Bridge, Astoria Column, and Washington

We drove only 20 miles away to Astoria. There we saw this ginormous bridge to Washington. I think we drove across it four times. We loved it. It is a couple miles long and is across the Columbia River.

I know we are nerds....here is our GPS showing us how long it is.

View from the bridge from on top of Astoria Column.

Astoria Column was fun as well. It is a round tower that has 200 stairs that go around it in a circle. Once you got to the top, you could throw off little wooden airplanes. I think Tyler loved that part.

We are climbing to the top.

It is a cool tower with murals painted on the outside.

One lesson we learned on this trip.....don't go to a restaurant only because it has a cool name. Ya....we did that.

The Imperial Schooner. They had noooo air conditioning and we were sweating. It was so hot in there. And, silly us ordered clam chowder. It was good, but not on a 100 degree day. HA HA!!

Our hotel was fabulous. It was so beautiful. We were able to sit on the balcony and just listen to the ocean. Cory and I would sit on it every night and talk while we listened and drank hot cocoa. It was so nice to have that time together when everyone else was asleep.

This is the view to the ocean from our balcony.

We were able to just walk from our hotel to the beach. It was wonderful.

Tyler loved it. When he first saw the ocean he just stared at it. I don't know what he was thinking. But it was fun to see him watch the ocean.

Building sand castles. The boys didn't really care for the ocean water too much (it was freezing), but they were perfectly content just playing in the sand. I think it was their favorite part of the trip.

Good thing we brought a lot of sand toys to share.

Jason burns really, really easily. We had found this swimming suit at Costco the week before. It has an SPF of 100. He didn't burn at all. I also thinks he looks like a little surfer dude. It was well worth the money.

We would also go downtown everyday for ice cream cones. I think they were $1.00 a piece or less than that. It was sooooo good.

Beautiful sunset off our balcony.

Trip to Seaside

We left bright and early on July 4th to Seaside, Oregon. We were a little worried about what we had gotten ourselves into when between the two boys, we had 3 throw-up incidents all on the drive there.

The boys are ready with all their toys for the drive.

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Tyler is cute and ready.

We stopped at Brian and Krista's house to see the twins. The boys stayed outside because they had thrown up. Tyler was pretty sad about not being able to see the babies. He looked at them from the window with these adorable eyes.

He did have fun playing outside on the deck with all the toys though.

We also stopped at a few waterfalls along the way.

I couldn't believe how cold it was. We were freezing.

Our last stop before Seaside was at Ikea. The kids at free that day. We also bought an awesome garbage can that we used to make sandcastles.

Sprinklers

What is wrong with us? It is July and we are just turning our sprinklers on. I do have to say that the boys loved it though. They ran outside once they realized that the sprinklers were on and just had a blast. Jason was laughing and giggling and Tyler was just having fun.

They are having such a great time.

Admiring our work....

These pictures were taken in our front yard. We like to sit on the porch and admire our hard work we accomplished. Now, if only we can decide what to put there....hmmmm.

Cute picture of the boys.

Tyler and George. George is the neighbors cat who always runs into our house whenever we open the door. It's like he's waiting for us to leave or go inside so he can come in.

Cute Tyler.

Self portraits.

Rose bushes.....

About a month ago we received a lovely letter from the Pocatello Police Department telling us we were in violation with our rose bushes and that we had a few weeks to remove them. Well, instead of trimming the bushes down, we decided to get rid of them completely. It was a crazy task. There were so many wild rose bushes in there...it was crazy. We got so hot because we were wearing long sleeves. But, we managed to get the darn things out.

They were pretty, but only bloomed once a year.

The after shot. It is pretty bare there now and we are trying to decide what to put there now.

My boys

My two boys are just so fun. I can't believe how fast they are growing up. Tyler is getting more and more funny. He just says the funniest things sometimes. And Jason, he is still our cute little cuddle bug. He loves to sit on my lap and is just starting to play really well with Tyler.

What a big smile.

He looks so sleepy.

Best buddies and brothers.

Stuffed animals

After we set up Jason's bed, Tyler wanted to sleep in it, play on it, and sit on it. It was like a brand new toy to him. He called me in there one day so excited to show me something. This is what I found......every single one of their stuffed animals on the bed and covering Jason. It is funny because I have a picture just like this from when I was a child.

What a big boy!

So cute when he is asleep.

We finally decided to get rid of the crib and put Jason in a toddler bed. It was a hard decision because he was sleeping so well in the crib. We decided to go ahead and put the toddler bed up though. Jason loves it. He's only fallen out of it once. He rolls and moves so much during the night that I'm surprised that he hasn't fallen out of it more. We will put him in the bed one way and when we go and check on him, he is on the opposite side. Funny.