Workin' Out

Taking Initiative

At what point do little boys learn about working hard and taking initiative? If asked this question a couple weeks ago I (Jason) would have guessed it would happen in the teenage years. And that it would be an uphill battle to teach a boy such skills. But I watched Tyson do the most amazing thing the other day that it has inspired me to come out of blog hibernation and share it with you.

So, it all started when Tyson and Jada convinced me to take them into the backyard to play. As we walked down the stairs into the grass, Jada began sniffing her favorite spots, Tyson wandered off babbling and singing, and I looked intently for the tennis ball to play fetch with Jada. I was lost in my own adventure of raking through leaves and avoiding Jada's "land mines" in search of the small, greenish Wilson brand tennis ball. At one moment I had looked up and caught a glimpse of Tyson walking with a pine cone in hand, still babbling as he went.

Finally, after a couple minutes I found my treasure and began coaxing Jada to come play with me. I looked around for Tyson to make sure he wasn't getting in to troubles. I found him walking towards the concrete slab, where our garbage, yard debris, and recycle receptacles sit. In his hands were a couple more pine cones. I found this odd, so I followed. He walked over to the concrete slab and put them on the ground next to the other pine cone I had seen him carrying earlier. He was making a pile to put in the yard debris container. Granted, he has seen me do this a couple of times. But, with no prompting at all, he had decided to do some "yard work". Of course I had to take advantage of the much needed help in the yard, so I joined him picking up cones for 5-10 more minutes. What a boy!

a day at the park!

Last Saturday we had our family pics taken down at a local park by a great photographer, Tarena Beckham. Tyson was a bit cranky as he had only slept a half an hour, sat in his carseat for 2 hrs while we ran errands all across town and was ready to eat dinner, though he was content to munch on crackers and cheese. She is still in the process of going through the 500 photos she took, but she is giving us a sneak peak on her website of one of our pictures....Thanks Tarena for a fun time and for all the work you're putting into these photos! I look forward to seeing the 'outtake' photos as well, which are probably more true to our family! Click here for the family photo...

p.s. She blogs a lot quicker than we do...so look for the Oct. 21st blog! :O)

We're picking pumpkins?

What do we do with those??

waving 'hi' to the camera

It seems everywhere we go there are these really cool 'sandboxes' made from dried corn kernels. We love them, as they don't get us covered in dirt!!! :O)

A Week of Adventure

At the end of September we made our way down to southern Oregon to celebrate with Jason's cousin Mic and his new bride Jen at their wedding. It was in the evening at a beautiful old hotel and it was really pretty!! We spent the night, then joined the family the next morning for breakfast/brunch. After our big breakfast together Jason and I took off for a weekend in Reno and Tyson went back to Eugene with Grandma/Grandpa and Aunt Nikki. Meanwhile, Jada had fun being a farm dog for a week!

Tyson had a fun time, even had time to work on a few first masterpieces!!

more pictures to come from our trip...:O)

vacation continues....

We stayed a night with the newlyweds Donica and Jacob Graham....Thanks you two for hosting us and making such a yummy homemade breakfast!! Your home is beautiful and it was relaxing to be there! We attempted to go downtown to the Silver Legacy/El Dorado but as it was the end of Street Vibrations the streets and casinos were FULL of bikers! Jacob attempted to teach me how to play the penny slot machines....I guess I did alright, it took me over a minute to lose the whole dollar! I still don't get it....
On Sunday we checked into our hotel room and went out to find the 'Awful Awful' Burger...claimed to be THE BEST in Reno and fairly cheap. We finally found it and it was Awful Awful as you can see....Awful good and Awful cheap!!! We shared the huge burger and enormous basket of fries for a little over $6 and we were full!!
Next we headed back to the hotel to go to a comedy show we had tickets for...and take a seat in the big comfy chair....BIG comfy chair....
We had a great evening, Jason laughed so hard I swear he had tears in his eyes...:O)
On the way out the next morning we stopped to get some burgers...But apparently IN-N-OUT doesn't just make any burger. We mistakenly ordered 3 each (easily eaten at Burgerville since they are smooshed little burgers) and this is the beautiful box of burgers we received!!! For the price of a McDonalds or Burgerville burger!!! Wow they were good! And as a bonus, they lasted us the entire 10 hr drive back to Eugene! We enjoyed the time together in the car, seeing the landscape and having time to talk, talk, talk! :O)
We returned to give Tyson hugs and kisses...it was nice to have time just the two of us, but we did spend a lot of time talking about him and mimicking him (especially how he dances...it's just so darn cute!) so it was fun to come back and see him. We arrived back in Oregon City and picked up Jada, who we could tell really enjoyed her week on the farm. Because she was such an excellent escapist she spent the day following Lisa around and playing with Rally, who is their dog and her new buddy. We'll definitely have her stay there again next time we head out of town!

Rollins' come to town!

In late August Auntie Lisa, Josiah, and Gracie made the day long trek from Bellingham, WA to come visit us here in Oregon City. (Uncle Brent had to work...catch ya next time!!) Tyson liked to watch Josiah and copy him, although he was a little jealous of Gracie and kept hitting and pushing her...hmmm....sorry Gracie, you were soo patient and nice to him in spite of that! Jada was a little overwhelmed at trying to keep track of everyone, but she did enjoy the special time that Josiah spent with her. Thanks Josiah!!




What a fun kid! He found my sunglasses on the table and kept us entertained while we finished getting dinner ready.





We had our floor vents checked out by a pro....yes she did really lift the cover off all by herself and probably would have stuck her head all the way in the hole if allowed to.



When Lisa and I get together we ENJOY cleaning, organizing and redesigning together. She is the creative one and gives a fresh look to a room using what's already there! I wish I had gotten a 'before' and 'after' photos of the basement. I had a load of boxes to go through and get sorted and cleared out. We did it!!! After that project was done the next week Jason and I were able to get our bedroom painted! It feels great to get these things done and crossed off the list of things to do...


Here's the bedroom photos, before with the white walls, and after with the blue walls... (and a little bit of a twist with the bed.)


So it will be our turn to trek up to Bellingham and work at their house! We look forward to it, though we may have to bring Jada....