Nolan has now gone three days without a pacifier (and almost two weeks without formula/bottles) so I took some time this afternoon to gather up all of his old friends and put them away... out of sight, out of mind! So long paci's! Mommy is done crawling around desperately on the floor in the middle of the night looking for you, but you did serve us well during those first crucial months. 

If you're in the area and can make it over to Evergreen Museum in the near future the close-up look at a 747 is amazing. Here's a pic of my boys inside one of the engines (they've been removed and are sitting nearby). Not something you get to do everyday!

Today was the Summerfest parade in Dallas and Carson has been looking forward to it for months. He got to see police cars, fire trucks, army trucks and horses - all of the things he was looking forward to and more. (The "more" being mostly in the form of candy - a lot of candy.)

 

It's rare that we're able to get together with members of the Burke family - outside of our immediate family in Washington, but...
Tonight Scott's dad brought his sister Kathy who is visiting from New Jersey down and we invited cousin Drew over with his family and ended up with 14 Burkes in our backyard for dinner!We ate, played ball (six of those Burkes are young boys) and enjoyed a fabulous evening together. Thanks all:)

   
 

I wish I could say I had as much fun with the new fan as Carson had with the box!

We said good-bye tonight to our old 1973 Shasta trailer that has served us faithfully (for the most part) for the past five years. Just 48 hours on Craigslist, and it was gone... off to spend the rest of its life sitting next to the Santiam River, somewhere near Mehama, OR. Good luck to the new owners, we hope it serves you well!

Thursday afternoon we headed out to Clear Lake on the inaugural run for the new trailer! It was also Nolan's first time at one of our favorite camping spots - as well as Grandpa and Nana who joined us on Friday. We hiked the Clear Lake Trail between the campground and the lodge, fished from the boat and from the shore, visited with Grandpa & Nana and played in the campfire for a few days of fun. Nolan could take or leave the boat (too much containment for him), but did enjoy chasing Carson all around camp whenever possible. We found a few things we want to change on the trailer before we take it out again at the end of the month, but overall it was great! A vast improvement over our old one when it comes to camping with two kids. More pictures of the weekend adventure are posted here.

Another humorous side of parenthood...
It didn't take us long to realize that turning the back of our van into a traveling restroom was a far cry better than most gas station bathrooms. (Or that Carson would always need to go somewhere between Amity and Rickreall - where a wheat field is almost the only option.) So for about five months now,we've just kept Carson's potty seat in the back of the van... open the hatch, and there you go! If you ever see a gray Odyssey parked on the side of the road and think, "Is that small child doing what I think he's doing?" The answer is yes.

We spent the very hot day at Tom & Cindy's hanging out with family, eating BBQ ribs and celebrating Nolan's birthday (again - with my side of the family this time), the 4th of July and (as is always true at Tom & Cindy's) the right to bear arms! Scott and company took care of a dozen boxes of clay pigeons, Nolan was completely worn out by the time we got him his cupcake and literally fell asleep several times while eating it, and Carson discovered the joy of "stomp rockets" so we had very tired, but very happy boys by the end of the day.

 

Ok, I'm a Christmas lover. I happily listen to Christmas music year-round and plop down with Carson whenever he wants to watch Charlie Brown Christmas (sorry Dad - I know, you tried). I find excuses to keep Christmas things in the house all year long (hey, it's a Guatemalan nativity set - it's good for Carson to have it around) and look for reasons to go to Costco in August when the holiday aisle appears. So, with that in mind, here's one of my favorite comics (which, of course, hangs in my office all year long) for a hot July day... 178 more days to go!