5 months old

The time is going by SO incredibly fast. Our little tiny baby is now 5 months old. He's army crawling all over the house, trying as best as he can to follow the boys all over the place. Whenever they are playing on the floor, he makes his way to where they are. And many times a day he gets himself all the way over to their bedroom door, just to have mom pick him up and bring him back to the livingroom. I'm such a meanie. He is so happy all of the time and I've never seen a more smiley and giggley baby. Everyday he's looking blonder and blonder and more like me. Pretty soon we'll start him on solids and I'm trying to wean him right now. Before we know it he'll be walking and I don't know what I'm going to do with myself then. Right now we're enjoying his sweet disposition and his playfulness. He's such a perfect little baby.

He's a little genius!!

Sawyer isn't even 5 months old yet and he's already trying to crawl. He gets his little self all around this house. If he gets tired of pushing himself across the floor, he just rolls instead. He can turn his body around to face a different direction when he's on his belly just by swiveling his little hips. He's so darn smart!! He's gonna be walking before we know it!!

Fort Casey

One of the days that we were on Whidbey Island we decided to go see some of the historical attractions. I did some research before our trip (like a nerd) on the history of the island. I love learning about Washington's past. One of the places that caught my eye when I was reading up was Fort Casey. I didn't really get too deep into what exactly we would find when we got there, but I've been to different forts before and I thought the boys might like it. The area has been turned into a state park, so I figured if it was boring then at least we could walk on trails or something. Grandma Shellie and the other "grown-ups" opted to stay at home and relax. We left Sawyer with them, and took the 2 younger boys and Billy and off we went.

The forts I've been to in the past have been recreations of old pioneer forts. Interesting to me, but not so much for younger boys. They were all kind of irked that I had pulled them away from video games, so on the way there I was really nervous that everybody was going to have a lame time except for myself. I couldn't have been more wrong.

When we pulled into the parking lot I was completely overwhelmed. This was like nothing that I'd ever seen in my life. It was awesome. Right on the edge of the water was a HUGE concrete compound that sprawled all down the coastline of Admiral Inlet. The kids started freaking out and running as fast as they could towards the fort when we let them out of the car. There were dozens of rooms, guard towers, gun batteries, giant 10" barrell guns, barracks, and tons more to explore. It was not at all what I was expecting. We were there for over an hour checking everything out, including Admiralty Head Lighthouse. Oh yeah, and deer! We could have spent another hour running around, but we had other places to see, shopping to do, and we had to get back to Sawyer.

These are just a choice few of the pictures that I took. If you want to learn a little more about the 119 year old Fort Casey, you can go here http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Casey. Or visit it yourself! It's worth the drive. I plan on trying to learn a little more and go back to explore some of the places that we missed. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad the kids enjoyed themselves. Hopefully trips like this will help spark their own interest in history.

A day at Deception Pass

We'd never been to Deception Pass before. We spent all day there BBQing and playing on the beach. Chris and Tom went for a hike, the boys built sandcastles with Billy, Amanda cuddled on Sawyer all day long, and I learned how to play Cribbage. Oh yeah, and I got the worst sunburn I've had in over 10 years. Other than that, it was a great day in a beautiful spot.

The Lynden Picnic

Every summer we get excited for The Lynden Company Picnic. Grandma Shellie gets as many of us together for the first Saturday of August every year to go. There's always tons of awesome food, hayrides, inflatable toys for the kids, train and horse rides, and tons more. It's always so much fun. This year though had to be the best so far. There were a TON of us. Family came from Oregon, California and even Arizona to be there. It was great to see so much family. It was a family reunion of sorts and it led into a fun and relaxing weekend on Whidbey Island.