A Dad and His Boy

Ty and Max have been talking about their next campout for about a year.  The time was right and they headed out early September for Max's first backpacking campout experience, their second father/son camping trip.  SO cute.  They packed Max's Batman backpack with some of the essentials, Tyler's with the rest, and headed for the Bark Shanty campsite.  It was about a 1-mile hike in.  To say that Max was excited would be the understatement of the year.  

Tyler told me that at the beginning of the trail he went ahead a bit because it looked kind of overgrown and he wanted to be sure they were on the right path...and he suddenly heard Max screaming.  Thinking Max was being overly dramatic about something, Ty made his way back to check on our boy.  There were bees swarming around his head and he had a sting on his hand, one on his ankle, and another on his head. :(  Poor fella.  But he got some medicine and they forged ahead.  From the looks of it - and by both accounts - they had an awesome time.  Ty is pretty sure he turned Max into a pyro.  Ty went to gather some more firewood and came back to find that Max had added every single piece of firewood they'd already collected.  There is a pretty funny video of the crazy fire boy.

 This (above) is one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  Ty said that he woke up a while before Max and just watched him sleep and felt warm, fatherly feelings toward his sweet boy and thought about how lucky we are that he's our son.

I love these two men in my life.  Kelly will either join them or go on her own campout with Dad next year.  This tradition is pretty awesome, says me.

Mariners!

So I never watch baseball on TV.  But there is something really rad about going to a professional baseball game.  Last year we began the tradition of trekking over on the ferry to see the Seattle Mariners play.  This year was even better than last because we saw a home run and the Mariners won!  The weather was perfect, the kettle corn, cotton candy and Seattle Dog divine, the stands uncrowded so that our little man could dance and roam a bit.  We all got on TV (we were told by a friend who watched the game) but were just trying to get on the darn jumbotron.  Max worked it for the camera man.  If only we'd DVRed the game. It was a great night...can't wait to go again next year!

Well, hello there!

Hello, tiny person growing inside of me.  I am so happy that you are where you are and getting bigger every day.  I am so happy that we get to add you to our family and I am excited to get to know you and see what special qualities you bring to our brood.  The other night we were reading scriptures as a family and I looked around the room (because your brothers and sister were moving all over the room) and I felt so excited to meet you and to have you in our family. I am especially happy that I will get to hold you and all of your tiny-ness next spring.  The kids are still holding out hope that you are a girl...we'll find out early November.  Dad and I think you are a boy.  We'll just have to wait and see.  Whatever your gender, we are thrilled to have you!  How about you try kicking a little harder so that I can start feeling you move?  Your sister was already very proficient at making her presence known by this time.  Work on that, okay?  Love you so very much, Babe #4!