Happy Birthday Chloe!

Happy 12th birthday to my beautiful daughter. She's filled our lives with laughter, love, a few headaches and never ending happiness. The best part is that her spirit is just as beautiful as she is and I could not be more proud of the young lady she is becoming.

We love you Chloe!!

Summer Wrap up!

It's crazy to think we're on our last week of summer vacation.   

 The school shopping is done, the new clothes washed and the bedtime schedule firmly in place.

Both kids are really excited to start the new year.   Chloe can't wait to start 7th grade.  She's thrilled with her classes, which include concert band, reading appreciation and theater. I'm scared to death Jr. high is going to eat her alive....but she doesn't seem to have a care in the world.  Logan will be in Mrs. Martin's class for his 2nd grade year.   Chloe had her as well, so we couldn't be happier.

It's been a wonderful summer and surprisingly enough the weather has not been it's normal hell, which is always a good thing.  Next week our lives get back to normal, but we will always hold these memories of the time we spent with our families and ours friends this summer close to our hearts!

Summer fun is ending!

Ms. Sophie Kate came to stay with us for a week, much to Chloe's delight.

We decided to get the gang back together to catch up.

I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time!

Even Logan.

It was an exhausting couple of days!

(more so for me, really...)

We also decided to give Chloe an early birthday present, complete with birthday pancakes.

It's a new flute!   We're so proud of all her hard work.  She's now progressed to a more advanced flute and needed to have it to practice before school started.

Man we love this girl!!

As for more fun,

we took Chloe, Sophie, Logan, his friend Carter and met up with Daisy and her family at 

the local Incredible Pizza company

Always good for a fun time!

And little Mr. Brody turned 1.  We were happy to help him celebrate.

Head over to Brandy's blog for some adorable pictures and check out her awesome decorations and Ice Cream cakes.   Pinterest is a beautiful thing!!

Daisy turned 12 in July.  I made her the cake she requested

And we all got to help her celebrate at Olive Garden.

Such beautiful BFF's

Oh, and I made a cake for Carter's birthday.   He's a big Miami Heat fan.

Having never seen the Miami Heat team, I'm hoping I did their logo justice.

Carter loved it, so as I always say, that's all that matters, right?

Portland, OR

Our first few days in Oregon were in Portland with my girlfriend Inge.

We just love the Portland Zoo and were excited to return

to see all our old friends.

Gary, Inge and Kaitlyn were perfect hosts and we love that we get to visit with them when we are in Oregon.

Thank you for everything.

We love you guys!

Our last days in Florence.

I know everyone gets so sick of me and my camera,

 but I don't want a moment to go by without capturing it.

And I'm so glad I do.   Our time here is very precious to us and we want to remember it always.

As you can see, saying goodbye is always so hard.

But we are so grateful for our time with Great Grandma

And Grandma and Grandpa

And we hope we get to see them again, very soon!!

Actually, I'm thinking it's just about time for a trip to Texas!

MOM!?!
WE LOVE YOU!

Florence Excitement

We had a very busy couple of weeks.   We got to enjoy lots of bonding time with Grandma and Grandpa,

which included a ride in Grandpa's MG, which he restored himself.

Some very serious discussions with Great Grandma over ice cream.

I'm not exactly sure what they were talking about, 

      

but they both seem pretty satisfied with the outcome.

Some intense games of Tiddly Winks.

And a history lesson from Great Grandma.

We also got to take a helicopter ride up the coast, thanks to Great Grandma.

The kids were THRILLED.  

One of their most favorite things was wearing these head sets.

Grandma and Grandpa waiving us off.

The pilot circled over Great Grandma's house so she could waive at us.   This was so cool!  If you look closely you can see her out on her back patio with Uncle Bob.

Then we headed  out over the sand dunes to the coast.

Here is the opening to the Seal Lion Caves.   They were all outside sunning themselves.

And we were lucky enough to fly over 3 whales cruising through the waters.

The pilot said this was pretty rare, so we felt very lucky.   This was just plain awesome!

More spectacular views

Old Town Florence

Chloe cracked herself up by saying "Roger That" after every sentence.

She and Logan loved hearing their voices over the headsets and kept a running dialog the ENTIRE flight.

Thank you Great Grandma for giving us such an unforgettable adventure.

Speaking of adventure,

A trip to Oregon would not be complete without our ride on the dunes.

I think Grandma gets just as big as a kick out of this as we do!

Another unforgettable day!