Full Car

Found this funny picture on my phone the other day.

It was on the way to "bring a friend day" at preschool a couple of months ago!

Lilly is 2!

Lilly's bike

Nehalem Bay

We went camping at Nehalem Bay this weekend and had a blast. To our surprise our kids slept great, Lilly did so much better than last year. We love this spot so much, I think it will become an annual tradition. They have great bike trails, a beautiful beach, a shallow bay to play in, and a river close by. Not to mention the cleanest campground bathrooms I've ever seen and hot showers. We rented kayaks to row up stream, but Lilly apparently hates boating. After rowing around for about 40 min. with a screaming baby we gave up on the idea. She does love biking though, so we went on multiple bike rides a day.

Eli's construction site

Some pics of all of us at the bay

Ben had to take the training wheels off of Eli's bike to get it on the back of the car. While he was loading up to come home we suggested to Eli that he try riding his bike without the training wheels. We supposed he'd give it a few tries, but not really get anywhere. To everyone's surprise he just took off. He had a little trouble getting it started, but could ride just fine. He didn't want to leave the campground because he just couldn't get enough of the freedom of the two wheel ride. This was yesterday, and now he's a pro at starting, breaking and turning. I couldn't be more proud, I really didn't expect them to come off until next summer when he would be 5. I have to admit I got a little teary when he took off that first time. Ben had already put his bike on the back of the car, but pulled if off and said "I have to go for a ride with my son!".
Congratulations Eli!

A Purple Bead

We went to a birthday party at the park yesterday and shortly after arriving there, we had to leave. Eli had a bloody nose and said he had a bead stuck up his nose. At first I thought he said "Bee", and was glad to find out it was a piece of plastic and not a bug. I stood up to take a look, and my sandal broke. I decided it wasn't such a big emergency that it couldn't wait a few minutes, I took Ben and Lilly home, got some shoes (you definitely need shoes in the ER) and drove to the hospital.

They were really quick about it, we were only there a few minutes before they got it out. They stuck a very tiny straw with a little balloon on the end up his nose. They pushed the end past the bead, inflated the little balloon, and pulled it out with the bead wedged in front of it.

Eli didn't think this was very fun, but loved the Popsicle they gave him afterwards. I hope this experience will discourage him from sticking anything else up there!

When we asked him why he did it he said "Kylie stuck a bead up her nose and it got stuck, I thought if I did it I could get it out"! We had actually hoped the experience of a friend having the same thing happen would prevent this kind of experience, but alas no such luck. We even had to call Kylie because Eli wanted to know what color her bead was, for the record it was green!