We're off!

Well, actually tomorrow... for a fun-packed trip to Minnesota!

Here are a few quick pics from the backyard... We finally have some decent weather here - the raspberries are ready for the picking!

We have a great little helper for all of our mowing and weeding - He loves to wear these cute gardening gloves (although it takes quite some time for mommy to get the fingers lined up just right to get them on...)

First day of summer vacation

...and we met up with some friends and their sons for a trip to the zoo. We had a great time. We got there before the crowds hit (which was after lunch). Ben started out in the backpack, but ended up walking most of the way on his own.

Here he is with his (almost) birthday buddy, Dylan (whose birthday was today!)

Ben fell asleep before we even left the parking lot! Great start to the summer!

Berries, Brews and BBQs

Saturday, we headed to a local farm for a small little Berries, Brews and BBQs festival. Very fun!

Ben got to feed the chickens......go down a long and bumpy slide (with a lot of 'one more time's). First, with daddy, then..

...all by himself!
Then we took a hayride out to a strawberry field to pick our own

And maybe eat a few along the way...

Then the tractor came back and picked us up
"Sure was hard work..."

Then we got to have some lunch and beers (well, some of us) with Andy's brothers. Fun afternoon in the hot sun (finally! we have been inundated with rain in the Portland area for the last month)!

Stats!

I forgot to post these last week...

At Ben's 2 yr well-baby check up he was:

35.5 inches: 81st %
30.1 lbs: 76th%

We have an almost 3 foot tall kid - Crazy!

Oozing Happiness

We took Ben on a 'hike' to a nearby refuge today. For us, it was more like herding cats than 'hiking', but Ben still had fun.

He was very excited to wear his own backpack, and he did for the first 5 minutes (looked like such a 'big kid'), but then he just wanted to carry it (in his hands) the rest of the way...

The rest of the pictures show the pure joy that our sweet son oozes... (We'll have to remember these moments when the brunt of the 'terrible 2's hit').

Birthday Boy!

We had a great time at Ben's 2nd Birthday Party on Saturday! Andy's family came over for Ben's fire truck-themed party (aka as fa-fuk to Ben - nice, I know). We had a great time hanging out, eating some '5-alarm' chili (or taco soup), then opened presents (wow - Ben got some very nice things - thank you, everyone!) and had some fire truck cake and ice cream. Here are some pics from the past few days.

Here is the cake-making process (documented, mostly for my own record...). It was my first time making a 'fancy' cake, but I think it turned out pretty well. Let's just say that I learned a lot.

We've spread out the gift opening over the past few days and will finish up tomorrow... Pretty overwhelming for a 2 year old. Today we opened his tent/tunnel. It was pretty hard to break him away for bedtime...

We have one happy little BOY! We are so lucky to have such a smart, funny, and loving son like Ben. He is so much fun to be around. We can't wait to see him grow in the upcoming years. Yeah, Ben - You are 2!!!

His favorite phrases as of late are: "I did it!", "One more time", "Daddy doing?"

If I Had a Hammer...

Ben loves a good hammer. I've been meaning to get him one of those little benches with the wooden "nails" for some time now, but I just haven't had the chance. Maybe I'll just get him the real deal - a hammer and a dog-leash-staker-thing... I think he played with this 'toy' for at least 20 minutes at the nearby state park for our Mother's Day picnic with Andy's family.


And he got in some good baseball practice, too. Here he is putting on his glove (to be just like daddy and his uncles) who were playing catch in the nearby field.
and showing off his wicked side-arm throw.

and taking a break sitting in his Ben-sized chair. We had a great time at the park - the weather was great and we beat the crowds and got a nice spot. We picked up subs at the grocery store, so no cooking for this mom! Very fun and relaxing. I hope that all the other moms out there enjoyed their Mother's Day as much as we did here!