Beckett's First Birthday!

Well, Beckett is not officially not a baby anymore! His first birthday was Friday and we celebrated with family Saturday at our house. It was a nice time. He got some cool new clothes, coveralls, toys and money for his savings account. Thank you to everyone! We wish you all could have been here, but we know you were thinking about him. Anyway, here are the birthday pictures plus a few more. The first one is him licking the beaters from the frosting. Mandy helped me make a cool football cake...which would have been perfect had I not screwed up the icing! Oh, well, it's all a learning process, right? I'm pretty sure Beckett didn't care!


Playing in the balloons before the party got started...

The runny-icing football cake...it did taste really good.

Here is his cake to "get messy" with...

And here he is not wanting to get messy! He didn't like the way the cake felt or something...very unlike his sister who dove right in! I even had Nattie take a piece off and show him it was OK to dig into it, and he still didn't want to...

So, he was happy to have Daddy feed it to him with a fork...

Then slowly warmed up to the idea of eating it with his hands.


Playing with toys...

The family we were lucky to have join us...three great-grandparents included! I just think it is so great my kids know so many of their grandparents and great-grandparents. Here we have GG Chauncey, Grandpa Guy, Grandma Jill, Kyle, Nattie and Beckett, Great Uncle Nick, GG Eddie and GG Pyllis. Thanks for coming!

Momma with her birthday boy...

And here are a few from earlier this week. Natalie getting a slobbery kiss from Bella and Daddy on opening day (Sept. 1). He is bow hunting this year and gets to start in September instead of October. It seems a little more challenging but also a lot of fun...he went up for a few nights this weekend and was nearly trampled by three moose who were charging and did not see him! He had his camo on and had to stand up and yell and scream to get them to divert heir path!

Well, Natalie starts preschool again tomorrow, still 2 days a week. She is so excited! We're also really excited to head to Colorado for a baby shower and family gt together this weekend. We'll get to visit with a lot of the McMillan family and Aunt Karrie and Cousin Madison. Road trip...again!!! We're getting to be pros. I've also been canning garden goods like crazy...three batches of salsa, zucchini-corn relish and a new zucchini relish recipe tonight. It's really a lot of fun, though very time consuming...which means it has to be done at night after the kiddos are in bed. My back is doing much better and am back to exercising with no problems. Hope you all are happy and healthy (wash your hands TONS to avoid flu. Lots of friends and family already getting sick). Hugs to all.

It's Almost September?!?!

Well, the travelers have returned! We got back late Sunday night after a long 2-day drive home. We had fun visiting and catching up with everyone in the Portland area, but it is nice to be back in our own beds! Three weeks went by fast. We got to the coast, so it was Beckett's first time in the ocean, which was great. Kyle and I got to eat at our favorite sushi place, and we celebrated Auntie Hannah's birthday. Kyle went on a great golf tournament with my dad, and he shot his personal best ever! It was exciting. I got in some great visits with old friends was amazed (again) how much things have changed wince I left 10 years ago. Auntie Sumner was so awesome and took a weekend to come up and visit (not long enough!), and I got to buy some great beads/stones. It was a fun time for us all. We're now getting ready for preschool to start again and are preparing for Beckett's first birthday! I can hardly believe it's September already and that 2009 in flying by so fast. I had another epidural steroid injection today and am patiently waiting for the effects. My back went out horribly Friday night before we left, so I scrambled to find a chiropractor Saturday morning before our long drive back. I found a good guy (oddly one who hunts out here every year!) who helped me out, but needless to say the drive was miserable. I haven't had anything this bad in years where my right leg just gives out. It made me nervous to even carry Beckett, so I'm glad Hannah was here to help! Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip (now, if I could just get them scrapped) so enjoy!

Grammie and the kiddos at the aquarium in Newport Beach...

Miss Natalie having a "casual" drink of water at the beach hotel...

Aquarium...
These are Japanese crabs and they get HUGE!!! They can have 9-feet leg spans and live for 100 years...

One of the underwater tunnels...

Natalie
Momma with the babes...

It got a little cold and rainy at the beach, but we still had fun outside.

Beckett discovers how fun sand can be...and that it doesn't go in your mouth...
Nattie in the waves
and Nattie in her "pool" up on shore...
Happy boy!
Bird "chasing"
And Auntie Hannah helps her investigate a dead jelly fish. She insisted on bringing it back to the hotel in her bucket so she could "save" it.

And we thought this was just a tourist attraction the first day, then read in the paper a guy had fallen asleep at the wheel and drifted his fishing boat to shore! They were using cranes adn backhoes to get it back out to sea the next day...
Here we are at Grammie's in Portland digging potatoes. She had a blast. Mom has a great garden this year!

Leyah, Justin and Beckett

I finally got together with two of my oldest girlfriends this trip and we got pictures of our kids together. Erin (who now lives in California with her husband and four little ones) and Mariah (who still lives in Portland with her husband and little girl) and I are all only 3 months apart and we all had babies last year within 5 weeks of each other! Beckett was the beginning of September, Justin (Erin's) was the end of September, and Leyah (Mariah's) was October. It was so much fun to get everyone together for the long-awaited photo. Beckett didn't think it was such a good idea this time, but with so many kids it's hard to get them all happy at the same time!
The Mommas with our seven kiddos...

Beckett and Justin. Justin taught Beckett how to efficiently scoot on his bum, and now he's decided that's much better than crawling!

Auntie Sumner and Beckett

Grammie and the grandkids

Ipa and Beckett...we went swimming in the Columbia River near his Washington home. It was great fun. It was 107 degrees the first 3 days we were there while it rained at home!

Ipa, Natalie and Beckett

Ipa and Daddy made Natalie a log horse to ride...

Grammie, Anne and their grandbabes...

and here we are with Mariahm, Yshai and Leyah. We had them over to Grammie's for dinner and I made Abie's fabulous spinach encheladas! Thanks for the great recipe!!!


We spent one day at the fair with Ipa and Jimmilea in Washington. Natalie's favorite part was the cows, and we got to watch a sheep show and ride carnival rides...a little bit bigger than our county fair!

Petting a chicken...

Pygmy goats! They were so adorable and Hannah now has be half convinced that we need one here...Daddy's not so convinced.

Auntie Hannah and Beckett...

Ipa "drove" the teacup ride!

The gang at Jimmilea's house...

And Ipa bought Nattie a clown nose at the fair. She really enjoyed a clown performance they had.

And that's our trip in a nutshell! The summer went by WAY too fast this year, and Kyle is getting ready for his first bow hunt at the beginning of September! Hope you all had a great July and beginning of August. Suzi and Lauren...I can't wait to visit with you guys, whenever it happens!!! Hugs to all.

Summer Time...Summer Time... Fun, Fun Summer Time

Hope you all had a great Fourth. We sure had fun. Kyle did make it back from North Dakota in time to help his dad bale hay for a few days, then we headed to a friend's house for a great BBQ and spectacular fireworks. They live next door to a prominent business owner in town who puts on a fabulous fireworks show each year from his house on the hill. He gives a free meal to all Veterans and anyone can come in and watch the show he pays to have professionally put on. It is rumored this year he spent $50,000! It was great, and we were right underneath it all. It was by far the best show I've seen, and Beckett slept through the whole thing! They didn't start until about 10 pm, so it was a long night and Nattie stayed up for it all. Anyway, I took the kids to a parade in Ten Sleep earlier in the day, and here are some pics...

Daddy and the munchkins...


Natalie and her friend Addison roasting marshmallows. The BBQ was at our friends Cassidy and Travis's house, and it was good so see and visit with so many people.

Natalie and Beckett waiting for the parade to start...

Sorry, this one is out of order. It's from the week before when my cousin Rene and her family came through and visited. She has three fun boys who loved our big dogs and played great with my kiddos. Spencer and Natalie are only a couple of months apart. They live in Washington and were on their way to Yellowstone.

Momma and her good friend Amanda at the fireworks

I tried to get some pics of the fiasco, but of course these don't do the event justice. It really was spectacular.




Here are some swimming pictures from this week. We've been without any rain or thunderstorms for a while now and the hot dog days of summer have set in! We've been spending early mornings at the park, swimming and on the bike path. Natalie rode 2 miles by herself on her trike this week! I had to help push her up one of the bigger hills, but for the most part she did it all on her own. I was so proud of her. I had Beckett in the stroller and did a bit of jogging behind her...she can really put the pedal to the metal on her trike! She gets to start swimming lessons next week. We've also had some fun playdates while Daddy has been gone so much. He got home again last night and is off this weekend, so we are happy about that. We have two weddings to go to tomorrow and will probably head out to Hyattville Sunday. We had more company last weekend when his good buddy Matt from college drove through with his wife Beth and son Samuel. Samuel and Beckett are only a few weeks apart, so they had a lot of fun together. They all spent the night and it was really nice to catch up and visit. Nattie was 9 months old when we went up to Montata for their wedding!

I'm trying to get as much jewelry done this week as I can for a show next Saturday, then I head straight from there (Riverton) to Pinedale to see some old friends I have not visited for a while. It will be my first weekend away from Beckett! I'll be so busy I think it will be fine. I think between Kyle, Jill and Guy they can handle it. I also have a JOB INTERVIEW next week! I hope to work online teaching English to Asian students. It would be part time and I can work late at night when the kids are in bed, which is perfect. MY ideal shift would be 10 pm - 2 am, but we'll see what they give me ( if I even get hired!). It's a great company based here in the Basin that has really expanded a lot over the last couple of years. I remember reporting about it when they first started and I worked at the paper.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell from the Tharp family! We're getting really excited about our Portland trip at the end of the month. Hopefully I will post again before then, but no guarantees!

"The best relief from life was the presence of a friend who seldom asked us for more than we could give." ~Barbara Raskin, American writer