"So, where's Dollar and who are you?" you ask. Good question. Why would I be taking pictures of myself? But if you must know, Aidan's great with the camera, too, although, he can't help taking a few "bonus" shots. You might want to see how I updated yesterday's blog, too. It just wasn't obvious about what car I thought was so cool, so I deleted the car show shot to clarify my point. Just wait, next posting will be ALL about my cool car - I didn't mention that my friend, Katey, also got a '64 Nova, oh yea, a wagon. So, we'll be fixing up matching rides (with mountains of help from our wonderful husbands, of course) over the next few... months? years? Hmmm... we'll have to see. Nothing worth doing well should be rushed, right?

Dollar wouldn't hold still - me either, for that matter. (See the cool dump truck up there?)

Nice picture, A-bear!! :-)

Someone also mentioned I might like to remember the days of diaper-changing... at first I was horrified - no thanks! but then I remembered how I do get a quiet moment with little people, who don't otherwise pause for anything! So, thanks, Kristi, you're right. And, check this out! I caught Camten smiling - he always runs from the camera! (Or maybe he's just running from Aidan, who was chasing him anyway?)

Time flies when you're having fun!!!!

I can't believe summer is over! No matter how we tried to squeaze everything in, there was so much more we could have done! We finished fixing up our property for sale, which was, perhaps, our most important project - Trinity's helping dad lay the sod in the front yard. The excavator has been moved to a new project site now, and every last detail is finished - including an offer on the house! :-) It's true! Hopefully next month I'll be taking pictures of new stuff we get out of the money from this sale!!!

It could happen!!



Trinity's growing into a beautiful, curly-haired, blond, dimpled, one year old. She has her favorite things to get into in every room of the house... and beyond! In Daddy's shop, it's his rolls of tape for masking and spray-painting. She wears them like bracelets. In the living room, she goes right to the remote, of course. In our bedroom she finds the cordless mouse, and takes off running. In the bathroom, she likes my drawer with lipstick and pretty girl things. In the other bathroom, she opens the door to the shower and climbs in to play (and get all wet!). In the kitchen she has two favorite options: the sandwich baggies or the cereal, which must be fascinating to dump out. She's helping Mom cook. The rest of the house is safe from her curiousity unless you are one of her brothers trying to play quietly, or a cat getting in a nap. The patio outside is her newest favorite place to play and explore under close observation, but first the cat food must be put out of reach, or it's our Princess's first order of business to spread it all over for kitty. There's nothing like being one year old!!!!


We "camped" in the back yard this year, my favorite way to "rough it"! We had roasted marshmellows, a pond, a tent, a cooler of drinks - it was beautiful! And then we went to bed in the house!! :-)


Our city had a Day at the Park and all 4 got to jump and play for a whole $5 - that's what I call fun for everybody!!! They had a dog show, too, so maybe next year we'll bring out our own award-winning Dollar. He came with us to a car show, and was quite a hit! We had fun trying to hold him, too, he's gotten so big! We made it to quite a few car shows this summer. I think that was our "family favorite thing to do."


Speaking of cars and totally cool... check out this work of art!!!

I think I refered to this '64 Chevy II Nova as "an old car that was too good of a deal to pass up" in my last blog. (I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it!) Unfortunately for my husband, I fell in love with it while it sat in the driveway waiting for the title before being resold for a profit. On the other hand, Jeremy now has a wife interested in car things like never before... I can't wait to fix this up and drive it everywhere!!! What have we gotten ourselves into?!

Since we love snakes around here, especially the Anaconda, we had to go see the Reptile Show at the Clackamas Library. You will be happy to hear that Anacondas do not make good pets. I was happy to find out! But they are so cool to look at and to watch other people hold!!


Our favorite fair is the Clark County Fair - close, but not too close, big, but not too big - plus they had a great reptile exhibit this year and we got to see yet another Anaconda. Of course. But that's not all!! They also had a GREAT crash up derby!!! Oh yea! So much smashing, and crashing and loud motors and dirt - it was practically paradise! We dived into the experience and ate cotton candy and hand-dipped corndogs for lunch! And then we got down to business... winning stuff! Actually, we only took home one stuffed animal this year. (Phew!) And we were SO happy that Nana could join us. That's two more eyes to keep track of everyone! One of my highlights was when Camten saw a car dealership set up and started walking around the cars admiring the rims and paint jobs thinking we had quite naturally come upon a classic car show. Did I mention the car shows were a family favorite?

Let's see... we garage-saled! Meaning we tried to sell our cool junk off. Hanging outside was fun, but what a lot of work for pennies!!!! And that reminds me that we had a great Summer Party with all my family, including Kristi up from Mexico... why didn't I take pictures of that? Oh, probably 'cause I was so tired from garage-saling!!

We went fishing with our friends, Darrell and Becca and baby Hannah! The boys watched carefully and learned a lot! Shad caught his first fish and Aidan was one fast catcher with the net! The Rainbow Trout farm is right next to the property we are selling, so it was actually a very convenient fish we caught. But since only Jeremy has ever really fished before and the rest of us were kinda freaking out over the hook and worm thing, it's probably good we went where we could see the swarms of fish in the water and the help at the farm prepared the fish for BBQing for us.



Unbelievably, that brings me to September and the first day of school! (Actually, I could go on and on about my "new" Chevy II if anyone's interested!) This year we have 2 catching the bus!! Shad's in 2nd and Aidan's in Kindergarten! They had a great first day, of course, it's Mom that was pacing and fussing, wondering where her boys could be for so long!! Well, me and Camten and Trinity, who suddenly had to play with each other for a change!!








Since nothing ever stays the same around here, I wonder what will happen next? Summer may be over, but something new is just getting started!