Landon the Little Helper

Last night, I was making breadsticks to go with dinner when Landon walked up to me with a hot pad on his hand. He said, "Need wear no hurt hand." I guess he knew what it was for. He then came up to me, still with the hot pad on, and said, "Hafta make dinner." (Hafta seems to be his new favorite word. Hafta go that way, hafta go outside, hafta get a drink, ...) When he started opening the oven, I got a little nervous though, so I instead got him out a casserole dish. He carried it around for a minute, but then he wanted me to make dinner in it. I took out some orea cookies and lined them up in the pan. That once again satisfied him, and he walked around with his hot pad carrying the casserole dish full of cookies for awhile. This still wasn't enough, I guess, because soon he was back, and I saw him grab a can of beans off the counter. I thought he would just put the can in his casserole dish, but I heard rummaging behind me, turned around, and saw him reaching his hand up into the kichen drawer, pulling out items until he found the can opener! It was pretty funny. I guess he just really wanted to help mom out with dinner. Here's a picture of him holding "dinner."

Hafta go Ocean!

Last week, we went to Brookings for our annual coast trip with the Morris family. We left on Friday and drove down to Ashland. By late Friday night (more like Saturday morning actually) the rest of the family had arrived. The hilight of our day Saturday was the tennis tournament Jake had arranged. I didn't play, as I still feel quite nauseous at night, so Shane competed with David, and they made it to the championship, losing to Jake and Stacey. Landon had fun throwing tennis balls around and playing on the playground at the park.

Sunday, we enjoyed our going to church and relaxing most of the day, but in the evening we had yet another tennis tournament - this time table tennis. I did compete in his one, and had a little more success, even almost beating David (well, at least keeping up with him for awhile). He ended up being the overall champion, so I didn't feel too bad.

Monday morning, we woke up early and drove to the coast. We stopped, as usual, at Smith River for lunch. It was a little cold, but Landon didn't seem to mind. He loved throwing rocks in the water, and by the end, his shirt was pretty much all wet from reaching in to get the rocks. Shane took Landon over to this little island in the river, and they found a frog over there, which Landon thought was pretty exciting.

We then headed to the beach. It was cloudy, but actually quite warm since there was no wind! We had fun reading, playing baseball, and digging in the sand. Becky was the only girl brave enough to go in the water. The rest of us were glad we didn't when we saw her get knocked over by a big wave and come up soaking wet! Poor Beck! Landon loved the water too, but his favorite thing was running away from it. "Water coming! Water coming" he would yell as he tried to get far enough from the wave.

The next morning, Becky and Nate had to leave early, but the rest of us headed down to the beach again. We dug a big hole for Landon to play in, and Jake dug him some pretty cool tunnels to drive his cars in. It was a lot sunnier, but also more windy! Landon still loved it though, and we had to bribe him with other exciting things back at the campground to get him to leave! He was so exhausted when we got back that he fell asleep in his stroller while we were watching a helicopter, and stayed asleep the rest of the night.

It was sad to leave the ocean Wednesday. We packed up that morning, then went to the beach one last time to eat lunch. We were attacked by some pretty daring chipmunks while we tried to eat, but we all survived. They would even jump up right next to us on the picnic table to try to get some food! We've been home for a week now, and Landon still says, "Hafta go ocean" whenever he sees water, or pretty much anytime! I guess he had fun too!

Check out the pictures of our trip on our slideshow!

http://picasaweb.google.com/shane.malan/AugustCoastTrip02/photo#s5104629739095000834

A Whole Month!!! (Well, almost!)

I got on our blog this morning, and realized that with today being August 9 already, I realized I had better hurry and post again or it will officially have been one month since I last posted! It has been a busy last month, with lots of fun things to post about, but I guess I have been too busy . . . or should I say, lazy? :)

Three days after coming home from New York, we left for Park City, Utah, to stay with Shane's family. We had a great time visiting with family, especially Shane's sister Wendi and her kids as we hadn't seen them in almost two years. Landon especially loved playing with his cousin Laci, who is only six months older than him. The two of them were even patient with all of the hugs and kisses everyone made them give each other!

We came home a week later, only to have Shane's mom, grandma, brother Mark and sister-in-law Melanie come out to visit us. We were so glad to have them come, especially Mark and Melanie since they hadn't been out to see us yet. We had fun taking them to Cannon Beach and showing them around the area.

The night after they left, we went to a Portland Beavers baseball game at PGE park in Portland. We decided to take the Max train because we've heard parking can be bad. Landon loved it! He was grinning the whole way. I guess we should ride that into town more often!

Finally, our last recent trip happened two days after they left last week when we drove to Ashland to celebrate Shane's 31st birthday!!! Jake and Stacey have been in California for the summer, so we met them in Ashland for some fun times for the big day. Tennis was of course included, and Shane enjoyed playing in his brand new tennis shoes he got for his birthday. We also went to the park for a hot dog roast and played some horseshoes. Saturday night, we all went out on the trampoline to watch a movie on the "big screen" (a projector shining on a white sheet). It's been a fun few weeks! Here's a few pictures of the month's activities.

Landon watching TV with his three cousins.

Landon smiling while showing off his new haircut.

Playing boules in our backyard with the Malans. Landon felt left out, so he had to play with his ball. You can see him in the back waiting for his turn.

Landon taking his turn at the boules game.

Landon riding on the train to the baseball game. He was so excited!

At the baseball game.

Landon playing in his new water table.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll try to do better from now on! Hope to hear from all of you too!