Cousins

My sister is in town taking care of some horsey business so on her way through she dropped Trevor off at our place. Typical boy behavior has ensued ever since. Play, drive each crazy, play, get into trouble, play...you all know what I'm talking about. Lots of energy running around this house. The boys wanted to go swimming yesterday so when Shana stopped by, in between horse chores, we packed them up and took them to the park.

Goggles? Check! Swim trunks? Check! Flippers? Check!

Looks like a meeting to plan their next move.

Apparently, my child has no joints!

(Insert Jaws theme here)

This picture does not do this scene justice. It looked as though he had been eaten by tube monsters and he was struggling to break free from it's jaws. Shana and I were totally cracking up!

Noah, in the green, Trevor, in the orange, chasing after Oliver. Silly boys.

Pictures From a Lazy Day

Had a pretty lazy day today, it didn't help that I had a bit of insomnia last night then got up early to meet a friend that is borrowing the van for a couple of days. Needless to say, we stuck close to home and really didn't do much at all. Somehow, I managed to get the boys down to the "train park," as we've always called it for a quick and easy outing. These here pictures are from my kind of lazy day...

Nature's Abstract Art

BIG Fish in a Little Pond

Cool Little Plants

Fun Patterns

Happily Treed Boy

Butterfly

Apparently, he misses the rain.

Klineline Pond

Salmon Creek Park/Klineline Pond is located in the Salmon Creek area of Vancouver. It's a great little park with lots of amenities. A level path for walking, running or biking that runs alongside Salmon Creek, a sports complex and the boys favorite, Klineline Pond. The pond is fed by the creek and natural springs and is a perfect place to swim on a hot summer day. Or in our case this year, a day that has sunshine and is pretending to be a hot summer day. This is one of those spots that I didn't go to for the longest time and then wondered why it took so long to give it a go! We've been there twice already this year and plan to go back as often as we can.

Racing to the water.

Little brother splashing big brother.

Trying to warm up on the edge of the deck.

Little brother really likes to wrestle with big brother, but Noah really wasn't in the mood for this.

After asking nicely a couple of times, then asking again with a bit more irritation in his voice, Noah finally decided that the only way to get rid of the pest that was clinging to him was to plug his nose and...

...force the little one off of him by falling (forcefully) backwards into the water! In case you were wondering, the leech-like little brother, let go immediately. It worked!

Look Familiar?

Took the boys hiking the other day to Wahclella Falls in the gorge. The trail head is easy to get to and the hike is only 2 miles round-trip. It's not too hard, I would say easy, with a bit of an incline. You need a NW Forest Pass (available at any ranger station or REI) or just pay the fee when you park. We've been here before and I've posted pictures but it's too pretty not to share some of the new images.

First glimpse of the falls from the trail.

I am, honestly, not sure how this happened but I'm glad it did. They climbed up onto a rock and were looking at the falls.

I love this place.

Rocks to climb up onto and explore.

And to practice their mountain goat skills on!

There is a little area that is great to stop and play. The boys can wade, throw rocks, climb around and have a snack. This view is upstream.

This view is downstream.

Hello little fern.

Quick glance back as we make our way back.

Birthday Ink

Joel's birthday present this year is a commissioned 3/4 sleeve from Hawk Chaite at Sovereign Tattoo. Hawk built the sleeve around the existing dragon and little Curly Girly he already had on that arm. It's two Koi fish representing his two boys...

Putting the stencil on was a process. Took some time to get it placed just right.

The outline only was done Saturday. It will take a couple more sittings for the color and shading to be added.

Curly Girly gets to play in the waterfall.

Joel was making funny faces when Hawk got to this area. Tender!

Add caption