Joshuaism: Joshua talks like a mad-man nowadays! I think that I am probably the only one who understands all of it, but it's getting easier to tell what he says everyday. As soon as all my kids can talk, I play a little game with them...just because I love to hear the funny things they come up with. Here are a few of Joshua's recent answers:

1. What's your name?

He used to say, "Shally," (which is how he would say Sha-shy...that's what Noah calls him) Now he ALWAYS answers, "Chlocate Chip." He says "Chocolate" funny, because that is how Noah says it. If I make a mistake and call him Josh, he is very quick to correct me and say, "My name is Chlocate Chip!"

2. How old are you?

"Two."

3. What's your favorite food?

His answers have always been the same..."Cake," or "Chocolate!!"

4. What's your favorite movie?

"Chlocate Factory." (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka...he loves them both and asks to watch them EVERYDAY!)

5. What do you like to do for fun?

"Play my choo-choo trains."

6. Who's your best friend?

"Mama!" Ha! I have trained all of them to answer the question this way!!! Every blue moon he will say, "Larky Lu Lu." (He came up with this nick-name for Larkin. Larkin talks in this deep dragon voice a lot lately and so Joshua likes to growl, "Larky Lu Lu," to her and it makes me laugh SOOOO hard! I love it!)


Another game we play goes like this:

"Josh, do we eat bananas for lunch?" And he answers ,"La." I love it!! He can't say "Yeah," so says , "La" instead. So cute! And it's fun to try and trick him..."Josh do we eat grass for lunch?" He wrinkles his nose and says , "NO!"

Holy Cow!! We had a hot few days here in Portland!! On Saturday, when it got up to 105 degrees, we decided to go to the Gorge to play in the waterfalls. It was so much fun...and made a hot day seem bearable!

Here's little Larkily splashing in the water with her cute little feet.
The kids were so excited to finally get in the water. We looked at a few waterfalls before we got to Onionta Falls...the one that has a gorge full of water you have to walk through to get to the actual waterfall. You have to cross a big pile of logs to get to the waterfall that are pretty tricky to get across. Arwen did so good, though, and between Aaron and me (mostly Aaron) we got all the other kids across too!

Here's Aaron being brave and swimming straight into the waterfall...which he stood under for a while. He's crazy!!! It was pretty darn cold!
Get ready...Get set...

Go!! After Aaron climbed the side and dove into the waterfall, everyone started doing it. It was fun to watch how high people would climb and see them do flips while jumping.
Noah and Josh had a blast throwing rocks into the water...hopefully they didn't hit too many people while I wasn't watching. And there were a TON of people there...I guess because of the hot weather. Usually we are the only ones who go to the back of the gorge. But, I guess we usually go on 60 degree weather days!
Shortly after this picture, Joshua fell asleep in my arms. It was a WORKOUT carrying a dead asleep kid all the way back through the gorge and over the logs. I was pretty impressed with myself that I did it...and didn't slip or drop him!!
Larkily fell asleep too. She just slept in the back pack while we played in the falls.
Arnie found a pretty sweet looking frog sitting right by the sleeping Larkin. When we got home, Bethany brought the cousins over so we could have a campfire...which ended up being hot dogs cooked in the microwave and s'mores made in the oven because it was too stinking hot to cook outside! Such a fun day!

Aaron's sister Meghan flew in Friday night to spend a week with us! We are so excited to have her!! Saturday morning, we took her to the Beaverton Farmer's Market to enjoy some fresh berries and fruit. Yummy! We had lots of fun. We got some corn on the cob and some mushrooms to make a homemade fungi pasta...so good!

Noah found a pretty flower on the way back to the car...that threw up all over him!
Goofy boy!
After the market, we watched part of the air show and then Aaron took the kids and Meg to go and pick blueberries.
Arnie did more munching than picking...
And the babies slept...making berry picking quite enjoyable! I got to go and volunteer at "The Bite" in Portland all afternoon, which was really fun! Larkin survived without me for over 8 hours! She's getting so big!!

Our friends who live out in the country invited our family to come and camp for a night last weekend. We had so much fun...too bad out camera ran out of batteries after only 2 pictures! Anyways, we had a yummy dinner that we cooked in the dutch oven, ate lots of marshmallows and s'mores and enjoyed lots of great company! We even got to watch a movie after it got dark. Such fun!

Larkin had lots of fun swinging! She just grinned and giggled the whole time! The other kids had a blast playing in the rock pit and driving in the cars down the hill.