Friday, July 29, 2011

Cousins

My sister is in town taking care of some horsey business so on her way through she dropped Trevor off at our place. Typical boy behavior has ensued ever since. Play, drive each crazy, play, get into trouble, play...you all know what I'm talking about. Lots of energy running around this house. The boys wanted to go swimming yesterday so when Shana stopped by, in between horse chores, we packed them up and took them to the park.

Goggles? Check! Swim trunks? Check! Flippers? Check!

Looks like a meeting to plan their next move.

Apparently, my child has no joints!

(Insert Jaws theme here)

This picture does not do this scene justice. It looked as though he had been eaten by tube monsters and he was struggling to break free from it's jaws. Shana and I were totally cracking up!

Noah, in the green, Trevor, in the orange, chasing after Oliver. Silly boys.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Pictures From a Lazy Day

Had a pretty lazy day today, it didn't help that I had a bit of insomnia last night then got up early to meet a friend that is borrowing the van for a couple of days. Needless to say, we stuck close to home and really didn't do much at all. Somehow, I managed to get the boys down to the "train park," as we've always called it for a quick and easy outing. These here pictures are from my kind of lazy day...

Nature's Abstract Art

BIG Fish in a Little Pond

Cool Little Plants

Fun Patterns

Happily Treed Boy

Butterfly

Apparently, he misses the rain.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Klineline Pond

Salmon Creek Park/Klineline Pond is located in the Salmon Creek area of Vancouver. It's a great little park with lots of amenities. A level path for walking, running or biking that runs alongside Salmon Creek, a sports complex and the boys favorite, Klineline Pond. The pond is fed by the creek and natural springs and is a perfect place to swim on a hot summer day. Or in our case this year, a day that has sunshine and is pretending to be a hot summer day. This is one of those spots that I didn't go to for the longest time and then wondered why it took so long to give it a go! We've been there twice already this year and plan to go back as often as we can.

Racing to the water.


Little brother splashing big brother.

Trying to warm up on the edge of the deck.

Little brother really likes to wrestle with big brother, but Noah really wasn't in the mood for this.

After asking nicely a couple of times, then asking again with a bit more irritation in his voice, Noah finally decided that the only way to get rid of the pest that was clinging to him was to plug his nose and...
...force the little one off of him by falling (forcefully) backwards into the water! In case you were wondering, the leech-like little brother, let go immediately. It worked!

Look Familiar?

Took the boys hiking the other day to Wahclella Falls in the gorge. The trail head is easy to get to and the hike is only 2 miles round-trip. It's not too hard, I would say easy, with a bit of an incline. You need a NW Forest Pass (available at any ranger station or REI) or just pay the fee when you park. We've been here before and I've posted pictures but it's too pretty not to share some of the new images.

First glimpse of the falls from the trail.

I am, honestly, not sure how this happened but I'm glad it did. They climbed up onto a rock and were looking at the falls.

I love this place.

Rocks to climb up onto and explore.

And to practice their mountain goat skills on!

There is a little area that is great to stop and play. The boys can wade, throw rocks, climb around and have a snack. This view is upstream.

This view is downstream.

Hello little fern.

Quick glance back as we make our way back.

Monday, July 04, 2011

Birthday Ink

Joel's birthday present this year is a commissioned 3/4 sleeve from Hawk Chaite at Sovereign Tattoo. Hawk built the sleeve around the existing dragon and little Curly Girly he already had on that arm. It's two Koi fish representing his two boys...

Putting the stencil on was a process. Took some time to get it placed just right.

The outline only was done Saturday. It will take a couple more sittings for the color and shading to be added.

Curly Girly gets to play in the waterfall.

Joel was making funny faces when Hawk got to this area. Tender!

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Saturday, July 02, 2011

Out and About

Loving the nice weather that is showing up lately!

This is a long balance beam that has joints and moves a little bit. I was sitting on one end making it move up and down and Oliver was yelling at me to stop as he made his way across.

My Noah

Making them run off some of their energy. You know, that never works, it just builds up their stamina and makes them last longer the next day.

Handsome

All smiles, all the time.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Sun Means Water

No matter how little the sun shows itself around here, as soon as it peaks around a cloud the boys insist that it is hot and MUST play in the water. They are serious too, it's a matter a life or death, just ask them. This a week or so ago, maybe even two, they pestered until I caved.

Oliver calling the shots and if any of you KNOW my boy, this shouldn't be a surprise at all.

You know you want to run through it too!

My hydrangea loving the sun too and going through a nice growth spurt.

My budding scientist made an underwater viewer. A small cone with the large end covered in plastic wrap. It acted like goggles and let him see into the water/bucket.

(laughing)

So that budding scientist that I mentioned above, well he is going to be upset with me when I tell you that he ended up getting stuck in this bucket. That's my boy!

End of School Gathering

An awesome neighbor of ours came up with a brilliant idea to hold a neighborhood, end of the school year, Nerf gun battle at the park. She had hot dogs, chips, drinks and Popsicles for the kids to eat, all the neighbors that lived close to the park temporarily donated their garbage cans for bunkers and the kids all brought Nerf weapons of all kinds! It was a great turnout and I hope, with my help, Christina will keep this tradition going!

Getting ready to battle, dividing up into teams.

Oliver brought out the big gun!

Noah, on the other hand, kept it simple with a blow gun.

This is most of the kids that showed up, a few were missing (casualty of the battle maybe) and a few didn't fit into the picture.