Mid June we had a joint birthday party for Jade and Nate. Jade's birthday was May 31st and Nate's was June 10th. We had a bunch of friends and family over and had a great time. Thanks to all of those who joined us and made this such a memorable birthday for both Jade and Nate. The pic below is Jade trying to blow her candles out. She get the blowing part, but she kept blowing the air up which wasn't helping out with the candles much.
Despite her trouble blowing the candles out, she had no problem eating the delicious cake Little Linda made for her. She also didn't waste any time putting on the fuzzy jacket Grandma Kelli made for her. Thanks again Kelli for all of the adorable clothes and the time and effort that went into them.
We did have some guests/gifts of honor from our friends Ezra and Tracy, chickens. Apparently they decided since we live in the country, our place just couldn't be complete without a pair of chickens. Meet Henrietta and Rochelle. I just figured Henrietta was a must if you are going to have chickens and Taylor named the other after herself, how original.
The next morning we were greeted with a surprise. This is now one of Taylor's favorite daily chores, collecting the eggs. We typically get 2 eggs per day.
While most of the guests were outside, a few lounged indoors and enjoyed the first Transformers movie. There is Sebastian, the Sprague's exchange student, Connor Vest, Lance Gunter, Michael Gunter, and Jade and her boyfriend Justin Vest. Justin is the son of a family we are great friends with and Jade has taken quite a liking to him. We all call Justin her boyfriend. Where ever he is she climbs up in his lap and snuggles right in. Luckily Justin doesn't mind.
This is what happens at our house during summer when the girls play outside all morning and I can't get their lunch ready fast enough before they fall asleep.
For a weekend in June we went camping at Fort Stevens up in Astoria with a bunch of families. One of the days the boys headed out to the dock to fish while us girls played games on the shore. This is Mark Vest and his son Hayden with Nate and the girls.
With much help Taylor did actually catch a fish. I think once Nate got it on he let her real it in. It was quite the highlight for her.
I love this picture because he had her hold up her princess pole like she used it to catch the fish. That pole has never even had a hook on it. I guess she won't have to know that years later when she sees these pictures.
We took a short bus tour around Fort Stevens the last day we were there. This is right before we loaded on the truck.
After we got situated we took this last picture before setting out. The girls only lasted about 10 minutes later when they passed out after 3 days of camping and bike riding.
Although the quality of this picture didn't turn out so well I had to include it. As Jade got more tired she of coarse wanted to sit with Justin. He put his hat on her to help her fall asleep and when he tried to take it off she pulled it right back on. So this is how they sat for the entire hour long ride.
We went to a rodeo that had a fireworks show that Jade wasn't so fond of. She snuggled in close to me until she realized who was standing behind us.
Our friends the Vern and Nicole Peterson came down and spent the 4th of July weekend with us which was a blast. We went to a rodeo which wasn't the the highlight of their weekend because their 3 year old twins weren't as interested in the rodeo as they had hoped so they ended up spending the evening with two dead weights on their laps. We did have a good time at the Molalla 4th of July parade the next morning. This is Vern with his three boys, Chase and Joseph and Nicholas.
We were smart enough to bring some shade since that is the first to go on the parade route. There happened to be a couple of guys sitting in their car keeping cool behind us so they joined our shady spot.
Here is our little family waiting for things to get started.
After the parade and a quick bite to eat we headed over to the train rides. We all had a good time but Vern and Nicole's twins love trains so they especially loved it, so much we had to go twice. And no, we didn't leave Vern with all those kids on one car.
This last picture was a quick shot after one of Alex and I's soccer games. I have played on an outdoor team in between pregnancy's the last few years and now that Alex is done with high school and club ball she got on my team this summer. It's been really fun playing with her. For those of you who don't know my family, from left to right is my mom holding Taylor, me holding Jade, my brother Cody and my sister Alex.
