The Luke Family: Happenings of our Life!: What We've Been Up To...Volume 2

I decided that making an individual post for each and everything that we have done since Easter was much too much work. Instead, I'm just posting it all in one and in shorter descriptions. So here's the mother load! It will be so nice to be caught up!

At one of our favorite parks here they had a sheep shearing day where families could come and see all of the animals kept at the farm there and specifically watch the sheep shearing. They had dogs rounding up sheep, pigs, cows, baby ducklings, chicks, chickens, etc... They also had kettle corn and cotton candy. Needless to say, we had a VERY fun day! Mags and Aubs were totally pooped by the end.

One of the farm dogs showing off her stuff and rounding up the sheep. Can't help but feel bad for the sheep. They really do look quite scared.

Huge piggie. Aubin was just about eye level with this thing. He didn't really seem to care much about it though. I'm pretty sure I though the pig was way cooler than he did.

This has to be documented. Aubin's first experience with Cotton Candy. Yep, here's the grab.

It occurred to me after watching him looking at it with the above face that he probably has no idea what this is. So I then prompted him to put it in his mouth. After all, if you think about it, you wouldn't know what to do with that cotton stuff either. All you know is that it smooshes (I don't think that's a word, but I'm gonna use it anyways) and is sticky.

So finally he actually put it in his mouth. Slow and steady like, so he could keep an eye on it.

He liked it!

"Give me the green stuff woman!"

"Do you not understand? I want more!"

"Ahh. That's good."

Aubin walking back from chasing the hay ride truck that was driving around the park.

Aubin got a tent in his room :) Neat right? Luckily Aubin thinks so too. But don't be fooled, this tent isn't really for Aubin's sake. No, it's for mamma's sake! It's a crib tent. Yep. Our little monkey took up climbing in, on, and out of everything so of course his crib was bound to be included at some point. About February Aubin started threatening to climb out of his crib when I would put him down to sleep and he didn't want to. He easily climbed up onto the railing, and only stayed in because I was there to stop him. This being the case, I lost sleep. And lots of it because I wasn't sure when I would hear that tell tale "thump" in the night. Lucky for us parents whose kids are never going to stay in a toddler bed, and never going to stay in their crib, there is a wonderful invention called the Crib Tent. Ahhh. Relief. Needless to say, I rest easy now. And Aubin is none the wiser. Pretty sure he just thinks being zipped in a tent at night is the coolest thing ever. Thank goodness for innocent little minds!

So check out Aubin's new digs:

All zipped up and cozy. No way to get in (if you are a little tike that is!), and no way to get out!

Peek-a-boo! And yes, you may have noticed that Aubin decided he did not want his right arm to be sleeved. He's a big boy now, he can make his own decisions ;)

We went down to Olympia for one of my cousin's farewells and hung out with my grand parents afterwards looking through memory books and family archives. I loved it! Aubin loved running around in his onesie outside and knocking on the front door over and over!

Oops! I was trying to show Aubin the flowers, and of course he popped one off! Sorry Grandma. Well, there's no learning like hands on learning!

Aubin waiting patiently for someone to come answer the door. He must have done this at least 15 times. My parents and grandparents finally stopped answering because they couldn't get anything done! We all thought it was uber (yes uber) cute though!

Showing me stuff.

Another walk up to the door. He actually stepped up each step by himself with no help, standing up straight, and without holding on to something. I could tell he thought he was the coolest!

Playing with itty bitty pine cones. I love to watch his face and the constant wonder. I think everyone should remember to look at things from time to time with wonder. Just forget that you've already seen it.

Aubin and I were able to visit with Chris in May and had so much fun. Even though it wasn't anything close to normal, it felt so nice to be able to see Chris everyday and eat dinner together, etc... We met Chris for lunch almost everyday for 5 days in a row too. While there wasn't much time to actually go do anything, we were able to fit a thing or two in. We had a great time and it was nice for all of us to have our family back for a while.

Tombstone! So cool!

City Hall

If you can't read this whole sign, you have to enlarge the photo and read it. I thought it was hilarious. Completely inappropriate, but so funny! It's funny now anyways, not back then obviously.

It was so cool to see so many old buildings.

Self explanatory.

How cool is that?

I'm curious how they know it was that spot exactly...

Aubin decided he wanted to push.

The infamous corral.

A beautiful church built in the early 1900's in Bisbee, AZ. I couldn't take pictures on the inside unfortunately, but there were 25' and 17' hand painted stained glass windows inside. It was amazing! Chris and I gawked for probably like 20 minutes. Which is a lot considering you just sit there. We probably would have stayed longer, but Abba-Jabba was starting to wake up from his stroller nap! It was so gorgeous though, and we were so glad we got to see it!

Bisbee town hall. Pretty cool building huh?

Strolling down the hill. Bisbee is an old mining town and it's so cool because everything is built in a kind of cohesiveness with the hills and "mountains". Sometimes it looked as if the buildings were literally built into the rock.

There are stair structures like this everywhere. I'm pretty sure the people of Bisbee were in great shape!

Coolest sign I think I've ever seen. It was just hanging up on the side of a building.

Aubin+ice cream= awe. He attracted more than a little attention from passersby.

The view of the city as we drove back to our hotel. Definitely recommend seeing this town to anyone. Bisbee and Tombstone were just way fun! Full of history and unique scenery.

After visiting Chris down there, he was able to fly up to Washington with us for Memorial Day weekend. We had loads of fun! I love being able to share so many cherished places and memories with my son and husband. We went to the kids quest museum, the park, and ate some dang good food! I hated to see Chris go, but we sure enjoyed the time that we had together. All in all we spent a glorious 13 days together. The longest we've been together so far this whole year, and we enjoyed every second of it!

Aubin apparently loves magnets, and this huge magnetic wall with all the magnetic license plates from each state was just a pot of gold for him! He especially loved showing what he could do to his Nana and Dadda.

Playing in the water.

Aubin's other favorite thing at the museum. The ball stays in the air by way of a constant air stream. Once it's in, you can move the air stream around and the ball follows. Mostly Aubin just liked to get the ball out of the air.

Making some groovy tunes in the music room. Aubin LOVES the drums!

We went CAMPING!!!!!! I love to camp. Our family loves to camp. As far as vacations go, that's pretty much it for us. I was sad, very sad, that Chris couldn't be with us, but someone had to do it! I haven't been camping since I was 19 weeks pregnant with Aubin, and it was about time. My family decided that we would go the weekend before father's day with my brother and his family as a kind of early present to the men. Really it was just because we all wanted an excuse to go. I figured this would really be a great first time with Aubin too since I would have lots of help, and my parents have a tent trailer, so that made things really easy! I didn't really need lots of help though. Aubin was superb! He stayed away from the fire, he played nicely in the campsite, he slept easily through the night, and he was an awesome little hiker. We went on a decent hike, and he kept up pretty well and climbed the mountain all by himself. I only held on to him when we got to the top, because there was a huge cliff. So you can't really blame me! We had tons of fun, and made many fond memories :) What the following pictures don't show is Aubin and Magnus swimming at the lake. The lake is made from glacier water, and was downright freezing! And I mean freezing! Aubin will get into pretty much anything, but even he only went in to his waist. Brrr! It was fun to watch though, and I almost fell asleep on the sandy beach in the sun. It was nice!

Where's Aubin? One morning he woke up, and headed straight for these leaves and just layed down for a while. Funny bug!

Hello little beige riding hood!

Hikin' with the best of 'em.

Aubs and Mags found this natural see-saw. It was pretty cute.

As usual...we try to get a good group picture, but we just can't pull it together! Rhodri looks very regal though, doesn't he?

Mangus, Sara and Jason (my bro.) at the top!

Aubin and I at the top. Apparently laughin our heads off :)

View coming up to the top.

Cutest little boys ever!

Aubin hangin' round the fire place.

Beautiful morning hike before we left.

Feet grow. I had been stuffing Aubin's feet in the same size 6 shoes since December, and I began to notice around the end of April that Aubin's feet just really weren't fitting in so nicely anymore. So after some looking and consulting with the hubby, Aubin has some new kicks. Yes they are cute, fun, and most of all, durable! Not to mention they never go out of style and I fully intend to pass them down to our next little foot stomper. Aubin was delighted at the sight of them and insisted I put them on right away. He wore them everyday straight for the next two weeks. Happy baby and happy momma makes a happy dadda. So check 'em out:

I hesitated a little about going with red, but I'm very glad I did. So stinkin' cute.

Cutest picture ever!

For Father's Day I decided to have pictures taken of Aubin and I (by my dad) and make a collage to send to Chris. I think that the pictures turned out great and Chris loved being able to "see" his family again. Words would never ever do justice to describe just how great a father Chris is and how much we love him. He has honestly given up everything to take care of us. He's not often a man of many words, but his actions sure speak pages. I thank the Lord every day for my boys!

Here's the collage I made:

I took Aubin to swim in the lake finally :) He's been in the lake, just not when it was actually planned. That being the case, he has never been fully immersed in the lake. That can no longer be said. And we had fun. Love doing everything with this cute kid of mine!

This little girl was so cute, and the same age as Aubin! He was obviously a bit bigger, and her face was so funny when she looked up at him.

I kept twirling him around, and he was laughing so hard.

It was such a hot day, and the water felt so nice!

All of the sudden Aubin grabbed my feet and started towing me in to shore. My mom and I were cracking up!

Chris was able to come up again for the 4th of July. I couldn't be more excited. Naturally, I immediately started making out a food menu for the weekend. Anyone who knows Chris knows how much he loves good food, and he has had a serious lack of that so far this year. So I went all out and spoiled him good. As far as Chris is concerned, the old saying is true "the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Pretty sure it's safe to say Chris' heart is mine! I would have posted pictures of the food, but we dug in before I could get any, and there wasn't any food left afterwards! I made ribs for the first time (so dang good!) with from scratch mashed potatoes and grilled fruit kababs. For breakfast one day we had crepes with strawberries, blueberries and homemade creme freche (another first endeavor). The next morning we had praline french toast with eggs and sausage. We had red curry for lunch one day (Chris' favorite!), and pizza for lunch the other day. We had lots of stuff in between, but that was the big stuff. I think we all gained a few pounds from that weekend ;)

In addition to the food we had fun taking Aubin to the park, watching fireworks (with Jason and his family, and my friend Alesia and her fam), and I even got a date with just my hubby! Awesome. Thank you mom! It was a wonderful weekend.

Magnus getting a drink ;)

Mags helping Aubin get a drink.

Frolicking through the field.

Aubin just up and decided to take Dezdemona for a walk. She didn't seem to mind.

Walking on the trail that connects to the park.

He LOVE to swing!

Sparkly!

Happy Family

Aubin wasn't so sure about the firworks at firs, but with moms encouragement he was fine.

Dad and son playing with the glow sticks. The whole group had tons of fun with these.

Aubin loves his Dadda.

My boys :)

I have been wanting to take some updated pictures of Aubin, so my mom and I met up with my brother and nephew, Magnus, for an impromptu photo shoot. It was a beautiful day, and I had too much fun chasing those two around and snapping away. These pictures haven't been cropped or edited at all yet, and I think they turned out wonderful. I love that babies face. Sometimes my heart aches to see him grow up so fast, but the consolation is how much fun we are able to have as he grows and develops. He and Chris are my world, and I love capturing in picture how special they are. So take a peak! (for some reason, sometimes the quality of the pics in the video is distorted, sorry. But you get the general idea at least.)

And here are some other random pictures! Sarina, my best friends' daughter, is in many of these. I was able to watch her for a little over a month during the week. She and Aubin are seriously the two cutest ever. They are just the best of friends and adore each other. I loved watching the two of them... And I got lots of good practice too! ;)

Playin' in the morning.

Aubin and his great grandma Mac. We don't get to see her often, so I was glad to be able to document Aubin with her.

In Utah at Monica's graduation!!!

Us at the Strawberry Festival. This was taken at the end of the day and the boys were basically done.

Aubin and the doggies at the meadow. One of our favorite places. It's literally just a big field that you can let the dogs and the kids run free. We love it!

Some of our delish food at the Farmer's Market.

Rhodri as happy as can be.

Aubin in his element.

Aubin's "yeah. I have gelato all over my face. You got somethin' to say?" face.

Playin' around a Chuck-e-Cheese.

Look closely. Notice that Sarina is holding a toy and that Aubin has his eyes on that toy. Now look at Sarina's face. So funny!

He likes to be surrounded by his toys.

Cheeser. Could he be any more posed?

I know. Sad....but so, so classic.

My other beautiful boy.

I was riding Magnus' trike around the backyard, and Aubin decided he wanted a lift. My parents were cracking up. I swear I became 3 years old again for like a whole hour.

Takin' a nap.

SURPRISE!

Awww.

Aubin likes to manhandle Sarina a lot, unfortunately. And what you can't tell here is that Aubin keeps holding Sarina's legs so she can't get up....he's assertive.

Weeeeeeeeee.

He loved to spin in these little pods at the park.

For Aubin's 1.5 birthday I took him to play at the KidsQuest Museum and then to have lunch and an ice cream cone at McDonald's. Which I haven't eaten at for a long time, but what can I say? It's cheap.

Devouring an apple. Core and all. He doesn't mess around.

This is the coolest park. It's full of big whale, ship, and beach figurines that spew water everywhere. Totally free and totally fun!

The big whale.

I watched Magnus for the weekend, and he had a cabbage patch doll that Aubin found. He carried that thing around for an hour. I think he'll make an awesome big brother. He's so sweet.

Playing outside with Nana and Papa and Magnus. My sister in-law, Sara, got this ball that inflates and then when you connect it to the hose it sprinkles water everywhere. We sure enjoyed it on those 90+ degree days! (Can you believe it got up to 107, in Washington?)