Cousins

This one's for you Grandma and Grandpa! All 5 grandkids eating tacos by the ocean.

Waldport, OR 2010

After leaving Corvallis, we drove over to the coast (Waldport, OR) for 6 days of relaxing with my sister Trish and her husband Patrick and their two kids Alden and Tula who drove down from Seattle. This year we upgraded to a bigger beach house. The beach was right across the street and we enjoyed many adventures out on the sand. Lydia spent most of her time beach combing, but the rest of the kids were thrilled to just dig. (Although Nolan preferred rolling and eating!) Maintaining tradition, the minute we arrived in NewPort and first saw the ocean, James threw on his "Captain's hat". (I don't know if I have any photos of him on the OR coast where he's not wearing that hat!) The kids enjoyed shopping at their favorite store, Pirate's Plunder and James and I had a relaxing anniversary afternoon strolling around Newport's Nye Beach and Historic Bayfront. The new beach house included a pool table, foos ball and ping pong and ping pong wars became the favorite pastime after the kids went to sleep. (Unfortunately, James and I came out on the loosing end but there's always next time!)

Nolan James Cotterell (12 mo.), "Big" James D. Cotterell, and our newest nephew "Little" James D. Cotterell (5 mo.)

Oregon 2010!

We spent three days with James' brother, Gary, his wife, Mary and their four kids, Aspen, Jacob, Sam, and baby James who live in Corvallis, OR. As you can see, Nolan's first impression of his new cousin was that he looked like a tasty snack!

We enjoyed hiking to a couple of BEAUTIFUL waterfalls in Silver Falls State Park. This picture shows the path we walked along inside the cave that sits behind the waterfall. Very cool, but very high and I didn't do so well with the drop off edge!

Chalk On The Walk

Chalk on the walk has become one of our annual traditions. Every August we head downtown with some of our neighborhood friends and decorate the sidewalk with our artwork for Bozeman's Sweet Pea Festival. I think we covered a record amount of pavement this year!

Pirate Camping at Canyon Ferry Lake

Are we a camping family? Yes we are! (About once every three or four years!) We don't venture out very often (crawling babies, dirt, rocks, fire pits, and lakes aren't a good combo) but we couldn't pass up our friend Gabby's Pirate Camp out birthday celebration! The kids had a blast on the water tramp. They even went to a nearby island for a treasure hunt! When I wasn't looking my friend Janet tatooed "Mom" on my son's chest and his sisters loved it so much they stuck a dragon on his head!

Playing at Bogert

I took the kids to the park a few hours early before their swimming lessons with hopes of snapping a few cute summer photos. The slightly overcast morning sky made a perfect picture day for us. I have to say this was probably one of the least "torturous" photo shoots for my kids. Great pictures + happy kids = happy mommy!