We went to our County Fair on Friday night. The kids had a great time looking at all the animals. A man in our ward, Brother Morin, raises beef cows. We saw him there and he let the kids brush his biggest cow, Bubba. Bubba weighed 3200 pounds. He was the biggest cow at the fair! Arwen and Noah thought he was the coolest!! They have been talking about him for days now!
On Saturday we went to the zoo (I took the kids on Friday too--but forgot the camera, so we went back!!). We rode the zoo train. Normally it takes you on a ten minute ride around the zoo, but in the summer months it leaves the zoo and you get to go on a 35 minute ride around Washington Park. Halfway through the ride, the train stops and you can get off and go and look at the rose gardens. There is also a fun kids playground. Noah is so scary. Soemtimes he'll just wander off without even looking back.
You have to watch him like a hawk. Arwen had fun at the park. She got to practice her moves on the monkey bars. I think she spent more time on the ground than on the bars, but she's what we might call a little klutzy!! We did this and then went and got back on the train. The kids love the train. Noah was a little weary on Friday when I took him, but he loved it by the end. He even tried to climb out once when I was trying to get Arwen on my lap next to Joshua.
When we got off we smelled the yummy waffle cone batter. We decided to get a waffle cone and stood in this long line, smelling the delicious smells and watching the guys make the cones for like 15 minutes. Then, when we were one away from ordering the guys sticks his head out the window and says, "I told you. We aren't making waffle cones anymore." Aaron said,"What do you mean you're not making cones anymore." The guy was like, "I've been telling everyone." I said, " Why don't you send someone out to the actual line.
No one out here even knows and we've been in line forever." He didn't quite get it. Arwen was pretty upset. Poor girl! We got her a cone at Dairy Queen on the way home. Poor Noah missed out because he was sleeping!

This is what happened: The bean bag was in the kitchen and both kids ran towards it at the same time from opposite directions. I don't know how they collided--probably Arwen hit the top of Noah's head, but her poor lip and teeth look pretty painful! Her gums above two of her upper teeth are bruised. Don't worry--this hasn't affected her appetite at all!! Here's the day after shot.

You asked for more...here it is. This is what happens after kids smash faces. We're just hoping her upper teeth won't fall out. The tooth fairy may get to make an early appearance.

Ever since Arwen's friend Jake moved away, we've been trying to find her some new friends. We invited a little girl named Emma over this week to have a little tea party with Arwen. Me and Arwen spent the morning baking baby chocolate chip cookies and baby brownies.
Then her friend got here. It was really funny to see Noah around her. He kept trying to sit on her lap which is funny because he's almost as big as her. She didn't like it one bit. She kept kicking and shoving him away. Arwen got super protective and told her, "No. no. He's just little. We need to be nice to him." (How many times have I told her that!!) Then they went up to play while I made lunch. Noah wanted to go
and play too and Arwen said that was just fine. What a great big sissy she is! Their tea party was fun. I think Noah enjoys them more than anyone. He loves drinking out of baby cups!
Friday night the clouds rolled in and trapped in all the heat. When I got up to go to the Temple at 5 on Saturday morning, it was over 80 degrees and SOOO humid--like Israel humid. It was pretty fun. It kept sprinkling off and on all day and it just got more humid and hotter!! Crazy stuff. We were supposed to have a ward 24th of July party, but it got cancelled due to the heat. So we went into Portland to get the kids some new clothes and to play in the fountains. There was a little fair going on there and we got free snow cones and balloons. There was one of those cool guys that paint themselves silver and pretend to be statues. A dumb girl threw a soda all over him. We felt bad so we gave Arwen a dollar to give him. He pulled out 4 of those crystal balls and did
neat tricks like David Bowie does in "Labyrinth." It was really cool! Arwen kept saying, "Give me more paper to give him so he'll do more tricks."
That's all from Portland. Joshua has his 2 month appt this week so we'll get to see what a fattie he is (or isn't if he's like Noe!!)

We had a boring week, but crazy weekend. (I think I much prefered the boring week!!) Friday night, I cleaned out the van so Aaron could take the Scouts on a 20 mile hike in the Gorge Saturday. While I was doing this, Aaron took the kids for a walk. Noah tried to run away into the street, and Aaron grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back up. After Noah saying "owa" for the 100th time, and him not being able to move his arm, I finally took him to the ER. While in the waiting room, Noah was playing and it was funny, but sad to watch him. His poor little left arm just hung limply at his side and he kept falling down because he'd lose his balance. Anyways, we were in the exam room 2 minutes and the Dr came in and twisted his little arm and SNAP, it was all better! He had a dislocted elbow. It was neat to see the little boy prance out to the toy chest and pick a toy out and see his arm moving and acting normal again! Poor, brave Noah! We got home around 10 pm which is when I started to not feel quite right. By the middle of the night I had a fever of 102.3 and chills and my body felt like I was hit by a truck. I asked one of the husbands of the Relief Society presidency, (while he was dropping off his son), to have his wife to check up on Sarah, and get a baby sitter, and take her to the doctor if needed. He assured me that he would and I was able to have a worry free hike knowing that Sarah would be taken care of. It turns out that he never gave the message and Sarah was dying when I got home. ~aaronI had an infection that sometimes occurs during breast feeding when a milk duct gets clogged. Aaron left at 5 in the morning for his hike and I felt like I was going to die all day. He finally got home at around 7 pm and rushed me to urgent care. After being on antibiotics for a couple of days now, I feel lots better, still sore, but I'm not going to die anymore! I swear I have never been so sick in my entire life!!
Aaron had lots of fun on his hike. One of the boys gave up when they only had about 4 miles left, so they only made it 16.5 miles. Pretty good though. If anyone wants to go on one of the best hikes ever come on by one of these summers. The hike is beautiful; the trail is carved into the cliffs of the canyon and goes through a tunnel behind a waterfall. There are lots of swimming holes too. Its an amazing hike and only 12 miles or so to see all the best stuff. I’m going to try to find a weekend to get a sitter for the kids and take Sarah and Joshua. The other kids would fall off a cliff and die, it’s not a non-backpack-kid hike. ~aaron
Joshus is doing great. He smiles for me lots now. He's getting pretty chunky! It's great!!

Arwenisms:
(This is about the best!!) So, we sometimes say things that don't sound too bad until you hear them come out of the mouth of a 3 year old in public: We were at the store and Arwen wanted me to follow her so she yelled across the store, "Come on Helen Keller!!" I always call her Helen Keller when she can't find something or when she's not listening. Well, now she calls me Helen Keller all the time and it's so funny, but sooo bad because I sure got some dirty looks!!

Noahisms:
Noah begs for oatmeal at every meal now a days.
Noah can now repeat every word we say so he says his own prayers and helps read scriptures. It's so cute! He loves to hold Joshua now and goes up to him all the time and just says things like, "Hi," or "Cute."

For only a dime a day, you could...

We've had a really fun week.
I have finally gotten brave enough to bring all three of the rugrats out in public by myself. On a cold rainy day, we all went to the mall to play at their indoor play structure. You should have seen Arwen and Noah. They would climb up this mountain thing and do cartwheels and such off of it. All the other parents were gasping and rushing to save their lives. Arwen and Noah were fine of course. They were having a blast! Then on Friday, the bread company Franz (I think it's Portland based) did a big extravaganza in the Pioneer Courthouse Squarein the middle of Portland.
They wanted to get in the Guinness Book of World Records, so they built a single 100 foot hot dog with a bun. It was pretty cool. Then they gave away free hot dogs, soda, chips, and cookies to everyone. There were tons of people there and it was hard to manuver my double stroller amongst the crowd, but we managed to make our way through the line for free lunch. Noah was especially excited since hot dogs are his favorite food ever! After that we went and played in some of Portland's water fountains.
Today, we went to the Farmer's market for some raspberries and cherries. Yummy! Me and Aaron also had some really good peppered, jerkeyed salmon. Usually I don't like it, but today Aaron talked me into it, and it was really good.

Here are some fun pictures from this weekend!!

We had a really fun 4th of July weekend. Bill, Marsha, and Joshua drove up to be with us for Joshua's blessing on Sunday. That was really great! Then on Monday, we drove to the beach and hunted agates all afternoon. We all found some really great ones! Arwen was amazing. She'd be skipping along and find these beautiful, big agates. Way to go Arwen. Joshua was the winner though. He found the biggest one. It was a really fun day. Tuesday, we went to the gorge to play in the waterfalls. It was a nice way to cool off. Then we headed over to Vancouver, WA to watch the "biggest firework display west of the Mississippi." It was really fun. Arwen got her face painted and we all enjoyed some kettle korn, cotton candy, and an elephant ear. The fireworks were amazing, as usual! Overall, we had a really fun weekend!!

Arwenisms: Arwen enjoys jumping on and wrestling grandpa. He once told her that it was enough and she came to me and said, "Grandpa doesn't want me anymore." It was so sweet!!

Noahisms: Noah is frightened of LOTS of things. Whenever he sees or hears something that scares him, his eyes get big and he says, "Animal." It's so cute. The thunder is "Animal," as are trains and fireworks.

Joshyisms: He is getting fat!!

We had a really fun trip to Denver this last week to visit my family. It was so good to see everyone! The first day there, we went to the Denver Zoo. We saw lots of animals and got to ride the little zoo train. The kids loved that. Then they rode the carosel and finished off the trip by eating ice cream and cotton candy. Noah was a big fan of the cotton candy!! Arwen had fun playing with my brother Scott, my sister Kelly, and her boyfriend Charlie. We met up with my dad and then went to a 50's style restaurant for dinner. Arwen didn't eat much, but had fun squeezing out an entire bottle of ketchup on her fries. Noah loved his baby corn dogs and Aaron's milk shake! That night Aaron and I got to go out without the kids and we watched "Nacho Libre." It was so funny!
The next day we went to the Denver museum and saw the "Body Worlds 2" exhibit. That's the exhibit where some guy took a bunch of dead bodies (rumer has it some of them were donated from a prison camp somewhere) to show displays of how muscles and the insides work. It was really cool. The coolest thing was the camel they had on display. That night Aaron, Scott, and I went bowling. Usually I never bowl over an 80, but that night I got a spare, a spare, a strike, a strike, another strike, (TURKEY) a spare, a spare, and then missed a few on my last few frames. I got a 180. It was so amazing!
Saturday my dad was able to take the day off and we drove up above timberline to a place called Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest paved road in America. It was so pretty. We saw elk, mountain goats, and other animals. It was pretty cold up there--there was still snow on the ground. I about died from the altitude. It was up around 12,500 I think! That night we went to the mall where they had a rock wall that was probably 4 times bigger than any I have ever seen before. It was huge. There were six different levels, 1 being the easiest. Aaron made it up the 4. I was so impressed!!
Sunday after church, my dad bar b qued for us. Way yummy!! On Monday, we did some shopping, then that night we went to an amusement park called Lakeside. It is way old school and had a really great kiddie land. Noah was scared to death, but Arwen had a blast. She even went on the kiddie roller coaster by herself and kept her arms in the air the whole time. She would scream going down the hill, but then got this really bored look on her face for the rest of it. It was too funny! Aaron and I got to ride the roller coaster and the wild chipmunk and some others. It was way fun. Arwen somehow lost her pink shoe under the carosel--in the pit of no return, so had to walk around the rest of the night with only one shoe!!
Our last day there, we got Arwen new Croc's (and some for me! thanks Mom!!) and met up with my grandma for lunch at my Cousin's new restaurant. It was really good! After that we went to the mall where my mom spoiled us even more and then left for the airport! It was such a great trip! THANKS FAMILY SO MUCH!!!

Arwenisms: All I can say is that she is sassier than ever!
Noahisms: All he ate in Denver was hot dogs. Pretty gross!
Joshuaisms: Yesterday while trying to take photos of him on his belly, the scrawny little thing rolled right over.