Is that a horse?

Last night after Matt got off work we decided to take the kids to the Washington County Fair. Admission is free, so why not. We had fun walking around. Keegan loved seeing the animals. We went to look at the horses and found this little guy. We couldn't resist a picture. The funny thing is that our great dane Silver is about the same size. I am on a diet right now so walking through the fair and smelling all the delicious fair food was complete torture. Really at my age what to do you go the fair for but food. **Sigh** Oh those hand dipped corndogs and curley fries were calling for me. But I resisted and still enjoyed our time there. I happened to be wearing my Cure JM shirt last night as I was walking up to a booth some guy was looking at me and looking at me and in my head I was like "WHAT" finally he talked to me and said "is that a real disease?" Um, duh! So I happily stood there and told him about JM and invited him to the auction/dinner and benefit concert. But seriously guy, why would I make up a fake disease and put it on a shirt, again DUH! Keegan was tall enough for the rides this year but we didn't take him on any. Usually he says he wants to ride but then chickens out in the end. I didn't want to get stuck with tickets. So next year he is looking forward to the dragon kiddie roller coaster. We haven't been to a fair in years so we were happy to get the chance to go this year.

An evening at the beach

Since Matt started working in sales our family doesn't have much time to spend together. Matt and I work opposite days so that we can keep the kids home and not in daycare. Daycare cost is crazy expensive so for now we have to make this work. We like to try and find fun things to do when we have a few hours to spend together. Matt gets off around 4pm on Fridays and I have that day off with the kids. We wanted to something fun as a family so what can be more fun than a trip to the beach. Yes it is a long drive about 1.5 hrs. So it was a little after 6pm when we got there and it was a bit chilly. Ok quite a bit chilly. Luckily I grabbed jammie pants and jackets for the kids as I ran out the door because we were all dressed in shorts. None the less we had a fantastic time. The kids absolutely love playing at the beach. They rolled and crawled and dug and shoveled and ran and played and just had so much fun. We all took our shoes off and let our toes play in the sand. We packed a picnic dinner and tailgated. It was an awesome night and we loved being together.

Yummie Berries

Picking berries with Mommy

We have been out of the blogging world for quite some time. There has been alot that has happened over the last while. Some of it good, some of it sad, like Dustin's sudden death. We will miss him greatly. Some of it we just want to forget about. So I am not going to try and go back and remember everything and post on it. I am just going to move forward starting with today.Keegan is now 3.5 years old and Myles is almost 17 months. Today my co-worker Lynn invited us to go to her favorite berry farm to pick berries. We haven't ever done this before and thought it would be a good way to get the kids out of the house. Since I don't have a GPS I had to rely on mapquest to get me where we were suppose to be. As usual I got lost. But after some communication with Lynn by text we managed to find our way to Rowell Bros U-pick Farm. They had all kinds of berries to pick. I didn't know what to expect since I hadn't ever gone before. But the cost was only $1.25/lb and all the berries you wanted to eat along the way. We started out with the blueberries. They have a blueberry valley with rows and rows of bushes and the biggest tastiest blueberries. We filled our buckets and as you can see in the pictures the kids enjoyed eating handfuls at a time. I really wanted to get raspberries but the bushes had already been picked over and there weren't many to get so I just enjoyed a handful of them while we walked around. I found out later that there was a raspberry valley that I didn't know about. I guess we will do that next time. Keegan found a friendly worm to keep him entertained most of the time. Luckily we lost the worm somewhere along the way. Keegan had told me he was going to take it home as his new pet. Since I didn't get any raspberries I decided to get Marion berries. They are a bit more sour but they are delicious. Our total cost was $2.65. I think next time I will go equipped with bigger buckets.I made the mistake of taking the kids blankets in the wagon ride because it was a little chilly out and we were wearing shorts. The blankets got drug through the mud and dirt and berry squish all over them. We came home and the kids quickly laid down for a nap, so while they are sleeping I snuck out their blankets and they are getting a good wash. Here's to delicious summer desserts. Berries up!

Bumblebee

Carr Chevy

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday the bad news came in. The news you are never ready to hear. I was at work and heard my cell phone ringing. Doesn't happen too often so I am always curious to see who is on the other line. I just missed it but saw it was Bryce. Immediately I get butterflies. Wonder what is going on. Bryce doesn't call that often. I wait for the voicemail beep and listen. He is upset, my heart drops. My phone rings again, its Bryce. "Hello, what's going on?" long pause "Todd died today" "Whhhhhhat, what do you mean, my brother Todd?" "Yes", "NO, no he didn't", "yes he is gone". I could immediately feel all the color in my face leave. I didn't know what to say. You are never prepared to get news like this.
I am still in a bit of shock and disbelief. This is hard and I want to believe that it is not true.

Todd was a good guy. He had a big heart. He was sensitive and emotional. He was always good for a big hug. He liked to joke (especially about the Monkeys at the Zoo) and he LOVED to fish (especially with Damon)

I think Todd's greatest joy was when he was reunited with his daughter Kierra about 2 years ago. He was one proud daddy watching her graduate. And for many years he always hoped that he would get to see her again. I'm so happy that it happened in this lifetime. I only wish that his other 2 boys would have come around.

Life was never easy for Todd. He struggled with bad choices and different addictions and we had our differences throughout the years. We crossed a rough road a few years ago and we didn't speak often. The last time I talked to him was when Myles was born 8 months ago and he called me to say Congrats. And even when Todd heard that Matt lost his job and I was asking people to give me diapers for Myles for my birthday because I didn't know what we were going to do....Todd only had $5.00 to his name and he said "Its my last $5.00 I would gladly give it to her if it will help" He was unemployed himself.

I know that he was so happy when Luke was born not quite 2 years ago. He was happy to have a chance to watch one of his children grow. And he was happy to be a Grandpa when Alexyce was born. It breaks my heart for the both of them that it has ended before it really has even begun.

I just hope that Todd knows that even through all the nonsense and tough times that I loved him. I always wanted good things for him. I think and hope that somewhere in his mind that he knew this. It definately was tough love. But it was still love.

When someone dies so unexpectedly I guess it is normal to have some guilt and some what if's, or if I had only done this...... Like I said I guess you are never really prepared for news like this. He was going to be 42 in January. His son turns 2 in February.

I will never forget the hours we would spend in the card aisles reading and laughing at all the cards. And I will certainly never forget the time at the Hogle Zoo (you never did stop laughing about that) or the time when you came upstairs wearing that tight orange shirt just to get back at me for something I had said to you. That was a good laugh. I will never forget the time you were late coming into Portland "because your luggage had gotten lost" ;) and I won't forget the time that we went fishing on the Snake river and Eric hooked Debbie in the lip and mom shouted out " Fish on" . I won't forget the time that you let Damon and I come over to your apartment when you lived behind the bar and you told us all about the ghosts that lived there and then we went into the bar to see if we could find some. That was so scary and so funny. We had some good laughs. You taught me how to cook scrabbled eggs and hooked me on one of my favorite food combinations, cottage cheese and potato chips.

This saddens my heart to see you leave this life so early. I hope that you are at peace now and with Grandma and Grandpa somewhere in Heaven. And I hope that you will do good works in the after life.

I will miss you and please know that I love you.

P/L/F - Heather

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Weenie Roast

We had a back yard dinner tonight. It was a lot of fun. Roasted hot dogs over the fire and smores after. Keegan had a blast he even wanted to dance with grandma. It was a great family dinner. Something every dad loves to see. Campfire dinners!

Mr. Cool

Oh my gosh! Where did my baby go. Who is this big boy. If you ask him he says "I'm Keegan"

Today I finally gave in and decided to pay for him to have a haircut. Can you believe that it costs $10 plus tip to cut a childs hair. I watched her very closely so that I can do it myself next time. Assuming that I buy some scissors. Anyway, this is a picture of Keegan today coming out of the salon. He cried the entire time. They even tried to calm him down with a sucker but that didn't work. Daddy had to hold Keegan on his lap. I had to laugh because the stylist was Russian and in her accent as she cut his hair she would say "there now you look like a boy, now you look like a cute boy" . I know his hair was long, but he in no way looked like a girl so it made me laugh.

Keegan doesn't like to have his picture taken. I am not sure why, but he refuses to look at the camera and if you can manage to trick him into looking at the camera by saying "there's grandma" then he is never smiling. Or if you can convince him to sit and smile for a minute he always looks away from the camera right as you go to take it. Uggh!

Keegan speaks very well and has a large vocabulary. He surprises us all the time with words and phrases that he knows, and it makes us giggle everytime. Today we told him we were taking him to the museum and he clasped his hand over his mouth with excited and yelled out "Oh my Goodness"

We love you Keegan. Now stop growing so fast. We aren't ready for you to be all grown up.