timely photo

July 4th came and went. The food was great, the fireworks fun, and the time of being with family was wonderful. On July 4th we took some pictures that I will be forever thankful we took.





This special man that I have only known a few years, went to be with Jesus last week. July 4th was the last time I would see him this side of heaven. It was not something I expected to happen so soon, but it did, and now we have only memories of him.

His funeral was such a special time. All 9 of his children were there, along with many, (38 I think) grandkids and then the great-grandchildren. What a legacy. The funeral home was half full of his family. It was amazing. The stories that were shared and the memories brought tears to my eyes. This man loved the Lord and he loved his wife and kids...very much.

My son has been a pill, to put it mildly, the past few days. Screaming every time we go anywhere in the car for the entire ride is his newest er, trick. I find myself so weary with him, especially on days like today when he only slept for 1.5 hours...all day. Sitting here now, after being in tears of frustration with him, and thinking about Gramps LaRock, and his legacy, makes me realize that one day this will all be worth it. If I sat down and poured out my heart to gramps about today, I'm guessing he would give me a pat on the shoulder and remind me that the best is yet to come. His family has and still has their struggles. Kids and parents will have disagreements, and issues will come up. But, I know that last week when Jesus met Gramps in heaven, he was told, "Well done my good and faithful servant." He ran the race. Not perfectly, but he ran it and finished well.

That's the kind of legacy I want to leave.

So, Lord, forgive me where I am too weak and human, and help me to love my son with your love, so that he may see you in me.

Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath...

In the good 'ol summertime...

It is summer, and as you can tell from my lack of posts, we've gone and gotten ourselves busy. I do have a bunch of pictures and such, I just haven't gotten around to posting them. They will be coming soon.

Currently, we are house sitting for my in-laws...

Snap, baby is waking up. I shall update you more further soon.

Later!

Julie

Finally an update!

Hey all. Yes, it's me, Sammy, again. I hope you don't mind if I share from time to time. There's just always so much happening!

A few weeks ago I tried something new...a long, and I mean long, car ride to a state called Illinois. Mom and dad wanted me to meet my Grandpa Cole and several aunts and uncles. I'd met Grandma Cole right after was born, and my aunt Judy was at my birth. I also met my uncle Jeremy and Aunt Jessica and cousins Lucy and Sierra, but I'd never met Jeanette, Janessa, Jane, Joanna, Jed or Jeff. Oh, right, I've met my uncle Joseph lots of times:-)

Mom and dad said they were going to try and make it easier and break the trip up into two days. I really wasn't sure what the meant, but that sounded fine to me. Am I ever glad they did. Man, do you remember what a car seat feels like for hours and hours on end? Not cool at all. I did my best to be brave, but there were just times when I couldn't help it. When we left late on Friday night, I did sleep like mom and dad hoped I would, for a few hours, but then, I just felt so awake. We got to our hotel at 1 in the morning, and I was raring to go for the next two hours. Mom and dad looked pretty tired, but I was just having so much fun! It was my first time in a hotel room!

We made it to Grandma and Grandpa Cole's the next day. I was pretty well behaved for a baby if I do say so myself. Needless to say though, mom and dad looked pretty worn out.

Here are some pictures of me with some of the people I finally got to meet!

This first one is me and my aunt Jane. She's going to have her first baby in November! Sweet, more cousins:) I don't have any with uncle Jonathan...We'll have to get some up!


These next two are me with my aunt Jeanette. I liked meeting her. She was funny, and I like funny people:)



This one is me with my aunt Joanna. She's the one that took most of the pictures here. She loves her camera! I liked meeting her. I had heard that she loves babies, and I would say that is true!:-)


Here I am with my Grandpa Cole. I've met my Grandpa LaRock, but, I'd never met my Grandpa Cole. I liked him. He would carry me for mom when I got cranky and she was worn out. I can tell that he knows how to hold babies.


Here I am with my aunt Janessa. She got married last winter. We didn't get pictures with uncle Justin b/c mom forgot to get the camera out, but we'll get some of him up soon.


Uncle Jed was up next. By this time I was getting tired of pictures, but I managed to behave for these...Jed loves to play games. He was pretty funny, and I like him!


Here I am with uncle Jeff...He also loves to play games. He loves to be outside, like me!;)


My Great aunt and uncle stopped by one night. Here I am with My great aunt. She was really nice. I let her hold me for awhile...wasn't that nice of me?


Judy! This is my crazy aunt Judy. She was at my birth. She loves to make people laugh, and I was so glad to see her again!


Here's another one of me with aunt Joanna. I'll be honest, I think I look super cute in this picture, so that's why I'm posting it.


We really did have a great time while in Illinois. I loved meeting the Cole clan. I hope we can go see them very soon. Although, mom and dad want to wait a bit before they attempt such a long ride with me again.

I'll close with some more pictures! The next two are some of us goofing off!:-)





The last ones are some family photos that aunt Joanna took of us. Enjoy!

Dear Mom, on This the Day After Your Birthday...

I guess I am a day late, but I want to get this down so you'll never forget your first birthday with me in your life. That was my whole goal, I promise. I wanted it to be memorable...

As for the naps that you kept begging me to take all day, I just didn't want to. I wanted to be up, spending time with you on your special day. I know that I fell asleep at the worst time in the afternoon, (when you needed me to be awake so that you could feed me before I went to see daddy for a bit.) But, I was just sooo sleepy after spending the day awake with you that I couldn't help it.

I was good and slept on the drive over, though. I woke up feeling grouchy. But, you changed my diaper and then began to feed me. Ah, so nice. I'm glad we left the house early. It gave you time to feed me:-)

Your plans to meet with your old boss about part time work, practicing with the worship team at church and homegroup all sounded great mom, really. I know that you REALLY wanted to do those things. I should have reminded you to pack some extra clothes for yourself though. My poop is pretty vivid, and really shows up on light, khaki pants. Man, I'm sorry about that mom. I really hit you with a lot of poopies, huh? Really, it was an accident. I heard you call dad from the car and tell him that we were going to turn around and go home. I could tell you weren't happy. But, hey, that meant that I was going to get you to myself all evening, and that made my day!

You know, when things aren't going the right way for me, this is how I tell you about it. It's funny that you don't do the same; although, I bet you felt like it!



I remember that on the way home, you talked to me about what had happened, and by the end of the conversation you were laughing. Whew! I was a bit worried.

The night didn't end too badly though, did it?

Daddy brought home a note that he wrote in the car on his way home, (yikes) and some beautiful roses. He said they look just like the ones he bought you when he proposed 2 years ago!



Because you're so special to Red Hot and Blue, they'd sent you a free birthday dinner. So, we went out to dinner, (I only made dad walk me a little while we were there.) Remember, mom, nights are hard for me. But, I tried hard to be brave. Dad and I walked out and talked to the waitress and asked the staff to come sing to you and bring you a yummy treat. We sure surprised you, didn't we? Hehe, they were sure loud. But, it was a special day, so that was okay with me. Then, we went and found you some CUTE clothes that were on sale. Daddy found you two fun dresses, and we had fun watching you model all you found.

By the time we arrived back home, I was grouchy. Nothing you could do would help. You kept telling me that I was sleepy, but I didn't want to believe you. Daddy read me The Tale of Tom Kitten, and it was then that I promptly fell asleep. It felt so good! I only got you up once in the night to eat! I was just so sleepy. I think we all were.



And last, remember that I learned this on your birthday:)



Mommy, I know that your birthday didn't go the way you planned, but I'm glad you were able to spend it with your two special men. Maybe I should poop on you more often...just kidding!

~Sammy

For the Fans

Hello my adoring fans. It has been awhile since I've updated this blog. My life has been a little crazy the last several weeks. I went from dark, quiet peace, to crazy, loud, and uncomfortable world. It's been a huge change for me, I must admit. Although, I have LOVED meeting mom and dad, and so many of my adoring fans. I do enjoy the silly things grown ups do when the see me. Ah, the life. Speaking of my life, it's very...basic. See, I'm growing like a weed and developing like crazy, so my life is pretty much, eating, sleeping, (when I feel like it) and filling my diapers. Ha, do those ever get reactions. I've leaked on mom several times, and everytime this happens, she gives me a bath. Not that I generally mind; baths remind me of my younger days, but the getting out part I hate...so cold!!

On my size: You know that I love to eat. I'm a boy, what can I say. A few days ago mom took me to see Miss Peggy, (I guess she delivered me, I don't really remember). They checked me all over and then weighed me. Yes, I am a healthy 12lbs 2oz. Here's me hanging on the bed this morning. Don't I look good?





On sleep: Well, you know, sleeping is boring. I generally will take some naps during the day, but man I much prefer to be up, looking around and fussing. I know, the fussy thing just happened recently. I can't really explain it. My tummy sometimes bothers me, (mom keeps saying this is called gas), and sometimes I just feel like fussing. I like it best when mom cuddles me during the day. I guess I just get lonely for her.
I have started prefering to stay up late at night, and, for some reason, I do find myself fussing a lot then. Last night, I frustrated mommy. See, normally, I prefer for dad to hold me at night. I don't know why, but I just do. I like his voice, and the way he rocks me. Well, last night, mom decided to put me to bed so daddy could get a nap. I didn't really like that. So I communicated my frustraion by fussing everytime mom sat down. By 11 she and her arms had had enough and put me in my crib. Well, I communicated again, and my hero, daddy, came and rescued me. I was asleep a short while later. Here's me with my hero:



I am liking my life now, mostly. It's just very different. I'll close with some fun pics of me:)

Big Sky

So back on the 14th I went to Montana for HSLDA. The people were all very kind, and the weather was nice, but the real story was the beautiful mountains surrounding the town. The conference was in Kalispell, and this was the view from the hotel parking lot.

A couple of the folks at the conference suggested that I head over and look at Glacier Park, which was about half an hour away. So after I packed up on Saturday afternoon, I packed up some bottled water and some trusty peanuts and drove off. I snapped a few from the car on the way there.



The river is the Flathead river, which runs out of the park. The highway pretty much followed the river up to the park, and the park road came back to it when it had shrunk down to a little stream flowing out of the mountains. There's apparently a road that goes right up to the higher parts of the park, but it's closed still as it gets avalanche'd over each winter and they have to spend a few months each spring clearing off the snow and logs. I stopped at the last parking area, and asked some kindly local-looking folks where I should head for a good view. They directed me to hike up to Avalanche Lake, which is the lake that feeds the stream, and is itself fed by lots of little streams coming down off the mountains. The path up pretty much follows the stream. Here's some pictures from the way up.


So then you get to the lake, and the view opens up to a really cool panorama of snow-capped mountains surrounding the lake, with some trees around the edge.


I saw how it looked like the cliffs pretty much come down to the lake's edge on the other side, so I decided to run over to the other side of the lake to get a close-up view. Turns out the don't get right down to the lake edge, but there's a hundred yards or so of woods and pretty deep snow between the base of the cliffs and the shore. I was in my running shoes, and it was getting plenty annoying to sink knee-deep in snow every step, so I didn't go any further.
But here's where my story gets silly; I didn't know what time it was getting dark, and it was a bit overcast, so I started to worry that I couldn't get back in time. I decided to run back around the other side of the lake. I had started around on the cold side, the one on the right facing forward. I came back on the sunny side, since I could tell there wasn't any snow on the sunny shore.
Thing is, I had noticed earlier that the "left" side of the lake had a whole bunch of knocked-down trees pushed down on the shore from an avalanche on the side where the trail came in, but I forgot about that when I came back around from the other side.

So, as I came back to the part where the trees where, I realized I was going to have to climb through a pretty big tangle of downed trees. I would have gone back the long way at this point, but again, worried about daylight.

SO... the first tree I come up to, as I'm climbing over it, I bump a bough, and out boils this dense cloud of mosquitos. I scrambled over the tree and ran on, and slapped a few off, but pretty soon I was scrambling over piles of logs continually, and every pine bough I bumped or stepped on would belch out this huge cloud of mosquitos. I'd heard that mosquitos could come in dense clouds like that up north, but I'd thought it was artistic license. I've never seen anything like it! Frankly, I got a bit panicky scrambling through that tangle of trees. Fortunately, it was only about 150 yards long, and not as many mosquitos actually landed on me as could have, although I was constantly brushing them off and spitting them out.

Here's me on the other side :)


Once I got back on the trail, the hike back down was uneventful. I was pretty tired out by the time I got back home. I did have one lonely little mosquito fly out of my backpack when I opened it up back at the hotel.