First friend birthday party!

Trace invited Chloe to his 2nd birthday party and Chloe wouldn't miss it for the world. She loves playing with her friend Trace. If you even make the mistake of saying his name too soon before going to his house you won't hear a word out of her mouth besides "Trace" which sounds more like "face." The kids had such a good time decorating their own cupcakes...what a good idea!

Gabe turns 8!

Gabe picked the Scera pool for his birthday venue this year and his birthday party wouldn't be complete without Uncle Jason. So, the reason I don't have a picture of Gabe or Uncle Jason is because they were off playing without the little kids. This is one of the best pools for kids of all ages and I think the kids would agree!

Yee-Haw!

As a kid I always looked forward to the local Pacific County fair. Of course, when you grow up in a town with a population of 2,000 people a local fair has a little different meaning. To this day our Pacific County fair still holds a special place in my heart. I still remember being so excited to wear my new school clothes (even though they were usually too warm for the hot weather), the parachute ride, the zipper, the cheerleading competition, and the elephant ears (which I've never been able to find anywhere else).

I don't get as excited for our local carnival and I don't know if it's because I'm older or if it's because it doesn't have that small town feel where everyone knows each other, but it's just not the same. But, if it is because I'm older then I don't want to keep Chloe from having as much fun as I did when I was a kid at the fair.

We started out the day with our friends at the parade. The kids were good as long as the floats threw candy, but once the candy slowed down so did their patience. Next we headed over to the carnival. Chloe loved this part. They have these huge blow up toys and bounce houses and they only cost 25 cents each. Great for parents and kids! Wouldn't you know that as soon as Chloe saw the swings (regular park swings and nothing to do with the carnival) that's all she wanted to do for the rest of the day. Bless her heart! Sometimes I think it's the parents that think you have to pay for things to have fun. Oh, the things we learn from our kids!

When our friends went home Chloe noticed the horsies so she got to ride the pony, once, in a circle, very slowly, stopping frequently, all for $1. Oh well, at least she didn't cry! And a trip to the carnival wouldn't be complete without a ride on a choo choo. I think she was excited until the two boys hopped into her car. I can just imagine what she's thinking, "who are these two yahoos and what are they doing in my car." I just hope she keeps that mentality until she's 30! It must not have been too painful, though, because she came back from the ride with a smile on her face. And that completed our trip to the local city fair.

Washington Trip: Day 4

Day 4 was our annual trip to Northwest Trek. My dad absolutely loves this place so it's been a tradition to take the grandkids here every year. I think my family has been going ever since my siblings and I were young kids. In fact, when I was very young I got lost here because my brother let go of my hand, or at least that's the tale I've been told over the years. Northwest Trek is kind of like a zoo except you observe animals in their natural habitat and they are animals commonly found in the pacific northwest. Its claim to fame is that you never see the same thing twice. We saw deer, elk, bison, moose, big horn sheep, rams, black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, beavers, otters and so forth. I think you get the picture. Most of these animals we saw on the tram ride around the park which is hundreds of acres. Chloe loved being on a "bus." Her next favorite thing was the otters. Actually all the kids loved the otters. They would run up to the window and the otter would come over and do a somersault for them. The kids probably could have stayed at the otter exhibit all day. As you can tell Northwest Trek was a big hit once again.

Trip to Washington: Day 3

Day 3 was a trip to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. I can't even remember the last time I had been to this zoo. This was Chloe's first trip to this zoo, and practically my first time since I didn't remember a thing. The view from the zoo is amazing. When you walk in you get a breathtaking view of the Puget Sound, not that I could concentrate on that since we had 6 kids with us and only 3 adults. Way outnumbered! Although, our little Tessie is so good with Chloe. The whole trip she took Chloe under her wing and always took good care of her. I don't know if it's the age or Chloe herself, but she didn't stop for long at each exhibit. She would check it out and see what animal it was, then off to the next one. Then there was her favorite part...riding around in the stroller all day with Ry Ry. I think it was a dream come true! Since we would spend each day with the cousins the first thing out of Chloe's mouth in the morning was..."I want to see Ry Ry." She loves that guy!

Trip to Washington: Day 2

Ok, so I've been to Chuck-E-Cheese before, but I guess I didn't realize how fantastic it was until this trip. Where else can you go to let your kid run wild while you can relax and enjoy your meal/company? If you have kids you know how much fun it is to go to a restaurant with them. Maybe it's just me, but eating out just hasn't been the same with a kid. I know it's crazy, but this might have been the kids' favorite thing to do all week. They had so much fun!

Trip to Washington: Day 1

Mommy and Chloe went on our annual trip to Washington to see the family. Daddy was supposed to come, but he got a job interview and couldn't make it. Bummer! We always love our trips to Washington because we get to see the Oatfield side of the family and have lots of fun. We took the awful 7:30 a.m. flight so we had to get up at the crack of dawn, but that was probably good since I didn't have to think about the flight for very long that day. I absolutely hate to fly (don't know why), so I'm always freaking out the day of the flight. I'm always a little worried about Chloe too since she's buckled in for 2 hours, but she was fantastic. Daddy packed a great activity bag for her so we had plenty to do. Amazingly enough, the drink with the straw we got on the flight entertained her for quite some time. Who needs candy and toys when you got a straw! Chloe loved the plane ride, but the whole way there she wanted to see Ry Ry, her cousin that was stuck on a 14 hour car ride to Washington.


Gigi picked us up from the airport and took us out to breakfast. We probably should have just gone to a wide open field and let Chloe get all of her wiggles out because the last thing she wanted to do was sit down AGAIN and eat breakfast, but it was much needed on my part. Since I can't eat before I fly I was starving! We stayed with Gigi and Montie this time because the rest of the family was staying at Grandpa's house so we got to Gigi's house and relaxed for a bit. Chloe must have been tired too because she took a 4 hour nap!! When everyone got there for the family BBQ they wanted to see Chloe, but she just slept away and who was I to wake her up from her beauty sleep. Everyone was able to make it to the BBQ so I got to see the whole fam on the first day. Quite the housefull! You can imagine how tired I was that night, so of course it would have to be the worst night for Chloe. She started out in the crib in my room, then she was in the bed with me, then back in the crib after kicking me all night, and finally back in bed with me until she was WIDE awake at 6:00 a.m. the next day. Oh the joys of traveling!


But that didn't stop us from our first full day of adventures. Since it was nice weather the first couple of days we decided to take advantage of it and play in the water fountains downtown Olympia. Chloe wasn't crazy about the spouting fountains, but auntie Tessie got her out there anyway!

Photo Shoot: Take 2

For our second try at this whole picture thing we decided to take things outside and that made all the difference. Well, her daddy was there too and that always makes her happy. She loved every minute of it, and even though she was still all over the place we still got some really good shots of her. The cute little tutu was made by Chloe's aunt Tiffy. So cute! Chloe would run around, play hide and seek and smile much more than a stiff, cross-your-legs, sit up straight photo shoot. She did so much better this time! Maybe I won't ban picture taking after all.

Photo Shoot: Take 1

Every time I get pictures of Chloe taken I promise myself that I won't put the family through that kind of torture again, but I just keep on doing it anyway. I couldn't pass up this photographer that takes amazing pictures so here we go, once again, to the torture chamber. The photographer is Mindy Young and I love her work. You'll have to check her out...www.mindyyoungphotography.com. She was great with Chloe and very patient considering Chloe threw a huge fit. Everything started out fine. She was wiggly, which is to be expected of a 3 year old, and she didn't smile a ton, which is to be expected of Chloe, but then when there was only about 20 minutes left Chloe just went into melt down mode. Nothing was making her happy, so we had to reschedule (bless Mindy's heart she let us reschedule for 20 more minutes). After all of that I didn't think we got any good shots, so you can imagine the surprise when I saw these.