True Love

As I was hanging the children's art work from their summer classes yesterday, I found this on the back of Scotty's painting. 

It struck me how completely children love, and it melted my heart!

I Have Recently Survived Two Consecutive Years of Two-Year-Olds

A couple of days ago, a smile spread across my face as I realized that I am DONE with the terrible twos. I'm not naive enough to think that this is the end of all my woes, but it's giving me great comfort this week. 

Max celebrated his third happy birthday, which kicks off my month of two three-year-olds. 

Nicole made Max a birthday cake, which, in true Max fashion, he sampled before the party started. 

I bought Max a new shirt for his party. Even though he doesn't like new clothes, I thought he'd like this shirt because of the dinosaur and motorcycle. I told him to close his eyes while I held it in front of him for a surprise. He opened his eyes with a smile on his face, took in a deep breath and then said, "I no like it."

We persuaded him to wear it for the pictures at least. 

Do you love the unusually large candles? Our kitchen is still under construction, and we couldn't find our stash of wax birthday candles. No problem, however. Grant was excited to make several prototypes of awesome birthday candles until he found just the right design. These are the ultimate. 

Max just liked watching them burn. 

I think he would have watched them go all the way down to the cake. 

Max still says he's two, and he kinda still acts like he's two, but I'm confident we'll leave these terrible twos sooner or later. At least that's been the pattern historically. 

It's Time for "Max Was Here"

Many of these events occurred with Shari Brooke. The two of them are practically inseparable these days. 

In underwear/diaper and rain boots. Notice Max is sporting my boots, and there's not even a hint of rain in this hot, dry summer. 

The hooligans torturing me at the mall. The big kids were at art class, so the babies and I ran errands for two hours. This is every bit as difficult as it looks and sounds. Seriously, a two and three year old together at the mall. It's not exactly my idea of fun. 

While we're on the subject of fun at the mall, I'll sneak in a picture. It's called Nordstrom Sale with the ladies. 

Annual tradition, folks!!

While we were entertaining ourselves, so was Max at home. 

That's Shari's bed, but Max's signature. To this day, I fortunately have not discovered any casualties from this event. 

Here's another bed incident. 

Max felt the need to stamp our address on my bed over and over. This, folks, is why I have white bedding. Bleach works miracles at my house. 

Yes, that's my rolling pin being used to make mud pies. Permission denied. 

And lastly, Max came up with this goofy face all on his own. 

And Shari Berry dressed herself up. 

These babies are cute and crazy! They give us a lot of work, nearly as much laughter, and definitely more love!

Our Family Hike

It's been a long time since we all went on a hike together. A friend recommended Portage Pass as a great family-friendly hike. When I think of "family-friendly," I think of a trail that is really more of a walk than a hike, and a trail that is short that the babies can scale on their own so I don't have to carry anyone or listen to complaining. Well, it turns out that Portage Pass was short (1 mile). 

Max took frequent breaks in the middle of the trail. When he needed a break, he simply sat down. 

Everyone needed a break eventually. 

As you can see, Max needed some help for most of the way. 

We climbed 800' from sea level in our mile up the mountain. Before we started, the kids asked if we were climbing to the top. "Oh, no!" I told them. But, "Oh, how Mama is wrong!" it turned out. It did give us beautiful views along the way. 

The best kid-friendly perk of the hike is that the entire mile was lined with wild salmonberries, and the kids partook freely all the way up and down. 

Once we finally reached the top, all of us agreed that it was definitely worth the work! Just look at that beautiful Portage Glacier!

Here's an up-close view that Grant took. 

If you continue another mile, you reach the edge of the lake. I think I'd like to do that trail without anyone moaning (i.e., by myself or with Clint). 

Scotty learned to take a selfie. 

Grant loved this view at the top also. 

I hear there's another trail the takes you to this same glacier, but that is more like a flat road. So that's more what I'm talking about when I think family-friendly. I think it'd be fun to do with bikes. 

Even though the trail was challenging for the babies, we all agreed it was a beautiful Alaska day with our family. And it beat our beach time hands-down!

We drive to Homer with our sand toys, but it was so cold and windy that the most we did out of the car was watch Max and Shari blow bubbles without blowing. 

Shari Brooke said, "Daddy, I want to go on an airplane to the warm beach."  That's Hawaii. And I want to go, too. 

We loved our overnight camp out in Soldotna. It was my first time out this year, the boys and Clint having camped earlier in the week while dip netting salmon. 

I have one last picture to share, and it's of Max enjoying his car drive. Somehow he found a chocolate bar to nibble while holding Scotty's huge dump truck. This is typical Max. He takes care to keep himself happy. 

Scotty's Books

Scotty called down to me before bed and said that he picked out a few of his favorite books to read in bed.