Big John

So I'm doing this one last, but the way it posts them it will be first. My family (particularly Dad) has had a rough year. He has lost many friends and family in a short period of time. Probably one of the nearest and dearest was a good friend and neighbor of 15 years. Well, at the parade I saw a log truck coming, (not unusual in Winlock) and I noticed that the truck looked familiar and it had a beatiful load on it. I didn't recognize the name on the side, so I just figured it was coincidence that it looked familiar. As it rounded the corner where we were at, I saw this sign.

John was a log truck driver. He bought my dad's truck after Dad got hurt. He lived in my Grandparents house, where my dad had grown up, not 100 yards from mine, for 15 years. When he moved in Nicole and I made him cookies and took them over. He never forgot that and I wish I had done it again. He was a good man and a good friend. Thanks John, for everything.

The Rest of the Weekend

Here are some random pictures from the weekend.

Layne, my nephew, at his baseball game.

Austin going on his first quad ride.

Calyx, "Take a picture of this Crystal!"

Playing fetch in my parents field.

Dakota doesn't mind the water. This is at the Little Pond. (Yup, we have a Big Pond too. Aren't we creative?!)

A couple pictures of a small part of my parents' beautiful property.

My handsome boys.

Austin playing in the water. It was a little cold, so he preferred to be outside the tub and just splash.
Just look at all this fat. I gotta do something about this.

Austin loves the puppers, and she loves him too.

Our neighbors brought us a huge pan of the yummiest strawberries. Dark red all the way through. This one stood out from the rest for some reason.

The class of 98. Or, those that came to the reunion anyway. Not a bad showing for only having 45 that walked.

Egg Day Parade

We went home last weekend for my 10 year class reunion, which was held on Egg Day Weekend. Now, most of you are probably like Zach, not realizing how big Egg Days really is. The whole town turns out. Plus some. If you're coming to Winlock at all over the summer to visit family and friends, this is the time to do it. Everyone is there. The parade was over an hour long. Quite an accomplishment for a town of a little over 1,000. Here are some of the resulting pictures. I tried to take a variety of the floats to give you a feel for the town. First, a couple that I can't take credit for; the giant egg in our town, and a few of the chickens around local businesses.

Yup, the pride and joy of our town.

For some reason, they have started putting these chickens all around town.

Our Egg Day Royalty float.

Austin wouldn't nap before we came downtown, so he ended up conking out right before the parade. This was taken as the fire trucks and ambulances were going by.

Cedar Village IGA Float. They usually throw out mini loaves of bread. This year it was Twinkies. Mine got smooshed in the stroller before I got to eat it. Bummer.

Our buddy Calyx bustin' it getting candy.

One of the many many chickens seen in the parade.

Live 95 has a Wonder Truck they give away each year. This is the current one.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield. His daughter was a year younger than me. Great family.

Xoee helping Christine Webb get elected. The huge red shirt and red hair kind of make her disappear in front of the red truck.

Xylee hand delivering some candy to us.

Roller derby chicks that kindof stunk in my opinion.

Only in Winlock (and the other towns near it) would you see goats promoting a politician.

Jane and her girls Xylee, Alex & Lexee (twins), Xoee, and Calyx. And Zach of course. He burned his head the day before at Layne's baseball game, hence the really cool hat.

At the end of the parade, still snoozing. He woke up just a few minutes later.

A Weekend Getaway

I am so excited. Next weekend we are going "home" to Winlock for their famous Egg Days and my 10 year class reunion. I haven't been to Egg Days in nearly 10 years, and I am excited to see everyone from school. (Side note: I am from a town of about 1000 and had a graduating class of 45.) I wish we had more time so we could go to the beach, zoo and a ton of other places too, but this one will be a fairly quick trip. Leave Friday, come back Monday, so only two days at home. One is the Egg Day parade and reunion, the other is church and visiting a couple old friends. I will try to take some pictures and post them when we get back.

He's got what? Why I'm so tired

Austin got a cold a couple weeks ago, and it was getting better only to get worse. I took him to the doctor Thursday and he's wheezing (He does that when he gets sick). He's got croup and an ear infection in both ears. And he cut a tooth yesterday. No wonder he has been king of the grumps and I am way past sleep deprived. He went to bed at 8:30 last night, fairly normal, and woke up at 4am. 4!!!! He was fairly content to stay in bed until 5, so I got a couple more minutes of sleep, but not enough to count for anything. I fed him and gave him a nebulizer treatment and got him back down at 6. I went back down too, but being as exhausted as I am, I slept horribly, waking constantly.

Then, after his nap and he had a proper breakfast, he sat in his high chair while Zach and I ate. We were getting him ready to get out and he had something on his pant leg that looked like breakfast. Since he "fed" himself about half, it was possible, but I wondered how it got all the way down there. When we got him out, we saw it went all the way up and was on both sides of his diapered tushy. It got darker higher up. So I put him in the bath, stripped him down and he got a bath this morning. I had been warned about this since he's on amoxicillin. What a day already.

Well, he's grumpy and Zach is leaving for work in a couple minutes, so I'm going to stumble off to play Zombie Mom. Wish me luck.