Birthday Boy!

Yeah! He's a year old! We kept it pretty low key this time. Smith, Trey and I went to Toys R' Us to pick out birthday presents while Nate got dinner and a cake ready.
Trey got a toy too. He picked a Super Why costume. So cute!


Feeding Dad some of his cake.He made a big mess with the cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY little man! We love having this guy in our family.

Cabin

We went to the cabin this last weekend. We had a blast hiking around and relaxing. We are really going to miss it when it’s gone. While we were there a friend came up and took some family photos. I haven’t seen them all yet, but the few that she sent, I love. I also asked her to take a few shots of the outside of the cabin. Enjoy!

ABC's

This is my latest effort to teach Trey his ABC's

Step one - stencil

Step two - paint the letters

Step three - paint something next to each letter

This is definitely the hardest part. The plan is to do one or two a day so they make more of an impression. But I need help. Any ideas for Q X Y J or V.

He's walking!

He's walking!

He has been so close for so long. Now it's official, he is walking! It's been a big week for him. He also learned how to eat corn from the cob and drink from a straw. Such a big boy!

I may have over done it...

I'll spare you the full series of events that led to this. Basically it started with a friend having a baby and ended with 40 cups of freezer jam. Strawberry and cherry. The next step will be trying to eat all of this in 12 months before it goes bad. Anyone want a sandwich?

Road Trip Part 2: The Family

My brother Mike was with us from Utah to Portland. He let us crash at his place the second night and was a HUGE help with the boys on the drive. I'm not sure I would have made it without him.Thank you mike! After we left his place we visited some of Nate's old college friends and then it was on to Coos Bay for the family reunion.

Coos Bay, if you have never been there is beautiful! We camped on the edge of a cliff that over looked the ocean. Treys favorite activity was to hike down the cliff and look for crabs under the rocks on the beach. We hiked down at least twice a day.

Another day we went to the sand dunes. Nate rented a 4 wheeler and I took the boys to play in the sand. It didn't go well. Trey got sand in his shoes, hair and eyes and wanted to leave after 5 minutes. Smith liked the sand a little too much and ate 3 or 4 fist fulls before just putting his face down in it for another bite. We spent the rest of the time in the car waiting for Nate.

Later the same day we stopped at another beach. It was too cold to swim so we tried to play in the sand again. Clearly we hadn't learned our lesson yet. Nate decided to take the kayak for a quick spin. Trey we running after him into waist deep water and climbed onto the nose of the boat. Now we were cold wet and covered in sand. Yuck!

Over all we had a really fun time seeing the family and enjoying the Oregon Coast. Trey had a blast seeing all his cousins. This is the first time in a long time that ALL members of the Broadbent family were able to get together. We are already looking forward to next year.
Smith after the sand dunes
tLooking for crabs at low tide


Hiking out to see the sea lions, which turned out to be to far away to really see.

Trey playing with his cousin
We went clamming one morning. I've never seen clams that big before in my life. Trey loved them of course. We also went crabbing another day.
Cool bridge in North Bend just before Coos Bay

Road Trip Part 1: The Race

We started our road trip with a stop in Burley ID. I know what you're thinking. "What's in Burley Idaho?" The Viking Man Triathlon, and not much else. Nate did the same race last year in about 8 hours. This year he finished in 6 hours and 20 minutes. YEAH NATE! The race is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.


Just like last year several of his fireman buddies ran the race as well.
Boys in the hotel.
My brother Mike was with us for this part of the trip, so we were short a bed in the hotel. We had to make a little bed in the closet for Trey. Worked like a charm.