Hunt Family Connection

Eugene Celebration

Eleanor's due date was on Saturday, and for the first time in all the years I've been here, I was in danger of missing the Eugene Celebration parade.  I love the parade (though this would have been the best reason I could think of to miss it!) and have enjoyed taking Graham these past couple of years. Since Ellie was here and doing well, I decided to leave her with Wil and have a special "date" with Graham at the parade.

It was a bit rainy, but we got out our coats, packed up our things, and headed out there anyhow. Because of the bad weather we didn't have any trouble finding good seats. Special thanks to Kara, Brian, and Sammy for grabbing us some breakfast :)  Graham was excited to hear that Sammy would be there...

 

I think both were a little puzzled about the parade, but they definitely seemed to enjoy it - rain and all!

 

I don't have many photos of the parade because of the rain, but what I do have you can see here: Eugene Celebration Pics - 2009.

Last Week of Summer Vacation

This is the last week of summer vacation for us - we officially report back to work on Tuesday, but both have activities/trainings happening on Monday that we will be going in for. Of course Wil's is more fun than mine - while I'm sitting in meetings all day, Wil is going to be on a river day-trip (not too far from home of course!)

I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by - I feel like I accomplished a lot though and managed to do some fun things too.  Staying here in town was a big change for me, but it seems to have worked out ok.

Uncle Bill left on Sunday afternoon and we were able to go watch him take off and head for home.

 

Graham was a little spooked by how loud it was, but was also pretty interested in the whole process. Graham was also a bit sad to see Uncle Bill go and when we asked him about it he even stuck out his lower lip and pouted some.  Hopefully we'll see Uncle Bill again soon for another visit :)

On Monday I spent a lot of time getting things ready for this baby to arrive - I still had a few things to shop for, some laundry to do, and a hospital bag to pack. Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery kept Graham for another overnight (which went great - thanks again guys!!) so that I could cross one more thing off my list that I wanted to accomplish before the baby arrived - seeing the new Harry Potter movie. Wil and I had a little dinner/movie date and enjoyed a child-free evening.  While I didn't really sleep in (still somehow managed to wake up at 6am?!) I was able to linger in bed and eventually fall back to sleep since I didn't have a little boy calling for me to come get him out of his room.

Yesterday I worked - all day long. I took Graham to daycare and then went in to work with some new employees. It was fun and productive, but I'm happy I won't be putting in too many full days at this point in my pregnancy - I was worn out by the time I got Graham home from daycare!

I leave you with a picture of something Graham is having fun with lately - squeezing into small places to "hide" or just hang out for a bit. Earlier in the evening I found him on the shelf underneath the tv :)

Fun at the Fair

We wandered out to the Lane County Fair this afternoon and had a great time - here's a bit of what we saw there...

1 - Graham was quite entertained by simply watching the carnival games - thankfully he's not old enough to know that if you play them you get to take home crazy looking toys to clutter up your home :)

2 - While not quite big enough for the rides, this little covered toddler area was perfectly sized and outfitted for Graham. How cute is this little girl that came over to play with him?!

3 - Award-winning garlic

4 - "Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!" - Graham's rooster impression cracks me up every time :)

5 - Creepy canning mannequin and a scene that you will never see in my kitchen

6 - Sitting on daddy's shoulders to watch performing dogs catch frisbees

7 - Goat that got a little fresh and aggressive with Wil as we walked by

8 - Men on motorcycles flying through the air - scared mommy a bit, but delighted the boy

9 - Daddy and Graham watching the merry-go-round - next year G should be big enough to actually get on some of the rides

Not pictured: One Fri-Jo for daddy and one elephant ear for mommy - both shared with Graham

Hunt Family BBQ

We went to Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery's house this afternoon for a BBQ with Uncle Bill. We even managed to get a picture of what the Hunt family looks like right now...

 

I was reminded that 5 years ago today Bill and Jim's dad (Grandad) passed away, leaving a big hole in the Hunt family. We had a very nice time remembering some Grandad stories - he really was a pretty wonderful man and ohhh so memorable :)

Of course there are always stories (lots and lots of stories) when the Hunt boys get together...

 

As you can see, it's been awhile since the Hunt family has seen a baby girl enter their ranks - should be interesting to see how that all plays out!

Graham also had a blast singing and playing guitar (and occasionally playing tennis) with Grandma Chery...

 

She taught him a new song - "Home on the Range" and we heard a lot of it! There's a big finish coming here....hold on....wait for it.....

 

Good times - thumbs up :)

Dates with my men :)

Wil and I didn’t sleep so well on Saturday night, so while Wil tried to catch up on Sunday morning, Graham and I headed off to Oakmont Park to play in the water and have a picnic lunch.

We set up our blankets in the shade and then went straight to the fountains to cool off a little. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to spend a lot of time in this park and it is awesome! There is the great water feature and then a spot to play with water and sand, they have swings, the cool merry-go-round thing that we discovered at another park a few weeks back, some great ride-on toys (a jeep, an airplane, and some motorcycles) and a toddler friendly climbing structure with slides. Soooo much to choose from! Graham was loving the water – running through, standing over, and even putting his face into the fountains. He also made visits to every other section of the park, but nothing held his attention like the fountains and the jeep.  He even made a little friend – a cute little girl climbed into the jeep he was “driving”. She wanted to go to the zoo, and demanded that he get out of the jeep when they arrived (tee hee!). Graham decided he wasn’t going to be getting out of the jeep – when I was telling about this later at the dinner table, Wil suggested that he enjoy that freedom in decision-making while he can…whatever daddy!

Graham and I took a break for lunch in the shade – sandwiches, goldfish crackers, and raisins (and an Oreo cookie for dessert!) then played a bit more before heading home for a nap.

After a much better night of sleep, Wil and I celebrated our anniversary on Monday while G was at daycare. We had lunch at Eugene City Brewery and then spent a couple of hours like this…

I made appointments for foot massage/treatments at Footloose – soooo nice and relaxing! We sat perched up on a cushy loveseat with tea and chocolates while our feet were soaked, massaged, and wrapped up with hot stones. The massage was definitely my favorite part – I’m hoping to go back for another one before the baby arrives.

While they were very different activities/dates, I have to say I really enjoyed spending time with my boys :)

Staying busy…

This week is flying by me – they seem to go faster the closer we get to the end of summer. Graham has been busy playing with his daycare friends and I went to work on Tuesday. Yesterday I had a long and relaxing lunch with friends and then made some progress on home improvement stuff.

We met with the contractor to finalize some details – I’m planning to meet him at Jerry’s this afternoon to pick out some window/door trim and some white paint (‘cause apparently there are many different shades of white!) He’s also planning to bring the boxes of wood laminate to the house to start acclimating them.  We also purchased a new dishwasher yesterday – it’s a Bosch, which is apparently a very well rated dishwasher.  Who knew?? I thought Bosch just made tools :)

We’ll be trying to time the delivery with the completion of the floors in the kitchen. The very hopeful estimate on that will be Tuesday, August 4th….we’ll see how that goes. 

Wil and I also started working on putting together the dresser for Graham’s room – there are a lot of pieces and we got stuck when we couldn’t find a hammer.

Finally, while Pa-Paw is on vacation we realize we provide a poor substitute for the fun times G has going to the airport with him…

This is a little ride area outside of Sears – G found that airplane and we couldn’t get him out of it :)  Now the great news is that he’s still completely and totally happy in the plane without us putting a single quarter in there to make it move.  Here’s hoping that lasts for a bit yet! 

Inside fun…

It’s been rather hot outside these last few days and I don’t think today is going to be any better. I was looking for fun things to do inside the nice, air-conditioned house, and got to thinking about these paint-with-water books we had when we were little.

 
I found a Handy Manny book at Target and yesterday seemed like a great day to try it out. G painted a little bit once I showed him how it all worked, but then quickly explored other ways to use his materials…

 
…like sucking the water off of his paint brush or just drinking the water from the cup – YUM! I tried to tell him that this was “icky”, but that just made him laugh harder. Luckily there isn’t much (if any) actual paint involved in all of this, so I don’t think anything horrible will come from ingesting the water. He did stick around and complete a page for daddy though – here he is looking over the finished product:

Other fun things we have enjoyed doing inside: reading books, watching Jack’s Big Music Show (over and over and over again!), playing catch with a beach ball, and building with Legos. Legos is really a daddy thing – he’s far more creative than I am.  Look at what he and Graham came up with the other night!

 
I also took him to the mall yesterday as it was just too hot to play outside.We walked around a little and then spent some time at the mall park. There weren’t very many kids there at all when we were, so it worked out perfectly.

Looks like we’re in for another hot day today, so we’ll be doing more of this stuff and looking for other ways to stay cool :)

Mondays Are Special!

Mondays are very exciting for Graham… In the morning I ask G, “Guess who’s coming to get you from daycare today?” and he gets this sparkle in his eyes, a big smile on his face, and whispers excitedly, “Paaa-Pawwww!”

Grandma Chery took this picture over the weekend when they were playing outside and when I saw it, I thought it just perfectly illustrated how Graham feels about his Pa-Paw :)

Grandma Chery is out of town tonight, so it was just the boys – I’m told they had a great time. They played at a park and Graham helped make the hamburger patties they fixed for dinner.

Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery are awesome at taking pictures and documenting their time with Graham – I love that!  In fact, just got the hamburger picture a few minutes ago in my email :)

We feel so lucky to have family here to help care for Graham – they are a very important part of the village it takes to get it all done.

Wil and I took advantage of a little extra time together and went out for a late lunch together. We had a great talk and enjoyed a leisurely meal…a little different scene than when we take G with us. 

I didn’t plan on doing any major projects today, and instead concentrated on picking things up and putting them back where they belong. It was so easy to get stuff straightened up, and everything had a place to return to – yay! I filed away some things that were sitting on the desk and did a few loads of laundry. I also ran a couple of errands – Target for some stuff we need and Jerry’s to get some product information for the contractor’s estimate on the flooring (we’re planning to replace all of the different flooring downstairs with wood laminate and update the baseboard trim). The contractor came by today and took the measurements so now that he has the info about the materials we’ve chosen, he can give us an estimate.

This is a sample of the floor we picked. It looks much darker in this photo than it does in person – it’s called Burnished Cherry.

It will be installed throughout the entire downstairs and should make it all feel a little bigger without the divisions and different floor styles that are there right now.

I think this will also be a good surface to have with the cats – much easier on the allergies and to clean up.  We’re also looking at more pet friendly furniture – either a leather-like material or microfiber. I’m definitely looking forward to the updates….and to breathing a little easier.

I’ve been neglecting Sprout’s blog a little (the second child is getting cheated already!) so must go update that next. I believe the entry will be called Dance Party cause it looks like that’s what’s going on in my tummy right now!

Family Fun

On Sunday we took care of a couple of errands, then Wil took us to the park in the neighborhood where he grew up. Of course it looks a bit different now – the play equipment appears to have been recently updated.

It’s so nice that the grass pollen has calmed down enough that Wil can be outside with us for a length of time without allergy worries.  I LOVE this shot of my boys hanging out together at the park :) 

Graham’s getting a bit more adventurous and was trying to climb the little rock walls and other structures. Wil isn’t quite as nervous about this sort of thing, so is probably a better choice to supervise these activites than I am :)

The other structure that really held his attention was this version of the merry-go-round…

I’ve never seen anything quite like it, but it’s pretty cool! He couldn’t get enough of us pushing him on it, so Wil and I kept taking turns until we just couldn’t push anymore…

 

I think Graham could have stayed at the park much longer, but we decided to go have dinner together at Applebees. Graham let the waiter know right away that he wanted Macaroni & Cheese (if you ask G what he wants for any meal he’ll say “Macaroni &Cheese!!”)

I love it when we all hang out together – I can’t think of a much better way to spend a Sunday afternoon/evening.

Happy 4th of July!

I’m sitting in bed and just got done editing the pictures I’ve got so far from the weekend. The neighborhood fireworks have just started and I have the perfect view of what must be an illegal fireworks display in someone’s yard (they are far too big and pretty to be legal!)

There are a lot of firecrackers going off on our street and I saw some of those parachute ones floating outside of my window. So far I’ve seen a couple of the cats race in here and under the bed. Graham hasn’t been fully awakened yet, but I do hear him fussing in there a little bit.

The picture is from earlier today as we were getting ready to head out to Art in the Vineyard. I went out there last night too, but with some girlfriends…

 
from left to right: Kara, me, Louisa, and Teresa

We set up our chairs in the shade, everyone that could got a glass of wine, and then we headed over to the food court. Kara and Teresa really seemed to enjoy their buffalo burgers (with giant chunks of bacon on top – YUM!)

After dinner we walked around to check out the art – I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do, but  here are a couple of my favorites…

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are always so many creative and colorful things to look at. Also a lot of fun and pretty jewelry to admire.

After browsing a bit we went back to our chairs to chat before the music started again, and before long someone mentioned dessert and we were back in the food court. We went back to our chairs with ice cream and spent the rest of the evening people-watching, listening to music, and chatting. It was a wonderfully relaxing (and yummy!) evening. We went back to Kara’s and caught a fireworks show taking place after the Ems’ baseball game.

I was pretty tired this morning, so Graham and I played at home this morning. G did a fantastic job of letting me rest up a bit. After his nap we got dressed and ready to head out to Art in the Vineyard. We saw Grandma Chery and walked around with her a little before she had to leave, then we found a shady place on the lawn to put down our blanket. We went for a walk and found a nice little kid area where Graham went “fishing” for some little toys/prizes. His favorite is a whistle (that he is still learning how to use!)

We walked over to the food court and got pad thai and a fruit parfait for dinner, which we enjoyed together on our blanket while listening to music. Once we finished that up it was time to get back in the stroller and make the trek back to the car and then home to play a little more before bedtime. Here’s a shot of Graham playing with his new little toys while I cleaned up…

Which brings us to where I started this post – Graham is still sleeping and the fireworks are still going strong….seriously, who are these people?? For a backyard display, this is pretty awesome! It will be fun when Graham is old enough to stay awake for this :)