We decided to take a quick family photo...

...but as the rule goes, those quickie photos never seem to be very easy. Braden set up the tripod very carefully while I stood against the wall for placement and Kohen tried to unclip the tripod legs. Then after much effort of getting Kohen away from the camera (I'm starting to over heat at this point, and Kohen is no longer in a good mood) we stand there saying 'cheese' only to discover that our remote button doesn't seem to be working. So Braden runs back and forth trying to get the ten second timer to go and I get hotter and hotter holding a squirmy Kohen. The whole picture scenario started because Kohen was looking so darn cute for church. He even had a tie on under his sweater vest and Braden had put jell in his hair to make it lay just so. Of course after all this none of us looks quite fresh and I'm desperate to get to church to claim a padded bench seat rather than the folding chairs in the back. This was the only picture to turn out after all the effort...and I had to sit on the hard metal chairs anyway! Curses! I'll be content from here on out to just leave you all with partial family pictures. There is just no reason to try so hard to get all of us in one frame.

Bear's Girlfriend!

Bear has found another poodle to play with! Gigi is a standard poodle too (of course, Bear has VERY high standards and will NOT associate with lesser breeds) and our neighbor is dog sitting her while her owners have gone to France. So for two weeks, Gigi and Bear can play and frolic in our yard while we laugh from the deck at their antics. As you can see...they are airborne quite a bit and it is really very entertaining.

We are debating the decision to get another poodle as playmate for Bear in his approaching old age. The jury is still out however. I just don't know if I can do it.

Memorial Day Weekend

I know Memorial Day weekend isn't exactly over yet...but Monday I'm cracking the whip and we are going to get the baby room painted, the garage cleaned and the garden put in. Oh, and possibly have a BBQ :-) I'm not THAT mean of a task master!

So! We had big plans to camp Thursday and Friday night at Eklutna lake but when Braden rushed out thursday after work to reserve us a campsite...they were FULL!! (Since when did memorial day weekend start on wednesday people?! Don't you have jobs??) He raced back into Eagle River and begged for one of three remaining spots at the Eagle River campground. It turned out the campsite was actually in their group area on an enormous field. Kohen was quite tickled with it however because it was the place he camped last weekend with Daddy for the father-son campout. He knew where all the good play spots were and it was full of rocks. As you can see from the slide show...rock collecting and rock throwing were the highlights of his weekend. I was less than tickled about the site because it had the same view of highland mt. as our backyard and the water/toilet facilities were too far away for me to attempt to get to. Braden saved the day though. He set up our 'emergency' tent which kept our spot reserved during the day and also became a bathroom facility...yes we are the proud owners of a portable camp toilet. I won't go into too much detail but lets say this is definitely my prefered method now...it is quite sanitary and compared to the typical over-used, under-cleaned, bug infested, hold your breath because of the reek, outhouse...it was a JOY to use. Anyways, enough about the toilet.

All in all, it turned out to be a very good thing we were camping close to home. Braden ended up having to work Friday so we just drove home that morning and drove back when he finished up. It also became apparent that I wasn't going to get more than 6 hours of sleep at a time so I bagged our Friday night overnighter and we slept in the luxury of our beds that night. (nothing against the auto home, my hips just can't take anything except the softest mattress right now). We spent Saturday at Eklutna Lake playing in a field of mud and rocks that Kohen couldn't get enough of and then did a bit of mountain biking. We didn't do much...Braden's doctor had specifically told him his achilles tendon was to do no more than road biking and I was pretty sure I'd have gone into labor if we had hit any more hills or bumps.

It was very fun and the weather has been beautiful! We are really enjoying the summer so far!

My last birthday of the twenties!

It was a fun birthday with my boys! We played outside all day and then had a picnic at the park for dinner when Braden got home. (It was almost 70 degrees today and you just can't be inside on a day like that). I had a cold stone ice cream cake (chocolate peanut butter...delicious!), and then we all jumped in the hot tub for a quick dip (don't worry...I keep the temperature at bathwater level so Kohen and I can soak safely). Thanks Mom for the pretty skirt! Braden and Kohen picked out a cool i pod speaker for me so I can play primary songs for my sunbeam class when they need to unwind a bit. Kohen was very enthralled with the big red gift bag...it had a picture of a cake covered in burning candles and a button that when you pushed it played a fire engine siren. Very cute.

The Father Son Campout

As you can see, Kohen had a wonderful time! It was his first night away from Mommy...a good trial run before July I suppose. He ate hot dogs and marshmallows (which he calls 'marshpillows'). He and Braden slept in the rooftop tent atop of the Camry and weathered out a few good down pours. It was a cold night too (I think it got down to freezing...or close to it). Kohen was very dirty and proud of himself when he got home the next day. He can't wait for his next camping trip.

The bottom picture is of the tent set up on the camry. It created quite a flurry

of interest as you can imagine.

Especially when everyone else was

ringing out their soggy tents and Braden just

cranked his down and drove away.

Is it May already!!?!

Actually that is a very good thing! The snow is gone, the leaves are popping out, and our grass is starting to turn green! I think we have officially become the 'weird' family of the circle, what with our rooftop tents and our robot lawn mower...and a dog that most of the neighborhood kids are convinced is a sheep.
As a side note about the rooftop tents (I became aware recently that most of our family/friends had no idea what we were doing with them), Braden sells them in Alaska. They are a very cool alternative to tent camping or RV camping. The picture shows them popped up but they fold down flat for driving. They are super comfortable and I am even going camping over the memorial day weekend...33 weeks pregnant (I can't remember exactly). Crazy? Probably in the long run. The only questionable part will be whether or not I can navigate the ladder to get up on top of the Sequoia. Should make for some fun pictures. Stay tuned!