Drew shows his skillz..

Here we see Drew and his inherited baseball skills from his dear old dad.

Unlike his dad, Drew learns pretty quickly... see?

Home Depot

Since the Blaesings are a long line of master electricians (ha, ha), JIll and I decided to start our summer break by heading over to Home Depot and getting some work done around the house.

We finally got a new light fixture for the kitchen table.

A new ceiling fan! Sleeping will be nice and cool from now on!

Our new pond. Jill picked out the plants and scored some free tadpoles!

Lightning

We bought some stuff at Home Depot today. Then the weather moved in. Humidity and hot weather (the day before the pic was 101 degrees) tends to be cause for thunderstorms. I had to grab the camera. If you look closely (or click the picture) you will see a lightning bolt behind the house across the street (the one on the left).

Record Heat

When you get up at 8:30 in the morning and the temperature is already above 70 degrees, you know you are in for some record setting heat. We spent the first part of the day shut indoors, venturing out only to go to the Firstenberg Center to work out. When we got home, the temps were rising quickly, so Dad busted out the kiddie pool and started huffin' and puffin'...

95.5 degrees at 1:17? Oh noes...

Drew finds relief sliding ino the pool.

Ditto

What hot weather?

Soon the weather reached it's high for the day, and the swimming had to get a little more aggressive to continue to cool us down.

Holy cow!

Drew enjoyed sliding on his stomach, with a little help from Mom.

Aaaaahhhh....

I hope Drew knows how to hold his breath!

Watering

When the weather is nice, Drew knows what to do. He grabs the watering wand and waters the plants "so they don't die" (he's no dummy)

Watering the grape

Watering the (monstrous) lavender

Watering the... driveway?!?

Esther Short Park

Awesome weather again today. After dinner we decided to enjoy the 70 degree sunny weather and explore Vancouver's downtown park, Esther Short Park. Esther Short is the oldest park in Washington, and the second oldest in the west (darn you Lafayette Park in St Louis, MO!). We had a good time, and explored all of it's fun attractions.

Drew and Dad race down the slide

Run, Drew, Run!!

Mom and Drew race down the slide

Moms can have fun, too!

Drew enjoyed the fountian/wading pool thing

The wall of water coming down the bell tower

The bell tower, Mom and Drew.

Saturday

Ahhh, the first day of Summer Break. (For me anyways). Drew and I decided to head down to our favorite path along the Columbia River. Sure, the weather was a bit cloudy, but 75 degrees and humidity make it feel like a Summer Day!

Drew, the Columbia and Mt. Hood. The end of the jetty in the distance is where I took the next three pictures.

Tossing rocks in the water. Good times.

Drew tossing more rocks in the river. Click the picture. Do you see the plane in the distance?

Here is Flight LH468 from Frankfurt, Germany. It is the same plane as the picture above.

Father's Day

We had an awesome morning. Jill and Drew woke me up with some Starbucks and plan to go to Multnomah Falls Lodge for Father's Day Brunch. The brunch had the full spread. In addition to the standard breakfast stuff there were crab legs, salmon, ham and beef cut to order and champagne (I'm not a big champagne drinker, but why not?). We met Grammy and Grandpa there, and after brunch we went out to explore the falls. The sun came out as we made the ascent to the viewing bridge.

Mom and Drew head toward the falls

Mom and Drew check out he "Big Fountain"

The Fam

Grammy, Mom and Drew pose with the churning water

Ditto

With the spray in the air and the sun beginning to shine, beautiful rainbows appear below the falls. On the left of the picture is the bridge that is in the first picture above.

Dad and Drew

Grandpa and Drew. Drew loves to imitate his Grandpa.

Oh yeah, and here's Scooby getting primal on us. He climbed a tree... probably his first climb in his thirteen years of life.

Bye-Bye Baby Birds!

Baby chickadee in a basket

Mommy or daddy chickadee feeding a chick

Baby chickadee in a baby burning bush.. trying to find higher ground

Little runt baby chickadee.. unable to fly and feeling left out : (

A while back Jason and I realized that the bird house we bought at Walgreens for $1.50 was being toured then fixed up by two black-capped chickadees. We watched them fly in and out building the nest for weeks. Then one day, about two weeks ago, we heard the high pitched chirps and squeaks of baby birds as the incredibly busy and faithful parents flew in and out of the nest ALL day long with insects for their brood.

To my horror, I looked outside yesterday morning and saw the birdhouse lying in our lawn amidst three soaking wet baby chickadees. I ran outside barefoot in the pouring sideways rain and tried to stuff one of the chicks back into the birdhouse... it promptly squawked at me and jumped out. I eventually stuffed the three chicks into a basket and put it under a tree. Turns out there were actually five chicks altogether. Two really strong ones who could fly about two feet off the ground, two who could fly about six inches off the ground, and one runt who couldn't do much of anything but squawk and shiver. They were all almost eaten by a cat that I had to chase off three times. But by last night, four chicks were up in trees and presumably safe.

The parents were soo great through this whole thing. They kept such good track of all the chicks and still went out hunting and finding bugs and bringing the grub down to the babies. They didn't seem to mind when I picked up the chicks to move them and gather them together. However, they went beserk when the neighbor's cat came around which gave enough warning for me to chase it off.

The runt chick (in the last photo) spent the night in our garden last night. It still couldn't fly, but its parents were faithfully feeding it. Since we both had to work today, Jason and I thought the best thing to do was to try and place the bird in a tree and away from cats. However, it just fell through the tree and landed in our neighbor's yard. We lost track of it and figured it probably didn't make it. When I got back from work today all the chickadees were gone. Our back yard is so quiet and lonely now! I think they all flew off together. I hope little runt got to fly with them too.. if not literally then in spirit. RIP, little runt! We miss you.

Dale Jr.'s car

At the rose Festival yesterday, some nice and friendly National Guradsmen took our picture in front of Dale Jr.'s car (or at least it looked like his car. I know that he was in a race in Pocono at the very same moment. I wonder how many of these there are?!?) Anyways, here is the picture, straight from www.1-800-go-guard.com. Hooah!

Rose Festival

Well, the weather finally turned AWESOME for 1 day, and it happened to occur on the last day of the Rose Festival. We had a great time, Drew rode his first carnival ride... AND SURVIVED! He loved every minute of it. Here are the pics!

Ohhh, yeah.

Mom and Drew at lunchtime.

Mom and Drew on the waterfront.

Mom and Drew brave the Velociraptor

Mmmm... Cotton Candy

Whac-A-Mole!!!

Dad buckles Drew in for his first ever carnival ride. Of course it is the motorcycle ride!

Drew adjusts his hat, ready for the ride

Riding High

Here is the video of Drew's first ride

Drew likes the airplanes, too.

Wheee!!!

More cotton candy. I swear those bags of cotton candy weren't that big when I was a kid.

Dad... take my picture

Dad and Drew at the Dragon Boat races. (yes, that's more cotton candy... Dad finally polished off the last of it right after this picture)

The winning Dragon Boat captures the flag

Brian, Jenn and Leisl

The fam