Putting on a show for our visitors

I forgot to add this picture from Saturday night after the baptism party. Ethan was very proud of his cup tower. Sunday after church we decided to take the grandparents up to Todd lake for a picnic and walk around the lake.

Sandra enjoyed dipping her toes in the water
and the kids chased after and gathered tadpoles
lots of 'em
The meadow flowers were so pretty

...and then Brad and Ethan caught a snake... of course

It was a perfect day to be up at the lake

Star had a fun (and very dirty) time too and zonked out on the way home

Sunday night the kids put on a little talent/variety show which was fun.

Mother nature put on an amazing show as well

The sky was beautiful

Star didn't like the thunder though...

Monday Sandra had to fly home in the morning, and in the afternoon we took mom and Karl out to Paulina falls, the Obsidian flow and McKay campground.

Here are the falls, but I didn't take any other pictures since we already have plenty of other pics in these places.

Mom's camera has all the pictures from the obsidian flow and the McKay campground waterfall, and I didn't remember to take them off her camera before she left :(

I DID however get this clip of Karl taking a shower:

While our visitors were here we also played alot of hands of these two games. They are both so fun and we highly recommend them.

and tried to show them a good time by not beating them too badly.
I'm not sure what we did Tuesday (although I'm sure it involved a few hands of cards), then Wednesday was the youth waterski trip (later post) and when we got home we headed out to "Meadow Camp" (where we take everyone) for a cookout

Sadly our last visitors had to leave, but it was great to spend some time together while we could and hope they enjoyed our Central Oregon show.

Ethan's Baptism- August 1

Saturday August 1st was Ethan's big day. The day he was baptized to become a member of the church. Even though it was to be a stake baptism, Ethan ended up being the only one, so we got to have our own little private baptism, just for our boy!

Again, I was a bit sad that so many friends were out of town, but it didn't diminsh the day for Ethan at all. Grandma Whiting joined us for his special day

and so did gramma and Karl

Here he is just before the service

Dad and his boy

It was nice to have both grandma's speak at his baptism since he was the only one. It was a very sweet meeting.

Afterwards we had planned to have friends over to the house, only to find the power out when we arrived! There had been a lot of lightning and thunder which had apparently knocked out the power. Luckily it had just happened, so the pasta was still warm and the rest we cooked out on the BBQ without any problem.

It was nice to have in addition to family, the Petzingers, the Wiaters, and the Birnels (who made the trip from Portland-thanks) to be with us on his special day.

Here is a picture of our candles lighting our dim kitchen for our supper. My favorite dessert was the chocolate triffle with gummy worms. So perfect for Ethan!

Yee-Haw! Let's go to the county fair- July 30

On Friday July 30th Sandra flew in, and mom and Karl drove in for the weekend. The Deschutes County Fair was free Friday before 3pm so, we decided to head out to the fair before we had to pay. We hadn't counted on the crowds and as 2pm was quickly approaching we had to make a plan. I told the parking attendent that I just wanted to drop the bunch off, so he waved me through and Sandra quickly jumped out of the car with the kids at 2:57pm. We figured paying for one was better than paying for 6. Turns out I lucked out and got a parking spot real close and squeaked into the free entrance around 3:03. Phew!

It was a very toasty afternoon so we spent the first couple hours inside looking at exhibits which is where we happened across mom and Karl about 30min. after we had arrived. Lucky!

Karl snuck off with Ethan for some "male bonding" and came back with this HUGE jawbreaker!Ethan is still working on it, but it is more than half gone.

What's a fair without some greasy food and something sweet to swig it down?

Abby was less than impressed with the pony ride. She did NOT like being "babysat" by the boy who was there to make sure the kids were safe. We saw tonnes of goats, chickens, guinea pig, rabbits, and various other animals of course...
We hit the rodeo, which was a bit lacking in excitement and then it was on to the rides!

LOVE the county fair! It is always such a fun and exhausting day!

Ethan's 8th birthday

July 28th was Ethan's 8th birthday.

He was born in Boston, MA while we were living in Dedham. His is my only "normal" birth experience. Saturday morning we went for a big walk (trying to get things moving), then had Thai for lunch (trying to get things moving), put the girls down for a nap and watched Grease on TV since it was the Saturday afternoon movie on TV. Then, finally in the late afternoon things got going :D We left the girls at the Cox's and went in to Boston to have the baby.

Only problem was that by the time we went to the hospital my mom was in the air flying to Mass. She didn't have a cell phone and we weren't sure how to get a hold of her to let her know we wouldn't be at the airport to pick her up and that we were at the hospital. My sister Christie won the award for level-headedness and suggested a call to the airline in Boston. She took care of that for us (thank you Christie) and they paged my mom when she landed to give her the message to just take a taxi to the hospital.... which she did.

So.. my mom was there when Ethan was born! Something I never expected to happen always living so far from family. It was very uneventful and after 5 min. of pushing he was born at 11:45pm - 2 weeks early at a whopping 7lb 2oz.

That was the last time life with Ethan was "uneventful"

Ethan at 3 mo.
Around 3 yrs old
7 years old
Ethan is always trying to get a laugh. Most of the time this is good, but it has got him in trouble a few times too. He spends most of his days after school building and riding on his bike jump out in "the field" or collecting critters.

I was a bit sad that I didn't have more of Ethan's school pals phone #s to invite them to his birthday party, and that the people I DID know were out of town. Ethan didn't seem to mind though. He just wanted some bodies there to celebrate his birthday. I'm SO glad he is easy going that way. He was rather determined to have his birthday party ON his actual birthday though. Don't know why, but it was pretty important to him.

Here's the motley crew

Ethan had a great time at his party!

My dad had bought these noisy balloons when he was here at Christmas time and saved them for Ethan's birthday. They were a big hit.

Happy Birthday to my best boy!

Ethan's baseball

Ethan played Park and Rec baseball again this summer

In action
There were only 6 boys on Ethan's team so the boys got a lot of playing time both on the infield and hitting. By the end of the season the boys had really improved which made for some fun games

Ethan's RBI double

Ethan's RBI single

Coach Chip was again, an awesome coach.

I love the Park and Rec league. It is very low key... just some kids out having fun, hitting a baseball around. LOVE IT!

Cascade Cycling Classic- July 25

We were SO lucky this year to have the best seat in Bend for the Cascade Cycling Classic downtown crit (Thank you Hansens!!).

The race is basically 140 cyclists biking around in circles in downtown Bend for 90 minutes going 40mph! It gets pretty intense

Abby was pretty focused as you can see...
Brad took the next few pictures. I thought they turned out pretty cool lookin'.

Ethan watching in style

The cool thing is that the race is so long it is hard to predict the winners.

Some of the victors (who lovingly shared their beer with us by spraying us... thanks!)
Very cool event!