High Quality Recreational Experience

We are now OFFICIALLY more RV'ers than campers. Behold The Coleman Megaload.

It holds two adults, a preschooler, a sweet baby, a stinky lab and all kinds of gear like a champ. Honestly it doesn't feel like camping anymore, it feels like, um, RV-ing.

I fully expected us to roll into the Holland Lake campground and be surrounded by old people and their small dogs in their motor homes. Not even. It was all thirty somethings and their bratty loud kids. We were in good company.

Apparently it is the new thing, get married, have kids, buy a camper and spend weekends by the lake.

Ed is totally stoked. Ever since Ed Jr. was born he has been striving to re-achieve Outdoor Recreation King status. He is getting there.

Oh and Hi - I am 11 months.

This is the face you get when you try to tell me "No."

Jr. sharing his popsicle with his baby brother.

Dads

Happy fathers' day out there Grandpa John! My dad never reads this blog (I know - what IS wrong with him?) so we had to wish him a happy fathers day in person.

Ed had a great fathers' day if you take away the hangover. Oopsie.

No, it was a great day, we chilled - boy howdy did we need it. He did mow the lawn, and between you and me, I think he loves mowing the lawn. His new riding lawnmower is a dream.


Ed is an awesome dad and really proved his daddy chops this last week being the primary caregiver for both boys for an entire week. He even had to take Monday off because daycare was closed. I came home late that night and found both of my kids alive and happy and the house was clean. Yes clean. He even made the bed. Oh and dinner was in the oven. For reals. The whole week was long and pretty awful, but one thing remained the same, I could count on coming home to some happy fellas.

My week was rediculous. I was in guard school - or wild fire firefighter training for a week. Yeah, me a firefighter. I laughed too. I wish I would have done it about 15 years ago. I got my ass kicked. And with that, I am done. It was like ripping the bandaid off, had to do it, it was awful and now I can heal. Let's hope my feet recover eventually.

Ed and I are not important compared to the two most handsome Colemans.

Baby Graham. Crawler, smiler, puller upper, dancer and scowler. He has these beautiful blue expressive eyes. You can tell he is smiling even with a binky in his mouth. You can also tell when he is mad at you for telling him "NO! No electricity!" That stinker loves cords and plug ins. Oh and the biggest Baby Graham news - he sleep trained himself. I think Ed and I were actually holding him back. He likes to get up in the middle of the night to nurse and then it is right back in his crib until like 7AM. We can put him to bed awake and he barely cries if at all and then sunggles up with his blankets and falls asleep. There was no plan, no nights of screaming, he just did it himself. Swoon.

Happy 11 months old Baby Graham. Only 1 month and you will be a year old. CRAZY!


Click on me - I am a video.




Ed Jr. He is so funny, the things he says. Tonight on the swings he told me that he likes to swing catawampus. Yeah, he said catawampus. He is also putting together really complex ideas - things he has learned at different times from different sources. It is very cool.


He informed his Aunt Liesel and I that he was going to marry Seri under the Marrying Tree (a white crab apple in our front yard). He then went in to explaining to us that he and Seri were going to have a baby, the baby was in Seri's belly. It was going to be a girl and he was going to name it Frances. When we asked him if he was going to get a job to support his family, he didn't think too much of that, but he told us that he needed to buy his baby medicine. The purple medicine, not the red medicine. That medicine is icky. He is so full of imagination. Today he told the girl at Capital Sports that he could handle shooting the deer. He told me he was going to shoot a bear and I told him that I didn't think he could handle a bear. He then went through the rest of the taxidermy telling me that he could handle the mountain lion, he could handle the moose, he could handle the deer, he could handle the elk. . .



We also talk a lot about shooting and guns. Ug. If I have learned anything from Jr. whatever he is into now will only last a short time. We will move on to something else soon. Lets hope it is peaceful.

All of the photos are from our first camping trip of the year and Aunt Liesel's visit. Both were awesome and we are THRILLED it is finally summer.

Its a framer!





Grace and Sarah on our camping trip to Black Sandy. Cuties.

10 Months

Sometime last month (ha ha the 19th) Graham hit 10 months. Ed, Cissie and I had to look back at his brother at 10 months and had a great little laugh. Boy how those two look different, but you can tell they are brothers.



Graham is officially crawling but preferrs to "swim" across the floor. The poor baby has rug burns on his belly. The MINUTE you get his clothes and diaper off he takes off across the floor faster than you can get a new diaper out.

I want to remember Graham forever at this age as the sweetest baby who is also getting some stuborness. He is going to give his brother a run for his money. Graham is tough and he doesn't back down. If you take away his toy - watch yourself. If he is hungry and you don't have his food ready - look out. He is still so smiley and smiles with his eyes. He loves to crawl on top of his brother and gives him kisses. Crazy cute. Video.



Graham got two new teeth (big ones) over Memorial Day weekend. I sunk to a new low in sleep deprevation. On Tuesday morning he got up for the day at 4:30. Lowest of the low.

Jr. and his daddy ran in the Race for the Cure. They planted our new trees. Jr. helps out around the house - our biggest challenge with him is to keep him fed and to keep him busy. He loves to garden and dig for worms. He loves to compost. Yeah, you heard me right, compost. His dad put grass clippings in the composter without his knowledge - he was pissed! Oh and the questions. He is all about questions. He wants to know everything. My least favorite question: Why do you have to work? Why do I have to go to Aimees? I don't know baby. Because. Or there is Why can't I wear my jammies? Why do I have to go to bed? And so on and so forth.







Sorry daddy - I couldn't help myself. Video.

Memorial

This weekend was my grandma Marnie's memorial service in Great Falls. It was super sad. Photos of my family here. If you see a photo you like, right click and save as on your computer or drop me a message and I will ship them off to a Walgreens for you.

I am super grateful to have had my grandma this long. I am also grateful that she got to meet both of my babies. While I feel sad for me losing my granny I feel even sadder for Ron who took such great care of my grandmother and my mom, aunt and uncles who just lost their mom.



I miss her. I think she would really love this photo.


and this one.


I was great to see my family. I wish I saw them all more often.


I am going to try to spend as much time with my grandparents as I can.



The boys are great. Jr. is wild like crazy and he likes to play "exterminator" or "catcher" with his new bug net. He rings the doorbell by yelling "ding dong ding dong" at the door, I ask him to come in and he gets rid of my pests. We have lots of pests - bunnies, earwigs, worms, ants, gophers, squirrels, scorpions, spiders, flies. . . He is really good.



Graham learned to dance last week. I will try to catch him on video. He might be our little rocker. Click on me - I am a video.


Farmer Coleman.


Here is my last email to my grandmother. I don't know if she got it or not. She was pretty sick at the time. It was just before she died. I hope she knew how much she meant to me. To all of us.

For Grandma. Thank you.
Hi Lisa, will you print this out and give it to grandma for me? Or read it to her. Either way.
Thank you for being my grandma. Thank you for all of the amazing times we have spent together. I remember everything. I feel so lucky to have known my grandparents so well and my only regret is that I didn't spend more time with each of you. I am proud that my two sons got to know their great grandmothers. I was so
fortunate to know my great grandmothers.
I have a wonderful lifetime of memories with you. If I can share some of my favorites.
I love seeing you sitting in a sunny window at your piano in the morning in your robe. I love the smell of your house in Everett. I love the way you made me feel so special when I would come to visit you on the summers and I loved your visits to us in Montana.
I always thought that you named your finches Ronald and Nancy because you actually liked Reagan but now I get it. Those finches were totally irritating. I loved Molly and felt so sad when she she passed away.
I was so intensely proud of my grandmother that co-owned a music store and hung out with rock stars. I loved that my grandmother took me to a Rolling Stones concert. I still remember every detail of that night. I loved sleeping with you even up until I was in college.
I love your little house in the woods in Coleville and your and Ron's gardens. I loved visiting you there. I remember when we came through on our way to the gorge and you knew the history of Westby and we teased my friend Justin about his mullet.
I remember you taking me to see the fields of tulips in NW Washington, I think that place is so beautiful my heart still goes there at times. I remember going on tour of the Olympic National Forest with you and my mom after I graduated high school. I can't wait to go back there some day with my family. I will tell them all about
mom falling on the beach logs and getting splinters all up and down her legs and ass and having to pull them out and put diaper ointment on her wounds while you read Jerry Seinfeld's book and laughed. Mom was so mad.
Thank you for letting Ian live with you. Thank you for taking care of him when we all had reached our limit with him.
I like the Mariners because of you. You and Grandpa Ed.
I remember Cream of Wheat. We never ate except when with you. I remember you and Grandpa together and how much you loved him and how much he loved you. I remember Grandpa Ed. How he smelled, his voice and how I thought he was the tallest man I ever knew. I still want to eat at Iver's some days.
I also want to thank Ron for taking care of my Granny. I like to think a out Ron puttering around the yard with Madeline's lesbian hat on. Oh and I remember him riding around with Molly on the back of the four wheeler.
He is so funny.
When I think about you, I always think about you washing dishes singing to yourself and staring out of the window. I never mind washing the dishes and I think it is because of you. Maybe I felt how calm it made you and now I feel that calmness. I will have that forever. Thank you.
One last memory I want to write to you and that is about the time we were in the Linwood mall and you drug toilet paper out of the back of your pants for the whole length of the mall. Mom was so embarrassed and you just laughed. I love that, you laughing.
I love you. I miss you. I think about you every day and I am praying for you which I don't really do very well.
Thank you for being my grandmother. Thank you for making my life better. I am a better person because I had you as my grandmother.
::Autumn::