Grandma Malan

   This last week, we were lucky enough to have Shane’s mom here with us for UEA weekend.  She flew in on Wednesday night and stayed through Monday evening.  We had a great time while she was here.                       

The Children’s Museum

The first thing Thursday morning, we drove up to the Children’s Museum to spend the morning.  The boys had a lot of fun playing in the water, digging in the dig pit, brushing the alligator’s teeth, and most of all, playing in the “night room.”  I was very glad Christie was there – I don’t think I could do it by myself!  It’s hard to run after each kid, and they each want to do different things, so part of the time we ran a man-on-man defense and each took one of the boys where they wanted to go.

 

 

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Fun at Home

The boys had fun just hanging around the house with grandma.  Thursday night, Christie watched the kids while we went to the temple for our stake temple night (we’ve made it two months in a row to the chapel session thanks to timely visits by the grandparents!).  Friday morning, Christie stayed home and played with Davis while Landon was at preschool and I ran a bunch of errands.  I was beginning to feel a little weird going to all those places with no kids in tow!

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Little People’s Park

While Shane was at the Priesthood session, we went and explored a new park in Beaverton.  It wasn’t too big, but the leaves falling from the trees were beautiful.  Landon and Davis had fun going down the slide, climbing over the bridge, and best of all, chasing grandma all around until she was exhausted!  :)  We even enjoyed a beautiful rainbow at the end.

       

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Watching Conference

We spent a lot of time just relaxing around the house watching conference.  Landon liked being extra silly to get Grandma to laugh!  I think there was enough sitting and listening too that he just had to get all his craziness out!

 

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Pirate ship park

And of course, a visit isn’t a visit without a trip to pirate ship park to meet Shane for lunch.  It was a bit foggy in the morning, but the sun came through just in time for a gorgeous picnic and some fun times playing on the pirate ship.  I especially like Davis’s tongue out in concentration as he gets ready to go down the slide.

 

Thanks Christie for coming to visit us!  We had a great time as always, and can’t wait to do it again!

Cleaning up

Tonight, Shane asked Landon to help him clean up all of his plastic bugs that were strewn all over the living room floor. 

This was Landon’s response:

“Dad, how about I clean up four bugs and you just clean up how many old you are?”

Smart kid.

And there September goes . . .

This month has been quite busy, with Shane working long hours as a project he’s been working on went live, while I rated a record amount of oral proficiency tests this month.  I can’t believe the month is already almost over!  I don’t think the busy life is going to slow down though, since last Sunday they reorganized our ward, essentially joining us with part of another ward, and Shane was made second counselor in the bishopric of our new ward.  For those of you that don’t know, a bishop is responsible for the spiritual and temporal welfare of a ward, or congregation of people, so Shane will assist the bishop in those responsibilities.  They have to do all new callings, as everyone was released from their previous callings with the new ward, so the next month or two will especially be busy as they try to get things organized.

We were so lucky to have Shane’s dad fly out to ordain Shane as a High Priest in the priesthood.  He was going to come out this next week with Shane’s mom, but he came early to be there for that, and Christie will still come out this week.  It was a neat experience and a wonderful blessing. 

Despite being busy, we did still have time for some fun, or course.   Here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to the last month:

 

           

Landon started preschool.  He loves it!  His only complaint is that Davis can’t go with him.  I had to of course get the token first-day-of-school-by-the-door picture.  Davis felt left out, and wanted to join in for one too.  You just can’t beat that cheezy little grin!

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We made some pine cone birdfeeders with peanut butter and birdseeds.  We have some great pinecones perfect for it right in our front yard.  Landon has been checking every time he goes outside to see how much the birds have eaten.  :)

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I guess Landon was missing the rain. I told him we’d have enough of it soon enough, but he wanted to make a puddle and try out the rain boots.  They both had fun jumping and splashing in the puddle they made with the hose and were of course filthy dirty afterwards.

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We also had a great time with Grandpa Malan.  The boys loved running and playing and laughing with him.  We tried to not just let him work the whole time (although we did love all he did in the yard for us in the short time he was here!).  We went to the pirate ship park one day and to the zoo another.  Thanks for coming to spend time with us Grandpa Malan!

More Labor Day Weekend

Here are some more pictures of the rest of our Labor Day weekend (the dry part).

 

Davis still loves his doggy!  And a picture of Davis and Landon all ready for church. 

 

Davis still loves to go and still in his rocking chair and read books.  The other picture is of him resting on Grandma after just waking up from his nap.

 

  

Yum!  Yogurt!

 

Landon playing the pillow game with Grandpa, and Davis reading books beside Grandpa.

Mr. Clingy

Lately, Davis has been very clingy, wanting me to hold him at the most inopportune moments.  Fortunately, I have learned to accomplish most tasks while holding all 27 pounds of him at the same time.  Here are a few of the things I have done this past week with my favorite little 18 month old in my arms:

• Make dinner (repeat 5 times)
• Push $80 of groceries from Winco around the store
• Load $80 of groceries from Winco in the cart
• Scrub two toilets
• Mop the floor
• Fold laundry
• Load and unload the dishwasher (repeat many times)

It’s hard to be too upset when he gives you such cheesy grins like this though!

Silver Rain Falls

This Friday, we headed down to Silver Falls (about an hour and fifteen minute drive) to camp for the night.  My parents came up to join us, and we picked up Shane from work on our way.  The trip got off to a great start.  When we got there, Shane and my dad set up the tents while my mom and I cut up the veggies for some delicious tinfoil dinners.  We put Davis to bed, then enjoyed some smores and had fun talking around the fire. 

The not-so-fun part started around 3 a.m., when we began to hear the pitter patter of rain on our tent.  Before long, the pitter patter turned into a steady downpour, incessantly pounding down on our tent.  Landon woke up a few times with his hands over his ears, frustrated at the loud noise of the rain.  Davis woke up every hour or so as well.  Luckily, we were nice and dry in our tent, and despite the sound of the rain and the ever increasing dreadful thoughts of packing up in the morning, we were dry and warm in our tent.

When we finally got up about 7 in the morning, we looked outside our tent to see the still steady downpour of rain and our campsite turned into mud and several giant puddles.  Davis and Landon’s spirits didn’t seem dampened by the rain though.  They ran back and forth through the puddles, getting drenched but loving it, of course.   We managed to make some breakfast with my dad holding the umbrella over our heads while we cooked our croissant egg sandwiches and ate them in the tent.  We packed everything up the best we could, and we headed home.  We did stop and see one of the falls that had a viewpoint from the road (Landon was pretty disappointed until we found one, and kept asking when we were going to see the waterfalls), so I guess we’ll have to make another attempt at Silver Falls in the future!

Landon helping to put a stake in, and Davis leaning up against the tent.

 

Landon and Davis eating their croissant sandwiches, and Mom and Dad cooking breakfast under the umbrella.  Notice the huge puddle in the bottom corner! 

 

Eating breakfast in the tent, and Dad, Shane and I trying to get our tent folded up and taken down in the pouring rain.  (Mom took this picture from the dryness of the van)