And so it begins...: Lately...

BAM!

Here is a dump over the last couple weeks and other tid bits.

Starting with...

We got to celebrate Annette's birthday with her and her family.

Unexpectedly my mom offered to keep the kids for me while I went to Portland that weekend, so I was able to spend some quality time with Brent. It was lovely.

Pre-party Selfie...

All dressed up and ready to go!

I made some spinach artichoke dip.

It was super hot out.

I spent a lot of time circulating and talking to people.

I should have taken more pictures!

Or at least good, well taken posed pictures...oh well.

Bees kept landing in Brent's soda.

I was drinking water so I didn't have that problem.

There were about 5 birthday cakes!

Max and Becca arrived and we got to spend some baby time with Miles.

Spencer and Max both wore blue v-neck shirts.

Jay and Mum-z showed up.

Miles was loving her sun glasses...or his own reflection at this point it is hard to tell.

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Brent and I were so ready to get our DATE started.

Our first stop was a little place in SE Portland that

everyone had been telling us, "you have to go there",

was the Salt and Straw.

A place where they make handmade/homemade(?) ice cream mostly weird flavors.

Personally I didn't see what the hype was about.

One of the flavors we got was good, but the other made me feel like I was licking a very fuzzy apricot. It left my tongue feeling scratchy.

We took our ice cream, popped open the trunk of the Volvo and just sat in the trunk on one of the side roads. It was really nice and peaceful.

I always forget how SE Portland has some pretty cool little neighborhoods. Most of the street corners have the street names right there on the corner.

Or that the streets are so full of green.

After ice cream we decided to go do some shuffle board and bowling. We went to a place that was once called Players, then something else, now it was Nicoli's Bar and Grill.

Still, the shuffle board was there!

We also bowled. Brent had brought me a pair of socks.

Let me just say, I whooped him in shuffleboard, and bowling!

Even though I was in the lead he finished with 3 strikes in a row!

Some people before us (kids) put over 23 balls in and jammed the lane

After all of that fun we were trying to decide if we really felt like going to dinner or not...Our reservation was for 8:45PM.

Since we were on the fence about it I made the final decision and said YUP, we are going.

After all, I wanted to try and do something that we never get to do.

It was awesome, we found parking right in front of the restaurant. If anyone has tried to park in downtown Portland anytime they know what a feat it is to achieve this parking victory.

Brent loves the melting pot. I'm kind of like, "uh, whatever" about it.

I tried to let him make all of the cheese and meal decisions.

I am working on not always getting my way. Especially when it really doesn't matter to me.

I think it was a wonderfully magical evening!

Ya, that was a bunch of pictures of food!

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Then my sister and I have been exchanging a lot of pictures recently.

I have been realizing it is really hard to make a cute winky face in a picture.

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Found time to go visit our cousins for a short visit.

I scared Rebecca, I didn't know she was home and I went to go cut blackberry for our walking stick bugs, all she saw was me walking around outside with a knife!

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August had his dental appointment.

It went okay. They were still not able to take x-rays. He just was not having it.

He kept saying, "can we be done now please?"

I felt bad. I can see he was uncomfortable. He kept wiggling his foot faster and faster as she brushed/polished his teeth...

Still, he loves the "castle" in the waiting room.

And he gets to hold the sucker thing all by himself.

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As a treat for getting his teeth cleaned and behaving, I took him to go dirty those things up good.

We got a hot chocolate. We went to the place that puts a gummy worm on the top!

I loved the cup!

I told him to hold it cause I wanted to get a picture of it.

My little gummy worm connoisseur.

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Charlie loves the alligator suit as much as August did!

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We got new water bottles for August since his last one was lost on our houseboat trip.

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Abram got a new bunny named Fable.

I teased that bunnies end up like the ones on the Monty Python: Search for the Holy Grail movie.

Hillarious!

(here is the clip from the movie for those of you who haven't had the pleasure. It is kind of graphic, but man did I love this movie)

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The kids started school.

Mitch was too cool for me to take any pictures of him. He actually ran out of the car to the school.

First day of 8th grade must be very exciting.

Here are Abram and Ely, Carleen sent a pic.

Bray first day of Fifth Grade!

He seemed a little nervous. Poor guy.

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I got some snuggle time with my sweet guy.

He isn't starting school this year, but we are putting him in his Pre-K program at the end of the month.

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Here is a picture from the water park I took to send Dad and show him what we were doing. It wasn't until later I realized what Brayden was doing in the picture...ugh, ten year olds.