Father's Day June 2012

It was sad that Jared couldn't be around for Father's Day, but I suppose that's what you have to endure when you have a family in the military. We were able to plan a dinner for Mike and Mom for Father's Day, though and had lots of fun. There was a fun story that came out of it though. I suppose it's one that will stick with us. Cache was eating chips and salsa, and at one point started to choke and cough a little. He then grabbed my hand, brought it to his mouth, then proceeded to spit it all into my palm. When he was done emptying his mouth, he said, "There you go!" As if he had done me a great honor! Silly boy. It was quite funny and will turn into one of those stories he's told time and again as he gets older ;).
And we did get to enjoy a fun surprise for Grandpa Kenny! Before I left for Washington, Brandi and I decided it would be fun to plan a surprise for Dad since who knows when or how many Father's Day's we will get to all spend together. We got Kristi in on it and planned to surprise Dad with a trip to the Mariners Game! We had wanted to keep it a secret until we got there, but Kristi suggested that Dad might want to dress a certain way if he knew we were going to a ballgame. Of course, the look of surprise on his face was pretty priceless. It's not often we get to surprise Dad!
We met up with Anna and Brandi in Issaquah and all headed to Seattle. I have to say, that everytime I end up there (driving myself or not) I am glad that we don't have to deal with that type of traffic on a daily basis. I still miss the area and the people, but the NOT the traffic. Especially on game days.

View from our seats

Cache was having a good time :)

The family (minus Kristi who took the picture)

Ok, so there are two things a person (at least me) has to get when they go to Safeco. 1. Dip 'n Dots and 2. Garlic Fries! These are the best, most garlic-y fries you have ever seen! Piled high with salt, real garlic and herbs. Soooo delicious! Cache, of course loved them.....but he didn't really know that these fries+ rubbing the eyes because you're tired= massive pain and no fun. Unfortunately, he did figure this out first hand. After trying to flush out his eyes in the bathroom twice and trying to calm him down for about an hour, he kept rubbing his eyes and making it worse! It came down to having to take him to the first aid station and have him held down by me and two EMTs while we poured normal saline over his eyes and rubbed it all away. Poor little guy didn't know what to do, but after an hour of crying and burning, I'm sure this felt so much better. Luckily, this did the trick, so after about 10 more minutes of calming him down, he PASSED OUT! lol And of course, he got about a half an hour in before the Mariner's scored the winning home run and everyone was on their feet cheering! I was just glad he got SOME sleep in after all that chaos, and at least the Mariner's won on Father's Day! What a great present!

Poor monkey

Here's to an eventful Father's Day! :)

My Dad's house and Cache's other 2nd Birthday Party (June 2012)

Ok, so I suppose we all know that I am no goot at  blogging while I am on vacation, and apparently I am even worse at doing it when I get home! There are just so many pictures, that it seems so daunting! But I am going to do my best to get some done before the baby decides to make it's appearance (which is in 26 days!) Also, I must apologize for any spelling errors ahead of time because on the trip, my computer screen cracked and now has these lovely black lines and blobs on the screen that I have to try to type around.
For the first part of our trip, we stayed at my dad's house while we were waiting for Jared to arrive from AT. I have to say that it probably took us about a week to adjust to the two hour time difference, but once we did, things got a lot better. Of course, it didn't help that Cache chose this particular time to cut some more teeth. It would just be my luck that he would wait two years to get the rest of his teeth, and then decide to cut about 7 all at once! Sheesh
It was a lot of fun for Cache to run around his backyard and mess around with the chickens. He wasn't as interested in them this time, unless it was from a distance, and we tried to have him hold some eggs, but he didn't find that very appealing either. He would just drop them as soon as he touched them. At least they are thicker and stronger than most eggs! lol He also really loved chasing around LInus and throwing his ball for him with the flingy thing (I can't remember what Kristi calls it). He got really good at calling his name, even if it did come out as "Dinus! (Linus)" most of the time.

Playing with his Buzz and Woody in the dryer!

"Hello?"

Playing with grandpa's Legos before church

Throwing the ball for Linus with Grandpa

Cache's mini pool! Linus loved to try to get his ball out of the pool, Cache kept trying to keep it from him.

But it didn't work long!

Playing at SES's playground

Good Ol' Rattlesnake Lake and Rattlesnake Ridge. Cache loved throwing the plentiful rocks in the lake...could have done that forever...

At the park with Aunt Lily! And her crazy slide hair :)

 We also got to throw Cache a family birthday party in my dad's backyard. It was so nice to be able to share this with family, even though Jared couldn't be there. :( But he got a curious George cake that turned both his mouth and fingers blue! Classic! He got some awesome presents too. Too bad, I was so busy with the party to take too many pictures...

Birthday boy! And very pregnant Momma

Uncle Brandi was on Skype on that laptop. It was pretty awesome, actually. Technology rocks!

"Uckies!" In other words, clean my hands please!

Trip to Snoqualmie Falls! I think he was more interested in the rocks to climb on

Stretching out his back like Grandpa

Nakey boy!

Flights with a two year old

The flights that we had from South Dakota fto Washington were good. Unfortunately, Cache didn't get much of a nap that day, which made for some interesting moments, but we made it in one piece! I do have to say, that I will be glad to not have to travel home with him on my lap because being pregnant made it SO much more uncomfortable! Especially when the man in the seat in front of me leaned his seat ALL the way back. Just a piece of advice: Check the seats around you to see if what you're doing is going to make it worse for someone else! Arg...anyway, here are some pictures :)

A diaper bag dispensing machine! Genius! Minneapolis airport children's area

Climbing in the play plane

And that's our trip! Lots more to come!

Cache's 2nd Birthday Party (South Dakota)

After much planning, and shopping we were able to throw a little party for our little man who turns 2 on June 6! We are so proud of all accomplishments he has made in the last year! Just looking through pictures and videos of the last two years is amazing to see how he has changed and grown. He's such a little person and not a baby anymore. He's developed quite a sweet personality with a big heart and  his own opinions. He has a best friend, Tyler, who he loves to play with and chase. They love to push around cars and "brrrm brrrrm's". Cache has become the classic toddler and is officially a little bossy. He's always trying to control the situation and has nailed the fake cry perfectly. :) I can't wait to have another little one around to spread the love! :)

I never really knew how much went into planning a birthday party! I have no idea how people do this! We didn't even have that many people coming, but it's always better to plan for more (just in case) so everything was all crazy! The last minute details weren't so bad, but if you ask Jared he would say I was stressed out lol. Here are some pictures of making Cache's birthday cake. My mom always made fun, cute cakes so I attempted to do my best as well! We went with a Toy Story theme because he loves "Doody" and "Buzz" and the local Walmart had tons of party stuff to plan with!

Daddy and Cache got to lick the frosting beater! Cache didn't want to share :)

Cake and buttercream frosting before

This looks kinda gross, but it was neon green frosting for the middle of the cake

Blue for the outside!

Ok, so I tried my hand at fondant and found a good rolled buttercream fondant recipe. It rolled out nicely and was really easy, but when I went to move it, it cracked...silly me. Thinking I'm a pro or something lol. So it turned into stars :)

Birthday Boy!

Stars made of the fondant and Toy Story sugar paper decals! That store had everything!

After I cut out the stars, there was plenty of fondant left over, so we played with it like it was playdough for a while. Then Cache discovered that it tastes good! lol He kept eating it instead of playing.

After the cake was done, we had lunch and sat down to watch Curious George before nap time. Jared got to snuggle with us and before I knew it they were both asleep on my lap! Luckily, I was able to get Cache up to bed and he had a nice nap before his party! We did it from 4-6 so we could serve food and make sure the little kids got naps before they came.
First they got to play in the pool! Thank goodness the weather was nice because I kept staring out the window at the 60 something degree weather and rain all week praying for a sunny day on Saturday...and it was sunny and 80! Whew! Carol and Jason brought their little girl Cloe (8 months old) and Major and Jill brought Tyler (18 months) so they had lots of fun in the kiddie pool!

Cache with his crab

Jason with Cloe, she wasn't too sure about the water...

Jill and Tyler and Cache

Carol and Cloe

Cache kept playing this game where he'd throw the crab into the water, say "oh no!", then jump in after it. Over and over lol

Tyler and Jill

Cache going after his crab...and a random swimmer :)

Cheese!

Major, Jill and Tyler

Cloe and Cache playing together!

Trying to organize a group picture

Tyler, Cloe and Cache! And Apparently I cut Major's head off lol

Jared was such a good daddy and stayed by the picnic tables so he could get the grill hot and cook burgers. He even got to get some fishing in while he was there. :) Luckily, our friends Morgan and Katherine were able to come with their son Leo to the BBQ part. They are from church.

Main Table. He had balloons there too..you can see the strings :)

Playing on the slide by the picnic tables

Leo! He's just over a year old

Cloe getting her dinner too :) Leo and Cloe were being so cute and making friends :)

Tyler and Cache seem to have a hard time agreeing one who should play with the wagon...Cache took a spill chasing after him lol

Next it was time for the cake! Carol was so nice and took the pictures for me so I could at least be in some of them lol :)

He couldnt quite figure out how to blow out the candles...So I helped

Instead of licking the candle, he tried to bite it :)

Buzz!

Then it was present time! It took a bunch of herding and coaxing to get him to realize that he had presents to open, but he did it!

His new helmet! Thanks GGMa! He calls it his hat :)

Tyler was a good helper when it came to opening presents :)

He finally got the hang of it :)

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Leo saying goodbye to his new girlfriend ;)

After the party, Cache and Jared got a minute to fish in the pond. It was so sweet. And other random moments.

Figured out the noise makers! That didn't actually make noise lol

snuggles with mommy before nap time

This one was actually from camping, but I forgot to post it. Jill caught a moment while we were on a walk when Cache was giving mommy kisses :)

So happy birthday to my little boy! We had fun and are glad our friends could come and celebrate and visit before our big summer trips! Don't grow up too fast, monkey. We love you!