Camping!

About a month ago we met my parents at Bullards Beach State Park on the Southern Oregon Coast. The days leading up to going camping I was constantly checking the weather. It was end of June so one would think the weather would be nice no problem... well not so much in Oregon. The forecast was calling for a wet cold rainy weekend {across pretty much the WHOLE state}. We debated back and forth wether to just tough it out and go, or if it was really worth it to tent camp in the rain {with a two-year-old and being 27 weeks pregnant}. My parents have a trailer and had made reservations so they were going rain or shine.

Friday rolled around and we woke up to grey cloudy skies at home. We made the decision to just go for it. {yes, I'm sure we are crazy} We figured if Friday night was miserable we'd come home Saturday. On our way there it was ugly. It poured and poured some more on us. As we got closer to the campground {and farther away from our dry, warm comfy beds} I kept thinking, "what are we thinking?!" We arrived to the camp ground and of course it was raining. My dad and Russ set up our tent underneath a canopy {which was a lifesaver}. We hung out in the dry trailer that night. When we went to bed I prayed and prayed that we'd sleep through the night and wake up dry. And thankfully we did! Saturday morning we were up by 5:30am and it wasn't because we were soaking wet. The rain had stopped during the night and didn't return the rest of the weekend. We ended up have a great time with some pretty blue skies as well.

Our little humble abode for the weekend. The lines that look like streaks on the picture is actually the rain pouring off of the canopy from the trailer.

Friday night trike ride in the rain.

 Saturday we spent the afternoon exploring Old Town Bandon {notice the blue skies!!?}

If you ever go to Bandon you must go to Crandberry Sweets & More. They have samples of almost every type of candy they sell. {It's kind of like Costco in way of samples, but candy}

Our camping site.

 Playing on the beach!

 Helping dad build a sandcastle.

 Quick picture with the sandcastle.

 Destroying the sandcastle.

 Conquering the sandcastle. 

 Our little family.

 Papa Mike and Papa Lori {yes, he calls his Grandma, Papa... He will not say Grandma}

 Here I am at 27 weeks!

Sitting by the campfire. 

And he's out. 

The second night I opted to sleep in the trailer. I thought it would be more comfortable for all of us. Well, Blake moves a lot in his sleep and kept falling off the side of the air mattress which woke both him and Russ up so half way through the night Russ brought Blake to me in the trailer and he slept much better next to me where he couldn't roll off. And slept soundly till about 7am {much better then the 5:30 wake up time the morning before :)}

Sunday morning we spent more time on the beach and then packed up to head home. 

 It was another beautiful morning!

 Papa and Blake found a fort!

 Inside the fort.

 Running on the beach.

All of us!

I'm looking forward to many more camping trips as Blake gets older {and baby girl too}! 

One more reason to celebrate...

I was going to add this onto Blake's 2nd Birthday post, but I felt like it needed it's own post... 

Back in April Russ took the PE Exam {Professional Engineering Exam}. And since April he had been anxiously waiting for the day that he would open the mail box and that piece of paper would be in there telling him if he had passed or not. 

Well, the Friday evening before the party he got a call from a friend {who also took the test} that the results were posted online and he had passed!!! Supper excited yet, was still a little skeptical... it just wasn't going to seem real until he had that letter in his hand. So Saturday during the party he ran out to the mail box and there it was the letter saying he had passed!!!!!!! 

Yep, your looking at my husband, the Professional Engineer!! 

I'm so proud of this man!!

Blake's 2nd Birthday: An Elmo Party!

Finally, I'm getting around to posting about the big 2nd Birthday! Blake has been loving Elmo {or Melmo, as he says it} lately so I thought he would love an Elmo-ish themed party. To get some ideas I headed to {of course} pinterest. {where was pinterest when I was planning our wedding 6 years ago?!}

Invitations: I love invitations. But they can become pretty costly {and most people just throw them away} so this year I decided to try making something simple on our computer. It did help that I could look for ideas on etsy and pinterest. They were fun to create!

Goodie Bags: A while back I came across these square plain red gift bags at Target and thought they would make perfect Elmo party favor bags. To make them look like Elmo, I just cut out eyes, nose and a mouth from card stock and glued it on. {I'm not supper artistic so the one thing I loved about Elmo is he's really not that hard to create!} 

The decorations and food: The banner I made out of card stock and the frame I found at Goodwill and took the glass and print out and spray painted red and stapled ribbon to the back and and then used close pins to hold the pictures to the ribbon. The food I decided to keep simple this year. Since the party was at 3pm I didn't feel like I needed to provide a whole meal but I wanted something {because what's a party without food?!} so we just had veggies with ranch, fruit with {fruit dip}, crackers with a cheese spread and chips and salsa.

The Elmo: Isn't that the most awesome Elmo balloon you've ever seen?! It was huge! And Blake was terrified of it...

This is the closest he'd get to it and he was trying to claw his way out of my arms. It was probably a good thing he wasn't with me when I picked it up from the store or he might not have gotten in the car with it ha! Someone put Elmo in time out...

I'm glad Luke loved Elmo!

The cake: {just to warn you, this is a bit of a long story...} I ordered the cake from Market of Choice. Market of Choice is newer local grocery store in Corvallis that makes the most delicious cake ever. {I am serious, if you are ever near a Market of Choice stop and buy a slice of cake, you won't be disappointed.} 

When I called to talk to the cake decorator about what I wanted for an Elmo cake I was shocked when she told me that they couldn't draw Elmo's face on a cake because of copy right issues. All I was originally planning on was a square cake with Elmo's face on it. Pretty easy. So when I was told they couldn't do that I was at a loss. What was suppose to make my life easier {buying a cake, not making one} was now turning into a hassle! I called all over the place and searched every online website for something Elmo to put on a cake but nothing I found I really liked. The next idea was to have them just frost it and me add Elmo face myself to it but I am not talented when it comes to cake decorating and really didn't want to take on that job, ha! So we went for an Elmo inspired cake. The frosting on the cake is suppose to look like Elmo's fur and I made the little Elmo face topper out of card stock and also made the cupcake toppers. The says "Love, Melmo" because that is the way Blake says Elmo :)

After all that hassle, I think we ended up with a pretty fun unique cake! Which was supper delicious too!

Now on to the party pictures!!

 We were so lucky that it didn't rain! 

You never know what the weather is going to do in Oregon.

 The 

 Birthday 

Boy!

 Blowing out the candle

FaceTime with cousin T {who lives in Virginia}

 Opening presents... 

 He had a way better idea of what to do this year then he did last year!

The only minor problem was that he wanted to play with all of them as soon as he opened them :)

We had a great time celebrating with lots of family and friends! Thank you to everyone who came! It was a great day and I can believe our little boy is 2!