green day.

St. pattys day isn't really that big of a deal to me, I just like to dress up in green, but today was a fun laid back day. It was a nice st pattys day.

we went to an indoor play place with our friend rory (and audrey, but she wasn't there yet when we took the picture.)

And by the way, Kroten and Rory are going to make the cutest couple. And I will tuck this picture away in a safe place incase it comes in handy someday...

Then I came home and cooked, as close as I know how to, a traditional irish meal. It was corned beef, cabbage and dill mashed potatoes. Oh and root beer, since we dont drink thats as close as I could get.

Maybe I like st patricks day after all.

What a day.

I thought I was going to get some rest after photographing the wedding, but then this happened...

Kroten was playing with our friends dog. Remember that we are out of town on vacation. He must have done something really mean to the dog, becuase they had been playing all day without any complications, but it randomly barked and bit and ran away. I wasnt sure if it was bad enought to go to the ER, but I called our doctor at home and they said with a dog bite to always go in. So we did. And I had to be at the wedding reception to take pictures in less than two hours.




My Baby being admitted to the ER. Look how huge that bracelet is on his little wrist. I had to leave right after this point. I felt really bad. But honestly, I dont think I could have handled the rest of what happened.



Kroten right after being sedated. This is one of the most horrible things to see, your precious poor baby being drugged and incoherent. I felt bad for leaving, but honestly I am glad that I wasnt there for this part.



The doctor with his fishing vest on stitching up k man.


Kroten after being stictched up.


The reception got over, and I was able to be there when Kroten was waking up. He couldnt talk or hold up his head and his eyes were all over the place. It was a humbling to see him like this. It was heart breaking. When he did come around a little, he was asking for baseball and pointing to the TV, but he couldnt focus his eyes. Then all he wanted was "popcorn" which is his favorite song. He always says "one more" after I sing it and usually I cut him off after about 3 rounds, but I just couldnt, I think I may have sang it ten times while holding my poor baby.


Props to Jared. He sat in the ER waiting room for 2 hours, watched them sedate and stich our poor baby and then sat in the room with a drugged Kman for anouther 2 hours, all so I could go shoot the wedding reception. 5 hours in the ER, Jared was the hero that day. And this is all he says when I tell him he is wonderful is "I love that little boy."


And at the end of the day I realized that photographers who shoot in 90 degree weather and dont wear sunscreen are stupid.


What a day.

Memorial Day Weekend...

...was awesome.



But were headed out of town, so it will have to wait to be posted till next week.

Expect lots of posts!!!

I cant wait...

for more days like this...











UHHH... wait a minute, when did he learn to do that? I am not ready for that.




Just to prove that I was there.




Jared will probably kill me when he sees that I put this picture on here, but I couldnt resist. He was so cute showing K man how to swing on your tummy and I LOVE this man and this picture.






It was the perfect start to an AWSOME spring and summer. It is going to be great!

I was craving a hamburger...

...one from a old fashioned diner. With french fries. The home made kind, and fry sauce. And a thick yummy milkshake. Strawberry. So thick you have to use a spoon cause a straw just wont cut it.

I was happy...





I'm so glad that he was willing to share my milkshake with me.

Getaway

I have been wanting to "getaway" for a while. I am having such a hard time with my job and being pregnant and life and cleaning and you know the drill.

So a few months ago, I started planning for Jared's birthday that we would "getaway" His birthday is during spring break, so it seemed like the most logical time to do so.

Also (and I am slightly ashamed to admit this) Kroten is almost TWO and he has never spent a night away from mom and dad. Seeing that in about 4 months, he will have to spend a few days without us while we are in the hospital, it was HIGH TIME that he try a few nights at grandma's house. So we did just that, shipped k-man to grandma's and "got away"

we went to Newport. It is on the coast and it was AWSOME. Our camp site was right on the beach and the weather was fantastic. I loved every single tiny minute of it.


It doesn't just look like he is moving out, it felt like he was. I may or may not have bawled when I said goodbye.


We were super excited that our name was posted on our campsite. How neat. Corney, I know, but it felt like they were waiting for us. :)


This was the trail to the beach, and it was literally right by our campsite. What a view.


We went to the yaquina head light house. We didn't go up because the line was really long and I was tired so it was just nice to see the outside.




And of course, we went crabbing. Jared is slightly obsessed with the sport now, so we will be going lots now.


Jared and his big catch. We were catching Red Rock Crabs. Apparently they are tastier than dungenous but a lot harder to eat, the shells are a lot harder and they shatter instead of crack. Jared didn't like it as much as the normal Oregon coast crab.


And this is what I did while Jared did all the stinky, hard work. I sat and ate my cadberry eggs. YUM. To make me sound a little less lazy, I am not allowed to pull up or throw in the crab pots cause I don't have a licence. So that is my excuse for not helping.

The sunset was very pretty. I really really liked Newport.




Highlights of the trip:
-Our airmatress going completely flat
-two trips to wal-mart. I LOVE WALMART
-crabbing
-sleeping in a tent
-waking up by ourselves, not to a baby yelling mommy
-talking to my little kman on the phone and hearing him say I love you after almost 5hours being apart
-eating lunch at the brewery and being carded only to tell them that we are not ordering alcohol, but the food was most excellent
-walking on the beach
-finding agates
-eating spaghetti by the fire
-being with my hubby, no distractions and no obligations
-walking a quarter mile to the bathroom while you are 6 months pregnant
-Shopping at the outlet malls
-spending too much money at the outlet malls
-maybe, just maybe, figuring out the new baby's name??
-celebrating Jared's birthday
-not carrying my camera around like a member of the paparazzi
-getting wind burnt on my cheeks
-seeing my kman after almost 3 days apart

"I-keen"

Kroten LOVES hiking. Or as he said over and over the whole time, very excitedly, "I-keen ... I-keen".

Last time we went hiking he was little and could barely walk. He was a little to small for the back pack and could not see anything over daddy's shoulder. He got tired and cranky. But this time he walked till he couldnt walk anymore, and then pointing to his back said "pack" and we knew he was done and wanted to be in the back pack.We were proud of him, I estimate that he walked almost 2 miles of our four mile hike.

He loved the water and the trail, the trees, the flowers and hearing the birds. He used his words to tell us what each one was. It was wonderful to see him explore. I think his favorite thing was to step on all the stones, stumps and roots along the trail and try to keep his balance while walking. He is deffinitly our outdoorsy man, and we will deffinitly be doing a lot of hiking this summer, that is until the end of July.

I am truly amazed at how much he has grown. It is experiences as a family, like this one, that help me to slow down and take it all in. It was a beautiful and special day. I loved every minute of it.















Where did we go?
We went to Brice Creek. It is a beautiful drive and not too far from Eugene. There is even camping up there for 6 bucks a night. We will be taking advantage of this soon. The water was clear and there was lots of places to go swimming. It was a little swift but if your careful it could be fun. We used to go here as kids with my mom, and Sammy and I used to go hiking here all the time. It is easy to get to and kind of a fun drive.

-Take I5 to exit 174 (Cottage Grove Exit.)
-Go east on Row River Rd. (if you are driving south on I5, it will be a left turn off the exit)
-Folow Row River Rd, it will turn left and go up a hill, but if you miss the turn and the road turns into something else, that is ok, it will meet up with Row River RD at the covered bridge.
-Drive till you think you have gone far enough and keep driving. It is about 25 miles east of cottage Grove.
-The parking lot will be on your left the sign will say ceder creek camp ground. You will recognize it by the bridge in the first picture.
-Really, it is full proof, you cant get lost, it is a straight shot East from Cottage Grove.

better late than never.

I know, I know, I am horrible for not posting about Christmas. and I know that it is probably more horrible that I am posting it in almost March, I almost decided to just scrap it, but Jared wouldn't let me. It has been a rough couple months OK, give me a break. I have used that excuse for why I haven't done my visit teaching, why I dont want to work anymore and why the laundry still isn't folded. It has been a rough couple of months, get off my back. :)

Now that I have that out in the open...
Merry Christmas 2009 - Chicago.

Christmas morning...




the whole gang on Christmas morning...


Carol got rock band for Christmas, we spent most of the rest of our time there playing it. I was horrible...


Snow, snow and more snow...


We went to Chicago and had to get Chicago deep dish pizza. It was really good at the time, but looking back, I would rather have little ceasers...


after pizza we went to the shed aquarium. It was really neat, but super crowded. It must have been Christmas break or something...


New years eve...


Chicago temple. It was really dark, so these pictures didn't turn out to good, but at least we captured it. It was a really nice temple, I liked it...


I could write a novel on our trip, but I will just give you the highlights...

-the nasty red eye flight (never again)
-bubbly baths everyday
-yummy home cooked meals everyday
-throwing up at least once a day
-everyone except Jared and Kroten getting pukey sick
-foot and back massages C/O Carol
-pedicures C/O Ali
-Chicago pizza
-people to play with Kroten while I threw up
-Chicago Temple
-the aquarium
-lots of AWESOME presents
-visiting with family
-shopping
-BBQ'in in the dead of winter
-Sadie dog
-losing miserably at SEQUENCE every night
-getting tired, cranky and inevitably angry after losing sequence every night. (I am so glad that you guys are getting to know me and you can except my tired and cranky phases)
-Carol's throwing up in the grocery store story
-Kroten sleeping in Nana and g pa's room
-two whole weeks off work
-chocolate cream pie, a comfy couch and a movie
-new years eve
-foose ball
-rock band
-snow snow snow and some more snow
-Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. (even though nobody told me they were for after presents and I dug in before presents. I felt like such an idiot.)
-Ali's nasty fingernail
-downtown Chicago traffic (yuck)
-volleyball
-more people playing with kroten
-gaining 5 pounds (thanks Tammy) :)

And I know I have missed something spectacular, it was an awesome trip, we miss it and had a blast. Can't wait to see you guys again this summer. Hopefully Ali's fingernail is better or else your not touching the baby ;)

valentines weekend

Last year for valentines day weekend, we went to the coast with my family. We had so much fun that I wanted to go again this year. I am so glad we did, it was a ton of fun. Spending valentines day with you parents is not very romantic, but tons of fun. It was an awsome weekend. I didnt get any pictures of karly or my mom, I dont knwo where they were all weekend. maybe hiding from the camera?




don't be mistaken, that is not a mallow, that is a mushroom, Jared just couldnt wait for the shishkabobs to be done, so he roasted his mushroom over the fire.



kroten and I in front of our yurt. We love yurts.

Then we went crabbing... It was so cool. we will deffinitly be going again.

Kroten was not happy about wearing this oversized life vest. He couldnt walk and he was pouting. we decided to stay on the upper dock, so we eventually let him take it off.

This is how you throw the crab pot in.

This is apparently how you pull it out, 15 min after you throw it in. the struggling "I have no arm muscle" face is not required.

This is what crabs look like. They were GROSS... just like big hard shelled spiders.


This little guy was too small.


Kroten did not like the crab. Allthough he was really good at saying crab and making pinchers with his fingers all weekend.



Then K man warmed up and wanted to help. He loves gloves.





He really warmed up to it.


Then we went to the beach. Gorgeous!




I love this picture. I think it should be an add for balckberry, something about 3G coverage. "your covered from sea to shining sea." LOL.



please note that we have been camping for two days at this point!!


Then we played baseball on the beach. Loved it.


Jared really wants you to notice this kids form, apparently this is how you would throw a curve ball.





and this is us trying to teach kroten to run the bases. Deffinitly something we need to work on this summer.

and one shot just cause it was valentines day! I do love him.