Soren's first birthday

My boy is getting too big. Just this morning he was deleting pictures from our computer... the little turd. Luckily I found them in the recycle bin! We had a quiet birthday celebration, with Papa and Granna and the Lucas's, our friends here on base. He loved his cake (decoration inspired by Pinterest!) and it was yummy. He also loved our spagetti dinner (I roasted veggies: potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and such) and added them to the sauce. It was delicious! He turned one the day before we headed to Austin for the Tough Mudder (more on that later!) and he is walking, signing, and getting his 6th and 7th tooth!! Stop growing!!

this boy is eating everything! (except babyfood!)

Soren's first haircut

OH, my goodness! 

Look at how much he looks like a little boy, and not a baby anymore!! 

All it took was a #3 down the center of his head! I think he looks so much like Kellen... I can't believe he is about 8 months old! Where has the time gone?

Tomorrow I will try to post pics of our last camping trip... I say I will try, because who knows.

I got my hair cut and colored today too, and absolutely LOVE it!  Pictures later.

The rest of the camping trip

The pictures do a lot of the talking. I love the last sequence of pictures... Ayla and Colton doing their treasure hunt. The look on Ayla's face as it dawns on her that the basket is tied up above her is so cute! Brooke and Kasey took their turn after (they were busy feeding ducks the first time around!) and the other two "experienced" ones showed them the ropes.

I know I always put up close ups of my kids... I just love their big blue eyes, so of course there are a couple of those.

And the walking stick creature! It was huge! The kids were all fascinated.

We picked up some peaches on the way in Fredericksburg, Texas, were there are signs for peaches every couple feet it seems!

The last night we were there was interesting... a family came to join our crew (they spent the day doing other family things, so they didn't come when we did), and somehow while they were setting up camp, their car keys went missing!

Last place they were seen was on the kids blanket, so we assumed that one of the kids walked off with it (Kellen was a huge suspect). So we asked them if anyone had... Kellen was asked a couple different times, and we said "when we find the keys, we will make smores." So of course, he admitted to taking the keys and throwing them in the river!!! We searched and searched. But did not find anything. So after a couple hours of searching, we decided to have smores and put the kids to bed.

In the morning, the keys were found... under their tent!!! Glad it didn't turn out to my kid!

This was a 4.5 hour trip away from our house, and the kids were so AWESOME! They really are great travelers.

Soren is OFFICIALLY crawling! He scoots around everywhere! Trouble!

Camping, Texas stye, part 2

Raccoon (?) visitors... at least we put our breakfast food away! I was worried about our bananas all night!

Morning at the Gustafson camp

Tractor building... does anyone remember Tyler and Colton's old construction site building? It has totally renewed Colton's interest in tractors and such.

I'm having fun messing with the buttons on my camera. Love the tent in the background here... and of course, his cute little face :)

5, 6, Pick up sticks... for the tractor buildings.

Love these red tenny's! And the boy who sports them.

Pretty proud of his creations.

Camping is fun... and I am so glad we can do this with our kids. We are thoroughly looking forward to camping in June with our good friends from Montana. We are headed to Idaho, at a good rock climbing place, so Tyler will be in heaven... and we will have good friends and hopefully good weather.

After that trip, on our way to Astoria, Oregon, we will hopefully be camping with Aunt Danielle and Uncle Loren and the three Veneta based cousins at Crater Lake. Amazingly, I have never been there, and Tyler only has been once, and he doesn't really remember... so that will be great!

The visitors were most likely raccoons, and they just took our garbage bag down and ate all the scraps out of it... those sneaky rascals! We welcomed the early morning light with some hot chocolate and oatmeal... one of our breakfast staples while camping.

We will be looking for some more campgrounds in the semi vicinity of here to make some more wonderful family memories!