a great trip.  Here are some pictures.

Chester Parade

At the lake

Mt Lassen and Lake Almanor

Skuut Rider

Shamanda

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Road Trip Words

Cooper, "let's stay at hotel." His way of not wanting to drive on the highway anymore.

Marching Band

I played in the One More Time Around Again Marching Band (OMTAAMB) again this year.  It was a great time, we played the Starlight Parade and the Grand Floral Parade.  We practice April to the end of May, march two parades in June and are done for the season.  It is a great group of people and so much fun!  This year we played Louie Louie (of course), Back in Black (AC/DC), I Love Rock n' Roll, and Kung-Fu Fighting on the parade route.  Here are some pictures.

 

French Horn Ladies

Espresso Shots

The Annual Horn Line-Up at Henry's

Nancy, Jenny, Amanda

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Happenings

We leave for our July 4th camping trip on Sunday.  We are going to Lake Almanor with Papa and Grandma Barbara.  This year we are going for two weeks.  I am so excited to relax, play in the lake, see the Chester parade and chill with Sharon.  It's a long drive down there but well worth it. 

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Anacortes last week.  We went up there with Sharon and stayed with our friend Rosey.  Sharon and Rosey worked Thursday while Cooper and I toured the town and found a great park.  It was a great, super fast trip.  Can't wait to visit longer and go to Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island.

Train tracks

Rocks

Coolest Park

DSCI1268

We went to the Lake Oswego Farmers Market last Saturday with Grandma Lindsay and Grandpa Don.  There is a stand that makes donuts and they are the best!  Here is Cooper enjoying his donut.

Donuts!!

Don and Lindsay

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New phrase

"Mommy I am having so much fun!" said playing soccer at park. Soon after he fell and got his first road rash boo boo.

Sent from my iPhone

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2nd night without Cooper's buddy.

2nd night without Cooper's buddy. He threw one away and said it was broken. Fairly smooth transition.

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