So long for now....

So bright and early tomorrow we're off to tackle the cascades. If you don't hear from us by December it means we've decided to become permanent snow people. Have a great Thanksgiving. Remember what it's all about. And it ain't about the turkey.

July

So if you thought last month had a lot of collages, well sorry to tell you, but you're wrong. This month has A LOT of collages. Remember the warning and proceed with caution.

First off on the agenda for the month of July was, or course, the 4th of July. We celebrated by spending the day at great grandma Schultz's house, watching the neighborhood parade, eating good food, and of course getting kinks in our necks in an attempt to see exploding lights. Being the excellent insightful parents that we are, Tyson and I were positive that Ben would enjoy the fireworks this year. Which I'm sure he did from under the blanket were he insisted on hiding after the first two minutes of the show. I bet he enjoyed the fireworks almost as much as he liked the little green frog that came over to visit that night.


Okay so really he hated the fireworks. In fact it took a whole week at the high end spa and resort Maison de Davidson for him to recover. His recuperation activities included...perfecting his tractor driving techniques, water aerobics with masters Jeremy and Monica, grueling endurance (for his mother) hikes, introducing Onion to the finer points of literature, cruising down the strip on a scooter, and of course giving the owners of Maison de Davidson pointers on how to improve their establishment (what can I say, he's a fan of head cutouts). He even found time to volunteered his translation skills on a phone call to Auntie Dubai! Meanwhile his mother, recognizing that besides the hike her services were not need (or indeed wanted), she took off to the far corners of King County shooting pictures with grandpa. And yes those are real dogs.


Enough with the fun stuff, on to more serious matters. Annie and Aaron's wedding. Following are the bulk of collages for this post; and since wedding photos tend to be rather self explanatory, without further ado....

The Pre-Party
(a.k.a. the relaxed "come hang out" version of rehearsal dinner)

The Prep

(a.k.a. hours and hours of digging, shoveling, chopping, shopping, cooking, sewing, planning, and primping)

The Ceremony
(a.k.a. the ceremony)
The Official Photos
(a.k.a. as official as they get when it's the sister learning on the job)
The Party
(a.k.a. the super cool, butt kickin' "reception" that included Guitar Hero, a blow up obstacle course, a beach and a samurai sword for cake cutting)

And that's the end of a great event! But not the end of the adventure. Right after the wedding, with barely a moment to breath, off we whirled to Canada (sans daddy, curses on the need to work). Now that was an adventure. This is all we jammed into that week....

...over 24 hours in the car, hiking to the horses, playing with grandma and grandpa Redd, riding with Uncle Dave, skipping rocks, catching grasshoppers, bumper boats, golf, giant maze, dancing in the rain, Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, old Idaho mission, run away flip flop catching, an abandoned maze tour, bear watching, a cousins wedding, A&A's wedding dinner with the Redds, buffalo burgers, pizzas and cream, America's Most Interesting Museum, playing with cousins old and new..... oh and sleeping somewhere in there.


Well that covers all the major events, but just for fun here's some other random photos.

And that's July!

PS. If you click on the collages they'll actually get big enough where you can see those ity bitty pictures.

June

****WARNING: the next several posts will have a plethora of picture collages. Those who chose to continue should proceed with caution. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with the cuteness/sillyness/greatness of the colleges stop reading immediately and come visit us!****


June. Now you all remember June. It's that month that happened awhile ago that's smack in the middle of the year. Nope not that one flip one more calendar page. There you go. That's June, and that's just how long I've been remiss with this blog. Yes I am hanging my head in shame. But moving on. This was our June........

• We moved out of our little place, into the parentals big place
• Leah went on an overnight to the beach, without any kids in sight!
• Went on a reconnaissance mission with mom and Joann to check our where we'll be spending the next 5-6 years of our lives. This is what we found...

hmmm....this will be an adventure

• Of course the most important event was attending our niece Lydia's baptism! It was a wonderful weekend trip. The whole Eucker clan drove up on Saturday morning to spend the day with Lydia and her family. The first half of the day was spent at the farmer's market, or more accurately the playground located next to the farmer's market.

Much fun was had. I mean come on. You have cousins, puddles, and an old kick ball all in the same place and fun is inevitable. Of course the best part was the baptism it's self. If was wonderful to be there and support Lydia. She looked beautiful and happy. We are so proud of her!


We tried hard to teach Ben about baptism before we went. We thought we were doing good till that night when his prayers went something like this..."thank you for going to Lydia's baptism, her sins washed away, and Ben's sins washed away...sad!" hmmm...well I guess we'll have to put a little more emphasis on the "this is a good thing" part.

This great weekend was capped off with an overnight stay with the Davidson grandparents, where we got even more playing time in and a formal introduction to the newly painted kitchen.


Nina had brought home a little jumper for Ben from her trip to France. Sunday morning Ben and Grandma had to have a serious conversation about how to avoid the embarrassment of having matching outfits.

Sunday afternoon we discovered how much Ben likes corn on the cob. He "helped" Uncle Onion shuck the corn by bringing each ear inside to grandma. Of course by the time each ear made the trip from the porch to the kitchen a Ben sized bite was missing from each and every one. We're lucky they weren't cooked yet or else he probably would have gone ahead and finished 'em all off.

All in all it was a weekend very well spent. I think Ben thought so too, maybe, I don't really know. This is all we could get out of him almost all the way home....

Well that about wraps up June. Of course there was all sorts of playing, messes, and memories besides these but that would take a novel. However, just in case you're not overwhelmed yet and stopped reading to come visit us here's one more collage from June. Hopefully that will push you over the edge.

Off the edge

I know, I know! You've all been wondering if we've fallen off the face of the planet or something. Well we haven't. At least not yet. We're hanging on by a couple fingernails....

drat...

I broke a nail.

Alright one fingernail, but we're still here. I even plan on trying to catch up on the last several months in the coming days. At least, that's the plan. In the meantime however, since I know the person you've really missed is Mr. Benjamin....

Some of you may remember this. Ben was seven months old. This is the first and only time he's ever fallen asleep other then actual nap times.

At least until a week ago....


We wondered when energizer boy would run out of steam. I guess it takes about three years or... it always seems to be at meal times. Maybe he's trying to tell me something about my cooking, or lack of....

either way, good to know.

For Aunite and Uncle Dubai

He loves them! It was the perfect thing. He spent a solid hour reading them before we pried him away for dinner. Which is definitely saying something. Even his favorite toys he'll only play with for maybe 20 minutes before moving on to something else. Thank you!