Ice cream sandwich, chocolate malt, turtle sundae, banana split (not pictured)

Here’s the gang at The Creamery, one of our favorite spots to visit in Illinois.

Mama’s no-dairy begins anew when we arrive home in Portland :)

Boy oh boy, a row boat ride in the sun sure does put a guy to sleep!

One of the things I consider myself super talented at is throwing a dog toy in such a way that it lands on the roof, over the fence in the neighbor’s yard, or Gavin’s personal favorite, stuck in a tree 20 feet over my head. Yeah, I’m reeeeal good at that. Two weeks ago, Gavin and I were throwing a toy for the wiener dogs and I threw a good one, right up into the huge cherry tree in our backyard. “Oh. No.” we said. Gavin thought this was downright awesome and he kept telling me “mama, get it.” And I’d try to throw another toy at the stuck toy to get it down. I tried probably 20 throws and all I got was another toy stuck in the tree. He grinned mischievously and said “Ry, get it.” Which was super funny since Riley is like 8 inches tall. Scott came home and said “stand back” and took one throw with a rake to knock the toy out of the tree. Gavin still wants me to tell him the story of the stuck toy at least twice a day. Which I think is cool because we’ve done way more fun things in the last two weeks but the kid still wants to discuss the stuck toy situation. “Mama. Ry’s orange ball. Stuck tree. Papa get it.” And then I re-tell him the story and he gets all smiley and says “More.” or “Again.” Funny bunny.

Sheesh people, vacation is hard work when you’re one-almost-two! There are soooo many things to explore, sandboxes to dig, pools to swim, dogs to pet. It’s seriously like a lot of work. And it’s 97 degrees out, so I think I’ll just take a little snooze in this air conditioned rental car, alright? And don’t forget to take me to the Creamery for BOGO Sundae Sunday tonight, alright?

Friday Flashback!

This time last year, we were headed out on Gavin’s first big adventure, a trip to southern California to see our cousin Rosie get married. Oh what fun we had!

Gavin, our long train ride was the one and only time I have dressed you in pajamas for a public daytime appearance. Please forgive me, I thought it would be more comfortable. PS you looked really cute!
PPS this was in Minneapolis where we got to hang out outside while our train had some work done. It was hot & windy!

Gavin with his train ride set-up. There was a whole lotta Dora the Explorer going on.

Did I ever tell you about the week I spent on a train to Chicago one day? It’s a long story for another day, but here’s a photo of Gavin & Scott waiting in Minneapolis as the engines got traded out for the millionth time. At least they let us off the train for this one.

“Want frosty.”

Here’s Gavin enjoying a Wendy’s frosty (chocolate, duh) just before his adventure at the “bounce house” in Kalispell Montana. It was awesome. Seriously the best. For $10 he got an hour and a half of playtime on an indoor bounce house, giant inflatable slide, bumper cars, mini bowling, and a climbing structure with foam balls to shoot out of real cannons. It was super cool. And you know what else? His mama & papa got to play on all that stuff too. For free.

For part of April and May we thought Scott might have lymphoma. It was scary & really stressful (obvs) but he got a call from his doctor last week confirming that he does not have lymphoma. I had to pretty much go straight to work & I received this text from him shortly thereafter…

“It’s weird when you find out you don’t have cancer and don’t have anyone home to celebrate with.”

Sorry husband, but I sure am glad you don’t have cancer!!