SOO Big

Bird's eye view

Jad-ona Quimby, Age 8

We took Jadyn on a tour of Ramona (Beverly Cleary's) neighborhood in NE Portland and the Park dedicated to Ramona and Henry. I love that J is into these books, as they were favorites of the Benz girls as well. She reminds all of us an awful lot of the spunky little Ramona Quimby with her comical outlook on life.

We ad'Oregon

This past Memorial Day weekend was full to the brim of old friends and lots of Nana B. and "bop bop" time. The weather was INCREDIBLE. Made "May-Gray" and "June-Gloom" look even crappier than usual. Sad that I didn't get a photo of Kim and Declan.. and even funnier that we saw them as our last goodbye at the airport.. helped keep me from getting "so MOTIONAL" as Jadyn says. I strongly miss all of you girls and wish our kids could grow up together in the same cul-de-sac.

Jemima, Laquita, Benita and babies. wow. Who would've thought?

Baby OWEN!! At long last. What a sweet boy
Princess Lily (aka mini-Molly) is trying to hide here
Um, this was supposed to be Charlie's Angel's pose? I know. ha. Lily and Ella with their American Idol.

telling secrets..
gotta do some matchy-match time with the boyz... thank god it's not crop tops with glitter hearts Jdawg-Ldawg OSU circa 1999 style.
Jbird loves her big-sis-babysitter role.
Dawgtime with Jdawg and baby "Jackie-boy" Jackson Laird! This little man is such a bundle o' love.. Campbell on the other hand... has better things in mind than this photo shoot. Note how close Jbird is to Jdawg. HER American Idol.

Gotta love a good S.V. with B.P.
Mini version of Karen, my Buxton Hall roomie at OSU, Cassie.. loving her "f-ip-fawps" and Campbell, never without his headgear.
Jadyn's summer version of "teenager shirt"
nothing comes between a boy and his pizza bubbles
so much garden green.. Nana B and Big Poppi really needed a lot of help "watering"

Are you kidding me?

In case you wanted an autograph..

I'm still cracking up at all of the fun Julia and I had going to see Ellen (along with 5000 close friends). We were, naturally, the craziest dancing fools.. giddy from the time we arrived at the studio.. or should I say from the time we made it to the nasty traffic on the way... Julia flashing the vip ticket in the window trying to make people move out of our way is a priceless memory.



We didn't want to leave... Come on Ellen, don't you want to have us over for a bbq??

(just like) Sisters

They say the more time you spend with someone, the more you look alike... these two are proof. O is a mini J in so many ways. We all think of her as one of the family.

Family Fun Day

Jadyn spent her hard-earned money on this "real" Native American arrowhead necklace.(. oh ya, stumbled upon an Indain Faire...good thing they had Kettle Korn...) She is in awe and thinks it was really used "in battle"
how cute is the mini horse?


We spent the day pretending we were San Diego tourists and hit up Balboa Park and finished the day with bevvies at the Stone Brewery..as we piled into the car on the way home.. and before Justin took her and Poppi to an impromptu (17 inning) Padre game, Jadyn said "thanks for the vacation, Dad"

Always a champ to us.

The season may have ended with a loss in a double (overtime?) extra innings nail-biter..but J had a great experience with some real cute and fun-loving friends. The Purple-People Eater ladies had a great no-drama season and are all little super "gold" stars to us.

It's not whether we win or lose

It's all about the cute fans.

Practice for Championship Saturday

Long overdue

playdate with the great outdoors at Palms Ranch... C is almost old enough to drive the Gator.. J picked tons of oranges, ran free and was in hog heaven with the new critters in the menagerie. Nice signs made by Shelby.

Batter up

I know. I can't believe I was holding out this show-stopping outfit till the last playoff game of the season.. look out, the (Bad News Bears) Purple People Eaters made it to Championship Saturday!!! Someone doesn't know he's not on the team.

Cinqo de Mayo flashback...

Kate's graduation from WSU, Benz Family (Campbell in-eutero) 2007..thanks for the flashback, Kate! LYMY

trouble is never far away..

...don't I know you?? Kai showed up for some deer petting.. and 3 toddlers are always trouble as they tried to break the food machine (this after the boys tried eating the duck food earlier) nice...the things boys find to get into..

Wild Animal Park and a new friend..

"are you going to drink that?" the devious look of a bottle-snatcher...

So awesome to get together with our friend from afar (yes, all the way up in Long Beach! ha!), Diana and her little guy, 18 mo. old Oliver. The boys had a blast wiggling away from us, checking out the animals (all of the awesome animals on the safari bus ride through the African desert were so much less exciting than the fact that they were standing up in a moving vehicle).. Didi and I are in accord that any place that lets moms walk around with 32oz cold beers is our kind of field trip.

coffee klatch

Ashton and Campbell talking business with Justin and his morning coffee.. to be fair, the boys were already dishing about the latest number of the day on Sesame Street when Dad horned in.