Big Boy Beds!

Abe: What a great Thanksgiving this year. Ya ya lots of food, Ethan and Aiden's family were here, party lights, grandma and grog. Koh even fell asleep at the table this year while everyone watched.

But the best part was getting to escape from life in the crib jail and sleep in our NEW BIG BOY BEDS! Now this is cool. I think Daddy didn't like us climbing the walls of those baby jails.

No, we're not identical

Koh: Just 'cause we're twins and both 32" tall doesn't mean we're the same. For example, I'm Momma's boy and...

• I have blue eyes, blonde hair, detached earlobes, big toes are my longest
• I'm a picky eater
• I'm 27 pounds and a bit squishier
  
• I'm calm and quieter, and think a lot
• I notice very small bugs
• I like books and cars
• I'm quick to dance
• I walk fast, with purpose, and can keep going a loooooooong way
• Need my blankey more which I carry around in my mouth like a dog, but I don't use a binky

Abe: I hang out more with Daddy ...he's my hero. I love KohKoh but I'm not like him:

• I have hazel eyes, reddish blonde hair, attached earlobes and my second toes are really long
• I eat everything
• I'm a 25 pound hardbody ...lean and ripped
• I'm gonna be a gymnast someday, already practicing
• I'm a spaz and am very noisy when needed, which is often
• I'm quick to smile
• The tattoo
• I like gadgets, tools, digital button things
• I dawdle when I walk, and I get tired faster
• Sleep with a binky
  

National Geo Shuffle

Koh: Daddy loves his 40+ year National Geographic collection and so do we. Today he left us in the library to do some research and we looked and looked but just couldn't find that one map of Chile that we wanted to rip up. It was OK, 'cause it was fun sliding around on the little mountain we made.

He and mom wanted to be mad at us for this mess, but we could see them smilin'.

Postscript: 5 minutes to make, 2 hours to unmake this mess ...grrrr

Dad, stuck in tree

Abe: Mommy - will you please get Daddy down from that tree? He makes me nervous.

Sally showed us how...

... to do our first Columbia Gorge hike ON OUR OWN FEET.

Koh: Sally is one of our favorite neighbors because she comes over all the time and plays plus she likes to be outdoors so we all went on this hike to Angels Rest that Mom & Dad always carried us on before. But today we escaped out of the backpacks and walked A LOT down this LONG TRAIL that kept on going and going and we finally got tired.

We saw a big newt, some dogs and BIG SLUGS and some waterfalls and lots of pretty yellow leaves. Did you know Abe and me can say YELLOW? 28 more pics here.

Boo !

Abe: Today we had our first Halloween since we learned to walk. We all dressed up at school, we played trickertreat around the classrooms and then walked to the store and then some more on our street. It was all day then till dark! Then mom and dad took our bags away but we didn't care 'cause we got some cool new hotwheels to play with.

I was an elephant and Koh was such a dog. See more pics here.

Spokane Road Trip

Abraham: I have a new hero. Sorry Daddy, you're still my favorite, but I met a new boy that really taught me a lot of stuff. He's Tyler Reighard. We visited him during our eastern Washington road trip last weekend. His mommy is my mommy's friend from college. He's older than me but he read books to me, tried to carry me around, showed me how to ride a tractor, had awesome toys and showed me other cool stuff that I'll be imitating with Koh now.

It was real cold there but sunny. We went to the apple farm and ate this sticky caramel apple and played in a real big box of peas!

Koh: That 888-mile road trip was a lot of fun. I liked staying in the motel and playing in the leaves nearby. The Grand Coulee dam was pretty cool. My favorite was our picnic lunch at Mt. Rainier. No my favorite was all the cars that Zack, Tyler's brother, let me play with. He even let me keep one!

Click here for more pictures of our road trip.

Life ...in a Barrel of Monkeys

Abe: I'm the best at monkeying around, just ask my Mom or Dad or Koh. Or check out this movie where Koh keeps chasing me around the barrel:

Pumpkins!

Abe:  We got little pumpkins.  Did you know they talk to you if you listen really closely?

Happy Birthday Dad

Abe: For his 44th birthday we gave Dad a rugby shirt and a 3-day weekend vacation on the Oregon coast. Even better was he got to take me and Koh ...and off we drove to historic Fort Stevens. Boy what a fun time that was with a lot of firsts for us and maybe Mom + Dad, too.

Do you know WE LEARNED TO DRIVE THE CAR ?!(WOW), plus we ran into the ocean and lake water lots of times, played on this really big beach with a rusty shipwreck, climbed up and jumped down the REALLY BIG SAND DUNES, saw racoons and bugs real close, fixed some fires and played with the water spigot, rode + slept in the bike trailer, fired a real cannon (ok, not really), even kept Mom and Dad up almost all night while we got them to sleep with us on a real bed in the yurt. Click here for the 8-min feature film of our weekend.

We ate stuff like never before since it was camping ...like chocolate milk, and these marshmellow drippy things they named after our friends that moved away (SAMORES), and mac+cheese and wild huckleberries and other stuff we found on the ground when they weren't looking. 13 more photos here.

This was so fun we didn't want to sleep, so we didn't. I mean we can sleep at home, right?

Love Letter from Dad #6

Boys - You continue to make my fatherhood dream come true ...every day quite literally. We open up at dreaming hour 5:30 in darkness these days and have been rambling around outside just before sunrise. Sometimes you take me on laps around the house ...and we always pause for backyard activities.

This week I relived two of my earliest childhood memories: painting big rocks (my dad paid me 5 cents per rock, my first job!) and watching the sun move around the sky and rise up from behind the hills to the east. Maybe you're little nature boys like me since you've been pointing at the moon for a long time ...isn't every kid a nature kid? It's been fun sitting on the patio watching the big orange ball sunrise. Can we do this over and over? I love you boys.

Fruitcicle fight

Koh: Abe and me ate fruitcicles today, then he started to mess with me. If you think I look bad...

Ahhhmmmmm

Koh:  Our life is go go go.  Sometimes I just gotta slow down and relax.

Mommy, can we have a dog?

Koh: Mom, Aunt Angela has this really nice hound dog that she says we can have. We all went for a hike and see how well he likes us? I mean, come on, all we have are these old indoor cats. We promise to take good care of it ...PLEASE?????

All 30 dog walk pics here.

We just LOVE berries!

Abe: ...so we'll go far and wide to find 'em. Today we hiked above the treeline on Mt Hood until we found some wild huckleberries. Boy were they good! 15 adventure pics.