This is the way . . .

. . . we eat a PB&J sandwich. For anything that's not bite-sized, Ethan holds the food in place with both hands while he chews/gums away at it. I think he's afraid of losing a single crumb, so he keeps it all close.

Little Helper

I had Michael hammer in the wall hooks on the back of a wood board I was taking to someone, and when Ethan saw what Daddy was doing, he instantly ran to his toy bucket and pulled out his hammer. He was trying to hammer with him. Isn't that adorable!

Mt. Rainier '09

We took our annual Family trip to Mt. Rainier this past weekend. We've gone every year since I was a baby (except when we lived in Nebraska during my high school years). Our group has grown from a family of 6 to a family of 12 (with 2 more on the way). And this year we had some other family members join us . . . Spenser (my cousin), and Zach (my cousin), his wife Alyson, and their son Jacen. So our group picture on the log was a big one this year. We've always sat in age order on the log (but the kids bounce around depending on whose lap their sitting on that year). Mom and Dad aren't usually in the picture, but they joined in this year (I think they were confused on where their place in the age order line went :) . . . click on the picture to see it larger.

We put Ethan in a leash thing so he wouldn't jump off the cliff at the top. It was also helpful since it was the most crowded I've ever seen it there. They waived the park entry fee of $15/vehicle this weekend, so I think that made a lot more people come. So the leash helped me not worry about Ethan darting in between other people and since I'm huge pregnant, I don't move very fast right now.
Once we get to the top of our baby hike (I think it's less than a mile), we always take a group picture on that log too. For some reason, we look like a smaller group bunched up this way instead of spread out in a line on the first log.

And here are the couple/family shots that we do . . .

1. Mom and Dad

2. The Whaley's (Lorelai was cold from the wind and wouldn't look up for their family shot)

3. The Gerke's

4. The Otto's (Alex & Jasmine)

5. The Otto's (Nathan & Kari)

A couple random pics . . .

Ethan loves post-it flags

I use the post-it flags to mark pages in magazines or books that I want to come back to for scanning or something else. I happened to leave the pack of them on the back of the couch and my little helper found them.

The Tunnel

My sister passed down some toys that her girls grew out of . . . Ethan loved them instantly. He chases Michael through the tunnel and rides on the green thing a lot.