Vroom Vroom

"I went over to my friend Blake's house the other day!" He's one of my good buds. He has this really cool car that he let me drive around. It was so much fun! I hope my parents get me a car just like his. Beep, beep!!!"

"Make sure you get a picture Mom! I want to show all my friends how good I am at driving. Aren't you proud of me?"

"Thanks Blake for teaching me how to drive (he gave me a little demonstration first) and for sharing your car! You're such a nice friend!"

"Hey Blake! Look here! I can drive all by myself. I'm just as good as you now! I'm such a big boy!"

"The only thing I didn't like about driving was trying to get down off the car. I fell and hit my head, but Mommy kissed it and made it better. I love her!"

Fun With Cousins

Every time we get together with family we are reminded of how blessed we are to have each other. We are especially lucky that we have lots of family that live so close. This summer Rylan has been able to spend a lot of time with his cousins, and aunts and uncles out at the lake cabin. It is such a fun place to get together to play, relax and just enjoy each other's company. It has been so neat to watch Rylan interacting with his cousins. He has three older cousins that just absolutely adore him and he thinks just as highly of them. He gets so excited when he sees them that his face lights up! According to Rylan's Aunt Jenna, little Ava (Rylan's cousin) is constantly walking around the house saying "Ry" because she wants him to come over. I just know Rylan will be doing the same thing once he's a little bit older. =)

One of our favorite pastimes at the lake is having a bonfire. We just love making S'mores, telling campfire stories, and hanging out.

Rylan enjoyed hanging out on Unlce Jerimiah's lap with cousin Ava.

Rylan loves playing with his cousin Ty. He sure thinks he's cool! These two will grow up being good buds and I'm sure Rylan will want to be just like him!

These two cuties are inseparable as they are only a year apart. Here they are enjoying a hug from Aunt Jenna!

Cousin Jada does such a good job taking care of Rylan. She watches out for him and makes sure he gets lots of love! We'll be calling her to babysit a lot in the future.

We love you guys!

Tom Petty Rocks!

Last Saturday we went to the Gorge for the Tom Petty concert. He puts on the best show! We all had an amazing time! It was kind of a family event as we went with my sister Jenna and her husband Jerimiah, my sister Lisa and her boyfriend Chris, and my brother Jeff. The only sibling missing was Breanne and boy did she miss out! Thanks to Grammy and Grampy for watching Rylan so we could have a day away!!! It was 103 degrees at The Gorge when we arrived, but we didn't seem to mind since we were sipping on delicious, cold drinks while tailgating. If you've ever been to a concert at The Gorge, you obviously know that half the fun is tailgating. With hundreds of cars lined up beside you with their passengers engaging in the same fun, there are so many interesting people to meet and converse with. And let me tell you, we met people of all kinds...some normal, some definitely not! But hey, God loves all of us, right?

Here we are hanging out before the concert. Can you tell how excited we are to go see Tom?

Here we are again still hanging out in the parking lot with Lisa and Chris. We sure enjoyed many laughs together!

We are all set for the big show. We found a large area on the grass to sprawl out on. I love the scenery! Watching a concert while relaxing on a blanket, eating yummy snacks and chatting with friends and family makes for such a fun summer day!

Hey Jeff, you sure do seem to be enjoying yourself!!! Tom must be playing your favorite song.

Awe, what a night! The only thing we lacked that night was sleep. We didn't get to bed until about 3:30 the next morning and, as always, little Ry was up at 7:00. After being gone for a whole day, we were excited to see his smiling face, but Bryon and I agree we're getting too old for late nights like that.

We love Summer!!!

We've spent the past couple of weeks enjoying the sun! We just can't get enough of this warm summer weather! It has been so fun spending time with Rylan this summer and introducing him to new things! I think he's had just as much fun as we have!

We have enjoyed spending a lot of time at our lake cabin this summer! We were lucky enough to see a moose swim across the lake last weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. But, I do have pictures of this mama duck with her ducklings. They came to visit us every day in hopes to get some food. We fed them bread only a couple of times(or at least tried too...Rylan wanted to eat it instead), but didn't want them to get too dependent on us so that they couldn't survive on their own in the wild. It was fascinating watching the mother duck as we fed her family. She stayed back and let her babies take the bread instead of her. Even when we tried to throw it to her, she would move to offer it to her babies first. Only when none of her babies went for it did she eat it. What a wonderful mother! She touched my heart!

Rylan tries to shove rocks in his mouth every chance he can get...sneaky little thing! I guess they must be pretty tasty. Maybe I'll have to try one sometime.

My friend Brett and I took our boys to the new water park in my neighborhood. They had so much fun. Rylan and Kellan enjoyed lounging in the lawn chairs. After taking several pictures we finally gave up and called it good...this was the best we could do. Once we got one little guy situated, the other would move. And, neither wanted to look at the camera, as you can see. Don't they look cute though?

Every part of the water park was so fun! Rylan enjoyed the water guns that sprayed water everywhere, all the people (he even met a new friend), swimming in the deep end with Mommy, and hanging out with his friend Kellan.

My friend Rachel and her daughter Kariya were able to join us at our lake cabin for a day. We had a great time relaxing and soaking up the sun. Kariya was nice enough to share her floaty with Rylan. He thought he was pretty cool foating in the lake by himself. If we could just add a drink holder to that floaty...he'd be set for an hour or so.

We took the babes on a boat ride around the lake. The life jackets were a little too big on them, making it pretty difficult to move. Rylan's new nickname is "turtle" because all you could see was his head above the life vest. He neck was stuffed inside somewhere. Poor little guy! He's such a trooper!
Look at those two beach babes! Wow kids...your tans are looking good!

Here we are at Manito Park. This is one of our favorite places to go in the summer! The flowers are gorgeous right now and Rylan just loves to look at everything. So colorful! What a beautiful day! We don't want summer to end!

It's Official...Our Little Boy is Growing Up!

About a week ago, Rylan started crawling! We don't know if we should be excited or scared!!! He is getting into everything and has had more bumps and bruises in the past few days than he has in his whole life combined! Mama is having a hard time seeing her little boy get hurt, but unfortunately it is inevitable. As he crawls from place to place, he grabs onto things and tries to pull himself up to stand on his own. Most of the time he is successful...the rest of the time results in small crashes preceded by tears. =(
It seems as though Rylan has gone from being a baby to a little boy overnight! I keep asking myself where my infant son has gone. They grow up so fast and I don't want to miss a beat! I feel so blessed that I can stay home part time and spend as much time with him as possible because in the blink of an eye he'll be all grown up. I wish he could stay little forever! Can anyone tell me how to stop time???