Sand from there to here and grins from ear to ear

July has just flown by huh! We are having a great time together this summer despite the not so great weather. We enjoy the coolness outside but not the yucky rain. Did you know that our average daily temp for July as of now is only a tenth of a degree warmer than Fairbanks Alaska! Anyway, Tanner got an awesome new sandbox for his birthday handmade by his PapPap. I love it because I can fit in it with him to play. He spends a lot of time these days digging and filling his trucks and finding every place he possibly can to hide sand. Ethan is just the happiest baby! He is eating so well, everything from roast beef dinner to spaghetti, he loves food! If he were one of the dwarfs he would definitely be smiley. He bears that gummy smile every chance he gets, especially when his doggy or big brother catch his eye. He has grown and changed so much. He is sleeping so well, about 9 hours every night, and taking 2 about 2 hour naps every day! He even wakes up happy from his naps and just lays in his crib and babbles around. I still look at the kids and I can't believe I am a Mom of two beautiful, healthy boys. I wonder how I ever got so lucky, I just feel so blessed and my heart feels so full every time I think about them.

Forget the mini-van

Tanner wants a mini-horse. We went to this cool little petting farm that a woman has set up at her house every Thursday. She had a million goats, a calf, peacocks, horses, a bunny, guinea pigs and a few chicks. Tanner loved seeing and petting all of the animals and riding Cricket the most. If he could I know he would have said "can we take her home?" It was a funny little outing for the evening but fun nonetheless.

We have been enjoying little trips or outings since we don't have a vacation planned this summer due to Mike's new job. We packed up the kids, dog and a picnic on Friday to celebrate Mike's day off! We went to a beautiful local park and had a blast. They have a swinging bridge, waterfall and a beautiful trail to get there. We went with our friends, their 4 month old Owen and Stanley their Golden Retriever too. We were quite a sight to behold, adults outnumbered by kids and dogs, yikes! Tanner loved to play by the river and throw rocks, he is such a boy! He was so cruddy, he is an outdoorsy kid for sure already, thank goodness! We had such a great time, we are so lucky in our area to have access to so many wonderful parks and FREE stuff to do. It just takes a little time to find it.

Camping out...really!

Okay, so it was only in the backyard, but O what fun it was. We got the tent and fire pit all set up while Tanner was napping. He squealed with delight as he noticed the giant new blue thing in the yard. He ran right down to check it all out, the doggy door was his favorite part. We sat around the fire, had S'mores and sang some songs (Tanner mostly wanted to run around in the dark.) We headed down to the tent, Tanner even has a cute little sleeping bag, and attempted to get all settled in. Tanner has never slept in any sort of bed before, only his crib and pack-n-play, so we were a little worried. I guess the marshmallows didn't really help either :) He did settle down and slept great with his Dad, I went back up to the house with the baby. They didn't come in to the house until 8:45 the next morning! It was so fun and I can't wait until we all pack up as a family and go camping together. I have so many wonderful memories from camping as a kid and I can't wait to make memories with my family now.

Ethan enjoying his part of the campout - dinner!