Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Ten Years... Almost




Jamie and I will celebrate our ten year anniversary in October.  Or, we already celebrated... with a lovely, lovely trip to Colorado.  My parents stayed with our two little gems back at home and seemed no worse for the wear.  We hiked some great hikes near our hotel and enjoyed biking on some trails around the area.  The chance to remember the things we loved to do as just the two of us was wonderful.

However, we did miss those little gems.  We were scheduled to return on a flight that left at 3pm.  Instead, we got up at 3am on the day of departure and took a 7am flight home so we could see them.  And, it wasn't the mama who initiated that decision.  That daddy loves his boys just like this mama does!

Here's to ten more years ~

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Summer Chaos

Busy + Our family  = Our summer.

This conclusion is supported by the fact that I just posted pictures from a month ago.  It seems as though things have been kind of wild since we moved into this house at the beginning of May.  So many things have been delightfully fun, but we seem to be struggling to catch our breath after all of the frantic activity.

Some fun things from the boys that will all too quickly slip my mind:

Caleb:
 - "I not a cute boy.  I a Calenator."
 - "I go to fwimming wessons next year."
 - "Jaje, I go wif you!"
 - "bwess my gammie and my gampie.  They pway wif me."
 - Learned how to pedal his tricycle by himself.
 - Always holding between two and four hot wheels cars in his hands: when we go to the pool, to the store, to church, in the car, to the park... all of the time.

Jonathan:
 - Conversations with him, and between he and Caleb are such a delight!  His little brain thinks of the craziest things, sometimes.
 - He learned how to swim, really swim, during lessons this year.  He went off the diving board without a hesitation and told me that the next time he went off he was going to run and jump off the end.  We spent a lot of afternoons at the pool with him jumping off the edge and swimming like a wild man around the pool.
 - He also figured out how to pump his legs on the swing in our backyard (photos of the playground project to come) while Jamie and I were on our tenth anniversary trip (photos to come of that, too!).  Maybe Grammie and Grampie taught him?  Maybe he figured it out?
 - He is also a terror on his bike.  If possible, he likes to go faster and faster all of the time.

These boys have such a sweet and spicy friendship.  Sweet because they play together, watch out for one another, and love each other dearly.  Spicy because they can fight like crazy.

Parties and Fun

We spent the rest of our trip in Iowa with Jamie's family celebrating Grandma Judy's 70th birthday and all of the Guild cousin birthdays.  Grandma Judy was quite surprised by her party, and a great time was had by all...








John Deere

We have a four part DVD collection of "All About John Deere" documentaries.  The boys love it.  They know all about Johnny Poppers, two cylinder, four cylinder, combines, and so the list goes.  It was a special treat to visit Grandpa Joe's (Aunt Amy's father-in-law) farm and ride on his collection of old and new tractors while we were in Iowa!


Daddy and his boys

 Sofie and Jonathan
 Grandpa Maynard and Caleb
 "Grandpa Joe" and Jonathan
 Sofie and Caleb
 Drew and Jonathan
Sofie, Drew, Jonathan and Caleb

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Family Time

 Bruce, Jonathan and Caleb
 Uncle Bruce and Caleb
Grampie reading with Jonathan and Caleb
Uncle Bruce came from Minnesota to celebrate his birthday with all of us while we were in Iowa.  A bit more activity and excitement than is usually present at his celebrations, I imagine.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Friends

 Always a good time to dig

 The grandmas with the wee ones



 All six: Josh (6 months), Jake (2 1/2), Grant (3), Parker (11 months), Jonathan (4 1/2), Caleb (2 1/2)

Always a delight... time with our dear friends, the Remunds, and the Liens.  The boys had a grand time and so did the mamas.  Except for some of the wayward sleeping patterns of the children: that could have been left out of the mix.  I guess with six of them, there have to be some less than smooth parts :+)  None the less, we treasure our time with these great friends and so look forward any time we can be together.

Theatre in the Park

 Dancing during the pre-show entertainment
Enjoying some snacks
We enjoyed a lovely evening at Theatre in the Park a few weeks ago.  The boys had a grand time, and so did we!  They asked to go again as soon as we were leaving the parking lot.