Re-Cast

While I was in Ohio Emmett had entirely too much fun running Daddy ragged.

Saturday evening (a week and a half ago) when I spoke to Travis he told me how that day at his parent's house he had looked away from Emmett for about 20 seconds and then found him on a ladder. Not to the top yet, but already at the level of the eaves! Later he noticed him climbing onto the tractor but a second later he'd be running somewhere else and then suddenly he'd be on the tractor again. He's just too fast. And the cast doesn't slow him down. In fact, Travis found him standing on the ball hitch of Papa's truck trying to climb in the truck bed... using his cast arm as a climbing hook.

And the "best" part? Emmett found a bucket full of water to play in. Meaning his whole cast got dunked. Yuck. All that moisture is not good for the skin, plus it really started to stink, but they had to wait until Monday to get it re-cast. So now he has a shiny new (well, at least it was a week ago) identical blue cast.

Crazy boy, Daddy sure was glad to have Mommy back to help!


Ah, why can't we have more of these peaceful, day-dreamy moments?

Toy Story 3

Friday I took Avery and Carson to see Toy Story 3 in theaters.

They were super excited to go.

The loved it.

It was way more action packed than the previous two.

I totally cried at the end.



















Ready for the movie. First time using the flash on my phone. Interesting (read: not great) results.


After the movie the boys did some happy dancing out front with Elvis and Marilyn.


I thought I was recording when Carson was dancing but I guess not, so I told them I was making a video and Avery started up again. What a ham. (When we watched it back on my phone we could hear the boys' background noise just fine and I wasn't so loud, but not so now so don't be alarmed why my voice suddenly sounds like it's bellowing - sorry) For 720p click the link below the video then the expand button in the bottom right.

Avery & Carson Dance from Laurie H on Vimeo.

After the movie we went to Wendy's for lunch. Carson had an interesting way of eating his frosty.


Ah, my polite boys...

Stranded

I found this poor guy stranded a few weeks ago. Later we learned that Carson was the pirate who marooned the poor elephant.

Another Photo Contest Win!

Go to Laurie Marie Photography to check out the story! (I am SUPER excited about the prize, the results of which I hope will be coming to this blog soon!)

Back From Ohio

Last Thursday I flew to Ohio for my cousin Chris' wedding. I will try to get back to blogging soon, but in the meantime I have a lot of wedding pictures to edit! I got home late last night and here's two shots I took with my phone just before landing back in Portland.

Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson in the background


A heavy line of clouds as we neared Portland

Muse Apparel

Back on April 3rd I went to the most amazing concert by the most amazing band Muse. I bought an expensive (as all concert apparel is) women's tee. When I got home I found the cut was crooked and it twisted around my body. I did some searching for the apparel vendor and finally, with no other option emailed my last hope. It took 2 months (so I had already worn my awesome - if crooked - shirt tons) but I finally got an email response. I called the the girl's number who emailed and had a great talk with her. She said they would send a replacement of the same design and for my trouble she would throw in one or two extra shirts! Excellent. She told me where to look and then to let her know my preference. I chose one and said I couldn't decide between two others and to just surprise me. Well, SURPRISE, she sent all three I liked in addition to the replacement! (Too bad the replacement, the one on the left in the picture, is cut identically to the original so it must have been a problem with that whole batch.)
HOW STINKING COOL IS ALL THIS!

Weekend And First Home BBQ

Saturday we went to a graduation party for Katrina who has finished her masters in teaching. Go Katrina! (No, I didn't take any pictures there).

Then we went to my in-laws for dinner because Grandpa Lybbert was in town. The nice weather meant playing outside!

Since the Odyssey has some start up issues, Ben and Travis pulled the spark plug and sand blasted it clean. The graininess in the picture in front of Ben is actually all the fine white sand flying. Me and my expensive camera kept our distance.


A clean spark plug made a big difference in the start up!
Emmett's funny, he hears that engine start and comes running! He can't get enough!


Actually, he doesn't like to share, but sometimes he has to wait his turn and then I coo over those cute wispy curls coming out the back of his hat...


There's no reverse, so Megan got herself stuck and had to do a manual turn around!


Crazy lady


What's he holding on to...?


Papa's leg. Gotta make sure he doesn't get away.


When Megan was done driving, Travis put the Odyssey away which Emmett did not approve of so Papa soothed him by offering him a tractor ride.


Does Carson want a ride? No. He never does. But these two crack me up. Megan was just giving him looks to see what he would do.


Avery wants a turn though!


Another moment for cuteness. Such adorable hat hair.


Megan took Carson for a fly and Gunner ran in the shot and shook off nasty pond water on them.


Then Saturday night Travis finally brought home our BBQ which has been stored at his parents' since we moved away to dental school five years ago! After a good clean up we had our first BBQ at home on Sunday. Avery's only experience of what a BBQ is implies that it's a party so he kept asking when all the people were coming over!

Cast

In this case I wish "Cast" meant cast for an acting or modeling job. Alas, that is not its definition here.

This morning Emmett got his broken arm cast.


And this just goes to show that nothing, including a cast, will stop him from doing what he wants, like sliding down the stairs.


The background story: First Broken Bones

In a completely unrelated story...
Today Avery and Carson were playing outside during Emmett's nap and after being out for a long time I heard them come in but didn't hear any more from them. Shortly thereafter Emmett woke up crying, and then screaming bloody murder because he had climbed out of his crib and left his monkey in the crib out of reach. (Yes, he still climbs out regardless of a splint or cast.) So I got Emmett and we were playing on my bed when Travis got home. He changed his clothes and took off to sell something he had on Craigslist. After he left he called the house to tell me he didn't hear the other boys at all outside while he was there and to go check on them. First I went to look outside as Travis suggested, forgetting I heard them come in already. Then I started searching the house. I couldn't believe what I found!

Turns out they had mutually decided to come in and both take a nap (and slept through Emmett's screaming) and I hadn't even noticed them in there when I got Emmett up who's room is right across the hall! Too bad I had to wake my sleepy boys then so they wouldn't ruin their bedtime too badly.

Oregon Zoo

Last Tuesday we had a busy day with my friend Jocelyn and her girls Eleanor and Phaedra.

We started at the library to sign up for their summer reading program and get a little concert from Eric Herman. I think Avery saw all the little kids there and immediately put on his 'too cool for school' attitude about the concert but thankfully he ended up getting into it when he realized the guy wasn't as dumb as he thought he'd be.

Then we headed to the zoo! We didn't realize it was $2 Tuesday (their site says once a month they have $4 Tuesday so I'm a little confused, maybe this was an extra special Tuesday?) so of course it was a mad house, thankfully we found someone leaving so parking wasn't bad.

Since it was lunch time we wanted to go have a picnic in the amphitheater first but on the way we went through the sea lion exhibit. This one kept circling around and swimming up in front of Avery and Carson over and over.


Once he did stop and float and just looked at me!


Phaedra likes Emmett. Remember Phaedra from the 18 Month Old party?


This is as close as I got to a group picture, but Carson is blocking Eleanor from view.


There's Eleanor!


Sometimes they bring birds out to train in the amphitheater and while we ate lunch a huge bald eagle was brought out. I had no idea they were so big! Anytime I've seen one they're not next to something that can give me a good scale. Of course, this picture doesn't show how big he is because they were only out for a few seconds and the dial on my camera got bumped so the couple shots I got were all blurry and as I realized what was wrong they left the stage.


With the bald eagle having been out, my boys decided to run around like insane birds. Although this is funny because it looks like sweet Carson just chose to be a chicken.


Well, hello! (I have no idea what this look is about)


Hello Emmett! Poor chin, too bad that evening Emmett stepped up the injury level and broke his arm!


Elephant!


Passing by the amphitheater again later, we stopped for a minute to watch a parrot in training. The trainer would carry him out to a pedestal in the crowd...


...and he'd fly back to the trainer on stage.


Drums in Africa




On to the lion exhibit. I thought I was just getting the boys sticking hands in the statue lion's mouth. Little did I know Avery was also inspecting another facial orifice...


Mrs. Lioness


Mr. Lion


When we got to the Cheetah the kids all jumped in the jeep that looks like it's driving right into the Cheetah enclosure.


Lazy Cheetah


Avery driving the crazy train. I mean jeep.
Or how about
Avery driving us (all crazy).


A different perspective


Hippo


Gazelle


Zebra which Emmett quite liked since he has a zebra book that's a favorite.


Lorikeets are loud and obnoxious! I seriously walked out of there with a headache. We were making our way back to the entrance so we were pretty done at this point anyway so the heat and my being tired probably didn't help, but still. That makes this red one the devil lorikeet.


Lazy tiger. Is the tiger ever not sleeping?


Lazy Emmett. Actually we got to the zoo a little before nap time so his stellar good behavior at the zoo was remarkable and he only fell asleep about 20 minutes before this. We tried to hurry to the car so he could go back to sleep and not be rejuvenated by a little cat nap and end up screaming on the way home. It didn't work, but at least he didn't scream. Avery fell asleep first, followed by Carson and eventually Eleanor. So, oddly enough, only the little ones still in nap age didn't sleep!


Fun times! We didn't see it all, but that's what a membership is for!