New Skillz

Drew has some new skills. Here he shows them (and his sweet Spongebob Squarepants underwear) off.

First... the face.

Then the trick. (He does this all by himself)

The combo (face and trick... closeup)

Ta-Da!

Starlight Parade

Tonight was the annual Rose Festival Starlight Parade. The weather was perfect (high of 87 today, and not a cloud in sight). It was Drew's first parade, and I was really itching to take him. It is called the starlight because it doesn't start until 8:30 PM, and it ends around 10:30.

People start arriving around 5:00. The local news stations were saying 250,000 people were expected, and I bet they got that and more. we were in what is probably the least busy spot on the entire route, and it was pretty crowded.

We got there about 7:00, got a front row spot and busted out the sidewalk chalk.

Here's Jill and Drew waiting for the parade to start, about 1 hour before showtime.

Drew scored a police badge sticker from this guy.

At 8:00, before the parade gets started is the Starlight Run. People tend to dress up and have a good time running in front of thousands of people. Here we see Spiderman.

High 5!

Mom and Drew check out the action.

Schonely, baby! (looking all presidential!)

Drew liked the drums.

Drew stayed awake and behaved pretty well the whole time. I was impressed.

Vader!

I was mildly entertained that we were surrounded by thousands of families, watching a very family friendly parade, with a cabaret across the street that had a bright animated light up sign advertising "Dollar Dances" and "2 Girl Shows"

One last picture near the end of the night.

Memorial Day Weekend

We went to Bend to visit family this past weekend, but all we came back with were these pix. Looks like the camera spent a lot of time in the camera bag!

Mt. Hood. On the way to Bend.

Shortly after we arrived, there was a thunderstorm. As the last of it was leaving, we got a pretty sweet view. I actually saw a bolt of lightning in this small thunderhead about 2 minutes before I took this picture.

When the sun cam back out, Summer resumed... Watermelon!

Last Weekend

We had some great weather last weekend, and I am just now getting around to posting this.
75 degrees, frehly mowed lawn and a hose. THIS is how you enjoy the good weather!

Helping out the Burning Bush.

This was a very detailed watering job. Drew left no spot unwatered!

All that watering made Drew hungry, so into the kitchen for watermelon!

NOOOoooo, daaaaAAD!

Back Outside we had Drew: The Attack Of The Cones

After kicking some cone butt, the Energizer Bunny of Children - Drew, wanted to play some soccer. He has the most awesome faces when he plays ball.

This pose reminds me of the kids I used to see at Uncle Jarrod's shows

Drew almost kisked the ball over the fence. Pretty impresive. He he shows uss his form...
BAM!

The next day, Drew was helping me wash the truck when he quit about 5 minutes before I was done. He went inside. When I followed him inside a few minutes later, he was at the table eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich! (Jill wasn't home, so this was a pretty interesting sight to come upon)

The mess left behind on the counter. It was stickier than it looks.


He ate the whole thing.

32 Weeks

Jill took this picture about 2 days ago. Here is Newbie and Mom at 32 weeks. She still looks damn good if you ask me!

It's People!!!

We have been waiting and waiting for Drew's art to finally take shape. Last night, this happened. He has been drawing faces for some time now. Yesterday, Jill asked Drew if he wanted to draw one of his faces some arms. He responded by drawing arms (first time ever), then drawing hands (first time ever) and the he continued with legs and feet (also both first times). The result is the ghostly dude you see pictured here.

Here Drew draws another person. When he was done he told us that this one is laying down.

He's already working on his variety. He drew this one with hair, you can also see the ears I asked him to draw, and then he added some feet and legs.

Yeah.

New room!

Mother's Day brought cloudier weather than the previous 2, but temps near 70 made it a sweet day overall. Drew and I started the morning running out to Albertsons to get Starbucks and cinnamon rolls for Mom. We went home, and Drew delivered the goodies to her, not in bed as we had hoped, but she was at least still in the bedroom! We then went out on the front porch (it was sunny an beautiful at 8:30 this morning) to see the rocking chair we bought for the special day. It will stay on the front porch and play an excellent role in our sanity this summer.

Later in the day we hng up some godies in Drew's room, a chalk board, a white board and a couple of bookshelves. We set one up as a little desk for him. We are really happy with the way it came out. His room is almost all done (finally!)

Another view of Drew's new workspace/activity center

Washin' the truck

The weekend is shaping up as nice as predicted. 70 degrees and sun always means it's time to wash the truck. Lucky for me, I had a helper.

Here we see Drew learning that "full blast" isn't the best idea when you are so close to your target.

Sudsin' up

Warshin'

Sun?!?

It's looking like a nice weekend ahead. After dinner we headed out front to soak up some rays.

Drew rockin' Dad's old skateboard. (I learned today that I can still ollie!)

Dad rockin' the beard. It's fun and all, but I think it is going away this weekend.

Ballocity

Today was a Daddy and Drew day. Drew's daycare provider was out of town, and there was no one to watch Drew while Jill and I worked, so I took the day off to hang out with my son. We had a great time. We baked cookies and went to the kids club. It was my first time there, but I gotta say that it is damn impressive. They have a HUGE indoor playground/jungle gym thing. It has tubes, slides and LOTS of padding. Just recently opened was the part of the play area called Ballocity. It is basically a 3-level room full of air cannons and foam balls. It is totally awesome.

Here is Ballocity.

So here's how it works. First you enter to bottom of Ballocity. Grab a yellow bag and fill it up with as many balls as you can, all the while getting hit by balls being shot at you from all sides, falling from bins in the sky, and launching out of the ball volcano.

"I got my balls dad... let's GO! (ball volcano in background)

Once the balls are collected, you climb your way up to a nice high level and approach an empty cannon.

Here Drew demonstrates the proper technique for aiming the cannon.

In his picture you can see the killing floor, as well as the loading chamber for the cannon. If you look in the lower left corner, you can see a kid collecting balls.

Badasssssss!!!!!

Here dad tries to line up a shot at his young son. What a touching moment.

As we were about to leave, I hung out on the floor so that Drew could take a few shots at me. He and I both had a really great time.