Bears

A couple days before our trip, we went bear watching at Herring Cove with Grandpa Cooke, Paul Radford, his grand daughter Julia, and friend Adam. We saw three bears...and Meadow does look a lot like Goldilocks...she was asking if they were nice and wanted to pet one.Here they are viewing.

The Latest

Brennen making his moves with Lindsay, "I like long crawls on the beach, hugs & kisses..." Beautiful ballerinas, Meadow and Juliette
Logan is happy to now have a "big boy bed". So far he's done very well with not getting out.

4th of July

We had a fun day. We enjoyed the parade even though it rained a little. The kids collected lots of soggy, sticky candy!

Brennen had fun on his first 4th of July! He loved waving and chewing on his flag.
Logan was wearing his fireman raincoat, so he was excited when the firemen passed out hats, and went by on a smoking house float, which I think was the best one. It didn't look like a truck at all! The crowded street.
Meadow helped me make a flag cookie cake. She did a great job!
Grandpa John and Logan compared fireman suits.

We didn't go see the fireworks because it was too late, but we got our own show- our neighbors lit off tons of fireworks for about 2 hours! The kids had a great view out their bedroom window, and I worried about our trees and roof! I was glad it was raining!

Quintet

The Cooke Bird Quintet performed a few weeks ago. It was lovely! Brennen was the loudest.

The aunt comes marching...hurrah, hurrah

Auntie Christy is here for a visit! She'll be here till Monday. The kids were very excited to see her!

Lunch on a cruise ship

Today we got to go on the Amsterdam thanks to Raymond, a crew member who has been a friend of Matthew's dad since the start of the cruise ship ministry. He invited our family (we didn't bring Brennen) on board for a tour and lunch. His wife Merina (I hope I spelled it right!) is staying with the Cookes this week.


Meadow loved finding all the swimming pools! She wanted to go in! Here the kids were exploring the jungle area on top of the ship.

It was a fun time! The ship is beautiful. I want to go on a cruise! ...Maybe someday!

Here's a view of bustling downtown Ketchikan. I'm sure the grey clouds are making all you mover awayers homesick! :)

He creeps, he leaps, he slides and glides across the floor...

Well, he doesn't actually leap, but he sure does crawl! (the title is from the Blob theme song)

He started crawling last week and went straight for the computer! He's quite speedy when there's paper to crawl to and eat!
Isn't this how you read the paper? Cute!

Baden

Matthew spent the weekend with Derek in Logan, UT. They spent a lot of time looking at and playing guitars. Matthew decided on a Baden! It's nice! Badens are individually handmade, with very high quality solid wood. There are no fancy inlays or designs in order to devote all the time and cost into the workmanship. It has a cedar top with mahogany back and sides. It sounds very nice too of course! He will be adding the electronics later. He has a specific kind in mind, so he wanted to put it in himself.

Saturday

Saturday was a special day for Meadow. We visited the Pickrell's beautiful garden, where Meadow enjoyed finding the hidden animals.

Then we went to City Park where the kids fishing derby was happening. They fill the ponds with little fish and let kids fish. A boy was kind enough to share his fishing pole with Meadow and she caught a fish! The boy reeled it in while she held the pole. He killed the poor thing and put it in a bag for her. She was so excited! She went up to everyone she saw to show them her fish! Then she said, "let's cook him and eat him!"
So we did! He was yummy!

06/07/08

Happy 6/7/8 date!

Well, it's bye bye bassy. Matthew just sold his big bass on ebay in order to purchase a new guitar. It's sad to see it go, but now he is leading worship at church and needs a good sounding guitar to play. I guess my pretty green Ovation isn't quite his style. He knows a lot about how guitars are made and what brings out their best sound, so that's what he's looking for.

Here's the only picture we have of him playing it (thanks to photographer Becky). He's serenading baby Meadow.

nice sunny days!

This last week has been hot and sunny! Unfortunately for most of it we have been sick again! Brennen has had a cold for the last few weeks, then he got pink eye, then his cold got really bad with a fever all day so we took him to the E.R. and found out he also had an ear infection! Poor little guy! Well, he past the bad cold to me, and the pink eye to Logan! AAHH! will it EVER end?? Fortunately the grandmas have been available to help! (And keep so far healthy Meadow away!) Anyway, on the BRIGHT side, here are some cute pics from before the ills. Here Logan was happy to see a jet land. (that's the white blur in the background)

We went to the lake with the grandmas. We walked the trail, then had a picnic. Meadow picked a skunk cabbage and was excited to find the skunk cabbage sign.
Logan insisted on wearing his winter coat! He did a little splashing in the water...
Meadow went out as far as she could! She ended up falling in, but didn't mind!

Sunday afternoon feast

Yesterday we had a bunch of friends over for a taco feast in honor of the Atteberrys, yet more friends who are leaving us soon. (To Honolulu!) It was also to celebrate Kirsten's baptism!The weather was warm and wonderful, as you can see! It was great to have kids running all over the yard!

And mommies and daddies too! (who didn't run around!)

More friends enjoying the deck. Two of Matthew's friends from work came too.
More friends inside. Matthew's making a Wallace face! (Wallace and Gromit) The only ones I didn't manage to get pictures of were our neighbors Laren and Sarah. And the babies feeling and eating the grass!
We need (and plan to!) do this more often! Thanks everyone for coming!

Helicopter

Here's a nice picture of Meadow and Logan with Grandpa John by the helicopter. The pilot offered to let them sit in the pilot seat, but they were afraid to try.

May Days

We went flower shopping! I let the kids choose all of our flowers. Meadow was very excited to find pink ones.

Logan is potty training. He loves to wear "big boy underwear".

We went for a walk downtown with Grandma Cooke on a sunny day. The kids love to see what's in the water. We even saw a dog skeleton in the creek right under the Chinese restaurant! (Hmmm, maybe the spicy "beef" isn't so beefy after all!)

Meadow & Logan were quite excited to see a helicopter up close with Grandpa John just before he flew up to High Mountain.We watched several helicopters land and take off. They flew right in front of us! It was exciting, but this big one made lots of wind and dust blow on us!

Creative Meadow

"Look mommy! He's a tree frog! Ha ha ha!" Meadow drawing pictures of things in the yard. This particular picture was of a pointy rock.
Meadow is a very good artist! This is a smiley face she drew awhile ago.
This one was the first face she's ever drawn. It's Calvin, from the comic Calvin and Hobbs. (we have a comic book she likes to look at.) I was quite amazed! She suddenly went from random scribbles and lines to this, all by herself! This was a couple months ago.