Vikings vs. Packers

In the beginning of October all 6 of my siblings and myself flew back to Minnesota for a little reunion and to catch a Monday night game. My parents are serving a mission 3 hours from my sisters house, so they were able to come spend some time with us also. It was a really fun weekend and it made me appreciate how much I love my family. Not to mention the game was AWESOME! I watched the Vikings play Packers for the second time today and it made me want to blog my pictures from last month. This football season has been so fun to watch.


My sister Tammy and me at the game
Brandon, Jon and Brian - 3 of my 5 brothers

The whole Barlow clan on the Vikings practice field... ready, set, hike!

My Brother in Law Darrell (Vikings OC) giving my fam the tour

Me kissing Brett Favre's helmet... I guess that is why they are having such a killer season :)

Dad, Mom and all their 7 kids: Doug, Tammy, Brian, Jon, Jason, me and Brandon

I totally have a crush!

Bad Blogger but Fun Summer

When I first started blogging I was very consistent and then I seem to have slowly died off over the summer. I think I am back and ready to start posting again (no promises)! Our family has had a crazy summer! I thought I would post a few shots from some of our favorite events over the last few months.

Oregon Coast at its finest!

Emily, Jonah and Brooklyn Walker on the Bumper cars at Seadside.

My good friend Emily - I love you girl! We had a great time at the coast with you.

The Thelin clan at a notorious "Jeremy Thelin Bonfire"

Ike and Jack Jack - he loves this dog!

In July we went to Utah for a little Barlow Family fun. Max and Ike had a great time with their cousins!

Kaitie and Brandon (this is her first time ever doing fireworks - pretty exciting!)

Uncle Jason and the boys (Cam and Ike)

Max got stung by a bee when we were up in the canyon. He was pretty brave and barely cried. I however, got stung a few days ago on the lip and felt like bawling ;)

One of my best friends Robyn taking Max for a scooter ride - he thought she was the coolest

I turned 29 in July - had a fabulous birthday with my boys!

San Fransisco, CA I met two girlfriends from college there for a little get away

Myself, Lindsay and Stephanie and Fisherman's Wharf

Max and his cousin Mar doing one of their "projects" at the beach. This one particular project consisted of gathering dead bird feathers and putting them in old beer bottles - priceless!

Ikey turned 2 in August. He is SO much fun right now. Happy, delightful, little buddy!

Our next trip was Max's favorite trip of the summer (maybe even favorite of his life at this point)
Honeyman Campground - annual Thelin get together

We made a 35 foot zipline at the sand dunes for the kids

Grandpa Thelin and Max on the 4 wheeler

Our family going for a little ride on the 4 wheeler. Max still is talking about how fun this trip was on a daily basis.

Hillsboro Airshow - August 29th
Max and Ike thought this was a pretty cool show. Ike was hilarious, he kept yelling "wook airpane mama, wook"

This is the truck that Max is saving his money for. He wants to have a bigger truck than his Uncle Jade and this is the only candidate we have found!

Family Pictures

We were in Utah seeing family and friends last week and while we were there my friend Lindsey took our family picture. She did a GREAT job. Thanks Linds, you are talented and so fun to work with. I miss you.
It was a nightmare of a day, Ike had strep and was grouchy the whole time, it had been raining on and off all day and my patience level was wearing thin with my kids! It is amazing to me that any of these turned out.

This picture tells it all!

We took these shots on another day when Ike was finally healthy and happy again.

Dead Opossum

Last week I came down stairs in the morning to a yucky smell. I thought to myself "did I not throw away one of Ike's diapers?" I continued to scrub my house and then it dawned on me..... Last month Jer and I spotted Cat Lady's (next door neighbor) cats going beneath our deck and we thought there was a pee smell coming from the opening. So my manly man goes down there, which by the way is pitch black and the ceiling is only 5 feet high so you have to crouch down, to investigate and he finds a vent that had been chewed away so he secures it and leaves. Well, now a month later we have this smell that is pretty strong and Jer, yet again, goes down and "looks"around but can't see anything (so he says), so when he went to work the next morning I took it upon myself to call a wildlife specialist or what we call "the rodent man" to come help. Not that I didn't believe Jer but I know that he couldn't have been that thorough in his shorts and flip flops standing near the opening shining a flash light around. Three hours later my knight in shining armor came to my rescue and headed down the hole to find a 2 foot DEAD Opossum and a ton of poop! So gross, I know! It started to smell due to the heat we are having so who knows how long it was in there. They cleaned it up and disinfected the area, rewired 2 chewed away vents and now my house no longer smells like a dead carcass! It was the best money I have ever spent. I just can't imagine Jer tackling that job! Max on the other hand thought the whole situation was totally cool!

Max and Rodent Man

Bon Voyage!!!

My mom is my hero! Last month Jer and I went on a 7 day Caribbean cruise. We flew out my mom to watch the boys and we had a wonderful vacation being Jeremy and Kristin; husband and wife not Mommy and Daddy for a week!
Thanks Mom, you have no idea how much we appreciated it :)

We traveled with Jeremy's brother Jade and his wife Ashton - they were great cruising companions. The weather was perfect, the ship was crazy crazy (in a good way) and I couldn't have been happier. It helped that I couldn't call home from the boat, so I was able to let go and quit stressing about how exhausted my mom was going to be and if everything was going ok!

Our port stops were Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Martin. The Caribbean is truly beautiful, I was suggest you go if you have the chance. My favorite was St. Thomas - we did some pretty incredible snorkeling which Jer just loved. This local guy gave us these dog biscuits to feed to the fish and Jer was all over that, I on the other hand didn't know how I felt about fish hitting into my body and mistaking my fingers for food! Once I relaxed it was really fun and quite surreal to be surrounded by that many fish. Jer would booby trap me by diving below me and releasing bits of biscuits that would float up around me. I was not a big fan of the random attacks of fish but it was pretty funny.

The boat was nuts! It is incredible that something that large can float, it is like a moving city on water. My favorite part of the ship was the adventure deck; rock climbing, sports court, mini golf, and most of all the flow rider. This was a big part of the entertainment for the 4 of us. Jer and Jade loved this thing and Ashton and I were quite fond also. It is a wave simulator that you can surf or boogie board on. Ever since we got back Jer's business wheels have been turning on how to get a flow rider and make a business out of it - big dreamer, it is like a million dollar machine! Super fun and the staff on the sports deck were super cool, we became pretty good friends with them all.

But most of all I LOVED spending time with Jeremy. I forgot how fun he is and that we actually are a good match. Life is so busy sometimes and we get wrapped up in the craziness and putting our kids first, that it is nice to take some time focusing on each other. Every couple needs to get away even if it is for the weekend, I think it is a must!

Here are some pics from the week:

Our Boat: The Freedom of the Sea

Puerto Rico

Jade and Ashton took this shot without us knowing. I love it! Thanks guys!

Flow Rider
Jade and Jeremy trying to suicide each other on boogie boards

Ashton and I feeling like we were kids again. It was great

St. Thomas

Ashton and I studying our cruise compass! She is way more organized than I am, it was great because she always knew where to go or what was going on.

The cruise had an "Amazing Race" competition and the four of us entered as a team. We took home the gold, are you proud?

Rock climbing was awesome, I think I could really grow to love it!

Shuffle board. It was so so windy! I get barely play because I was so occupied with keeping my skirt down and my hair out of my mouth.

One rejuvenated happy couple excited to go home and see their boys!
Max loved Grandma Zoo (Sue). She would play this Xbox Lego Game with him (which she had no clue how to do) and for that she will always hold a special place in Max's heart!

The boys had a great time. Grandma spoiled them rotten with fun activities and endless attention. They ran my Mom ragged and I am sure she was just as happy to see us as they were.

Before the vaca.....

Jer and I just got back from vacation and I went to post a few pics and I realized that I still had some from before that I wanted to show. So here are some random shots from last month...

Marianne (my mother in law) and Jer took Max and Gabe downtown to the Political "tea party"!They said it was amazing to see so many people together to have their voice heard. Good for them for getting involved. Max and Gabe had a blast, they took the train down and got to spend time with two really fun people - Dad/Uncle and Grandma!

It just wouldn't be April if we didn't but some Easter pic in here :) Max LOVES dying eggs - this year was a Kung Fu Panda theme!

The Easter Bunny brought the boys water shooters, which quickly turned into light sabers/swords.... a big hit (no pun intended)!

My handsome men all dressed up for Easter Sunday. How did I get so lucky?

Chelsea and I freezing our butts outside the church Easter morning. Our families were troopers while we made them all pose for family Easter shots. I am so grateful to have such good girlfriends.

Random Fun

Homemade play dough is way better than store bought, why has no one shared this with me before? Max loves rolling it out and using his new cookie cutters (thanks Chels!)

Ike also joined in on the fun, he tried to see how much he could eat before I took it away!
Ike loves to brush his teeth, he is so cute to watch
He does not like me to help at all. He waits till I walk away and then starts sucking down the tooth paste. You can imagine this kids diapers: play dough, tooth paste, crayons...
Getting to be such a big boy
Every time I go to upload my pictures there seems to be a bunch of random shots. This time the culprit incriminated himself!
Max loves doing art lately, he also loves to use all my tape and hang them up around the house. I figure whatever makes him happy and more importantly keeps him busy I am fine with!

Thank Heaven for Dads :)