Jude's first Vehicle

The Jeep is no longer with us.

The Jeep was purchased so that Jude would ride a tube behind the boat and this one has a windshield that would keep the water off his face from the rope spray. We got Jude on it once, but he was off before we could even pull him with the boat, but it became a favorite of all the uncles because they could hold onto the sides and roll it and crash into the other tubes. It was very stable for the little kids, but not so for anyone over about 4 feet tall. Anyway the front rope tie handle broke and so Gordon brought it home to throw it in our garbage instead of his grandparent's garbage and Jude talked him into blowing it up so that he could play on it while it was on the grass. Jude and Gordon played and had a great time, then we pulled it inside, Jude ate his dinner and watched a little cartoon while he sat on it, then he ended up pulling it into his room and making it his bed for the night. He's such a tall little stinker that he had to put his little foam chairs at the end to make it long enough for his legs, but he was so excited to sleep in it, and he told me the next morning when he woke up that "Mom, I slept in my Jeep all night long, by myself!" He was super proud of himself and he was sad to see that the Jeep had a hole in it from the breakage of the handles, but he did help Dad throw it away.

Jude the Photographer

I hooked up my camera tonight to see what pictures I had on the camera and I realized that Jude had been the last photographer and took some great pictures of Summer and Ricky's little Kai man, whom is the spitting image of his daddy and his big sis Maile. He even took one picture of his and Maile's feet together and his own face, which looks amazingly like Gordon in the picture!

Our Little Fish!

We have taken our boat out quite a few times this summer, but still not as much as last year. Gordon has been bummed a bit about that, but he's working full time this summer so he hasn't been able to go out except an occasional monday and for a few hours after work if it's super hot. Jude is becoming a super water boy and loves to swim. He still won't get towed behind the boat on a tube yet, but he told me on saturday that he would go on a tube with Dad if Mom would drive. We haven't all been on the boat together since then, but I will make him do it the next time we are all there. Jude's new love is to jump off the back swim deck that Gordon made for our boat and he feels comfortable enough to jump into the water without having to have me or Gordon right there to catch him. Hooray! He loves wearing his pirate life jacket and hardly ever wants to get out of the water once he's in. He's getting braver every time we go out and now he will jump from tube to tube and then into the water. Jude can be very cautious at first with a lot of life experiences, but once he feels good about it, his Gordon genes kick in and he can get pretty crazy and carefree!

Hiking with Dad and Uncle Brad

Jude went hiking last monday with Gordon and Uncle Brad. Jude came home and told me about all the cool waterfalls that they got to see. I believe they went to avenue of the boulders and the natural bridge, but I could be mistaken. They have awesome quality Father and Son time on mondays, since I have to work, and then we have Mother and Son time on saturdays when Gordon works. It's been a crazy summer trying to do things longer than one evening together! We've made due and have had a great summer so far!

He has a name! Brody Charles George

On Monday morning at 3:00am I got a call from Ty who was on a flight in Pendelton Oregon, that Tori's water broke and she needed to get to the hospital. So I changed out of my PJ's and went over to their house and picked her up. We got to the hospital and they put monitors on Tori and realized that she was actually starting to have contractions and we already knew that the baby was breach, so they called the on-call doctor (Tori's regular doctor was on vacation) and she came in a confirmed that he was breach so she had them set up the surgery room and they took Tori in there to prep her. Tori let me come in as well, so I put on the scrubs that they gave me and sweet hair net, mask and booties and after they had done the anesthetic they let me come in. I took my camera (you can only take still shots in surgery) and took as many pictures as I could so that Ty would be able to see them later. Tori did great! The baby was a bit blue when he was born, but the respiratory therapist and the RN rubbed him down, sucked out his mouth and gave him some oxygen and he started little cries...then they got louder. He still a relatively quiet cryer, compared to Jude, but he peed on the RN and RT so they put a diaper on him and bundled him up and he calmed right down. I've never been in on a c-section before and it was really quite interesting. The doctors were very impressed that I wasn't even remotely bothered by the blood and incision and stuff. I wish Ty could have been there, but I am glad that they let me experience it and be there for Tori. Oh and he was 6 lbs 15.7 oz and 18 1/2 inches long, born on 7/28/08 at 5:44am.

Anyway, without any more blabbing here are a couple of pics:

Lunch at the park with cousins

Today at lunch we took all the local little kids to the park and let them play. They had a blast and I got a super cute picture of Kai and Jude in the baby swing. Kai thinks that Jude is just hilarious and most of the time Jude can distract him and make him laugh. Jude only lasted in the swing for a couple of minutes, I'm sure that the swing crotch bar was not all that comfortable, but it helped keep Kai from falling back.

Hooray we got to visit Hotel Maughan!

Last weekend Jude, Monica, Summer, Maile and Kai went to visit Aunt Tish, Uncle John and Peyton. On saturday we went to the Portland Zoo and the kids were fascinated by the animals. We got Jude, Maile and Peyton to sit on these trailer seats for a picture after we watched the black bear climb down the hill.

Jude gave me a kodak moment even though he really enjoyed watching the fruit bats, which is what you see above his head. Don't worry, he is separated by glass. He thought they were so awesome and when we got home and Gordon asked him what his favorite thing was, he said "Dad, they had fruit clipped on these strings and the bats would climb with their feet upside down along the strings and eat the fruit" they he would kind of give this little "can you believe it?" laugh and expression. Gordon thought it was hilarious.

I don't know what it is, but I always get the craziest faces from the kids. You might have to click on this one to really see their faces, but they are great! Jude wanted me to take a picture of him with "Cody" from Surf's Up. He has always liked Penguins, since watching "Pingu" on PBS.