Sunday Funday Hike with the Andersons

I am a little late on this post, but one Sunday in late June,  it was absolutely beautiful outside so we decided to go on a family hike back along Hiland Mountain to the bridge with our good friends, the Andersons.  Between our two families, we had two preschooler boys, three month old baby Bram and a 30 week old preggo lady.  A four mile hike that normally would have taken us about an hour (without kids) took us FOUR hours!!!  Boy how our lives have changed since we have had kids.  Wes and Derek joked that they had so many supplies (snacks, toys and diapers, clothes) packed in their day packs that we could have camped overnight!

Here’s a breakdown of our day:

10:30 am – leave home for park trailhead.

10:45 am – get the boys loaded up on their daddies in backpacks complete with their “lovies” (Bodi wanted to bring a big stuffed rabbit and Noah wanted two of his Cars toys).  Get baby Bram set up in the ergo on his mommy, preggo lady hits the rest stop, and we are off for our hike.

Bram's 1st Hike! (3 months)

11:00 am – stop to feed Bram a bottle, let the boys get out of the backpacks to run around.  Boys play in the bushes together and “mosh” up the mountain.  Boys share goldfish crackers on mountain side. Super cute.

  

11:15 am – on our way again.

11:30 am -  We notice there are three coyotes chasing a wolverine on the

mountain!!  Stop to get pictures and look through the binoculars.  The daddies dash up the mountain to get a closer look while Annie and I stay back with the kids to let them run around and feed boys lunch (hoping the daddies don’t get attacked by the circling coyotes).  Change Noah’s poopy diaper while he is standing up so he doesn’t get dirt, rocks in his diaper  – this is an interesting task.




can you spot all 3 coyotes?



wolverine

 

Bodi and Noah playing in the woods with their cars



I love this picture of Bodi!

12:20 pm – daddies get back from their mini-adventure, get boys back in backpacks and we are on our way again.

12:30 pm – stop to feed Bram a bottle and check his diaper.

12:45 pm – on our way again.

1:20 pm  - we finally make it to the bridge and stay there a while to let the boys run around, throw rocks in the river and play play play!

the Fam - 30 weeks pregnant!

The Andersons!

2:00 pm – head back along the trail for home. Several passerby hikers note that we’ve got “quite the load” with the kids, the baby and my baby-to-be belly. J

2:40 pm – get back to our cars.  Noah falls asleep in the backpack on the hike back, but we successful at transferring him to the car seat and then to his bed for a nice long nap. 

While it took forever to do our hike, Noah, Bodi and Bram did great and had a lot of fun together!  Hiking with kids and babies is sure a lot different than what we are used to, but it did force us to slow down and enjoy the journey along the way!  Great day!

Preggo with my BFF

My best friend Kalei and I have grown up together since we met 20 years ago back in 7th grade. We have supported one another through the ups and downs of middle school, high school, college, careers, weddings and motherhood. So naturally, I was thrilled to tell Kalei back in January when we found out we were expecting our 2nd child.  She had a little twinkle in her eye and I didn't know it at the time, but she was also expecting her 2nd child and her due date was only 10 days after mine!!  

It has been really fun going through this pregnancy with someone so special to me.   We have already made jokes that our little girl and her little boy are betrothed.  :)

6 months pregnant (28 weeks for me, 27 weeks for her)



Additionally, several of our best friends from Kappa are pregnant with us too!! Check out this bump watch!  There were six of us, but our good friend Christina recently graduated from the bump watch with the birth of her son, Carsten.

And to add to the pregnancy fun, another one of our close college friends, Jen, is pregnant too with her 2nd child!!  What the heck was in the water at UO? 



Five Years and Counting...

Five years ago on June 10, 2006, Wes and I tied the knot!

Since that special day, we have bought a home together in our hometown, traveled to several exciting destinations such as China/Hong Kong and Hawaii, changed jobs, had our beautiful son Noah, and we are now awaiting the arrival of our baby girl in the fall!

Unfortunately this year on our anniversary, I was fighting a terrible cough from a 2-week bout with bronchitis. I was coughing too bad to go out to a fancy restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) so Wes suggested we take a rain check on dinner, get take out and have a picnic at the park.  We got gourmet cheeseburgers to go and took Noah to the park for some fun with mom and dad. It such a fun night and a great way to celebrate our past five years together!

During our picnic, Wes surprised me by pulling out a silver box from Nordy's with some beautiful David Yurman earrings to match the necklace he had given me last year! We had already exchanged our gifts earlier (he got a shop vac and he gave me a mini tree since traditional 5 year anniversary gifts are "wood ") so I was really surprised!

My two loves



This pretty box showed up on the picnic table



My new favorite earrings!



Our baby bump is growing... 27 weeks pregnant!



Memorial Day Weekend Campout - Byers Lake

For Memorial Day weekend we packed up the camper and headed out for our first campout of the summer at Byers Lake.  This year we were in for a really good time, because in additon to camping with Grandma and Grandpa Oistad, we also got to camp with a bunch of our closest friends:  the Rupps, the Andersons and the Finches! The weather was peferct - blue skies, sunshine and near 80 degree temps!  It was such a wonderful weekend.  Unfortunately, Noah came down with a fever early Monday morning so we had to head for home a few hours earlier than we had planned, but it was still a great weekend!

Throwing rocks in the lake!

Hike up to the waterfall  (26 weeks pregnant)

Noah and Sheila having a snack break at the falls

Hiking with daddy

Playing ball with Kailer



Love playing by the lake

 

Mommy's boy is getting to be so big!

 

I'm gonna get you Mommy!

Throwing silver car in lake... after Mommy said not to.

Pedaling my trike!

Bodi and Noah - BFF. hahaha. Annie (Bodi's mom) suggested we let the boys just duke it out. Not sure who is winning but both boys look pretty unhappy.

Mommy loves her Noah

The boys climbed down on the iceberg in Byers Lake

Noah's 2nd time in a canoe!

Fun times with Grandpa and Grandma Oistad

Playing in the "HR" - Holiday Rambler with Grandma and Grandpa!

Grandpa cooked up some Noah's favorite veggie - green beans!  Yum!



We stopped to look at Denali on the way home!