And...More Favorites: Dancing, Smelling Flowers, and ??? (not sure what to call this next one)

Rylan absolutely loves his play table. It plays lots of fun songs! He's always enjoyed music, but lately he's decided to outwardly show his enjoyment by dancing (or shall we say bobbing) to the music. Notice at the end of the video how proud he is of himself. Great moves Rylan!!!

*For those of you that happened to notice the bruise on Rylan's face and were wondering how he got such an injury, I'll explain. Rylan considers our dog, Libby, to be some kind of jungle gym. Just as he does every day, Rylan was trying to crawl over her. But this particular day Libby decided to get up suddenly causing Rylan to fall to the ground face first. Ouch! Rylan didn't appreciate this very much, but they quickly returned to being best friends!

Rylan makes a beeline for flowers whenever he sees them. He enjoys smelling them! He'll put his little face right up to the flowers and you'll hear his nose go "sniff, sniff". I must say it is so darn cute!

"These flowers smell pretty good. Although, I think I like the roses better."


And finally, Rylan's other new favorite. He has been getting on his hands and feet like he's going to start walking like a bear, but instead he just stays in that position for several seconds, takes a break, then does it again. If anyone has any idea of what to call this, I'd love to hear it. Of course, Bryon and I think that anything Rylan does is just adorable and this funny position is no different. We love it and can't help but giggle in delight every time!

Here is just another glimpse of his newfound position. Look at those cute buns!

Spokane Interstate Fair...Here We Come!!!

We were able to make it to the fair this week and we were so excited to show Rylan the animals. He absolutey loves books and his favorite ones are the animal books. He loves hearing Mommy and Daddy make the animal noises. When showing him the animals in real life, he had this look on his face that seemed to say "Wow, these are the animals we've been reading about and now I get to see them in person, see them move and listen to them talk. How awesome is this?" He was so fascinated by each and every animal. He just couldn't take his eyes off of them. Seeing him so excited made me want to buy a house in the country and get some pigs, goats, chickens...you name it. Wouldn't it be fun to live on a farm? Well, maybe for a little while at least.

"Look Momma and Dadda! That is one big pig...much bigger than I imagined it would be!"

"Wow, a turkey! They say gobble gobble!"

"I can't believe I get to hold a bunny all by myself! It is so soft! I want to take it home. Will you buy me my own Mom and Dad?"

"Oh my goodness...I get to pet a goat too! How exciting! I'm having so much fun!"

"I know what this animal is too...a sheep. Baaaa, baaaa! Aren't I smart?"

Look how sweet these baby pigs are. I've wanted a pet pig all my life and watching these little ones only further validated that idea. I just know Rylan wants one too. Can anyone tell me if it is legal to own a pig inside city limits? =)

Our friends, Rachel and Tyson, had two extra tickets to the Phil Vassar concert. So, after making the rounds through the animal barns we headed to the stadium to watch him perform. He is a fabulous country singer and put on a great show. We had a great time! Thanks Rachel, Tyson and Kariya for the fun night!

Here we are at the concert. Lately, Rylan thinks it's cute to squint his face while we're trying to take pictures. What a silly boy!

Here we are enjoying the music. I swear we didn't plan the matching outfits.

The only exciting moment we failed to capture on camera was when Rylan very enthusiastically enjoyed his first "Fair" meal. You're going to wince when you hear this but this meal consisted of a cheeseburger, French fries, and an ice cream sundae. I know, I know, so unhealthy, but we figured we had to splurge in order to give him the full fair experience. Why didn't we give him a funnel cake (the traditional fair dessert)? Well, he had one two weeks ago at Pig Out in the Park in Spokane. Don't worry, he still likes his vegetables!!!

Guess Who Loves Camping???

Bryon and I decided to take Rylan on his first camping trip last weekend. We went to Farragut State Park in Idaho. We finally got a tent big enough to fit the two of us plus Rylan and his portable crib plus our dog Libby and her crate. We even had extra room! Initially, we were somewhat hesitant to attempt camping due to the fact that it is hard to find somewhere for Rylan to crawl and play around other than on dirt and rocky ground. Considering that all he wants to do these days is crawl and explore, that posed to be a potential problem. We were also a little worried about how he'd sleep in the tent. We've heard all the horror stories from other parents about how they had to pack up in the middle of the night because their child wouldn't sleep and they were screaming and waking up the whole camp ground, etc. But even after hearing all of this and discussing our worries, we were still determined to give it a go. Fortunately, Rylan loved every minute of our trip! He is so happy when he is outside and would much rather be outside any day, rain or shine. The only challenge of the trip was packing and unpacking all of our gear while trying to watch Rylan and make sure he didn't eat something yucky (he has a tendency to find random things on the ground and shove them in his mouth before we can grab them from him) or fall and get hurt, or get bored and start fussing, etc. However, we managed to get the job done with baby intact. Believe it or not, we're even excited to go again!!!

Rylan and Libby enjoyed hanging out together in our campsite. Libby feels pretty special when she gets her own chair too.

Rylan loved crawling around in the tent. "What a cool fort, Mom! I'm king of Columbia (hence the brand name of the tent)!"


We discovered during our trip that Rylan loves hot dogs. We roasted them over the fire and thought we'd give him just a of couple of bites. Well, those of you that know Rylan know that a couple of bites just won't do it...he'd want to eat the entire hot dog. And, you guessed it, he did. Next time we might need to hide our hotdogs!


Our campsite was very big and private. There were several trails in the woods behind our spot and we had fun exploring them.

Rylan has a love for trees. He insisted on touching every tree we walked by. He liked to feel the bark. You can only imagine how long it took us to hike anywhere since the trails were obviously surrounded by trees.

"Ahhh Dad, this is the life! Oh look, another bird!"


The campground is on Pend Oreille Lake. It is huge and very deep. We watched many boats go by and even saw a submarine.

The nights were pretty chilly. We were worried that Rylan wouldn't stay warm at night. In fact, Bryon and I both froze even though we were wearing sweatshirts and fleece pants and bundled in warm sleeping bags. We thought for sure Rylan would wake up cold and have a hard time falling back asleep. To our surprise, he slept much better than we did and didn't even make a peep all night! I'm so proud of him! He's such a trooper and is so adaptable. We can take him anywhere and he does great. We'll be camping a lot more in the future!

Two New Favorites: Pattycake and Roxy (our cat)

Rylan plays Pattycake on command now. He absolutely loves this game! When he hears the word "Pattycake" he automatically starts clapping. Several times throughout the day he'll even start clapping on his own. This is his cue for me to say the entire nursery rhyme to him (he doesn't mind all the attention he gets by doing this either). What a fun age!!!



Lately, every time Rylan sees one of the cats, he charges as fast as he can towards it in hopes to grab it and snuggle with it. Our cat Gracie is not a people person and darts away as soon as she sees Rylan coming, but our cat Roxy is quite a lover and tolerates all of Rylan's roughness. She'll just lay there and take hug after hug after tug after shove after...(okay I think you get the point).

"Stay still Roxy. I'm coming in for some love! I'm going to give you a big hug and I bet you can't wait!"

"Gotcha! I just can't help it Roxy...you're too soft and cuddly. I just want to snuggle with you all the time! Thanks for being my friend! I love my big fluffy fur ball!"

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.