Hottest Day of the Year So Far

What did we do on the hottest day of the year so far?  We were among the few who did NOT go to the coast.  

Instead Taylor & I went to a local splash park and 

watched a few planes from the Oregon International Airshow fly overhead. 

 

 She loved the splash park.  It was the first time we'd gone all summer. 

 

 Taylor, up to her usual antics.

   

 Here you can really see her two missing front teeth!  Look at how happy she is!  She was having so much fun she hardly noticed...

these flying by.

Meanwhile, James & Logan were hiking Saddle Mountain.

Logan made it all the way to the top!

 It was about 2.5 miles one way and very steep at times.

James said it was nearly 1700 ft. of climbing! 

Once again, Logan did amazing, not wanting to turn around until they were almost to the top.

Luckily James convinced him to keep going and Logan said he was glad he made it to the very end.

Now it's Logan who's planning the next hike.  I just hope James' legs recover enough to join him. 

Rotations

Our official, final, there's-no-changing-it-now, list of where we will be going on rotations.  

 1.  Oak Harbor, Washington on Whidbey Island.  It's a Naval Air Station.  

 We're pretty excited about this one.  

It's only a couple hours ferry ride to Victoria, B.C. Canada and also couple hours drive to Vancouver, B.C. Canada.  It's a short ferry ride to San Juan Island and Orcas Island.  It's going to take our entire stay there to explore this area. 

 2. Back here for an Internal. 

 3. Roseburg VA Hospital. 

4. Chemewa Indian Health Services in Salem. 

 We lost the Eugene one we were hoping for because we got drawn into an internal.  And we lost Bandon because some girl was a jerk, but because of that, we're going to Oak Harbor, which we are very excited about. So it's all going to work out nicely. 
 
 

Before & After

Before

 After

Birthday Festivities

Logan's birthday began very early, with James wishing him a happy birthday at about 6am.  Then James promptly went to the clinic in Portland.  Logan on the other hand, couldn't go back to sleep because he was so excited it was his birthday.  Not being able to find James, he came and found me instead.  Yay, for me.

The first thing Logan asked about were his presents and I had to confess I hadn't wrapped them yet.  So he graciously suggested that he wait in my bed, while I got up and wrapped those presents.  

Taylor had been planning for days to scare Logan on his birthday.  This was her plan:  

                               1. Get up before Logan

                               2. Go downstairs 

                               3. Wait for Logan at the bottom of the stairs

                               4. Shout "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" when Logan 

                                   came down the stairs, thus scaring him.

I'm not sure she considered the fact that she's NEVER up before Logan in the mornings.  So her plan was really destined to fail from the beginning.  

In spite of the shouting, ("Mom, are you done wrapping my presents yet?!?   No, son.  It takes longer to wrap presents then to UNwrap them,") Taylor continued to sleep. 

So I told Logan of Taylor's plan, so he went in and woke her up.  Then Taylor came running down the stairs, wide-eyed, yet still waking up, hair all tangled and so happy she still has the "opportunity to do this" plan of hers.  

 Finally, we're all ready for Logan to come downstairs.  Taylor shouted "Happy Birthday" and...

the presents were sitting on the table, all neatly wrapped.  Whew!  What a morning!  And it wasn't even 7am yet.  

Besides his cowboy hat, he got a Lego R2D2 watch.  We always know what time it is now because he is constantly informing us.  It's great.

He got a couple of mini Star Wars Lego sets and

 

from Nana & Papa, a book on baptism.

When some neighbors of ours saw that Logan was into cowboys and had the cowboy hat already, they brought out a pair of snake skin cowboy boots for him.  Did he luck out or what?!?

He won't take them off and he puts them right next to his bed at night, "because that's what real cowboys do!" 

I made Cowboy Cupcakes.  (Those are supposed to look like cowboy hats).

As part of his birthday, we took Logan to a rodeo!  He loved it!  

He was enthralled.  He watched.  He asked questions.  He observed and learned.  I loved it too.  I can't wait to take him to another one. 

We saw calf roping,

steer wrestling,

and barrel racing,

 which was a favorite of all because the horses ran so fast.

We went to the "slack events" rodeo.  It's for all the competitors who didn't make it into the "real" rodeo.  For us novice rodeo fans, it was still fun to watch, but it didn't cost us a dime and it wasn't crowded at all.  In fact there were about a dozen people there is all.

Everyone thought Logan looked so cute in his cowboy hat.  All the "cowboys" said hi to him and were really nice. 

We hope Logan enjoyed his birthday.  I really wanted it to be special because I think turning 8 is special.  He said it was the best birthday ever and that's what really matters. 

8 Years Ago Today

Eight years ago today, I held this precious bundle in my arms for the first time!  He was so small and so perfect and my life has never been the same since!  It's so much more wonderful than it would have been without my baby boy!

 2 months old

10 months old, after his first major haircut.

1st camping trip

1st bike

He's been running since about 2 weeks after he learned to walk.

I could do an entire post of the funny ways and places he's fallen asleep in, but this is one of the cutest.

One of his favorite places, the coast.

Inside a helicopter. 

Growing up!  Getting off the bus as a Kindergartener.

 1st tonsillectomy (and last).

He's gotten faster on the bike.

 

Still best friends.

 

One cool dude.

And this is Logan on his 8th birthday, so excited to be a cowboy and for his upcoming baptism.  He's excited to start Cub Scouts and to start working on his Faith in God.  

He still loves Legos, especially Star Wars Legos.  If he doesn't have certain Star Wars set (which is generally the case), he just makes his own out of random pieces and they always look just like the real thing!  He's amazing with Legos.

He's starting to enjoy reading more and I regularly catch him reading on his own.  

He's a great big brother.  He and Taylor get along really well most of the time.  

He loves riding his bike and being outside.  He'll do anything to be outdoors.  He loves hiking with his dad too.  He really enjoys one-on-one time with his dad and going out in the convertible with him. 

He keeps saying, "I can't believe I'm 8 years old!"  And I couldn't agree with him more.

Happy Birthday, Loganberry!  I love you so much!