Diabetes Walk

One of our good friends son, Cameron, was diagnosed with Diabetes a few years ago and this year we had the pleasure of walking with them in the Diabetes Walk through the Riverfront Park Area. It was inspirational to see all the kids who have diabetes get together for this great fundraiser. I'm sure this will become an annual event for all of us!

Jaxon and Chase meeting Otto the Spokane Indian's mascot.

Cameron - he is such a great little boy. I say little boy because we have been friends with his parents since before he was born. It's been so much fun to watch him grow up!

Jaxon getting ready to walk across the finish line.

And the birthday week continues....

Each year the Spokane Interstate Fair comes right around Jaxon's birthday. This year was even more fun because he loved the lights, the sounds, the people and especially the animals. He was ecstatic to see the cows. We have a video of it that is absoloutely adorable, the moment that he realized they were real was just priceless :-)

Here are a few photos from our fun evening at the Fair.

Here we go!

Mommy and Jaxon, love that little grin he does these days.

One of his favorite ways to get around - on daddy's shoulders.

He wanted to ride the rides, all it took was one look at Grandpa and Grandpa was in line buying him tickets for the rides. We had to search for ones that he was tall enough to go on, after being turned away at a few, we found the spinning bears. At first he wasn't too sure, but after we were done he just kept saying - again, again. (not sure who the little boy was, he was just on the ride by himself, so we joined him)

After the bear ride.

On to the tea cups.

Mommy, Jaxon, Aboo (Aunt Heidi), and Grandpa

September 12th - Birthday Dinner!

On the night of Jaxon's birthday we went to dinner at the Onion with Jaxon's grandparents and Aunt Heidi. More attention, more presents, and more sugar - he LOVED it! Here are a few pictures from that evening.

Jaxon's Party at School...

Jaxon had "school" on Monday, his birthday, so we took treats over after nap time. They celebrated by singing to Jaxon and then eating clown ice cream cones from Baskin Robbins, they were definitely a HIT with all the kids in his class. And as you can see by the pictures below, Jaxon really loved them too. I think he consumed more sugar in the two days Sunday and Monday then he had his whole life up until that point - oh well, he only turns two once :-)

Good morning birthday boy!

I love birthdays - as soon as Jaxon woke up on Monday, the 12th we started celebrating. Jason and I sang happy birthday and he blew out candles in his blueberry muffin. Too cute!

Jaxon's 2nd Birthday Party!

We celebrated Jaxon's 2nd birthday with our family and friends on Sunday, September 11th at Discovery Park in the Valley. It is an ideal park for toddlers. It was a very nice and HOT day, and Jaxon had tons of fun - playing, eating pizza, opening presents, running through the splash pad, and of course eating cupcakes! Thank you so much to everyone who was there to help us celebrate our little boy turning two!!

Exploring all the features of the park - he LOVES the in ground trampoline!

Dual slide!

Walking through one of the nature areas with Kaila, his best bud! He'll follow her anywhere :-)

Group shot of all the kids who were at the party!

Cupcakes! When I asked Jaxon what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday he said "Caramel" So, luckily I was able to find caramel frosting - I had never had it before, but luckily it turned out delicious!

Not quite sure about everyone singing to him!

Digging in to a cupcake.

Rinsing off in the splash pad.

Opening presents. He was thoroughly spoiled again this year - and he loves all of his new toys, books, and clothes.

Outfit change and back to the splash pad for more water - you can tell by a lot of the pictures how red his cheeks were that day. It was really hot, but he just wanted to keep playing and playing :-)

Hugs from Great Grandma, or Grammy as he calls her!

Say "Cheesecake" which Jaxon thought was hilarious and he just couldn't stop laughing. With Grandpa Greg as we were loading up to leave.

Jaxon turns 2!

Jaxon turned two on September 12th - and wow what a fun week we had!!! Birthday Party and Discovery Park on Sunday with all of his friends and family, party at School on Monday with all of his school friends, Dinner at the Onion on Monday with the Grandparents and Aunt Heidi, Spokane Interstate Fair on Wednesday, and his 2 year check up with Dr. Rice on Friday - Whoa - we were busy - but Jaxon had an absolute blast! I will post pictures of all the festivities next. Here are his stats from his 2 year check up.

Weight: 29 pounds (60th percentile)
Height: 34.5 inches (50th percentile)

Right on track - a healthy and happy two year old boy!

A little reunion!

It had been a few years since we had gotten together with a group of our high school friends, so it was great that Jamie decided to have us all up for lunch over Labor Day weekend. It was fun to get all of our kids together and play, trade stories, and catch up. It's funny how natural and comfortable it feels when you get together with people who knew you so well for so many years, even after not seeing each other for awhile. So, here are a couple of group shots from our afternoon together.

The kids!

Jaxon, Ciara and Brendan (Tami's), Ashton (Sarah's), Easton (Jeb and Erica's), Lillie and Hannah (Sarah's) and Riley (Jaime's)

And now the mom's added in. All of us went to school together K-12 - wish we could have had some of the others who went to school with us for so long there too - but hopefully we won't have to wait for our 20 year reunion for that to happen :-)

Chores!

Jaxon was home one day with Jason and insisted that he vacuum his own room because as we hear LOTS of times each day "Me Big Boy!" Too cute - and in his robe too, that's because if Jason is wearing his robe, Jaxon wears his too. I must say that I absolutely love this age, he is so dang cute!

Happy 10th Anniversary to Us!

Hard to believe that Jason and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary this year! Wow - how time flies. We had never been to Walla Walla before, so we decided to take a quick overnight trip to a wonderful bed and breakfast outside of Walla Walla called Cameo Heights (if you ever need a special place to stay, we would definitely recommend it - beautfiul view, great accomodations, and Jason is still talking about the breakfast that they made us that morning - fresh apple pancakes with apples they picked fresh from their orchard that morning - YUM). Here are a few pictures from our stay there.

Front entrance.

View of the back, they had a great swimming pool, hot tub and fire pit area where we roasted marshmallows and had smores that night!

View from the swimming pool area.

Out taking a walk.

View of their orchards and vineyard.

Taking turns driving through the orchards.

We rented a jeep for the weekend. As a reminder of our great honeymoon in Maui, where we had a jeep for our whole trip. Definitely considered going out and buying one of these after the fun weekend we had, they are a blast!

Driving back tothe Mansion, you can see it on the hill in the distance.