James and I went to the circus with my parents! I hadn't been in forever and I think I had more fun than James! Although he did wear his clown nose for a few days afterwards :)

While we were gone Ben and Avery had an adventure of their own. Ben had the ladder out upstairs to get some things out of the attic. As he was coming down Avery was on her way up! Once I got home Ben said he had a surprise for me - set the ladder up in the living room and let Avery go for it. I was FREAKING OUT as I watched her climb up every stair and I was literally inches away from her, waiting to catch her. Of course she didn't need me and was so excited to reach the top! I am more than a little concerned - not only is she beautiful but she's daring and has no fear. We are going to have our work cut out for us.

Good morning Princess! I refuse to get her hair cut and I swear it grows another inch a day.

Happy Labor Day!
Anyone who has met me knows that I am not a huge camper. So when our good friends asked us to come camping with them at Beverly Beach I was not entirely thrilled but I decided to be a good sport about it. They had reserved some yurts months ago and I was surprised at how nice they were. I mean we're not talking 4 star hotel nice but they were certainly better than sleeping in a tent on the cold ground. The kids had a blast getting all nice and dirty and I was really proud of myself for letting them. It helped that we had nice, hot showers not 100 yards away. That night it started drizzling after we had gotten the little kids in bed. James and Conner wanted to stay outside and sit under the umbrella. Us parents got the biggest kick just watching them. The next day we went into Newport to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. This was the first time we took James and he had a blast. He loved dancing like the crabs and walking through the shark tunnel. After that we spent the afternoon on the beach. It was pretty warm outside but the water was freezing. Avery loved it - she kept crawling back to the water. As soon as her teeth started chattering I took her out and she threw quite a fit. She is definately a water baby. James loved playing in the sand. He had a lot of fun helping Ben build a sand castle. Ben spent some time body boarding which made no sense to me - it was seriously cold! All in all it was a great trip and we're going to make a tradition out of it :)

Visit from David!
David needed to see his nieces and nephews so he came for the weekend. James wanted his hair just like David's so he got a mohawk. We went as a family to Bullwinkles, played in the fountain (David, per James' insistence, ran through the water to get James' ball and totally slipped), and had a lot of good family time. I dressed James like David one day and the looks they were getting were really cute. James wanted to send David back to New York with something special so he picked out a Build-a-Bear and recorded himself saying "I love you David and I miss you lots and lots." It, of course, had to have a pirate shirt :)

Watching Nightmare Before Christmas on the laptop while Ben watches the BYU game. He saw the case at the library and HAD to have it. I thought it would freak him out but, of course, it didn't. He cracks me up.

He's been learning how to button his shirts on his own. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries :)

The 2nd Annual Portland Pirate Festival
Ben was out of town this weekend and totally bummed that he had to miss this. My dad and I took James (Avery stayed home with Nanna) and some friends met up with us later. They had doubled the space from last year and had added some new attractions so it was even more fun. They had a couple of games for kids where you got a treasure map and got stamps at each station. They had this big slide that looked like a squid attacking a ship, James went down that one quite a few times. The highlight of James' year was Captain Bogg and Salty. I had found this group from Portland that sings fun pirate songs and James is seriously their biggest fan. He can sing you any of their songs! When I found out they were going to be at the festival James could not believe that he was going to get to see the REAL Captain Bogg. They put on such a good show it was a blast. James was up there dancing, frantically waving at Captain Bogg and singing right along. After the concert we went to their booth and James got his picture taken with Captian Bogg. It was seriously all he would talk about. That and the fact that there were more than a couple Captain Jack Sparrow impersonators. He was in heaven all day. I get a complete kick out of this whole pirate thing, I only hope that he doesn't end up being one of those people who is 30 and still dressing like a pirate on a daily basis :) I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that he's going to want a real tatoo when he's older since he can't go a day without having a fake one. David sent a couple hundred temporary tatoos that he designed and James seriously has three on his body right now. He wanted 6 and one on his face but I had to draw the line somewhere.

Boppie in town!
It was the last week for Pre-school days at Oaks Park so we went with a big group. Boppie went down the slide with James and Avery got a big kick out of riding the big rides with James. Her favorite was the car, but she totally kicked back in the motorcycle. She was leaning all the way back, looking at the ceiling and laughing.