Unca Nick, Joel, Centerfield and Hitchin' a Ride

Nick and Joel came to visit this week, and so Rock kind of suspected that if he played his cards right that he'd be able to hitch a ride to Mawma and Papa Englands. He started by packing the suitcase that Papa Dale left him.

Packing was a nice distraction after Nick and Joel went to a Mariners game without him. But uncle Nick made Rock totally forget that with a sweet action sweet M's helmet!!

Rock was pretty thrilled, and started singing this song.



He was all sorts of excited.

DeA told Rock that the sooner he went to sleep, the sooner he got to tag along with Nick to Manson. The good news is that Rock went to sleep right away...the bad news is that he woke up at 2 am ready to go.

Baby Ryker likes it when Rock falls asleep, because then he doesn't have to worry about Rock giving him pink bellies. Pink bellies hurt.

I told you that Rock was rarin' to go. He even packed out his own suitcase.

Mommy packed him a brown bag lunch for the trip. He was thrilled that they wouldn't have to stop at a restaurant and get chocolate milk. Thrilled.



Speaking of restaurants and good eats, Nick ate a burrito this big. Hey Rock: Good luck sitting right behind Nick on that four hour drive. You'll need it.

I've always wondered what I'd look like with a beard. I guess now I know.

"Hey, are we just going to sit here sucking our thumbs or are we going to get on the road? I've got some spoiling to get to!"

Yup, Ryker likes being all alone in the house. Then he gets all the attention to himself.

"Hey, what the duece? I'm all alone on the floor? SOMEONE COME LOVE ME!!"

A Mouthful of Blog!!

We've been enjoying some nice, sunny weather so Rock quickly turned into a free-range little boy. He likes escaping the chicken coupe that is our house and roaming the open range of our backyard.
Rock and Ryker get along better all the time. Ryker loves attention from Rock.
Rock just has to sit in front of Ryker and he's happy.
But he's not opposed to kicking back and just chilling when Rock is outside. That's cool too.
A group of women in the ward walked over to a local park and let the kids just go nuts. Rock liked running around free of all fetters.
They had these cool racing cars and Rock did some laps at a record pace.
He even let other guys from the ward in on the racing awesomeness.
So, Super Nanny has this little technique for getting kids to sleep in their big boy beds. All you do is put them in bed and tell them you love them, then when they get out you put them back and say I love you, then the next time you just say good night and then every subsequent time you don't acknowledge them and just put them back in bed. People have told us that it works and they kid will usually get up about 20-25 times. Well, I guess little Rock is just more persistent than other kids because it took him about 3,264 times before he finally fell asleep close to his bed.
We rewarded him the next morning with some blueberry-strawberry-banana-orange juice breakfast. He didn't like it, but his alter-ego Mario sure did.

Once again Rock got a hold of our camera and took some still-life photos. Here is his insightful look at the state of the railroad industry.
He took more pictures, but I'll just share that first one with you today. Later he did his best to rebuild the RR industry.
Rock is still adjusting to life in a big boy bed, but keeps having trouble with the gate in the door to keep him contained. Apparently he feels that he is now in prison, and since he told on Ryker for pooping his diaper, that makes him a prison snitch.
"I've seen enough Veggie Tales Prison movies to know what happens to the prison snitch! I'm outa here!"
Ryker has progressed in his life to the point that he was ready to try out the exersaucer. He loved it, but felt that somebody behind him wasn't cool with Ryker's new toy.
Ryker takes after his mother and older brother and has become a poopie monster. At least with Ryker we have two more hands to help us change him.

Ryker doesn't care how it gets done, just as long as he gets cleaned.
Julember weather has been gone for some time now, leaving us with a beautiful July. Ryker took his exersausing self outside and enjoyed the rays.

But, once again, somebody wasn't cool with the toy usage and attention giving that was going on.

But he was cool with the sunshine and warmth.
DeA was just glad to get outside and show off her curly golden locks.
I don't know what this is about, but it's cute, so you can make your own caption for this one. Well, I mean aside from this caption, that even though it doesn't explain the picture is still technically a caption. So, make your own second caption.
The other day Ryker was just chilling, minding his own business looking adorable on the floor...
when he got the sinking sensation that somebody was performing some sort of Aztec ritual behind him.
Well, it turns out that Daddy-o was close by to stop the sacrificial ceremony and instead got the boys to pose for a serious picture.
Speaking of serious pictures: This isn't one.
Rock is strong. Very strong and very shy.


Oh, and there's a new feature on the blog. DeA was getting discouraged that people weren't commenting, so we decided to add quick response buttons below the posts. Right now there are three options, but if you can think of more then tell us your suggestions. And, this still isn't an excuse to not comment!!

Pictures Forgotten and then Remembered

So, remember that trip to Oregon and DeA and the boys made? The one where Rock and Ryker got all the attention that they could handle? And remember how then they came back to Washington and have had attention but not as much? Yeah, unfortunately they do too. Speaking of remembering, I took these pictures on my phone and forgots them. Here is Rock wearing a Spiderman hat (not pictured: Spiderman wearing a Rock hat).

I also found this pic on my phone of Rock and Buddy forming a mutualistic symbiotic relationship. It worked out well, as the name implies.
Speaking of relationships, here is Rock and Ryker with their grandparents.

We took Rock to Factoria to pick up his mommy. He was casually walking around the mall when he noticed an old friend.

After we picked up Bampa Dale we went to a Mongolian Grill. Rock saw people using chopsticks, so naturally he had to give them a try. Unfortunately he got his straws and chopsticks mixed up.

Notice how he's using the straw, and in the previous photo he's trying to drink his lemonade with a stick.

Finally he figured out which one he drinks with and which ones he eats with, but that didn't necessarily help him eat any faster.

After some practice he finally figured it out.

Sort of.