more film

the downside of film, not seeing the closed eyes until development.  still a cute photo though.

this is one of arlo's favorite games to play, which he has somehow named "chee-ya!"
when he bursts through the blanket he yells that and laughs and laughs and laughs

the next photos from the beach are special to me because it was the day that we found out we were expecting baby #2! 

pentax k1000

50mm lens

fancy sance

dan plays with a band that plays lots of covers... or all covers. they play weddings & other events. this last wednesday they played for the intel fun run. arlo had fun dancing to the music & playing on the playground that was nearby. we also were able to ride our bike to the show!

Great Oregon Steam Up!

a few weekends ago, we took arlo to the Great Oregon Steam Up! It was a hot day, but we enjoyed ourselves. I found myself much more fascinated with everything than I thought that I would be. I hope to go back again next year! Also, my grandpa came with us, which was awesome. 

Arlo loved all of the construction vehicles, but was a little wary of getting too close to them. It took some coaxing to get this picture of him standing on it.

we got to ride little mini trains! 

see lots of awesome and crazy machines like this one, the BLAISDELL engine compressor! 

LOTS of cool old trains and machines to see.

Okay, this was the weirdest thing. There was this woman walking around with this HUGE snake around her shoulders. Anyway, she was in line for food in front of us and Arlo was obsessed with the snake. He seriously was not afraid at all. The woman said she was surprised with how into it Arlo was, she said usually kids just see it, look at it, and are done. But, the whole 10+ minutes that we were in line, Arlo wanted to touch it. I don't know how I feel about it... still... 

Later that evening, we got together with some friends for an amazing BBQ. All of the food was great! And the company was perfect. Can't wait to do it again! 

This picture is blurry, but I love it! Anya is the cutest.

The kids had fun playing riding bikes. 

And Arlo played with cars, trains, or trucks most of the time. He didn't get a nap this day and was very tired. However, that is not why he is laying down. He loves to play with his vehicles this way, to get right down on their level. It must feel more real/seem cooler to him. I love it though, it is the cutest thing and I am glad that I got a picture of it finally.

a free day

yesterday was the first day in a month or so that we didn't have anything on the schedule and nothing planned that had to get done that day. arlo loves the MAX and so we decided to take a ride to the children's museum. we loved the train ride and even played with his trains while riding. every time the train would stop at one of the other stops he'd say "ride train!!!" because he didn't want to get off. it was super cute.

once we got to the children's museum, he was a little overwhelmed at first. there was a fair amount of kids there running around and lots to see. after looking around for awhile i convinced him to go play in the water works and boy did he love it.

he ended up soaking his shoes and bottom of his pants. but, he could care less. he would hardly even look up or respond to me if i asked him a question he was so into it. eventually i started getting hungry, but he could care less about food because the water was so fun. finally we went and had some lunch. then i convinced him to leave to go ride the train. on the way back to the max, we passed by this very cool, old train that arlo played on for awhile.

he was so cute about it and kept saying "all aboard" and "wooo woooo!". i wish i had my real camera instead of just my cell phone, but these still work! it was a very fun day for arlo. we look forward to more frequent trips to the children's museum (my mom got us a membership there for Christmas & just now activated it) and even signed Arlo up for a class called "Science Tots", which looks like a lot of fun!

4th of july

i am becoming horrible at taking pictures. it is really a shame, because i do love it so much. this year on Independence Day, i didn't get many photos at all. for one, i was marching in the Hillsboro 4th of July parade myself. 

which dan did snap a quick shot of. thanks, honey. i am holding the banner on the left.

it was a fun parade to march in, especially since it was in hillsboro... i saw lots of familiar faces, which made it pretty awesome. 

after i marched in the parade, i joined my family & watched the rest (since we were the first thing in the parade, i got to see a good chunk of the rest of the parade). arlo loved the parade and very surprisingly sat on my lap the entire time (very unusual for him). probably because i had been gone for the entire week before doing army stuff in bend, klamath falls, and medford. 

once the parade was over, we walked over to dan's parent's house..... and we ALL took a nap, it was super nice. we got up, ate some yummy BBQ food, then took the max home and relaxed for awhile. i had just gotten back the previous night from being away and it was sooo nice to be together again as a family. this was the longest that i had been away from dan & arlo. it was really, really hard on me (and them as well). we went out to red robin for dinner (it ended up being free due to a gift card & arlo's free birthday dinner, SCORE!) then we went back over to dan's parent's house for some fireworks. 

sparklers

again, not taking many pictures at all because arlo was in my lap the entire time. he wasn't quite sure what to think about the fire works. he wasn't scared, but he didn't like the noise. for one of the loud, screechy ones (who likes those anyway?) i covered his ears. for the rest of the night anytime a firework would get lit he would say "mom! cover ears!!!". so, i sat & covered his ears most of the night. arlo did get to hold his own sparkler though, he really liked that. and i didn't get a picture because i was the one helping him do it and he kept almost touching the sparkler to his face or body. 

after a good amount of fireworking, we called it a night and went home and crashed.

Arlo has turned 2

On Arlo's actual birthday this year... I was out of town for the military. It was probably harder on me than it was on Arlo. Let's face it, he doesn't really know what a birthday is yet (although now I think that he does a little bit).  So, we had a small little shin dig on my one day off with my family (in two weeks). It was a little stressful for me to pull together so quickly, but it was very worth it to see Arlo so happy. He was so happy when we sang him "Happy Birthday", even though my lighter wasn't working to actually light the candles, and it was super windy anyway. He was very excited about his melon cake, he couldn't keep his hands off of it, and kept asking to eat it the entire time. And if you notice, there are 3 candles on the cake... Arlo did that. The fruit "cake" went over pretty well, although I think some of the older kids were confused by it. They expected actual cake. Oh well, they were happy! (I got the idea for the cake HERE)

Later that night, when we put Arlo to bed (after much crying about having to stop playing with his new trains), he requested that we sing "Happy Birthday" to him instead of the usual bed time songs. It was pretty cute. He is so grown up!

father's day

wow, i am sick of looking at that picture of the satellite dish, how about you? we ended up taking it to an electronic recycling place in portland.

anyway, today was dan's 2nd official father's day and i think it was pretty fun. he has been wanting to get new music and so arlo & i got him a gift card for amazon to download some music. he has been having fun working on that all afternoon. he is pretty happy about that.

we got to spend some time today with my family and dan's family. it was a good day. i feel so blessed to have such wonderful family in my life. it's the truth, they are pretty cool. especially dan. i could not ask for a better father for our kid (someday kids). i love him and i love how much he loves arlo.

happy father's day danny!

easter... a little late

arlo had his first easter egg hunt this year. he had so much fun! 

the next day we pulled up to church to attend our meeting and he kept shouting, "eggs! eggs!!!"

he continued to say "eggs!" the next several times we went to the church building. i guess it had a huge impact on him!

he was a pro!

too many pictures, so little time

confession: i miss arlo's longer hair. also, i have a million photos that i would love to share, but just haven't yet. they get pushed back, and further back, and even further back until they have been "forgotten". the past week or so i have had to spend way too much time on the computer for my little photography business and a huge project i am working on for my unit (the 234th Army Band). while images scan, i am trying to organize and catch up. so, here is a gem i found today (and ordered a print of). hopefully soon i will post some older photos that i love.

p.s. i think i have a pretty cute family, if i do say so myself.

more hints of spring

it is sunny outside, but it sure is cold still! last night we joined our good friends for dinner (thank you to the janeways!) and then went outside to where they are going to get to plant a garden soon. the kids had fun running around and looking at bugs. and i had fun taking pictures of them. they are pretty cute!

good eats

thanks to z+k everton, we got to try out this place which i had never heard of before. so good!

go eat there. 

we went to Utah

Arlo played with lots and lots of trains. He even talked in his sleep about "Fercy" (Percy) and slept with a train in his hand. 

we had the worlds largest "mini" shakes at Iceberg.

We went to the children's museum

and we even got to play in the snow after conference!

 we got shot with lots of nerf darts. 

 Arlo ate lots of treats

and we had dance parties.

oh, and Arlo did very well on the drive there and back. 

we did some other things while we were there, but i didn't take pictures. it was so good to spend time with family (andrea & family, justin, and abby). we had lots of good food (eating out and in). it definitely wasn't a long enough trip!

that "snow day" we had

arlo was very, very excited about the snow and kept looking out the window, signing "snow".

 i was sick this day and really not feeling well. i finally got up the energy to go outside, at least for a little bit. he was not happy when it was time to go back in. and i might have let him bring in his snowball.

as you can see. the snow was pretty sparse by the time we got out. when we first got up in the morning there was more. it did melt very quickly though. arlo had a blast though, and he thought it was soooo cool that we could make A BALL out of snow!

lucy took arlo on a walk