Another trip to Bend!

Thursday morning we packed up the car and headed to Bend...excited to get away from the unusual August rain. We had a relaxing trip despite the fact that Sienna is teething...AGAIN! She's been teething almost non-stop for over 2 months and now has 14 teeth! If we can survive the next 2 teeth (her 2 upper eye teeth) then we should have a teething break for another 10 months or so (when her 2 year molars should make their appearance). YEA! This was our first trip since Brayden started sleeping in a big boy bed and since we weren't too sure how Brayden was going to do sleeping in a sleeping bag, we decided to bring his pack 'n play, just in case. Brayden ended up doing great, even though the first night he kept falling out of the sleeping bag (it was a sleeping bag and air mattress in one). After that first crazy night, we decided to drain most of the air out of the mattress and he slept like a champ the next 2 nights! I was so proud of him!

Wedgits
Grandma & Grandpa bought a fun new toy for Brayden to play with...Wedgits! They came with a picture book with different design ideas and I'm pretty sure that Brayden made every single design about 50 times...plus a few original creations of his own. Besides "fishing", the Wedgits were all he pretty much wanted to play with.
Fishing
Of course no trip to Grandma & Grandpa's house would be complete without going "fishing"!!! Brayden fished in the pond (as he likes to call it) for a few minutes. For once the kids didn't pay too much attention to the "pond" while we were visiting.

The other best fishing spot is what used to be the dog yard (when I was growing up) and is now known as the courtyard. There is another fountain in the back corner of the courtyard that we fish in. Chris came up with a game several visits ago where we all (except for Grandma!) take turns attempting to cast the fish into the water. What silly games we come up with to entertain ourselves...and the kids. haha!
Brayden and Grandpa fishing together! (You can see the fountain in the far right corner)
Even Sienna was interested in fishing this time! Of course, it took all of Brayden's willpower not to rip it out of her hands....well, willpower and the threat of being put on time-out!
The Chairs
As usual, Sienna entertained herself by playing with the plastic chairs while we were outside enjoying the nice weather. She tried stacking them...
But she couldn't figure out how to get them turned the same direction...

So she decided to line them up instead!
This picture doesn't really show how funny this was, but, we were all at the other end of the deck enjoying the shade while Sienna was just sitting in her chair all by herself! She looked so bored and lonely sitting in the chair.
I guess she got tired of sitting by herself because she decided to rearrange the chairs...again!
I'm not sure what she was trying to do, but she ended up getting the chair stuck in her shirt!
Legos
Since Sienna is too young to play with the Wedgits, she stuck with the Legos that we brought with us. I'm not sure what our kids would do without Legos!

Reading
Both kids love to red books. Sienna will sit on our lap all day long and bring us book after book if we let her.
Pajamas?
As I mentioned in a post a couple of months ago, Sienna does not like to get dressed. I'm not sure what her deal is because she's fine once her clothes are on. One night we were getting the kids ready for bed and she refused to get her pajamas on. She is definitely our wild child! Maybe she'll change her mind this winter when it gets cold! Sienna loved riding the 4 wheeler around the house...this was the first time that she could actually push herself around using her feet!
Spinning
I'm pretty sure that Grandpa would have yelled at my brother and me for doing this as kids, but I guess grandparents let their grandkids get away with more! ;) The kids had fun spinning around in circles while sitting in the chair together. They even appeared to hold hands...maybe that was out of fear of falling off! I was a little worried that they had just eaten lunch but Grandpa didn't seem too concerned!
The best part of the whole trip was our night at the Pine Ridge Inn. We left the kids with Grandma & Grandpa and headed out before lunch on Saturday and didn't return until lunch on Sunday. It was an extra special getaway because this is where we stayed the night we got married. It was also exactly 7 years ago (to the day) that Chris proposed. It is hard to believe that our lives could change so drastically in 7 short years! I'm not sure that either one of us could have predicted that we would have a 1 year old and 2 year old 7 years later. In fact, if someone had told us that we'd be parents of a 1 & 2 year old, I'm pretty sure we would have laughed at them and told them that they were crazy. Of course we love our lives, even though it is a bit crazy at times. The Pine Ridge Inn hadn't changed much since our wedding...the rooms looked exactly the same and we still had a pretty nice view of the Deschutes River from our balcony. The major difference was that the pine trees had grown quite tall over the last 6 years and really limited our view of the river. They also built a bridge that takes away from the overall quality of the view. Here is the view from our room, which just happened to be right next to the honeymoon suite that we stayed in last time!
Here is a picture of the same area of the river from our honeymoon suite in July 2002!

Uncle Scott's Last Visit

Uncle Scott came over for the last time on Monday night...he's moving to San Diego! He's been talking about moving there for years so I never really thought it was going to happen. Both kids love playing with Uncle Scott so it is sad to see him go. Brayden especially enjoys all of the rough housing!

Uncle Scott dusted the floors with Brayden...
Sienna had fun showing Uncle Scott her favorite spots in the house...including her hiding spot behind the highchair.
While Uncle Scott and Sienna were trying to read books, Brayden got a little impatient and decided it was time to rough house again! Poor Uncle Scott!
At least Uncle Scott is big enough to fight back!
And, the best part of the whole evening was Uncle Scott pummeling Brayden with pillows! Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can get an up close view of the pillow smacking Brayden in the face. Brayden would stand on the other side of the room and run towards Uncle Scott. Uncle Scott would then throw a pillow at him...usually resulting in a direct hit to the face. They played this game for quite awhile...until we told Brayden he needed to start settling down for bed.

Random Post Friday!

Once again I've been a slacker and haven't posted any pictures for a whole week! I've been taking a lot of random pictures this week, but none of them were so exciting that I felt compelled to sit in front of the computer to post them. ;) It is a wonder that I survived sitting at a computer all day for over 8 years before I became a stay-at-home mom!

The Mohawk
After sudsing up Sienna's hair, Chris decided to have a little fun with it. Her hair is the perfect length for a mohawk! I'm not so sure that it's her best look...but, it was pretty funny! I just found a picture of Brayden sporting a mohawk at 11 months...he didn't have quite as much hair, though! Check it out here.
Both Brayden and Sienna love to take baths and always have fun splashing water everywhere. Sienna loves the bath so much that she actually becomes hysterical when it is time to get out!
Drawing
Lately we've been letting Sienna draw with crayons and chalk on the easel. She loves it so much that we can't let Brayden use the easel while she is eating or she'll refuse to eat just so she can get out and draw, too. Reading
Brayden and Sienna have been reading a lot of books together. Of course, as soon as Sienna tries to actually touch the book, Brayden starts yelling at her and pushes her away. Brothers!!! ;)Music Class
I tried to snap a few pictures of the kids at music class this week but everyone was moving so fast that none of them really turned out. Here are a couple of Brayden and Sienna "playing drums" with paint brushes!

Walks, Walks, & More Walks
Lately I've been taking the kids on walks when they wake up from their naps in the afternoon. I'm not sure why, but I get really bored waiting for Chris to get home. Getting out for for a nice walk re-energizes me and by the time we get back, Chris is usually home. Amazingly enough we even managed to motivate ourselves to take a walk last weekend!
Hanging out with Daddy
The kids are always all over Chris as soon as he walks in the door from work. They miss him so much when he's gone!
"I said FREEZE!"
If you have ever seen the movie The Incredibles, you might just recognize that line. A few weeks ago Brayden started building guns with his Lego's and yelling "I said FREEZE!". I was in complete shock and had no idea where he had learned that from. As it turns out, he learned it from the movie The Incredibles. I had never even thought twice about letting him watch Disney movies in the car (that is his reward if he is a good listener when we are out every morning). Now I'm having second thoughts!
Drawing
Brayden is still having fun drawing in his new books. He's been drawing so much that one pen has already ran out of ink...good thing we bought 2 books and have 2 pens! I am constantly amazed at how long he'll sit at the table. Just this morning he sat at the table for over an hour before I told him that we had to go run errands. Even after an hour he STILL didn't want to stop drawing!
Brayden is getting better and better at tracing the lines!
And he loves drawing circles in the book, too!

Kruger's Farm

This morning the kids and I headed out bright and early to Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island to pick blueberries! I can't remember the last time that I picked my own berries. I'm pretty sure that I did at least once as a kid! We didn't really go for the berries, though...we went to play and have fun with our friends! Actually, we crashed Catrina's playgroup. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't our first time! ha! Thanks for inviting us, Catrina!!!! I'm not sure what is going on with the boys, but they are W-I-L-D these days! Holy cow! As soon as they saw each other in the parking lot, they started running all over the place and being all crazy.
On the way to the blueberry bushes the boys held hands. Awwwww...how cute!
Between Catrina's pictures and my pictures, I just couldn't decide which pictures to post, so I'm posting them all! Here are the boys holding hands again...
They are SO excited to get to that tractor!!!
After our short visit with the tractor, we ran across a rooster! The boys were actually more interested in the rooster than the tractor...crazy!

As soon as we got to the blueberry bushes, Brayden started picking blueberries. I was in shock! I had told Brayden that we were going to pick blueberries, but I guess I didn't realize that he actually knew what that meant! haha! Brayden was even telling me which bushes to pick the berries from! He picked blueberries all by himself for quite awhile (I was chatting, as usual) before he decided that it would be more fun to play with Wyatt.

Eventually Brayden and Wyatt had fun picking berries together. Who knows what they were laughing at!

And then they found the wagon and the blueberries were history!

On the way out we saw some stinky pigs taking a snooze!
Brayden had so much fun that I had to strip him from the waist down before I let him get into the car!!! For those of you who don't think that his clothes look that muddy and are wondering why I made him take off his jeans, socks & shoes and ride home in just a diaper....well, then you just don't know me as well as you think you do! I really was proud of myself today...I let him play in the dirt and I only yelled at him when he started throwing mud into the air! Needless to say I washed his clothes the moment we walked in the door. However, I'm contemplating throwing away the shoes...that seems much easier than cleaning them. haha! JUST KIDDING! Maybe tomorrow I'll have enough energy to tackle the shoes!
What a fun morning! I can't wait to take the kids berry picking again next year. That's right...Sienna was there today, but she was unlucky enough to be glued to my back in the ergo carrier for the entire 2 hours! Fortunately for me she didn't protest at all...in fact, I don't think that she made a single peep!