Nine

Impossibly, my little tiny baby, born at Kaiser West L.A. on a hot July day is now nine:

I remember before he was born, I was lying on the couch watching TV one night, thinking how nice it was going to be once the baby arrived -- we would just lie on the couch together and watch TV. HA HA HA HA HA. That has happened exactly never, in the past 9 years. We did watch some Olympics opening ceremony last night.
In other random news, his sister has been riding ponies around a neighboring cul-de-sac:

And the Truck has been eating cupcakes every chance he gets:

Oh, and his best birthday gift was Ticket to Ride. Mom and Dad have been playing it every night after he goes to bed. Our new favorite game:

Sticky Wicket

My little sticky wicket. He hates to have his face dirty or his hands sticky. And he loves to yell "mommy, Mommy, MOMMY!"

1,700 Miles

We are back from our trip to Colorado. We drove to Grand Junction last week - a mere 845 miles away. Clearly, drive-able. Except that we've never driven it before. Back in our one- and two-child days, we would fly to Denver, then drive the 4 hours over the mountains to Grand Junction. After our California odyssey and Florida spring break trip, that seemed silly. So we planned to drive the MERE 1700 miles round trip to Colorado for a week to visit Daddy's parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew.

We left on a Friday afternoon at 2:30 PM. We stopped for dinner (IHOP in Salina, Kansas; CLASSY) at 5, then pressed on to Hays, where we stopped for the night around 7:30. A dip in the hotel pool, I took the big kids out to Dairy Queen while Dad put Truck to bed, and by 9 PM, we were all asleep. The next day, we were up early and headed west!


We got to Grand Junction around 4. The next week was cram-packed with fun. Lots of cousin time, grandma time, treats, swimming and sun.

Please don't touch that.

Oh, yes, I will have another popsicle!

Rafting on the Colorado River.

After a great week, we hit the road home at 5:40 AM, and rolled into our driveway at 8:30 PM that night (and that includes an hour we lost due to the time change) - we were ROLLING.



Goodbye, Colorado!

"I'm in a magazine! Watching the Muppets!"

Said our little Noodle, upon seeing this article. A couple weeks ago, my neighbor Kristen invited us to a driveway-movie-night party. My parents were in town so I took them over, along with my oldest two (Trucko was asleep and Daddy stayed home with him). We had an awesome time. Sitting out in the evening air, drinking sangria and eating caramel popcorn, just relaxing. Love Kansas summers!

Cousin Bonanza

My sister left today after an awesome long weekend of cousin time. The big guy was at camp Thursday and Friday, so Noodle got to enjoy taking the reins as the oldest. She handled it like a champ, leading the two little guys around like the boss that she is.

Also, LOOK AT MY BABY NEPHEW:

The cuteness. He is like this ALL THE TIME. For those of you wondering whether to have a 2nd baby, this one is the perfect convincer. I don't think he cried the whole time he was here. OK, just when he was hungry, and then he happily chowed down a bottle and went to sleep. He's 10 months old and adorable.
His brother is pretty cute too. Here he is after catching his first fish:

ECSTASY.
And the best moment of the weekend:

Water fight in the backyard, followed by 4 kiddos in a tub. Cousin bonanza complete.

Best Friends

6 months after Christmas and he is still going strong with the vacuums. BOTH of them.

Troublesome Truck, Part XIXXIII

Evenings in the driveway = lots of ways for a small Truck to make trouble:

And this:

And, yes, this:

(that's Grandma in the wagon).