Journey & Foam

This last week we went to the "Journey Tribute" concert in the park on Thursday.  It was a lot of fun and I got to eat a nutella crepe - yum!  Ronin met up with Sean and they played in the water fountains and got balloon swords.  Quinn cried with big Mike looked at him but was mostly content just chilling with the adults.

Listening to "Journey"

Ronin comforting Quinn after Mike made him cry

Chasing Sean

Having fun in the park

Saturday was the Foam 5K event that I signed up for with my friend Deborah.  It's 3+ miles of jogging/walking with obtacles thrown in the mix.  There was the "electric crawl" where we have to crawl through mud underneath electric wire- which was actually electrified, I thought they were joking until my back touched one of the cords!  There were walls to climb.  Foam pits to go through without falling in hidden holes.  Tires to run through. Lots of mud to walk through without falling.  Ropes to pull ourselves over muddy walls... some slip-n-slides.  It was a mess and we wound up walking most of it because the field was so bumpy we didn't want to twist an ankle. 

Me and Deborah before the mud

Saying goodbye while I'm still clean...

Ronin got foamed!

Quinny smiling :)

After the mud & foam

At least I have a clean shirt on...

Ronin conquered some rocks! Rarr!

After the foam run we went to the river and got cooled off with a boat ride and Ronin got to play in the sand a bit too.  Sunday we got a rock tumbler for all the cool rocks Ronin and Rory keep finding on the beach, and we also found a doughnut shop by our house... Dot Doughnuts.  But they aren't very good...  Krispy Kreme is still the best.

This week daddy and Ronin are building the fort in the backyard!  Knowing Rory it will be pretty amazing and long enough that we could actually sleep in it.. not that I'd want to... but it's a nice touch.  So look for updates on Fort Ronin!  We want to make a zipline go to a 2nd fort, Fort Quinn, someday too.  Fun projects!

This week we have a Tom Petty tribute band in the park on thursday, swimming at the gym a couple of days, and then a Karaoke party at our friends house on Saturday...  lots of fun things going on.

Here's a picture the race photographer took of Rory and me at the Lacamas lake run 2 weekends ago:

Next event for me is the Portland to Coast in August... Looking forward to that one!

Take care and lots of love,

C

Lacamas run and Zombie's

This last weekend Aunt Melanie and family were still up visiting.  Friday night Ronin's cousins, Nick and Tony spent the night at our house.  Ronin followed Nick around like a shadow and even started answering Nicks questions for him. 

Nick and Ronin

On our way home from saying goodbye to Melanie and her family, we were telling Ronin how if he doesn't have a seatbelt on he could die if we got into a car accident. His response was something along the lines of "that's okay, because I can just come back to life" and I told him "no, that would be zombie-ism".  Which of course he had an answer to:  "if I was a zombie I'd destroy my friend Sean and eat his brains!" hahaha  I'm so glad we have spent time educating him on the ways of Zombies! 

We have also had to explain lately that he can't ask God for toys... 

On Sunday we woke up bright and early to do our 4-mile LaCamas Lake run!  It was amazing!  My favorite run so far!  We ran from the high school, down a hill, through a gravel trail inside a treed park, and then back up the hill.  I was so proud of myself, I jogged 3 out of the 4 miles - and wound up walking the last one since it was mostly up hill.  Rory even enjoyed it and said he might do it again next year.  It was a perfect morning for it, not too hot, no rain, no wind.  It makes me want to do more runs! Our friend Brandee and her boyfriend were there with us too.

Brandee and me before the run

Rory and I waiting to warm up before the run

Quinny says "mama" now!  He smiles and wiggles his body when he says it- he must know I love hearing it!  He's such a cutie :)   8 months old now!  Time is flying by!  Before I know it he'll be turning one!

Quinn cruising around in his walker

Happy boy in his walker

Saturday we spent most of the day at the boat house.  Ronins cousin Nick caught some squaw fish which Ronin proceeded to play with until he accidentally dropped one back into the water, which made that fish the luckiest fish in the river... haha

At the boat house - dreaming about going out with the big boys

Ronin and the two fish

Here's a couple more from a few weekends ago at the beach on the river...

Lots of love,
C

Snakes and Reunions

The boys had a lot of fun staying at a beach house with their aunts and uncles and gradma/pa Jones for a family reunion this last weekend.  We headed up Friday night and stayed until Sunday.  We didn't get to do nearly as much as we had planned but we had a lot of fun visiting aunt Melanie and her family.  Saturday was the family reunion for Rod's biological family.  Ronin followed his cousins around most of the day and they found squirrels, a frog and some snakes together.

Here's a lovely snake

The big kids played football (Rory has the white hat)

Ronin got into trouble quite a few times for walking off to go look at the water or find his cousins without telling anybody he was leaving...  One of my biggest fears is that he'll do that and fall into the water or someone will take him -- luckily we had a lot of family watching out for him and someone came to tell our group that Ronin was playing by the water with some other kids (I was walking Quinn in the stroller while this was happening).  So the rest of the day I had to keep him entertained by my side - poor kid.  I'm not sure how to get through to a 4 year old that he can't do everything he thinks he can... 



It rained the day we were going to take Ronin onto the beach to play, so we spent a lot of time inside the beach house vegging out.

Happy brothers :)

So serious...

In time out...  haha

Looking from the balcony of an aunts hotel room into the pool at Rory and Ronin

Quinny helping mommy change the sheets

Picking strawberries!

Eating strawberries!

Me and the girls at the free concert in the park

While I went to enjoy some music in the park with my girlfriends (Shelley and Brandee) last Thursday, Rory worked on the kitchen.  He put glass tiles along the wall and big tiles for the countertops with some glass tile accents -- it looks amazing!  It makes the kitchen look a lot more modern, I love it!

One more project down... next we want to make Ronin his fort in the backyard and work on the front and back yards...   there's always something to do!

It was a very busy week and weekend, but it we all had a lot of fun :)

Lots of love,
C

Independence and Beatles

We had a nice long 5 day weekend (only 4 days for daddy) for Independence day.  On the 4th I took the boys to the mall to get out of the house and have some ice cream while daddy was at work.

Quinn is getting faster at out running/crawling me now!  He speeds up if he knows I'm trying to catch him and then he giggles or screams depending on his mood - once I catch him!

Here's our little crawler:

The night of the 4th we bought a few small fireworks and let Ronin help us light them... after a while I was tired of lighting off those damn bees so I went back inside, but he loved watching the ones that went up in the sky from our neighbors around us.  Surprisingly enough Quinn slept through every bit of it!  When they stopped going off around midnight he woke up and wanted a bottle, but I'm amazed he slept through all the lound banging in the sky!

Us at the mall

Ronin dancing in the kitchen --

Check out the new glass "backsplash" Rory is working on in the kitchen though!

They love each other :)

Cute!

Ronin and I being silly

Brotherly kisses

Smiley boy

The day after 4th of July we went to a free concert in the park at Esther Short Park, it was a Beatles tribute band.  We met up with Mike, Shelley and Sean, Byrekka, and Jan and Rod.  It was a lot of fun - the boys loved the music and everyone was in a great mood :)  There are a few more we want to go to this summer - and hey, FREE is a great price!

Ronin dancing to the Beatles in the park

Quinn enjoying the music too

Friday Rory worked on remodeling our kithen countertops with tile, it looks amazing!  He just needs to put the rest of the backsplash tiles up and it will be finished.  It looks like a lot of work but it will be well worth the effort!

Saturday we spent all day at the river.  It was a little hard to do with Quinn, he only got a 30 minute nap all day and wanted to eat the sand.  So on Sunday Quinny and I spent all day with my friend Byrekka while the boys had fun at the beach again.

Ronin is going through a "TAPE EVERYTHING!" phase right now, so we've had to put away all the tape so he doesn't get into it, or else he tapes everything he can get his hands on....  Well the other day he told me "If Curious George were my mom - he'd let me play with tape".   haha!  He's probably right. 

Another week of sunshine and then off to the beach for Rory's family reunion at Seaside... 

Lot of love,

C

MRI Results and Corn

Today I logged onto my Kaiser account and got a message from the pediactric office with Quinn's MRI results.  It said everything looks completely normal!  Which is great news!  Now we can breathe easy and just expect the eye rotation/head bobbing to go away on it's on in the next couple of years.  :)

Thursday was the MRI and I must say OHSU took such great care of Quinn- and us for that matter.  They made the whole process super easy and painless.  The tops of Quinn's hands and feet were numb before they put the IV in, he didn't even know they did it when they put it in his foot.  He got to fall asleep in my arms, and wake up with us right there with him.  After a nap in the car he was back to his old self again.

Ronin is now sporting a conservative mohawk after his recent "daddy" haircut.  It looks pretty cute, although it also makes him look like he's got a little attitude, which he does.  haha

We went to Rib City last night and the waiter said "nobody can finish a whole piece of the velvet cake by themselves" and Rory took that as a challenge, and ate the whole thing.  The waiter made a makeshift "medal" and brought it out to Rory:

Ronin has also been a busy little artist.  Someday he'll have to have his own art show for everyone to see!   There's the everyday fridge art of monsters or robots, but lately we let him paint on canvas and has two paintings hanging in his room of self painted robots (they totally look like Wall-E to me!)

He said this monster killed "hundreds of millions of people!" and yes, those are muscles.

Here's his canvas paintings - kind of hard to see in the picture, but they are robots!

I worked on weaning Quinny this last weekend, he has turned super clingy because of it.  Poor guy!  I feel bad, but at the same time I want my body back and freedom from having to pump at work or worry about where I'm going to be in 4-5 hours so I can nurse or pump... bah!  I have to keep telling myself 7 1/2 months is a fabulous amount of time!  But it still kills me to take something away from him...  mom guilt sucks!

Brothers playing

Ronin trying to read to Quinny

Quinny reading all by himself (haha)



Last night as we were getting ready for bed Ronin asked for a snack, usually he can have cheese or milk after he brushes his teeth as a snack, but he had like 4 slices of cheese already during the day so I told him to pick something else...  moments later he came to me with a can of corn and said "alright, I choose this"  haha   What kid wants to snack on corn before they go to bed?? That's right, my kid does... haha  Somehow he got distracted and didn't wind up needing to eat corn before bed and went to bed peacefully.

As far as home improvements go - Rory decided to redo our kitchen counters with tile, glass tiles as an accent on the edge and backsplash.  It looks great, and I'll get a picture when it's finished.

It's almost the 4th of July!  I only have to work 2 days this week so it will be a mini vacation for me and more time with the boys :)

Take care,

C