Wanna win a pair of designer jeans?

Go to my giveaway blog and sign up to win. They are really cute jeans.

http://justformeandyou2.blogspot.com/2009/07/ymi-jeans-review-giveaway.html

My first review!

I have joined forces with my in-law sisters (or is it sisters-in-law? Whatever, you know what I'm talking about) on their review/giveaway blog www.justformeandyou2.blogspot.com. Go check it out! Next week I am doing a giveaway of the same pair of shoes I reviewed today so start following us and enter to win!

What a difference 4 years can make

Food, friends and family

We got to stay with my Grandma Joanne while we were in Portland. It was the perfect place for us to stay and I'm really glad we got to spend some extra time with her. She was so great!

Graham adored her dog Rusty, but unfortunately, Rusty did not return the love. He is not a fan of kids and would run to the other room anytime Graham was near. This did not deter Graham though, and he worked on crawling fast enough to get close to Rusty, without ever having any luck. Poor Graham. It was pretty funny. On this trip he seemed to fall in love with any dog he would see. He would laugh hysterically anytime one would come around and pay attention to him. I put a really funny video at the end of this post of him playing with some dogs.
Graham met about a thousand relatives that he never knew he had. He was pretty good natured about it and gave everyone his toothy grin. Here he is with his great grandma.
Graham and Nancy.
Joanne had a kitchen sink that was perfect for Graham's baths. I wish we could have taken it home with us.
We went to 5 BBQ's in Oregon!! We were definitely fed well. Graham took it all in stride and strapped on his bib, ready to chow down on any food we would put in his mouth.
My brother Jake and his wife Amanda.
My sister Steph and I holding our cousin's one month old twin girls!!! They were so small. I don't even remember Graham like that anymore.


Steph and her girls.

The whole family.
The girls loved Graham. You wouldn't know it from this picture, but he really liked them too.l
Siblings.
Elliot's extended family all live in Washington, so we made the trip over the border to seem them while we were there.
My Aunt Debbie and her son Olin.
We met up with one of my good friends from high school, Ben. Their little girl is only 2 months older then Graham so it was cute to see them together.

Our last BBQ of the trip. Graham did not enjoy the pool scene so we stayed in just long enough to take some pictures.
Is this picture not completely priceless??


This was such a good vacation!! I'm really glad we were able to go (thanks again Nancy!!!). It was hard to leave, but nice to come back to our own bed. I can't wait for the next time we make it out there.

Our 4 year anniversary

On the 4th day we were in Oregon, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary!! Wow, that went by fast. We hadn't been back to the Portland temple since our wedding day, so we took the opportunity to walk around the grounds and reminisce.

It was a beautiful day. It reminded me excactly of our actual wedding day. Except this time we were lugging around an extra 22 lbs with us. Where did this guy come from?
Afterwards we got to go out to lunch with my cousin's Jessie and Jackie. I hadn't seen either of them in at least a few years so it was really nice to catch up.

Newport coast

I was excited to take Graham to the Ocean for the first time. Too bad for him that his first beach experience couldn't be on the east coast. The Oregon coast is not known for being the warmest spot on earth. I got a short video of Graham's reaction to his first time in the ocean (the video is at the bottom of this post because I can't figure out how in the heck blogger works!!). I don't think he was all that thrilled about the icy water on his feet, but he was a good sport. Right after I took the video, we had to run out of the ocean before getting frost bite! My toes were soooo cold.

He sure made a cute beach-goer.

After the beach, we went to the aquarium. It was pretty neat seeing all of the animals they had there. They have a touch and feel place where you can touch all the different sea urchins. That's my favorite. Elliot refused to let me put Graham's hands on anything in there. Probably a good choice since he for sure would have put them right into his mouth after touching.
Elliot made friends with a sea otter.
The bonus of going there was finding out Elliot has the same wing span as a Pelican. Would we have ever known that otherwise? I don't think so.
I had to take a picture of this when I saw it. I went to throw something away and there were three places to put your trash, compost, recycling and landfill. Landfill!! Ha ha. Only in Oregon. I miss that place. (Does anyone else find this remotely amusing or is it just me?)
Here is the video. Such a cutie.

1st stop: Corvallis

We had the best time in Oregon!! After we flew in we drove to Corvallis to spend a few days there before heading back to Portland. We stayed with Chrysta (my best friend from high school) most of the time and spent one night with my aunt Peggy. I spent 5 days with Chrysta and oddly enough, this is the only picture that we took together.

This is seriously the best picture we could get of Graham with Chrysta's girls. Pretty sad huh?
One of the days we were there, we went downtown to the fountains where kids play in them. Chrysta's girls loved them.
Graham did not enjoy the festivities quite as much. He didn't want to be anywhere near the water but was ok watching the other kids run around. If only he could walk, things like this might be more fun. Unfortunately, he is showing no interest at all at having to use his legs to get around and is still trying to master his scoot/shuffle/crawl thing he has going (I'll be posting a video of that soon).
We got to pick cherries at my Aunt Peggy's house. It was so nice to be able to go to the backyard to get fresh fruit! While we were in Oregon, we picked and ate cherries, raspberries and blueberries. It was so great. I think we need to plant some fruit tree's in our backyard here (and by "our backyard" I think we all know I mean Elliot's parents backyard that we look out through our basement window).
The day after we got to Corvallis, we celebrated Fathers Day. Graham was so excited to get the party started, he woke up at 5:00 in the morning. I got up with him and considered that Elliot's Fathers Day gift. That's fair, right?

Everywhere we went on this trip, Graham had a friend to entertain him. It was so great. Here he is with his second cousin (I think that's right?) Katarina.
Chrysta's oldest girl Eva loved him. She read to him, played with him and generally kept him busy while I sat on the couch being lazy. Does it get better then that? I'm in serious need of a pre-schooler in my house. Anyone know of one that's available?
And since Blogger sucks (why can I no longer move pictures around????) here are some airplane pictures a little out of order. Graham did pretty well on the way there. He slept for about an hour of the 5 hour flight and the rest of the time he tried to find things to stick in his mouth.