Our trip back to Oregon...

Jackson and I just returned from a long 3 1/2 week trip back to beautiful Oregon to visit with family and friends. We had such a blast and while it was very hard to come back to "reality" we both were so excited to see Jesse! For the last week we were there every time I got on the computer Jackson would run up and say "Da!" and point at the computer and whenever he awoke from a nap he pointed around saying "Da?" I could tell he REALLY missed his Da! This trip certainly made Jesse and I realize that we can't go on that long of a trip away from each other again, so trips back to Oregon will now have to be about 10 days long which is ok with us.
We lucked out during our Oregon visit with the weather being so beautiful! We got tons of walks and water play in with Grandma Brigette.....

I love how he worked on filling up this basket for such a long time (he hasn't quite figured how the concept of holes :)

 Unfortunately a few days before we were to leave on family vacation with Jesse's side of the family Jesse had to cancel his plane ticket and wasn't able to come back for the trip which really disappointed us all. Jesse's promotion has proved quite challenging over the past month or so...all 3 of his kiosks were torn down and re-built and with many mistakes and delays occurring higher up in corporate Jesse's workload has been astronomical! We've just had to roll with the punches and take the challenges as they come but this change certainly has proved to be way more than we signed on for...Our motto recently has been "whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!" All of this change has affected Jackson quite a bit, although I try my best to keep my emotions stable around Jackson, at times it has been difficult.
Family vacation was a rough one with Jackson being 18 months old and interested in getting into everything under the sun and I swear his main mission was to cause mommy to lose her mind! I don't blame him for his difficulty on vacation with the constant "no touch" and "stop" that I had to repetitively say because well while camping that is the environment you are in. Between the struggles and challenges that Jackson and I had I was able to have many wonderful conversations with my in-laws and those moments were worth all the work! Jackson did have a super fun time with his cousins and it allowed me to see just how quickly Jackson catches on to things and how many words he was starting to form...

Playing in the sand with Cousin Sierra

Cousin Henry taking Jackson for a walk with Uncle :)

mmm Grandma's always have the best snacks! Cheerios!

I felt so blessed to have such a wonderful family that wanted so much to help me with Jackson but Jackson is just at that age and with all the change he's been through he really only wanted Mommy.

The rest of our trip was pretty relaxed and we spent most of our afternoons hanging in the backyard playing with water or going to the park...

We went to the park and had a blast with Grandpa David...

Jackson and Cooper had the best time at the Beaverton Fountain!

He loved helping Grandma Brigette water the plants...I think it's because he knew he'd get to play with the hose after :)

I think he might be a chef when he grows up! He loved helping Auntie Melissa in the kitchen

OR maybe he'll be a soccer player :)

And of course I LOVED seeing my baby nephew Joshua! He's growing up so fast....