Monday, August 23, 2010

Our last couple of weeks...

We have had a busy and eventful summer! This is a random catch-all post of the pictures from the past couple of weeks with the Thames family.

First off, a couple of pictures of Cooper from mealtime... Man, I love this kid, and his crazy hair!

The grumpy.

And the happy!
(This is the face you get when you ask for "Cheese!!" :)

We have visited the Happy Valley Park splash pad a few times, here are a few photos from our time there:

One the 14th of August, we traveled to the Tri-Cities for a Burt Family Reunion at my dad's house. The last time we all got together like that was about 5 years ago! It was so fun to see everyone, and it's amazing how big that side of the family is- there were about 57 people there, all family in some way or another!!

Grandma Gayle was smart and set up a kiddie pool area for the youngest kids, which included Cooper. Luckily, he was a happy little camper! He had a wading pool and sprinkler almost all to himself!

Meanwhile, the "bigger" kids go to enjoy the pool!
Like niece, Cassidy.

Tyson even got brave enough to try the diving board- as long as someone was waiting to catch him! (like my Aunt Nancy!)

Riley had a great time in the pool, too!

My dad was busy at the BBQ, as usual!

The kids are super-lucky, because both sets of grandparents in the Tri-Cities have pools in their backyards! So, we got in some pool time at Grandma and Grandpa Wicks' house as well.

Cooper was having fun with Daddy. He would count, "One, two, three, go!" and slip into the water- so brave!

We spent time making s'mores and building a very cool birds nest...

We also got to meet our newest cousin/nephew, Bryan!

Proud Aunt!
And proud Dad!

After our AMAZING family pictures, which you can view here, we promised the kiddos a night swim... which they thought was pretty cool!

And then the post-swim/photo session hangover set in... they were very ready for bed! :)

Our last day in town was spent packing up, visiting the park briefly, and swimming. One last attempt at enjoying "summer" weather, since it seems to have left the Portland area already!
Here are a few pictures from our park visit:

It is sad to think another summer has pretty much come to an end. Rick's first "official" day back at work is next Tuesday, and the weather has not been summer-worthy around here for a while. Rick has been helping me with the daunting task of applying for teaching jobs, which has proven to be more stressful and time-consuming than I ever thought it could be! :)

Luckily, fall in the Pacific Northwest happens to be my most favorite time of the year, and it just happens to be right around the corner!




Tuesday, August 17, 2010

off-roading with arizona lewis

this is arizona lewis... aka heather.
tyson thinks she's pretty awesome.
so do i.


arizona lewis takes amazing pictures.
heather was a cheerleader with me in high school.
she stood behind me, to the right for two years on the football field, and she made me laugh a lot.
she's still pretty freakin' funny.
we reconnected via blogs/facebook a while back. (because who hasn't, right?)
since then i have been living vicariously through her exciting arizonalewis.blogspot.com life.

tuesday night, we rendezvoused in a little orchard off olympia street in kennewick, washington for a photo shoot.
rick pointed out how funny it was that she now lives in arizona, we live in oregon, and yet we were in washington for the pictures.

i can't say enough about what a pleasure it was to have her take our photos.
she picked two beautiful settings.
we got down and dirty- literally.
we even did a little illegal off-roading.
so worth it.

see for yourself.
and brace yourself... i have a hard time picking "favorites", so there are a lot of pictures.















this was our next setting... hence the off-roading.


















love this one!

arizonalewis, thank you, thank you, thank you for such a wonderful picture-taking experience.
i was genuinely (and unnecessarily) stressed about it for weeks and everything came together swimmingly.

we love them all, a little too much.