Fun times with the fam!

At the end of April, we had some very fun visitors.  Mike's Dad and "little" brother, Rem came to visit!  Rem hadn't been to the Oregon Coast before, so we had a great time showing them around.

The first day they were here, we all got to go to Mike's work for a formal event at Mike's hospital.  We tried to get a nice picture of all of us, but this was the best we could come up with... 

Bear is not enjoying this

I tried tickling K-Man to get a smile, but we still couldn't quite get one of all of us looking at the camera

Yeah, it was waaay past Bear's nap time, so this is how the afternoon ended:

Thanks, Uncle Rem!

After the formal event, we got to get out and have some fun.  First, we took the all-important trip to our favorite candy store for some saltwater taffy. 

The beginning of a serious sugar high

Then we climbed the Astoria column and flew balsa airplanes off the top.  Mike is always super-dad when we go.  After we throw all of our planes, he runs down all 164 steps (the column is over 12 stories high), and retrieves all the airplanes he can find so we can throw them again.  The kids love it!!  What a dad!

The boys at the top of the column overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River

Uncle Rem flying his plane

After the column and some delicious burgers, we hopped on the trolley to take a ride and see the sights.

K-Man loves these two guys!

Then, of course we had to ride the carousel

Normally this is fun times for everyone and it takes all of our parental powers to get the boys OFF the carousel, but for some reason Bear was terrified the entire time this time around 

And what would a trip to the coast be without... the ocean?

Abuelo with K-Man

At Haystack Rock... such an interesting rock that Bear can't take his eyes off it, even for the pic!

K-Man decided that standing was too boring and struck a pose instead.

Abuelo and the boys playing some sort of volleyball/frisbee hybrid

Since there was a negative tide while they were here, Mike was able to take them clamming early one morning.  It had been kind of stormy the day before so they only found small ones.  But they had a pretty good time anyway.

Rem with his clam gun

Mike with one of the larger clams they were able to find

And when we weren't at the ocean or out around town, we were chilling at the house and having all sorts of fun.

K-Man loooves Abuelo's Nook.

Brings back fond memories of when I was a kid.  What's more fun than this??!

We love having our loved ones come and spend time with us!  Thanks for coming Dan and Rem!!

Easter!

Things have been going pretty well around here lately.  Spring is here and the weather is getting nicer every day.  We all love spending time outside so we're looking forward to a fun summer.

The most exciting event in the past few weeks has definitely been Easter.  We had a visit from the Easter Bunny and we went hunting for some Easter Eggs here at the house and at the park downtown.  We also had a great church service.  I thought I would include some fun pictures from the recent festivities.  Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

After church with the boys wearing their new outfits for Easter

Waiting for the city's Easter Egg hunt.  It rained for a little bit before the event started.  Thankfully it quit raining just in time.

K-man planning his strategy to get lots of eggs!

Bear was a little more laid back before as he waited for the Easter Egg hunt to start

K-man with all the eggs he got

Here's Bear after the hunt.  He was cold and ready to head home.

The Easter Bunny left a trail of candy at our house when he came.  Bear was sooo excited.

The Easter Bunny also left some kites, some play dough, and some bubble making toys. 

We did a little Easter Egg hunt in our house.  Here Bear is showing off the candy he found.  As you can see, he was thrilled.

K-man found a lot of the Andes mints, which he was excited about

Here the boys are trying out their new bubble toys.

2 Years Old!

Earlier this week Bear turned two years old!  It's hard to believe that it's been two years since this incredible little guy entered our lives.  He was born in Indiana and I clearly remember how exciting it was while we were waiting in the town until he was born.  He came about a week later than we had expected, but we were very grateful for the delay because it gave us the chance to get to know his wonderful birth parents.

As a part of his birthday, Amy created a great book that we had printed and delivered to us.  It's his story of how he came into our family.  If you'd like to take a look at it you can use this link:

Jaron's Adoption Storybook

Amy used the same format that she used for K-man's book.  If you'd like to see that one you can use this link:

Kable's Adoption Storybook

For his birthday, Bear also got some fun cars and trucks (he LOVES cars and trucks), some awesome legos, a fun wagon and bubbles, and a great little mat with roads.  He really seems to be enjoying all of it, and K-man is loving the fact that his brother was having a birthday.  We had some friends over on Friday night to help us celebrate and Bear really had a blast.  It was so much fun to be able to celebrate with him and below I'll include some photos from the celebrations.

We are so very blessed to have this little angel in our lives.  We love him so much and we are grateful every day for him and his birthparents.

Sleeping with the truck K-Man picked out especially for him... he won't go to bed without it.

Birthday breakfast of Cap'n Crunch: Oops All Berries!

Fun presents from Abuelo and Abuelita

Lego cars (the best of both worlds) from Mima and Papa

Opening gifts with his friends (his best buddy is to the far left)

Had to include a picture of him in his birthday crown!

To wrap up, here's one last picture.  Since he is now two years old, we decided it was high time he started pitching in a little bit more here at home.  His new chore?  Mowing the lawn:

Happy birthday, Bear!  We love you.

Seattle!

Last week I had some work meetings in the Seattle area.  Usually when I go on these trips I don't get to go with the family, which is a huge bummer because that means I have to go two to three days without seeing my boys (and my beautiful wife) in person.  Luckily, this trip we were able to go together.  I still spent most of my time in meetings, but it was so much fun to see my family at the end of each day.  Before and after my conference we were also able to spend some time out and about.

Here we are near Pike Place market overlooking the water.

Pike Place Market, a classic feature of Seattle!

We got K excited about the trip a few days before by telling him that we were going to Seattle and that we were staying in a hotel.  He thought this sounded really fun, so he was ready to hit the road.  Both K and Bear loved staying in a hotel.  K thought it was really fun to have his own bed in the same room as us, and both boys couldn't get enough of the elevator.  Our room was on the 16th floor so the stairs weren't a very good option.  I'm not sure who designs the elevator button layout, but I question whether they have small children.  Both the button for the alarm and to call security are right within Bear's reach.  This seems to be the case on most of the elevators we've used with the kids.  Anyway, I've included some photos from our awesome trip!

On our way home we stopped at a fun indoor play place, which the kids really enjoyed.  They had one activity that K couldn't get enough of.  It was a scarf shooter that sucked fabric scarves into a tube system and then would shoot them out into the air.


Bear had a lot of fun pretending to drive a life size semi truck cab that was at the play place.  He is obsessed with trucks, so it was like a dream come true for him.

Finally, here are some fun pictures from when we went to an Indian restaurant.  The boys loved it, and they behaved so well.  It's such a blast to go to fun places with them.  I'll wrap up with some photos from that meal.

Bear eating hummus like a champ!

I love this photo of me and K-man.

The whole family on our night out.

Valentine's Day

Before it gets to be too far past Valentine's Day, we wanted to share some pics of our fun day.  Here's a video of the boys coming down the stairs to see their Valentine's Day surprises:

They had tons of fun playing with their new puzzles, and we've been refilling the Woody and Buzz juice bottles for weeks now.  Apparently nothing's more fun than drinking juice out of your favorite Disney character's head!

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For lunch we made heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches using our heart cookie cutter.  It was pretty fantastic.

This is how they say "cheese!" Or should we say how they scream "cheese!"

Since Mike was out of town that night, we didn't go too crazy but made some pink (somewhat) heart-shaped pancakes and ate them by candlelight.  It was pretty fun.

Yep, that's another "CHEESE!!!" Funny boys.