The zoo with cousins!

One of the huge perks of living so close to Alan's parents is that we get to see his siblings when they come to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  Dani and her two cute kiddos, R(5) and K(2), invited us to go to the zoo with them while they were here.  Debbie works from home now so she got to come too.

We went first thing in the morning before it got too hot and crowded.  I thought more animals would be out then, but they weren't.  It seems like that's always the case at our zoo.  :(

Mason did really well in the stroller the whole time.  I think the only animal he could really see was a big fish though.  Poor guy!

This polar bear was one of the few animals actually in its case and moving around.  It was playing with a big, plastic barrel.

"Hello, hello?"

The safari jeep by the cheetahs is always a favorite.

Spencer liked the big cats and the giraffes the best.  He was disappointed that we couldn't see the tiger or the cougars.

 

Spencer and R. both loved their maps of the zoo and probably spent more time looking at them than the animals.  Map reading is a good skill though!

Grandma's favorite animal is also the giraffe.

We love hanging out with cousins!

Mason at 10 Months

Mason turned 10 months old during our family reunion last weekend.  Here's a quick run-down of what he's been up to lately:

He went through a few weeks of making this adorable, funny face while blowing air out of his nose.

Moving is definitely his biggest milestone and interest at the moment.  Mason can scoot on his bum and army crawl now in addition to rolling.  He's having a great time exploring our house.  No huge messes yet, but I know we don't have long.  :)  He gets closer to regular crawling every day.

Under Spencer's bed is one of Mason's favorite places to play.

Mason cut his second tooth earlier this week and a third one is about to pop through.  We love his smile and he has been so happy lately.

Mason loves to feed himself finger foods and insists on having something he can feed himself in between bites of pureed food.  I make all of his food while we're at home, but I discovered the squeeze pouches of baby food for when we're out and about.  One of the best inventions ever!

Mason started making a whole slew of new sounds in the last couple of weeks.  He likes to click his tongue and blow raspberries as well.  It's so fun to hear his little voice.

Naps have been awesome the last few weeks (well, until we had a reunion and threw everything off!)  He was waking up around 7:00, napping from 9-11 and 3-5, and then going to bed at 7:45ish.  Hopefully we'll be able to get back to that schedule when summer settles down.  

This is such a fun age!

Mason's Independence Day

This is what Mason learned to do on the 4th of July this year.  Freedom!

Independence Day

Running the Freedomthon was the main event of our Independence Day this year.  Alan was up most of the night setting up for the race.  Spencer decided to run the 5k with Mason and I this time so he could get his name printed on the back his medal.  It was tricky to take pictures while juggling these two, so this is the only one I got.  It was a hot morning and that made for a hard race for Spencer, but he finished.  I'm proud of him for sicking it out!

Alan's sister Dani also ran the 5k.  She's the one who had the stroke 15 months ago!!!  Her cute kiddos did the kid's races.  We all enjoyed a pancake breakfast after running.  Another successful Uberthon's race!  I just wish I had a more patriotic running shirt.  :)

We hosted a bbq for Alan's parents, Dani, and our friend Moe that evening.  Sadly, it was so hot outside, that we had to eat inside.  Not nearly as fun.  Per tradition, we made home made ice cream for dessert and this is the only picture I took.   I tried a new vanilla ice cream recipe this year and it was awesome!

We decided that none of us would have fun if we tried taking Mason to watch fireworks, so I volunteered to stay home with him while Alan and Spencer went to Tigard HS to watch the show.  Alan said there was hardly anyone there until about 9:00 when it finally started to cool down a little.  Alan was exhausted from his race, but he still wanted to make the 4th special for Spencer.  What a great dad!

More Summer!

I am really behind on blogging so I'm going to just lump a bunch of pictures into one big post.  Here we go!

This was an ice excavation experiment we found on pinterest.  We froze Lego Ninja Lloyd in a block of ice and Spencer had to carefully excavate him with salt and a spray bottle of water.  It took awhile, but he successfully rescued Lloyd!

Spencer has spent hours and hours playing Legos this summer.  He asked me to take pictures of this creation: "Battle scene in the midevil times."

We had the hottest, and driest June on record for Oregon.  25 straight days with no rain and 9 days 90 degrees or above.  It was hot for us heat wimps without AC, so we tried to cool off in the baby pool and the splash park.  Mason loves water!

Spencer earns money by recycling plastic water bottles from Uberthon's races and from his Oregon grandparents.  On our way to Safeway to recycle these two bags.

He bought Legos with the money of course!  Alan was out of town so building this motorcycle was a good activity to keep Spencer occupied.

Mason's first selfie! ;)

Splash park!

Spencer helped me make these wands for a little boy in our ward who is fighting cancer.

Mason finally cut his first tooth just after he turned 9 months old!  This was my attempt at a picture of it when it was still small.  Having just one tooth is pretty adorable.
 

Cheeser!

Camping!

Alan had one free weekend in June and decided to take Spencer camping.  I volunteered to stay home with Mason, figuring it would be more enjoyable for everyone that way.  :)

Spencer wanted to go to the same campground by Tillamook they always go to.  It's a long drive, but he loves it there.  Alan did a good job taking pictures this time.

They had hot dogs and dutch oven peach cobbler for dinner.

Spencer got pretty good at skipping rocks on the river.  WAY better than I've ever done!

They headed to the beach after packing up their campsite in the morning. It was pretty cool there, but they found 9 broken sand dollars!

No trip to the beach is complete without a stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory for cheese samples ice cream cones.

Exhausted on the way home!

Spencer had such a fabulous time and I'm so grateful he has a dad who is willing to do this kind of thing with him.  Good memories and good bonding time with a busy dad.