4th of July 2009

Hope everyone had a relaxing 4th of July this year. We kicked it at our friends, Scott and Angela's house along with another couple and their two little boys.

The boys all had a great time running around the yard, playing in the water and consuming a lot of goodies. Scott was cooking up a 4th of July smorgasbord of food that included pork roast slow cooked in the smoker all day, crab legs and corn on the cob along with sides of coleslaw, pasta salad and a fruit tray from the ladies.

Just before Jayden had to go down to bed, dad was able to sneak a few fireworks in this year. Nothing too crazy even though those are DEFINITELY available up here, crazy place up north called BoomCity that has 100 stands of craziness. Even though he was a fan of the few that dad set off he was still won over by what I think is the #1 firework ever made for kids - PopIts.

Happy B-day little man....

A few weeks back the little man made it to 3 years old. It seems like a pretty decent milestone in ones life. While he still has a fair bit of growth to go before he can jump behind the wheel of a car, fight for his country, vote for his leaders, put a Benjamin down on the Lakers to win the title or develop any other bad “grown up” habits, he still gets a pretty sweet step up in daily life at 3.

For one, his toy possibilities grow by about 200%. Whether it’s that he can easily now have toys listed as 3+ (which seems to be a boat load) or that we are more likely to let him have one that is 4+ or 5+ now, there are definitely more options. He’s been talking for a while now but his imagination has definitely been taken up a notch or two in the last month or so. He love’s to play freeze tag and hide and seek, even though he does not fully get the concept of “hiding”. When he hides, he usually just goes and stands next to a wall and giggles while we try and pretend that we don’t hear or see him. When we say “Jayden, where are you?” he giggles and replies “I don’t know, hehehe”. He also is a big fan of playing “grocery store” with his new cash register (the “money pinger”). At the moment he likes being the “shopping man” and dad or mom being the “grocery man” that scans all the items and takes his money. He also may start going to some sort of pre-school some time this year. There are several places around us that provide part time schooling for a few hours a day, a couple days a week at a reasonable price. Of course there is also potty training. We’ve been half heartedly working with him the last few months but will soon be going at it full force.

Better toys, new games, school and the loo! That’s quite a bit!!

Ok, well onto the festivities. His actual birthday fell on a Tuesday this year so dad took the day off of work and we headed to Chuck E. Cheese (a favorite of his, of course). Turns out Tuesday mornings at opening time is the perfect time to go because no one is really there yet!! (Yeah for mom and dad!!). We brought a few presents for him to open and much fun was had. He got to meet Chuck E. and had plenty of coins to plop into whatever machines he wished. We had amassed quite a number of tickets from previous outings and we added a bunch more this time (1300 total!). When it came time to leave we showed him all the cool toys he could pick from. He decided he just had to have this certain item and he would not be convinced otherwise no matter how hard mom and dad tried. What did he want? A mini Tootsie-pop, orange flavor, for 10 tickets. Oh to be 3… :)

After we left the mouse house, we went home and all took a nap. After nap time we decided to take him out to a birthday dinner at the mall. We went to Claim Jumper and had a yummy dinner. He got a special birthday cupcake that he enjoyed very much.

The next day, he had his two best buds come over for cake and ice cream!!

The next day, Thursday, we headed for Portland to see family for a long birthday/fathers day weekend. We started by going to grandma Smith’s house in McMinnville. Jayden had a blast playing out in the yard. He helped grandma water her plants, played hide-and-seek, and rode his little scooter around the grass. On the second day we went to this great big park next to were they live (sorry, no pics, forgot our camera). He had a blast playing on all the jungle gym stuff, in the sand, in the water jets and on his little scooter. Of course he loved playing with the dogs at the house and in his little room that grandma has set up for him.

On Saturday we all went over to grandma Shervey’s house for his big Transformers themed birthday party. Uncle Jon and Aunt Heather came over too and an unhealthy amount of spoiling ensued. :) The following day was Fathers Day but we ended up just relaxing and not doing too much, the week had worn out mom and dad. We did go to a cool little park when we had a break in the weather where Jayden got to play with one of his favorite playground toys, the scooper!!

We headed back the following Monday. We stopped at our friends, Chris and Tiffany, to see their little one, Sydney, and introduce her to Jayden (is there a future marriage in the works?? We shall see). Unfortunately, the little man was worn out and just wanted to go home (he was asleep 10 minutes after we left), so the visit was a short one :)

The following week Jayden had his 3 year check up appointment. We found out he was a perfect square, 39x39!! 39 pounds (90th percentile) and 39 inches tall (95th percentile). A big growth spurt in the last year!!

How We Spent Our 6th Anniversary Morning.....

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks getting ready for Mexico and we planned on not doing anything for our anniversary yesterday (more on Mexico in a later blog post obviously!!). We had bought some stuff at the store to make a nice dinner at home and were just going to relax.

That morning Missy got a text from a friend and asked if we want to go to the Evergreen State Fair. After talking it over for a few minutes we decided that it would be a lot of fun to take Jayden and let him see all the animals and maybe ride a ride or two. It was supposed to rain that day but it was still warm so we just hoped for the best. A quick stop at the Bartel's drug store to buy the tickets (discounted) and we were off! The fair was about 20min from our house so it did not take to long to get there at all.

The rain held off just long enough and we all had a blast at the fair!! Jayden was super excited when we went and saw the animals. He got to see pigs, goats, cows, sheep, roosters, ducks, turkeys, chickens and even zebras and reindeer!

After that we went and got so me yummy fair food and chilled a bit. We went and played a few games. Dad payed $5 to "win" a bear for the boy. Dad also payed $10 to shoot baskets for a big toy, but it was not meant to be.

We only rode on one ride with the little man and that was the carousel. He was a little freaked out when we got on it, we only sat in the sled and not on an animal, but he loved it once we started going.

It was a great time. The little guy was all tuckered out by 12:45 or so and we went home. I think we will go back again next year. Here are some of the other fun moments of the day.

Congrats to Milkbomb!

Whats a Milkbomb you ask? Well that depends on if you ever worked at Food4Less in McMinnville, OR (that's a story for another time). The Milkbomb I'm writing about today is the name of a band that's headed up by our great friends Peter and Kevin. They have both been in bands together since our early high school days but within the last couple of years they have really seemed to gel and find their sound and direction. They have been playing shows regularly throughout the Portland area and getting some play on the local rock station KUFO. They just recently wrapped up their first CD and release party over 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately Missy and I could not make it down and attend. We got our copy (from CD Baby) on Monday and it is awesome!! I think anyone that likes a grunge/old-school alternative sound should definitely check it out.

Anyhow, just a shout out to them and a big congrats on a killer album. Seeing them take it really serious and listing to the results is incredible.

Click through either of the links I've embedded and take a listen!

Weekend BBQ with Good Friends

Last weekend we finally made it over to our friends house, the Schulte's, on Bainbridge Island for a BBQ. It's always so difficult to get our schedules to match up but all the stars aligned and we made a go of it.

It was Jaydens first ride on the boat and he loved it.

Another friend, Jim and his wife Danielle and their son Ayden made it over as well. We all use to work at Escend together and had been quite some time since we all hung out. In fact the last time we were all together the Schulte's only had 3 kids, Jim and Danielle had none and neither did we. So we had lots to talk about :)

There was tons of food and beverages. Jayden had a great time playing in the sandbox with Aaron's littlest - Tessa. Then got pushed around the yard by Ayden and Tessa.

Lots of fun on the island

After dinner the men decided we need to test out some of the toys at the Schulte homestead. One of which was the Jason Giambi Batting Cage! This thing rocked! Very cool setup. We got in and took some hacks at 60-70mph and I actually did rather well for not swinging a bat in 10 years.

My cat like reflexes and quickness too fast for our camera to fully catch!

Then we started messing with the kind of pitches it could throw. We had it throwing some wicked curve balls which I hit really well but then we decided to crank the sucker up to full speed. I tell you what, that thing can hum it in there upwards of 95-100mph. I could not even see the BALL!! I think the wives thought we were going to get killed. Nothing at that speed hit anyone or anything, including the bat ;)

We even got the wives to jump in and take a few hacks. Missy did the best out of the girls!!! She had several solid hits.

Good form!

A great time was had by all and I really hope it does not take us another year to all get together.

Happy 4th of July Everyone

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and were able to enjoy a BBQ and possibly a cold beverage.

We headed over to a friends house for the traditional BBQ, etc our selves. There where several other couples joining us, all with younger kids. We had a really good time and Jayden got to play a lot and eat a lot of yummy food.

Darn E-Mail never stops...

After the little ones went to bed we played some games in the backyard. Horse shoes and croquet where the games of choice. It was fun watching us all try and throw the horse shoes like we knew what we were doing.

Our friends Angela and Scott were great hosts. They just moved into this new house and they have tons of room and a big back yard. We did not really do any fireworks. Mostly due to the fact that one of the houses in their neighborhood just recently caught on fire and did tons of damage so no one was really in the "lite stuff on fire" mood. Plus the boyz are a bit young to really enjoy it just yet.

We finished the night off watching the fireworks on TV.

One funny before hand story was what I will refer to as "The Mellon-ball Incident". Missy had decided to bring a nice fruit tray to the BBQ. It was to be filled with all sorts of tropical delights. One of which was going to be watermelon. She worked hard at making these nice ping pong ball sized "melon balls" out of it using, of course, a melon baller. They where perfect little guys. After she was done she came into the living room and sat down. About this time Jayden walked into the kitchen as he always does and Missy and I started talking about the day or something like that. Jayden is a big fan of the watermelon and about a minute later we both kind of had this "He's really been quite in there" moment of "oh crap!" Missy walks in and sees melon balls all over the kitchen floor and carpet! Jayden quickly deduced that mom was not to pleased with him and left a smoke trail to the living room. I came in and saw the mess all over the floor and tried my best not to start laughing out loud (Missy understandably not really ready to "look back and laugh" just yet). What he had managed to do was take his riding dump truck toy and prop it up against the cabinets. Stood on top of it (pry on his tip-toes), opened the plastic bowl with the melon balls and scoop out arm loads, all while being supper quite. That boy has got mad skillz. Luckily he did not get that many and there were plenty left for the tray.

I think he learned a valuable lesson - When sneaking food never take more melon balls than you can eat or carry.