Riverfront Park Play

Our beloved footbridge reopened back in May (closed for 6 months to remove lead paint) so we can once again walk across the river and over to Riverfront Park. They installed a splash fountain last year and the boys love it!

Above: this is how we eat....very separated. Keats still cannot stand listening to Sully eat so he stays as far away as possible. Cannot wait for this phase to pass!

Camping Trip

Since we had to spend so much money on Moose's surgery, we decided to go camping for our anniversary instead of the usual trip to the beach, staying in a nice hotel, inn, or rental home. This was our first camping trip as a family! Mike and I would backpack in to camp sites before we had the boys so we weren't sure about car camping. Turned out that it was fun for all!

Fishermen's Bend is only about 35 minutes from our home. We only had to hear "Are we there yet?" about ten times. ;o) Very nice campground with real bathrooms and showers and even a playground nearby. We immediately reserved the very same spot for the third week in August! Now we know to bring the boys' bikes, scooters, soccer balls, etc. We will stay for three nights next time.

I'll fill more of this in later...gotta go for a bike ride with Keats now!

Sully's Fourth Birthday

For the longest time, when I would ask Sullivan what kind of birthday party he wanted, he would only answer "raspberry". I believe he meant the cake. lol. Finally, one day he answered "robots", so Erin and I took off to find robot birthday stuff...but had no luck. Sully is a huge Toy Story fan so we went with this theme; the birthday boy was not disappointed!

I didn't get many pics of the party. Mike took a lot of the photos during present-opening and general party time but the camera was on a weird setting and nothing came out; my neighbor took lots of photos so I'm hoping she will have some good shots to share!

The cake above is my own creation. I think it was supposed to be Buzz & Woody standing on the moon...and the blue and stars of course being outer space. I thought the colors worked with the general colors of Toy Story pretty well so went with this rather than trying to replicate a scene or part of the movie. I do better when I don't have anything to compare my work to! Otherwise, I will never be satisfied that my creation is "perfect".

I made my own fondant for the cake. Much easier than I anticipated!! I made the #4 and Sully's name out of leftover fondant.

Below are the alien cupcakes that Erin and I made for the party. We copied this idea from a website. They turned out so cute!!

Above, Sully stands in front of his birthday spread showing us how "big" he is now. ;o)

He loves his Buzz Lightyear wings! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!!

A very cute close-up of one very dirty and very pleased birthday boy.

A Dozen Years

This photo was taken almost exactly 12 years ago. Michelle and Steve were married August 29th, 1998. Their wedding photos were takent he day before the wedding in downtown Salem, on the Willamette University campus. In this photo you can see the state capital building reflected in the doors and windows behind us. That was a neat touch by the photographer!

So, I'm just missing Michelle and came across this pic while searching for photos to place on my blog. Thought I'd dedicate a bit o' the blog to Michelle and to the past in general.

Michelle's family is doing as good as can be expected. Steve misses her, of course, but he is looking really good these days. He stays active and has Jamey enrolled in activities to keep him busy as well. Jamey started going to the same daycare as Keats & Sully back in May. Once or twice a week all three boys get to tear it up for a while. Jamey is a doll baby. Very sweet kid and very typical little boy. I can't wait until our boys are ready for sleepovers and Jamey can come here for the weekend. I would love the opportunity both to help Steve have some free time and also to let my boys play with Michelle's boy...seems like things coming full-circle as well as making me feel a little closer to Michelle.

Also, my boys fight less when Jamey is around! Lol.

We spread Michelle's ashes at Lake Billy Chinook on June 27th, the day before what would have been Michelle's 39th birthday. What a beautiful day! It was good to be with "everybody" and help put Michelle's ashes where she'd want them to be: in the water, specifically her beloved Lake Billy Chinook. Jamey was first to spread the ashes; talk about a lump in the throat! Sheesh. He was very brave. The day ended up being a very positive memory to add to my reflections on Michelle's death.

Anyhoo, I just love this photo and thought I would share. Now, if only I looked half that good today!! I think this will be my new "goal" look...not the girlie hair & make-up but to make myself look like I actually care about my looks! I shall use this as my encouragement!

Teh Six Million Dollar Kitteh

Moose had surgery on July 7th. He had a procedure called a "FHO" which is, literally, the removal of the head of the femur. Kittehs don't need to have the ball of the hip replaced as they have such strong muscles in that area to hold the hip in place. Moose's surgery took four hours!! Yikes. The vet wasn't able to get every little bit of the bone she wanted to remove. She said that his bone was very soft and spongy, not normal at all. We're still not certain if Moose had an old fracture that healed wrong or if he had some congenital anomaly in the hip, but I think the vet is leaning towards the congenital issue.

The first pic is Moose just as he came home from surgery. He wasn't even totally out of anesthesia yet, poor boy. The second pic is the actual bone fragment. I hope it doesn't surprise anyone that I asked to keep it: of course I asked to keep the bone!! Lol. Keats wants to take it to school for show & tell. :o) The last pic is the final tally. It doesn't include about $500 for the pre-op assessments, xrays, and all the pain meds, but it sure could have been a lot worse! The vet, Dr. Trumbull, gave us a great deal considering she worked on him for four hours!