Halloween!

This year I really didn't think we were going to do the whole halloween thing. Bright still didn't know what it was, and I was TOTALLY fine with that. however, my parents brought over this costume for bright, max thought it would be something fun to do, and so we went ahead. thankfully the candy thing has not been an entitlement issue at all! he forgot he even has candy. which is great since max and I keep snacking on it! a week ago we got our pumpkins, and carved them. it was a fun day for bright. he designed his pumpkin face him self, I carved of course. I am just glad it was a face and not some space odyssy(which could have very well happened).



max showing bright what's inside a pumpkin.


going in!


the final product (bright's pumpkin, max's, mine, asher's)



here they are all lit up!


here's our little horsey!


his very first house!


later on we took the bike home, and bright came up with his routine. he was wearing his little monster backpack and would ring the bell, say trick or treat and then immediately turn around and expect treats. it was super cute.

we're back!

Ok, so we have been hiding out a bit over here in good ol ND. we got home from WA just fine. My mom kindly offered to drive me and the boys back home. I am so blessed to have such a kind family who is so generous with their time and love for me and my boys! Each time Max deploys they open their doors to a loud and crazy bunch of gordon's, and are so patient with us as we completely take over their house and lives for a few months.
When we got back here, we settled in just fine and the boys played with all their toys as if they had never seen them! it was nice and they were content. we have been enjoying the nice weather (until last week anyway) and spent a lot of our time outside and doing things that we won't be doing during winter. Family bike rides, walks, lazy afternoons spent in the yard watching the boys get dirty, flying kites and going to the park are all things we won't be doing for a few months. winter here is LONG, so we were trying to squeeze every last drop out of the weather that we could. then our upstairs computer video card gave out. max spent several hours over a few days trying to figure out the problem, and I was able to enjoy watching him do "man" work by trying to fix it. all of these are lame attempts to excuse the fact that I have neglected the blog.
shortly after max came back we went to the children's museum in Fargo. it's basically a large house set up with all sorts of kids things and science experiment type stuff. here's a few photos:

the painting area. asher was shopping for snakes.



this is a giant human heart, and a creepy kid mannequin place there for.....ambience?



here's bub looking through a magnafying glass at the indoor behive:



GIANT FACE!



Here's Bucka beaver (bright named it). it washed up in the big flood of last spring, the museum thought they should stuff it and display it for kids. Asher touched almost every inch of it, Bright was only interested in the teeth. this photo is bub contemplating the name, and a sweet fatherly photo of max.



We had a hail storm, it came on very quickly. I was at target at the time and by the time I got home, and got the camera, some of the hail had melted, but here's a good sample size of the hail we expereinced:



Asher wearing Cars slippers that Bright wore at his age:



Here's daddy and asher playing guitar:




Coming up: photos of our trip to the winnipeg zoo, and some cute bathtime pics of the boys.

House Bread

Our Friends, Ross and Elizabeth, Own House Bread. A bread baking business based out of their home. Ross was so nice to show bright his bix mixer that kneads the dough and also the big oven where it's all baked. Bright was most interested in the ducks that they keep in the yard. Ross has 2 little girls. Stella, 5(i think) and Goldie 2 (again guessing). The boys played with the girls really well, much better than expected! It was SO hot at their house so we mostly stayed in the house. Ross did show me his amazing herb garden.

Here's ross telling Bub what the ducks names are.


Here's Asher being sweet with goldie. She was nice enough to let Asher play with her, and put up with whatever he wanted to do.




Ross loving on his herbs:


A pretty marjoram flower:


the kids being cozy! Bright and stella were buddies.


More snuggling kiddos.


Asher telling us all where Jack's eye is. He kept saying "eye, eye, eye" and poking him directly in the eye. jack just pretended to enjoy it.


The temp at the tasche's. I think inside they said it was 84. the temp actually reached 105.8 before I left the house! yesterday in Snoqualmie it was 109!! too hot for houses with no a/c (which is almost all the homes in western WA.)

california, california, here we come!

Last Wednesday I helped a friend drive from Tacoma to L.A. It was really nice to be able to help out as so many times people have helped me with my drive to WA from North Dakota. I left the boys with my parents and made the drive with a dear friend, her 2 year old and her dog. the drive was shorter than it felt, which was nice. we started at about 5 am and got to our destination at about 10:30pm. not a bad day. plus we had tons to talk about and a really nice long visit. after getting to her in-law's house we crashed! the next morning we shopped and ate at a restaurant that max sometimes visits when he is in CA. I could hardly believe my ears when I heard of big tuna and all you can eat sushi. we went, I ordered it, and ate sushi to my heart's content. since max comes here when he's in CA, I was able to see what he was talking about and experience what he has experienced. funny how a random sushi restaurant in CA would make me miss my boy so badly. I had 4 orders of Hamatchi, 1 order of super white tuna, 1 california roll, 1 maine roll (lobster and crab topped cali roll). I didn't finish the rolls.


Then we went back to her in-law's house made it an early night since we had an early morning planned. Saturday we woke up at 6 ish, and by we I mean she-rebekah woke up at 6 ish, I got to sleep in a bit longer. we headed to LA for some shopping and breakfast at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel. it was amazing. She had brioche french toast and I had 2 eggs over medium with organic spinach and tomatoes and melted goat cheese over the top. amazing. Cameras are banned in the hotel but we managed to get a few shots. here is a view of the courtyard where we ate breakfast. we got to sit in the far corner so we could see everything. to the far right corner of the photo is the door to the remainder of the restaurant.



About 20 mins after this (secret) photo was taken Christopher Lloyd came and sat with the woman in the green top. he had 2 adorable dogs with him and he ordered the same thing as me!


The whole place is about 10 times smaller than I expected. it's very small. I would say about 100 people could eat in the restaurant. not sure how many rooms there are but, it's very small and cool. Probably the coolest and most vintage chic hotel I have ever experienced. Here's the bathroom. All the fixtures were REAL silver, and shiny! There were actual towels for drying off. the floor was white marble and the doors all had amazing vintage hardware that was so intricate.


This shot is just the entrance from the parking lot. it sums up what we saw there. I hope we could one day stay here and experience it a bit more. you can really tell that this place is old. the wood and all the furniture are well taken care of and just so luxurious.


I could so totally live here!!


And here!


this store was so great, I know we can get Juicy here at Nordstrom, but it was truly an experience to be had at the Beverly Hills store. I really need a camera bag, and it was REALLY hard to put down the cute little black leather and brass studded bag I found near the door. Max, you can thank rebekah for being the voice of reason! We also went to Gucci, Prada, Chanel and a few other designer stores. At Chanel I fell in love with a black croc skin handbag. small, but totaly worth the $28,289.00 price tag. I could really do some damage there on Rodeo Drive! I really felt like a princess the whole day! Thanks, Rebekah for taking me to a fun place and doing all the girly things with me! I loved it!

lately

So, we have been busy lately. The last couple of weeks here is always full of last minute hang outs and events. I am really going to miss the end of summer here in WA, my favorite part of summer here is august and september, the cool evenings and hot days of river swimming. here are some of our latest photos.

We have a small kiddy pool in my parents back yard, bright does not always want to wear his swim shorts so he will just wear undies. this photo is of him, post swim and working on the house with grandpa. he's also accessorized it a bit. I think the dirty mouth is just super, but it's the pose that has me laughing. me: "bub, can you smell the flowers behind you and I will take your picture?" him: "but mama, I want to stand like this." and then he poses like this:


here he is posing again. my dad and I were trying to figure out what he was trying to express by this pose. I kept taking photos expecting him to change it up, but we have about 10 pics of him like this. he must have thought the look was working!


this one is just too cute to not post. he's running to catch up to grampa, with backwards undies.


Today we had a church picnic, and it was painfully hot. we stayed as long as we could stand it. the food was good, and so was the company however there was no hiding from the sun. Bub and I did find a nice place to play. he's loving tire swings lately.


About a week ago we found this amazing spot on the river. we stopped on the side of a bridge and walked down to the shore. the water that we initially came upon was pretty deep, though it had a sandy shore. Courtney and I decided to wade up the river (under the bridge) with the boys and my precious camera in the backpack. it looked like there was a perfect shallow spot about 100yds away. BAD IDEA! the river looked as though it got shallower as it flowed under the bridge, so we thought we could stay close to shore and just carry the boys. the bottom was deep with mud about up to our ankles, which made for a s-l-o-w walk. Also, the water was waist to chest deep. but we were so close! finally, after deliberation (do we go back?)we made it under the bridge and to the rocky side. it was perfect. a small creek broke off from the main river flow and created a large island in the river. the creek was great for the boys to play in with shallow water and sand for walking around on.

here you can see the bridge in the background. we parked on the other side and waded under the bridge to this spot. the "creek" that broke from the main river flow is to the left, Asher and I are sitting in it.


we caught a fish.


Here is another part of the river off shoot.


The boys. Asher pretty much just stood there the whole time unless I was holding him and dipping his legs in the water. he was pretty nervous around the water.


Bright was wading out to Coco, but decided against it, shortly after this he slipped on a rock and went totally under! when he came up he was shocked but coco and I just cheered and made it out to be the most awesome thing ever, and instead of feeling scared he ended up feeling really proud of himself. "that was really crazy! did you get a picture of it mama?" no. it's because as I saw it I freaked and ran toward him, so there is no photo evidence. sorry bub.


the cozy car ride home.

speaking of small/furry/cute animals.....

we were at Twin falls yesterday. It's rapidly becoming Brighton's favorite place to go on a hot day. we hike a bit then stop on the side and play in the water. while the boys were throwing rocks I noticed an infant rodent of some sort. since it was small, cute, furry and only a baby of whatever it was, I thought it was cute. had it been in it's adult form, I probably would have screamed and ran the heck outta there. since it wasn't I photographed the thing, and showed the boys. we still don't know what it is.


it's eyes are still closed, so I think it was looking (smelling) for its nest. it just slowly bumbled about smelling things and trying to nurse twigs. sad. no mommy to be found. finally it found this place in the sun to cozy up in and snooze. it was all I could to to keep asher from grabbing it and kissing it.


Can you see where it is? we were pretty close to it.


here are the real stars of the show! my boys and I can really have a great time in the water! asher's fave was throwing rocks, bright liked sitting on the bigger rocks out in the water and finding creatures. Also, splashing is fun.


gettin sandy!


sweet little hikers! you were with us in spirit, honey. I know you would have loved sharing this day with us!

we found a bee

we were walking from the car to the house and saw a huge bumble bee on the walkway. both boys were smitten. I, of course, was picking it up and trying to touch the soft fuzziness of it. Asher honed in on that fact and wanted to hold it and love on it. I could tell by the sweet cooing he was making. His "cute animal" voice; a series of oooh's, oh's and ahh's at the highest pitch imaginable laced with sweetness. When I hear that I am at my happiest, since it usually involves my boys being sweet, nurturing and nondestructive, with a cute/fuzzy/small animal thrown in the mix.


I didn't realize until now how fitting his shirt was!



The only thing left to do after you properly harass a bee is to....Play the "drums"!!