Random Pictures, a Trip to Seattle, and Horse Riding

July sure went quickly!  The weather here wasn't great most of the month, but we did manage to get out and do some fun stuff.

Playing in the yard.

Poor cat, this is basically a daily occurance.

A little marble art.

 One Saturday we went up to the Farm in Mukilteo and spent a while checking out the animals.  Matt had a lot of fun petting the sheep and goats that just wander around.

Most of the pictures I took on our visit with the Jewsbury's didn't come out, but I thought this one of Matt lounging with his phone was too funny not to post.

Breaching cellphone etiquette.

"Fixing" his bike.

Grandma and GranDan stayed at a hotel one night, and Matt took full advantage of stopping by to hit the pool.  He's getting to be almost a swimmer!

We got the boat out on Lake Washington one day, took Matt down to the mouth of the Cedar for a little wading on the sand bar.

Too much fun makes for a tired monkey.

Last weekend some of my Aunts were in town, so we met up with them down at Pike's Place Market to wander around a bit and visit.  We gave Matt one of our old camera's that still (sort of) works so that he could take pictures too.

Hanging onto Mommy.

He was pretty enthralled by one of the street musicians.

Riding the Pig!

The pictures that came off Matt's camera for the weekend were pretty entertaining, lots of the house, the inside of the car, Seattle, Top Foods, and Home Depot.  Because I wasn't the one with the camera for once, there's even some pictures of me in there!  I edited out a lot of them, but here's a little slide show of the world from Matt's perspective.

Auntie got Matt horse riding lessons at one of the local parks.  He's been having quite a blast with it, though he was trying to get the horse to go "faster" and "Jump horse!" on Thursday.  Luckily there's not much fast or jump in these ponies.

Looking cool in Auntie's shades

Learning to brush the horse.

Pat your way around the back.

Hoof Picking

Riding through the woods

Matt got to switch horses about half way through the ride with a little girl who wanted to try the big horse.  Putting Matt on the little "half a horse" was pretty funny.

That poor horse.

Matt and Sofi definitely hit it off.

Tug-o-war with the little girl.

Time to go wash up!

Random Happenings, 4th of July, and the dreaded croup!

First the Random Happenings.  Matt continues to work on using the potty.  Sometimes it happens, sometimes not, but he's working on it. I'm hoping we can get him trained before the arrival of Baby Sister, so that Jamie and I only have to deal with washing diapers for 1!

He has now graduated to a big boy room, no more crib!  

It took a little adjusting, but he's now loving it.

Matt's much faster than he used to be and the cats no longer stand much of a chance.  

Chicken is pretty tolerant with him though, and he gets daily cuddle time.

Jamie thought she heard a mouse in the house the other day, so Matt and I went mouse hunting.  Didn't get any though.

What a clown...

At the urging of our new neighbors we decided to head down to the new beach property over the 4th.  They claimed the fireworks show would be fantastic, and they were right!  Most of the community is on the hill above the beach, so they all come down to the community center and boat launch for the 4th.  The show went on for about 4 hours.

The Clampets have arrived!

Little yellow finches were everywhere for some reason

Headed to the beach with Auntie and Grandma

Matt, prepared for the sun and noise

Auntie bought him a bug catcher vacuum.  He caught a lot of stuff, but no bugs.  This was catching farts.

And firework confetti

Dump truck in the pool?

 Before he actually passed out for his nap, we all heard from inside the camper "Monkey Bars!" at which point his end of the camper collapsed. Apparently it's not designed to have 2 year olds hanging from it.

Too much fun.  

Getting Ready....

The neighbors setting up for the show.

These guys showed up with a literal boat load of fireworks.

He had it rigged to launch with a garage door remote...

Getting ready to watch the show!

Fireworks!

The calm after the 4th.

When Matt woke up on the 5th he wasn't feeling well.  We though he was tired and had too much junk food, but turns out he's got the croup.  He's lost his voice now and is so sad to listen to, but he tries.

Poor Monkey

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Jake

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend this year we went to the Cabin in Cle Elum for a few days.  Matt had a ball, he loves it when he gets an overload of attention from  my parents, Auntie, Uncle and even Poppy.

It was a pretty lazy weekend, so no big adventures, but we got out to the park in Cle Elum for a while to burn off some of that 2year old energy. I love this park because it's still got all the old school stuff from when I was a kid that has now been deemed "unsafe" by most playgrounds.

Playing with some other kids on the old metal Merry-go-round.

Swinging on the "kiddy swing" that just had a strap wrapped in electrical tape to keep kids from falling out.

Going for a horse ride.

Awesome polished metal slide so you can real get some speed up.  He actually went off the end once.

Playing a little soccer with Uncle.

 Like any 2 year old, Matt loves to splash in the tub.  Those of us that have to repair water damage are usually against this, and so an often nightly battle occurs.  The solution?  Tub Time Cabin Style.

Going for a swim

Check out those rubber duckies!

It wasn't as warm as a regular tub though, so Auntie had to warm him up a little.

Playing with Poppy and Grandma after waking up waaayyy too early.

We went down to the lake to do a little "fishing"  He's a few years from getting trusted with a hook though.

Getting ready to go for a little quad ride!

Random stuff

Nothing too exciting from the last couple of weeks, mostly just doing what a 2 year old does.

 Working in the garage.  Look at that concentration.

 We went and got some pizza on one of our few nice weekend days lately.

 Then we went and got some ice cream for the beach.

Playing with Dad's SCUBA gear.

Cousin Isaac came to visit and gave Matt a music lesson.  Matt's always excited to see cousin Isaac.

I don't think Drew or I had seen each other in months, so it was great that we managed to hook up with the Hiedergott crew last weekend for some pizza and beach time.  I think all the boys had a fun.

 Ben's still got him by a hair, but not much more.

 Having a good time at the playground.

Matt's in trouble now!

Meet ......Little Sister.  Poor Matt has no idea what he's in for

Arrival date scheduled for Sept. 28, 2011.

We've been calling her Sprout.  No name yet.