Amusement Park Fun

Yesterday we hit some family fun at "Cliff's" in Albuquerque. (We all 3 needed a break from the construction at home and this was perfect.) DJ and I were able to ride all of the kiddie rides with Cole - and there were several his size.

Cole's 1st ride was the Merry - Go - Round which you can see he quickly protested. However, as soon as the horse started moving his mind change, he trusted us and wanted "More Neigh Neigh".

Next was the "bouncy car" which turned out to be his favorite ride - close tie to the train. Luckily for me, DJ rode this one cause it would have made me sick for sure.

I got the joy of ridding the "Doggie" with Cole which happened to be much gentler. It did go around in a never ending circle but surprisingly enough - I didn't get sick. (He wanted to ride the one that looked like Annie.)

Can you believe Cole rode this waterslide!!! I was shocked to see him and DJ come down. The climb to the top was long and I was certain after waiting for a 1/2 hour that they were going to be walking back down the stairs - but he did it! DJ said he was quiet the entire way down (I am sure it was dark inside) but by the look of the face at the end - he liked it! Cole said, "Agua, wet, boat..."

We took a break for lunch and then Cole saw this next ride - I have no clue what it was called. I was just THRILLED - I wasn't the one he wanted to ride it with. I would have lost my lunch no doubt. (The Cole girls are known for motion sickness if you didn't know - and going in circles is tough!) I was thinking Cole might get sick on this ride but he just laughed and laughed and tried to spin the wheel harder to spin faster. We were laughing so hard at him. (I think he takes after his Papa Rodney. The faster, the bumpier, the better!)

School Picture Day

Today was "picture day" at Cole's Montessori School. Poor little guy had to squeeze into his dress outfit one more time. He kind of looks like a little old man in his hat. :) He had a growth spurt all of a sudden this last week and is getting so tall and his feet are LONG! Hah...

Northwest Vaction Part 3 - Gig Harbor

After a fun filled week in Lincoln City, OR, we drove back up the coast to Gig Harbor, WA and spent an amazing weekend at Rachel and Scott's home. Scott and Rachel have the most beautiful home and a very fun farm! Laura, Chad, Jake and Clara also came for the weekend which was the icing on the cake. The kids had more fun playing with the chickens, puppies, hunting out the kitty, feeding the goats and of course Scott's famous tractor rides. Saturday night Scott and Rachel hosted an outdoor movie night which was fantastic! Such a fun neighborhood activity! DJ thinks we need to do it at our home but for those of you who have been to our house - I don't think the neighbors would appreciate it. We spent some time at Pike's Market enjoying the amazing scenary, drinking wonderful coffee, eating great sea food and more! We rented a boat for a day and took a small tour under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge - what fun. I think one of my highlights was all 9 of us traveling in the suburban! What fun....I say we do a road trip sometime. :) Thanks to Scott and Rach for opening their home to a weekend of "controlled chaos". 

Northwest Vacation Part 2 - Lincoln City, OR

The 2nd part of our travels led us to Lincoln City, OR. Most of DJ's family was able to come for the week and partake in the fun. We had such a fun week playing on the beach. Some of the many wonderful highlights were: blowing a glass orb (mine ended up looking not so round...), playing in the sand, crabbing (DJ, Mark and Michal caught our meal for an evening) YUMMY, seeing the cousins play and sometimes bicker, attempting wire wrapping (Corey was a great teacher and very patient with her students. Meredith was a quick learner and I was too much of a perfectionist. Although very fun and I am happy with my end results!), YATZEE til all hours of the night (James - "That's something!") and running each morning at sea level and going for coffee/scones afterwards. I still can't believe how out of breath I am running at 7000 ft and I was only gone for 12 days! (Maybe it was all the cookies and cake I ate) Hah...

Northwest Vacation Part 1

On the 13th of August we headed to Seattle to spend a weekend with DJ's Uncle Steve, Aunt Dawn, Christopher and "Meow-lly" the cat. We had a wonderful and very memorable weekend. DJ's Grandpa Bookout passed away in January and had a love of fishing. So, Steve and Dawn took us out on their boat in the San Juan Islands where Steve found the most perfect and beautiful spot to "Set Grandpa Bookout to Sea". It was a very awesome celebration of his life!

Before our venture to Lincoln City, OR - we stopped at Nana and Grandpa's. Grandpa has been working SOO hard on remodeling their Albany home. We were very excited to see the amazing work of art Mark created! And, Cole was even more excited that Grandpa let him drive the backhoe tractor.

Night-time Scares

Cole's nightlight and ipod have made it back to his room and seem to be helping. (I guess I took them out when he really started moving around because I didn't want the extra cords. And he was sleeping so well I didn't even think to put them back.)

Annie has been a big help too. I have been letting her lay on the floor by his crib until he falls asleep. It works out good - she is ready to leave the room when he falls asleep (that is if they can stop playing). She likes to have the "choice" of which room or piece of furniture to sleep on. We try to keep his door shut so she isn't in and out all night disturbing him. And we know she would be...:)

I don't think Cole woke up last night. I have a vision of getting up once but each night is a blur now. He did wake up crying "Mamma Munder", "Mamma Munder".  Poor Baby Cole...

Scare...Mamma...Scare

The last several nights have been very rough for DJ and I. We are in our seasonal "Monsoon" season so get afternoon/evening thundershowers every day. The thunder is very disturbing to Cole and he gets very nervous. When the storms are in the late afternoon and it's still light outside Cole seems fine - he gets nervous but we are right there and he can see we are not afraid and can talk to him about it. The thunder at night-time is a different story. He cries and screams out to Mamma and of course I go running to comfort him. He gets up anywhere from 2-4 times and DJ and I just take turns. We are SO not used to this - Cole has always been a very good sleeper at night. 730-730.
Funny thing is, the last couple of nights we haven't had any "munder", Cole's pronunciation. So we don't know if he is scared of the dark or has gotten into the habit of us running when he calls. It's a tough situation because we both want him to self soothe himself to sleep but if he really is scared we don't want to mess with that. Last night when I put him to bed as soon as we walked into his room Cole said, "Dark Scare". I explained there was nothing to be afraid of and mommy was right across the hall and then went and got his nightlight. Then he cried "Tractor Dark Scare". So who knows, maybe he doesn't like his tractors outside in the dark.