Special Day With My Guys

With my new work schedule, I rarely get a Saturday off. I wanted to take the opportunity to have a special day as a family.

We decided early on to go to Crater Lake for the day. It was free to get into state parks, so it seemed like the perfect time. :-) Unfortunately, the smoke from the Umpqua national forest fires clouded the incredible view. Oh well, we still had a great time. Enjoy the pictures.

Toys R Us was having a special celebration for Geoffrey's Birthday. It was pretty cool, but...

...this is about as close and Nate would let us get to the over sized giraffe. He was super scared of him.

Me and my little boy at Crater Lake. See all the smoke in the background?

Silly boy!

My two guys...aren't they SO CUTE!!!

He he he...this is a normal daddy/son thing.

On the way back, we stopped at the Natural bridge just down the road from the Rogue River Gorge. It was a short easy trail and a beautiful water view. (you can see the smoke in the air, it was actually a sunny day)

What a mischievous face

Looking at the water with the park rangers. The nice park ranger gave him a little Smokey the Bear pin. :-)

Nate was mesmerized with the water.

Mission's Sunday

I LOVE missionaries! They are a special people with incredible hearts. This Sunday we had a missionary from Romania, Tamara Henkes. Check our her blog.

Happy 2nd Birthday Elijah!

Nathaniel was invited to his friend, Elijah's 2nd birthday! It was a Pirate theme and Nathaniel had a great time.

The birthday boy! Happy Birthday Eli!!!

Cindy (Eli's mom) giving my son a bat *SCARY* to hit the pinata.

Nathaniel taking a break from the scavenger hunt to jump on the trampoline.

Nate spent most of the night trying to take everyone elses food...especially Cindy's food! :-)

Grandma's Visit

We were so excited to have my mom come and visit over Labor Day weekend.

LOVE this picture!!!!

Grandma became his new jungle gym :-)

Cuddling in the cold morning (while watching Elmo of course)

We took mom to one of our favorite restaurants "The Soup Station" in Rogue River. I finally got Nathaniel saying "I love you" on video. SO CUTE! :-)

Teaching him young

This past Tuesday, we had an early Turkey dinner because my nephew (my sis-in-law's step son) is leaving for Boot Camp and he will be missing the holidays with our family. I decided Nathaniel was old enough to begin a VERY important tradition involving black olives. Now he will know what to do with Thanksgiving comes around! :-)

Nate thought it was pretty funny that mama was eating his fingers! :-)

He wouldn't eat the olives off of his own fingers, but he ate them off of mine...he bit me pretty hard! :-)

I love this picture. There is so much expression in his face.