Back From a Long Hiatus

It's been a long time since my last post...I cannot believe it has been over a year! Hard to say exactly where the time went, except that work got the best of us and made our lives pretty crazy for a long while. As some of you may know, I am taking a short 3-month leave from HP, and am using the time to reset priorities, spend more time with the family, and figure out what will work better for us in the future. Hopefully this will kick start my updating this blog again regularly. We'll see about that...

Where to begin? Tristan is now 5 years old, and Austin is almost 3-1/2. We have finally reached the ages where they are getting along really well, for extended periods of time. In fact, they are so anxious to play together in the mornings that most days they don't even bother coming into our bedroom first thing anymore. Tristan is about to start kindergarten in September. He loves playing in the water, fishing, and climbing trees. He loves Star Wars (although he has never watched it as far as I know), Transformers, and Legos...it's all about being a boy! Austin is the typical little brother, always following and copying exactly what Tristan is doing. Austin has become quite the talker, constantly asking questions and asking for validation..."Dinosaurs live in the ground, right?"..."We can't eat too much sugar, right?"..."There's going to be a lot of poop on the street from the horses in the parade, right?". But, my favorite thing that I hear from him just about every morning lately is "Mama, thank you for the beautiful breakfast"...Nice, makes my day!

We have so many pictures to catch up on from the last year. Here's a sampling of what we have been up to for the last few months. I'll start from Austin's birthday earlier this spring.

Austin, 3 yrs old - March 23, 2011

Easter at the Oregon Zoo

Hiking in the Columbia Gorge

Brothers

Tristan, 5 years old - May 28, 2011

Tristan with his good friend, Zach, wearing cones from his birthday pinata.
Tristan's Preschool Graduation - June 6, 2011

Can you tell who his best friend is?
(hint: check out the green Crocs that they're both wearing)
Tristan with his favorite partner in crime, GavinTristan with his amazing teachers, Miss Amanda and Miss Calah
An afternoon splashing in the fountains at Jamison Park
Lincoln City Beach with the Dopps Family

We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, WA. What a crazy, fun place for kids of all ages. I have never seen such an amazing indoor water park, and the boys had a blast. We stayed in one of the 'wolf den' rooms where the kids had their own themed bunk bed room. A huge arcade, pajama storytime at night, magic wands that activated all kinds of things throughout the resort, ice cream and fudge...what else could a kid ask for?

Last weekend, we took our first camping trip of the summer. We drove as far east as we could in Oregon in search of some nicer weather. And it was a good thing, as we heard that Portland was cool and drizzly all weekend while we were gone. We camped at Catherine Creek Campground, just outside of LaGrande. Not my favorite campground ever, but we were able to find a nice spot right next to the creek. It was a beautiful weekend, and much easier camping experience with the boys now that they are both a little older and we didn't have to hold onto Austin the entire time in fear of him falling into the fire. We slept in our huge family tent, ate hotdogs and marshmallows, went swimming and hiking, took the tram up the Wallowa Mountains, went fishing...it was a blast.
We found the world's friendliest chipmunks and squirrels up in the Wallowa Mountains. They were all over us, not shy at all, and very well-fed critters.