Good Morning!

Ephraim was up early the first morning in Hawaii, so we left the condo and went down to the beach to watch the sunrise.
Forrest and Ephraim snuggled while we waited for it to turn light.
The sun coming up over our condo. After spending an hour on the beach we went back to our condo to eat breakfast and get ready for some snorkling.

First Night in Hawaii

The trip over to Hawaii was pretty painless. We were able to get three seats in the middle row which allowed Ephraim more room to play and he loved sitting in a big seat by himself. He took a short nap on the plane and then flirted with the flight attendants to get as much juice as he wanted.

We landed in Maui early afternoon and made our way to Costco to do some grocery shopping. We were pretty low-key the rest of the afternoon - exploring our condo and grounds and eating spaghetti for dinner.

The night ended with a beautiful sunset and we tried to get some sleep.

The Garden

I have always wanted to grow pumpkins. I think my love affair with pumpkins started with a book my mom used to read us about two mice growing a giant pumpkin for the fair. This year I decided to give it a try. I picked up a Veggie Tales seed packet at Home Depot. I started the three seeds in my kitchen window and then transplanted the two that grew to the top of our dirt pile. They didn't seem to be doing very well, so Forrest gave me permission to buy a pumpkin plant from Home Depot. By early July the Home Depot plant had hardly grown, but the Veggie Tales pumpkin had one single 5 foot vine running down the hill. By early August - this is what we had...
My Veggie Tales pumpkin has completely taken over my garden. The vine that used to be 5 feet by the end of the summer was over twenty feet and we had wrapped it around the dirt pile so it wouldn't interfere with our other plants. Ephraim and I would go out every day and water the plants.
We grew sugar snap peas, corn, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onion and carrots.
One of our pumpkins. We ended up with 5. The heat in late July/August killed a bunch of the little pumpkins that were trying to grow.

Lost Lake

From mid August:

We went camping for a long weekend with the Moody's and Brownlees. Nate and Ramie graciously went to the campground on Thursday night to secure us a spot and we drove down to Forrest's parents that night. We made it to the campground shortly after lunch on Friday. (We had to stop in Hood River for New York City Sub Shop.) The Brownlee's joined us a few hours later.

It was cold. I had checked the weather report for Hood River before I started packing, knowing it would be about 10 degrees or so cooler at Lost Lake. Forrest and I did not pack great for ourselves, but I packed pretty well for Ephraim, and Gracie ended up wearing his jacket all weekend while he was in fleece jammies with a puffy vest all weekend.

Friday night was pretty low-key. We made foil dinners for supper and hung around the campfire. Saturday morning we ate breakfast and then went for a short hike to do some fishing. Nate caught the first fish and Gracie wanted to touch it. Ephraim was asleep on my back, or he would probably want to touch it too.
Forrest and his fish.
We got back to the campsite for lunch and Gracie helped Nate restart the fire. One of my biggest fears before going camping was keeping kids out of the fire, but they did great and seemed to understand that it was hot.
After lunch we rented some boats.
The ever safety conscious Brownlee's were ready for our adventure.
This is the only picture I have of us being out on the boat. Ephraim was not a happy camper and I spent a lot of time trying to keep him happy.
After feeding my child two and a half Brown Sugar pop tarts I decided he and I were done and they dropped us off at shore. Ephraim enjoyed hiking the trail and would periodically sit down on the ledge.
They had these great benches and Ephraim was more than willing to pose.
After the boat ride we spent the rest of the evening at camp. The kids played in the dirt and we made hamburgers and peach cobbler in a dutch oven for dinner.

Sunday morning we packed up camp before going on any adventures. Gracie and Ephraim loved being in the empty tent and I am pretty sure they were having a dance party to no music.
It warmed up by mid morning and we were finally able to change out of the clothes we had been wearing all weekend. Ephraim and Grace found the golf cart by our cars and pretended to drive.
We took another short hike to the lookout and finally got to see Mt. Hood. Nate and Ramie.
The Brownlee's.
The Arnold's.

The Brownlees headed home after taking pictures so they could catch Gracie's nap and the rest of us went for a hike around the lake. Ephraim fell asleep pretty quickly and didn't wake up until the very end of the 3 mile hike.
Before we could leave Nate and Forrest decided they needed to cook some of the fish they caught.
The fish was delicious and I don't even like trout.
We had so much fun camping and are already planning our camping trip next summer. We will have to change our locale, due to having a 3 year old, 2 year old, 2 crawlers and an infant, but it should be fun!

Daddy's Little Helper

We decided it was finally time to finish baby proofing our kitchen. I have my knives in the top drawer, but Ephraim can reach in there. He has also been very interested in my glass bowls recently. Ephraim climbed into the drawer without any prompting and was very interested in holding the drill.

Due with #2

Gestastional age: 12 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain: 0 pounds
Heartbeat: good

For those of you that don't know...we are expecting #2 on March 19th, 2010. So far everything looks good, and baby was even kicking during my appointment (I can't feel anything, but we could hear the kicks on the Doppler).

Questions I have been getting:
How do you feel? Good. I have been pretty nauseous - eating doesn't make it go away and it lasts all day, but I have only thrown up 1-2 times. Not too bad.
Do you have to take shots again? Yep! I have been taking them for about 3 weeks. I am bruising more this time around, which just solidifies that every pregnancy is different.
Are you still nursing Ephraim? Yep, and that is probably why I haven't gained any weight. My doc isn't worried about it and told me that I am not on any timetable to quit. I need to add taking a calcium pill everyday and he wants me to drink more dairy. I personally think he is telling me to drink more hot chocolate.
Did you and Colleen plan to get pregnant at the same time? Well... Colleen and I do discuss that part of our lives in detail. What? No, it is just a Godly coincidence and is pretty cool to only be 2 weeks apart in due dates.

End of a Trip and a Delirious Child

From July 11th:

The last day of our trip to Wyoming was spent relaxing with family. That night Bailey and Alfred stopped by to say hi. It was about 9:30 at night and all of us were simply relaxing and enjoying our time together. Ephraim was a little out of it thanks to his cold and eye problems. His cousins had been in bed for over an hour, but our little guy was running around like crazy.

He was running around the living room in circles. He would go from Emily and Ryan to my mom who was in the opposite corner, giggling and laughing hysterically. He would fall down due to his delirium, pick himself back up and keep laughing. He had all of us in stiches.


We got a photo before Bailey and Alfred had to leave of everybody who was there. It will be easier to tell you who we are missing than name everyone. We are missing: Scott, Jack, Charles, Kimi, Josh, Alie, Leithan, Rowan, Erik, Elisa, Sadie, and Forrest.
On Sunday morning we skipped church and Colleen watched Ephraim while I finished packing. He was so wiped out that he fell asleep in her arms. Sadie didn't want to be left out and climbed into her mommy's lap. They both slept there for about 45 minutes until we had to leave in the car.