Steven and Carter in their new matching Vans this morning before school.

Sporting my sunglasses yesterday.

Our little boy is acting more and more like a boy each day. He is constantly making me laugh out loud. He was so funny today that I couldn't help writing a few of his moments down...

1. This morning at church he figured out that clothes make sliding across linoleum much easier. He laid on his stomach in the middle of our fellowship hall and pushed himself with his feet across the floor.

2. He makes engine sounds when he moves his trucks across the floor.

3. Today I kept asking him to come and give me a kiss. He would look at me with a smile, shake his head no, and say uh uhh.

4. We were in Sam's Club picking up some fruit for the week. Carter has this thing about pushing the shopping cart. He was pushing the cart past the mangos when I looked away for just a second. When I looked back he was holding a mango that he had just taken a bite out of. The man stocking the fruit was gracious enough not to make us buy the whole carton.

5. The picture below shows how he ended up after playing outside with Dan after dinner.

After 6 months of the printer being on Carter's level... he finally figured out today what the green button does.

I wanted to post a picture of our cat, Eddie, tonight. We got Eddie when he was a tiny kitten our first year of Seminary. A couple months ago I was trying to find someone to keep him while we are here at Joe's Place. My family in CA offered to take him... but the distance thing hasn't quite made that possible. It really has worked out having him here... he just stays outside most of the time. The only major problem is that he keeps going back to our old house. Today I realized I hadn't seen him for a couple days. I drove past our old house on my way home from a meeting and there he was... sitting as content as can be on the front porch. I put him in the car and drove home. He'll probably stay through the weekend and then leave again when the guys come back on Sunday. He is so funny. I guess the main reason I wanted to post the picture was because I found Carter feeding him cheerios this evening. Carter would hold out his hand and Eddie would gently take the cheerio right out of his fingers. I'm just glad Carter is getting to grow up with such a sweet animal.

I've been sitting at my computer looking at the time and debating whether or not I was going to put up a quick post. I really should go to bed. Oh well... I still hear footsteps upstairs. Our 4 guys moved back in this week and I'm still adjusting to lights out being at 11pm. It's been a great (and busy) couple of days. By the time this week is over we will have celebrated an 18th birthday, watched some football, taken one of our guys for knee surgery, watched some basketball, talked A LOT of sports, watched some baseball... I think you get the point.

Carter has been unbelievably excited to have the guys back in the house. They are all so great with him.

Anyways... here are a couple pics of Carter from the last couple days...
Drinking "coffee" with Daddy. He was losing it on Saturday when he couldn't drink out of our mugs... so we put his milk in his own mug.

A house is being built across the street. Carter loves to watch the trucks come and go.

I just thought this was cute. Carter was trying really hard to touch the camera when I took this.

Oh... I almost forgot. Dan got his hair cut today!! I am so excited. You can kind of see from this pic. The guys have not stopped with the hobbit jokes since he walked in the door.

We are finally home and are getting a taste of the hot weather St. Louis has had the past month. It was so nice to have to wear jackets at night when we were on the West Coast. We'll hopefully have some cooler weather this weekend.

Carter was a real trooper during our travels... especially on our flight home Tuesday. We left Dan's parents house at 4:30am that morning to get to the airport in time for our 7:30am flight. We then flew from Seattle to Oakland, Oakland to Las Vegas, and Las Vegas St. Louis. We didn't realize the Las Vegas leg was a part of our trip when we bought our tickets. Dan was even more of a trooper for changing a really bad diaper in the airplane restroom (a restroom that didn't have a changing table). I could hear Carter screaming all the way back to my seat. At one point the flight attendant knocked on the door to see if he needed anything. The same flight attendant then made him go back in the bathroom and dig the diaper out of the trash can. Other than that and my hand sanitizer exploding all over Dan... it was a great trip.

We got to see some of our best friends before we left California. We met Luke and Beth for dinner about an hour away from where we were staying. It was soooo good to see them.

We also got to see our brother in law, Scott, for a couple hours.

We spent out last day in CA at Castle Lake... about 20 minutes from Mt. Shasta. The pictures really don't do it justice.

Carter kept putting his feet in the cold water. It shows how much he is like his dad. Dan actually swam in the water later in the day.

We also hiked a trail on the edge of the lake. It was beautiful.

Carter in front of Mt. Shasta on our way out of town. Thanks for a great week Mom and Dad!

We drove through the night last Monday back up to Seattle to drop Carter off with Dan's parents. Thank you so much Paula and Carter! Wednesday we went back up to the dome. It was so nice to be able to sit and read for hours. We also spent a lot of time hiking and walking along the river. Dan even spent some time fishing.




Thank you so much Alex and Jan... we loved staying up there!!!

So... we are getting things together before the guys move back in on Sunday. Dan had to be back at work on Wednesday. It does feel good to be home... but we are missing family and that West Coast weather!!

I think that it's hard to really appreciate some things until you don't have them anymore. It is unbelievable to me that this is the part of the country I grew up in. Spending time here in Mt. Shasta has been such a breath of fresh air. Here are some pics of the last week.

August 1 - We spent the day with my twin sister Erica, niece Lexie, and my Mom and Dad at Lake Siskiyou. Here Dan and I are checking out the view of Mt. Shasta while we were kayaking.

My Dad and Erica.

August 2 - We took a picnic lunch to the headwaters of the Sacramento River. I've been trying to get a picture of Carter in front of every major place we go. The headwaters are just behind him. It's crazy that this little stream turns into a huge river within a couple miles of this location.

My Mom with Lexie and Carter.

After lunch we hiked down to the Hedge Creek Waterfall in the neighboring town of Dunsmuir. Legend has it that a stagecoach robber hid out here.

I had to post this pic because Lexie took it. Not bad for a 7 year old.

August 3 - We did a little bit of shopping in downtown Mt. Shasta.

My sister Cari stopped by for dinner on her way up to the Klamath River for a weekend rafting trip with her husband. It was good to see her even though it was only for a few hours.

My cousin Beverly also stopped by before Cari left. It has been so great to see so much family the last few weeks!

Dan and I are sitting in downtown Mt. Shasta, CA on a park bench right now. We were finally able to pick up a wireless signal. It's amazing to be with family, on the West Coast, and playing in the mountains and water. We've taken a ton of pictures... so we thought we would choose a couple from each day to show what we've been doing.

July 24th - Where Carter hung out during our layover in Salt Lake City.

Beautiful Mt. Rainier on our way into Seattle.

July 25th - Dan and I went jogging... well I guess you can say I was the one who did the jogging. Dan's cousin let us borrow his Segway for a couple days.

July 26th - We spent the day with my Aunt Jan and her fiance Alex up near Steven's Pass at his dome in the Cascades. Dan's brother Dave, sister-in-law Laurisa, and their kids (Caleb and Grace) went with us. It was so much fun. Alex let us ride his tractors.

Carter loved the firewood cart. You can see the dome behind them.

July 27 - Day 1 of the Reeve family reunion at the Seattle Center.

We were able to get a quick shot of all the cousins before they were off and running again.

July 28 - Day 2 of the Reeve reunion at Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island. Carter actually took a 2 hour nap in the pack-n-play next to our picnic blanket. We couldn't believe it. Here is a picture with Dan's immediate family.

Dan's Aunt got all the cousins these funny teeth. Caleb wore them all day.

July 29 - We spent the afternoon with Dan's cousin Kim, her husband Todd, and their two sons at their house on Lake Washington. You can see a sea plane taking off over Dan's head.

Our nephews playing on the beach in their backyard.

After dinner Dan's cousin took us out on his boat so we could try some inland surfing. It's pretty crazy how you let go of the rope and stay with the boat. Here is Dan...

Here I am... it took a while, but I finally got up.

July 30 - Everyone left to go home. Here are our nieces and nephews playing while the cars got loaded up. We hung out with Dan's folks the rest of the day and then left at 8pm to drive down to my parents vacation house in CA. It took us until 4:30am... but totally worth it to have Carter sleeping.

We'll have to post some pics of Mt. Shasta later this week. It has been amazing to be in the mountains again. We feel like we have been living in a post card the last week.