The Great Oregon Steam-Up

The Great Oregon Steam-Up in Brooks (just north of Salem) is always the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August.  Last year, Paul, Becky, Mandy, and Justin took Judson and kept him overnight, so Nate and I could celebrate our anniversary and have a night off before Cooper joined our family.  (Uncle Justin has gone every year since he was a kid, I believe.)

This year Nate, Cooper, and I joined the fun.  We  went on a SUPER hot day, but had a terrific time.  Brooks is home to "Antique Powerland," which is basically a bunch of museums all clustered together.  Old trucks in one, tractors in another, and so on.  Total boy heaven.  In addition to seeing all of the vehicles, there's a tractor parade (complete with fascinating OLD steam tractors), fun trains to ride, and a number of other fun activities.  If you have boys and live near Salem, I highly recommend it.  (I myself would be fine with doing it once, but Judson loves it so much that it is definitely going to be part of my future summer plans, at least some years.)

I've put this post off because I have so many pictures from which to choose.  I'll do my best to keep it brief.  :)

Starting our day with a train ride.  Nate didn't like the fact that I was in a Ducks car.  :) The ride was at least five minutes long.  Judson was stoic the entire time, but loved every second of it!

Participating in the "tractor pull" with five year olds.  It was too heavy for him, but he gave quite the effort.

Random steam tractor that went by during the tractor pull.

First ever ribbon.  :)

Cooper loved the ice cream...a girl after her mama's heart.

We ate lunch in the shade next to this train track (right side of the picture).  It was perfect!  Judson would've watched it all day.  Eventually, they reversed the Amtrak train and that really bugged him.  "It's going the wrong way!  It needs to go the 'udder' way."  As my mom puts it, such an engineer's brain...  :)

Old log truck

Hearse

Driving a tiny fire truck

The "fire" kids could put out.

Judson's turn.

I loved this old fashioned gas station!

Yes, he had permission to sit on these vehicles. :)  It was so great that they weren't all off-limits.

One last train ride before heading home to cool off and give the kids long-overdue naps.

This summer has been so great!  We've packed a lot in and made some really fun memories.  We are so blessed.

Eleven months

Cooper is already eleven months old.  How can that possibly be?! I'm not sure, but I guess I have to admit that she's seeming less baby-like all the time.  In the past week she's officially started crawling.  Once in awhile, she starts to default to her previous army crawl, but immediately pops back up to her knees.  She's quite speedy, too.  Here's a video for family members and little friends who like to watch CoopCoop on the computer.  :)

Cooper's been saying something that sounded like "hi" for awhile, and it is now used in context.  She especially likes to wave and say "hi" to Nate.  Or when someone's on the phone, she just says it over and over.  So cute.  I sort of got it on this video:

 

If you watched the video, you also saw that she's quite steady on her feet.  She loves to be standing.  (She pulls herself up easily and just sits down when she's done.)  Maybe she'll be walking sooner than I think.

I took these pictures of her on the ninth, at Memorial Park.  She's dressed like a ragamuffin for obvious reasons.  :)

The theme of my summer: digging rocks, wood chips, sticks, and so on out of Cooper's mouth.

Another theme this summer...

More pool parties

Here are some pictures from our pool and a few more from yet another "party" at my parents' house (this time with Jeremy, Jessica, Logan, and Max Nelson):

She's never in very long before it comes to this.

Judson and Logan had a lot of "'lympic" (Olympic) races across the pool.  They wouldn't start until Jessica or I did the official beep.  :)

Roommate Family Day

Okay, this is from a few weeks ago, too.  One of these days, I will get caught up.  Or maybe not...

Anyway, my college roommates and I are pretty good about getting together frequently (every couple of months).  We just sit and talk (and eat) for HOURS.  It always goes by way too fast, but is so wonderful.

We didn't get our families all together last summer, so we definitely wanted to get it on the calendar this year.  And when I say get it on the calendar, I mean in about March.  Even then, some of these families have only a couple of free summer weekends left.  It blows my mind.  :)

We decided to get together at my parents' house this year, because there would be plenty of space for everyone, the huge pool for the kids, and the guys could play disc golf (nine goals - quite a set-up!).

The weather was perfect and the kids played SO WELL together.  They haven't spent tons of time together, which was perfect.  They weren't comfortable enough to bicker.  :)

I love these ladies (and their families) so much!  I'm thankful we live as close as we do (all within about an hour and twenty minutes), but I wish we lived in the same town again!

**Not pictured: Anna and me.  Sorry, Anna! :)

From left: Lisa, Emilie (five days older than Judson), my dad, Ella (just turned six), Judson, Campbell (in black - just turned four), my mom, and Morgan and Macy.

Elise and Greyson (12 months)

Macy and Cooper in the little pool

Cheryl, Lisa, Elise

Cooper and Macy enjoying the Willis' water table.

Greyson again

Paul (Andrewjeski) and Campbell (Willis)

Ha!  Love this one of Dan (Willis)!  :)

Emilie and Campbell

Ella and Judson

Playing "Ring Around the Rosie"

 Since Macy's birthday was in a few days, Anna made these gorgeous cupcakes for after dinner.  They tasted fabulous, too!