4th of July weekend

We kicked off the weekend with our ward's children's parade and pancake breakfast in the park. Unfortunately it was freezing cold so we didn't stay long.

I promise there are more kids in the parade than just our boys and Tori. Carter was going so slow at first because he kept looking back at the motorcycles to make sure they weren't going to get him. He was very nervous about them.

Then he picked up the pace and left everyone behind us in the dust.

Cool guy Jude. About a decade too late.
Reminds me of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

On the 4th, we went down to Lindsay and Brian's house. Amy and Jon and Ralph and Sandra were there visiting so we crashed their family bbq. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up a bit.

My boys LOVE Lindsay! And "baby" Van. Carter asks if we can go to Lindsay's house at least twice a week.
We really should get together more often.

The next day, we drove over to the coast and visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Carter, for some reason, has been dying to see seahorses. We thought this would be our best bet. And they didn't have any :( Oh well, we got to see a lot of other cool things. This is a weird picture but the boys are in a bubble inside the piranha tank.

Carter loved this huge turtle. Jude kept saying "ribbit! ribbit!". Any animal that he doesn't know what sound it makes, he makes it say ribbit.

Look how huge this crab is!

The jellyfish tank was my favorite

This was Carter's favorite. Or maybe his favorite was the gift shop.... either way, they loved touching the starfish and stuff.

There's this part of the aquarium where you walk through tunnels and there's water all around you. Carter liked looking through the window on the ground.

The last tunnel was filled with sharks. It was pretty awesome.

We bought these silly things for the boys. You've probably seen them before, you can make the shark's mouth open and close with the handle. Jude's is an alligator. They both keep feeding anything and everything to their new little friends. You can see that Carter found and nice pine tree branch for his shark to eat. His favorite thing to do is pull Jude's pacifier out of his mouth with the shark. It's pretty funny.

This seal was hilarious. He would swim straight at us and then do this little back flip and swim away upside down. They boys just laughed and laughed at him.

We headed over to the beach after lunch. It was so windy! Jude refused to walk in the sand so I had to carry him the whole time. Carter thought it was great until his pants got wet in the ocean. They both were so cold, so we didn't stay very long. Not nearly long enough to make the trip down and back up to our car while carrying way to much stuff and both boys worth it.
Now we know.

This was the only way Jude was happy. Eating sandy chips and sitting on my lap so that I was blocking the wind.

This face means it's time to go.

It was a short fun trip. Next time we'll spend a little more time there and maybe just skip the beach part.

sleep issues

So now that the boys share a room, they have a hard time going to sleep at bedtime. They just play and play for hours. The other night, after they FINALLY fell asleep, I went to check on them and turn off their light and this is what I found. I almost woke them up because I started laughing so hard. I know the mess could be a lot worse and I'm glad it was mostly just blankets. My favorite part is that Carter is sleeping in the drawer that goes under the crib (Kramer would be proud). I guess he didn't have many options since his bed was stripped down to the plastic. He does that often and tells me, "I want my bed NEW!" I guess that means that he likes it without anything on it like when we brought it home from the store.

These two are trouble.

Our day at the park

It finally feels like summer! We kinda skipped spring all together up here, but now we're loving seeing the sun everyday. Carter still looks out the window every morning and says, "huh!! It's nice and sunny!" in a totally surprised voice. So today we had a super fun playgroup at a downtown park with water to play in!

Jude had to get warmed up to the crowded playground before diving in. He's so funny lately about staying really close to me.

After lunch, we made our way over to the water.

Carter was running around the whole time. Like a crazy boy. Who's never played in water before. That's why this is the only picture I have of him.

Hehe, Jude loved it...

until he got too cold. Then he climbed up on the rocks and looked grumpy until I wrapped him up with a towel.

Then he was happy again. Carter came and sat down with us so I quickly asked Elizabeth to take a picture of this rare moment of both boys sitting still with me.

Once I gave Jude some sandwich, he felt brave enough to get back down in the water. Then, since he's always thinking of others, he left his crust for another hungry kid who might come along.

Then the water got too cold again so Jude took a scenic walk by the flowers.

Carter was so sad when we had to leave. And, predictably, they fell asleep on the drive home. Jude took a 3 1/2 hour nap after this excursion! He must have had A LOT of fun. Carter has already asked me 500 times today if we can go back and play in the water.

Great park, Great friends, Great fun.
We will be doing this again, I'm sure.

Carter's cat

Carter has always loved this cat. He loves to cuddle up with it and watch cartoons or just carry it around with him.

He found my apron, which is made of material with cats all over it, and he thought it would make the perfect blanket for his cat. He's so funny.

Carter is THREE!!!!!

His gift from Grandma and Grandpa. We've read it several times already.

Opening the book. All these pictures are in reverse order, fyi.

His stash that he tried to devour before Jude got out of the bath

After he takes a bath, he has to go get warm under his blue blanket on the couch. Every time.

His birthday cinnamon roll. We already celebrated his birthday last Saturday so today wasn't quite as birthday-y as it probably should've been. We did go swimming though, which is his favorite thing.

During Jude's nap, Carter brought his blanket and pillow out from his bed to take a nap on the couch.

His favorite present. A little train set with a magnetic crane that picks up the cargo. He's in heaven playing with that thing.

We went to dinner with some friends on Saturday when we were celebrating his birthday. He's watching the tortilla machine.

Playing with his train set in the car.

While Carter wasn't looking, Jude snuck in some playtime with the trains.

Opening the trains.

In order to get him to stop playing with the trains and go to bed, we told him that the trains were so tired from playing all day and needed to go to sleep. So he put them to sleep. Upside-down.

Playing with his new fishing game.

Happy about his new book

After his birthday cupcake

Jude after a birthday cupcake. He's always been so much messier than Carter ever was.

We went to the store to pick out his birthday cake and frosting. He carried them around with him the rest of the day.

And here's what Carter's been up to lately:

Dennison and Carter built this super tall tower while I was taking a Sunday nap.

Just taking a nap. Pretty sure he fell off the couch shortly after this picture.

He's got plastic bags on both hands and feet. He likes to slide around like this.

We've been building a lot of forts since it rains every day.

Playing with his little brother.

The entire backyard and this is where they choose to sit. They must love each other or something.

"5-star"

Name: 5-star (for now) Because she/he is the 5th member of our family
Due: beginning of December
Looking forward to most: kicking Jude out of the "baby" position