It's official!

Nigel was sworn in last night with the Oregon State Police department. Wow, what a year it has been getting to this point. He left yesterday, he had to report to the academy at noon and then we went for the "Swearing In" ceremony at 6:30. Caden got to pin Nigel's badge on him, although he didn't really do too much. But, he liked the idea of helping. Nigel is excited to be getting started, however, he's not thrilled with the idea of another "boot camp". We are going to miss him so much over the next 6 months. He'll be able to come home every weekend after the first month, but those weekends don't last long enough :) I am so incredibly proud of him and excited for what's going to come out of this. This is a dream come true for Nigel, so he's definitely right where he wants to be. We love you, Nige, and we can't wait for this to be over! Oh yeah, I almost forgot . . . the cutest thing, Caden kept saying to Nigel, "You're a policeman daddy? You're a policeman?" He's so excited for daddy to have a police car :)

"I, Nigel Schnackenberg, do solemnly swear . . ."

Caden's "pinning" his badge on!

So exciting!

The whole crew!

Notice Caden's "badge" on his arm :)

I am going to miss him so much, but I am so proud of him :)

Gosh, he looks handsome, doesn't he?

Thanks for coming, it meant a lot to Nigel!

Look who's eating cereal . . .

That's right, Jude's starting to eat some solids now! He's really enjoying the rice cereal now! He especially likes to sit up in the booster seat. I can't believe he's old enough for cereal. They just grow up way too fast.

A day at the zoo . . .

We had a really busy week, trying to squeeze in as much fun stuff as possible before Nigel left. So, on Friday, we went to the zoo. It was so much fun! The weather was PERFECT and a few of the animals were really on their best behavior. Caden loved it and I think that his favorite part was riding the zoo train. An exciting thing about the zoo this time . . . the elephant exhibit was all closed off, only 1 of the elephants was out because the 2 females were inside, one of them was in labor! Saturday at about 4:00pm, she gave birth! Too bad we just missed the baby, he looks like he's pretty cute. We'll have to go back when he's out wandering around :)

A quick stop at the coast . . .

The Coast Guard forgot to have Nigel do a bunch of paperwork before he was done, so we had to head over to Astoria for the day. It was a rainy, windy, cold day, but we had fun. Caden got to ride the famous Seaside carousel and he LOVED it. Of course, at first, he HATED it and wanted nothing to do with it. But then he decided it wasn't so bad and he had to go for a second time around.

A day at Horseshoe Lake with the Schnackenbergs!

The weather was hot, the lake was cool! Randy and Linda invited us to go to Horseshoe Lake with them last Saturday, when the temperature was up near 100. We had a great time and it was a great way to cool off! The kids LOVED swimming in the lake, although, it took Caden about half of the day to really get comfortable with the lake. Thanks for inviting us, we had a great time!

Dinner with Angela and Rafael . . .

Angela was in town for a couple of days, so her and Rafael came over to have dinner with us! Thanks for coming over, you two! We love having you!

Here's Caden sharing puppy with Jude. Jude really just wanted to eat it!

Dinner's over, now it's beer sampling time :)


Oh Jude, so cute. He's getting so big!

Look at that face. I can't get enough of him :)

Caden's tattoos and his "plug".

So, Caden sees Mommy and Daddy with their new tattoos and of course, he wants to have them, too. So, the night that I got mine done, he got 6!! He just kept asking for more and finally I had to tell him that 6 was plenty. I know you can't see them all in the picture, but trust me, they're there! His favorite was the big turtle. He loves Nemo! And then, he also got to wear his new crab jammies, which he loves!

Caden walked outside, opened up his little "wagon" filled with toys, and came over to me and said, "Mom, what dat over der?" I looked and I said, "Oh, that's a big slug!" He said, "Mom, what dat plug doing in my toys?" I said, "He's probably just hiding and wanting to take a little nap." He said, "Mom, get dat plug outta my toys, I don't like him." I replied, "I'm definitely not going to get that slug out of your toys, I don't want to touch it!" So, he was fine with waiting until daddy got home to show him the "plug" and then have him take care of it. He's still talking about the "plug". He's hilarious.

Tattoos!!

Here's another picture of Nigel's tattoo, showing him, so you can get a good idea of how big it actually is. Also, I decided to go and get mine done, so I did. Last Friday. I love it. I can't say the same for my mom, though :) The tattoos are growing on her, I think. I mean, 2 out of the 3 of her kids have 3 each! I hope you like it!

Psalm 143:8 & 10

Happy Birthday to Nigel, Calamity Jane's style!

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, we have a restaurant out here called Calamity Jane's. We love going there, but you only go every once in a while. Nigel especially loves it because they have a 1 pound burger! No joke! 1 pound of meat, plus toppings. So, for Nigel's 28th birthday, all the family gathered together and we went to eat some delicious burgers. Nigel had the 1 pound burger with eggs, bacon, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc. . . It was, as usual, an amazing thing to be able to see him eat that all up! Thanks to everyone who came out! We had so much fun! Happy 28th birthday, Nigel! I'm so glad you could be home with us to celebrate, and get in that burger to last you for a while :) We love you so much!

The whole gang!

Caden and Trillium, so cute!

Thor!

Jude and his beer :)

Hans and Sarah. Poor Sarah, Hans just won't try to smile nice for the camera. It took several tries :)

Hans' new chops. We love it when he tries out new looks :)

Nigel's new ink and another day at the park!

Happy (early) Birthday to Nigel! All he wanted was a new tattoo. So, on Tuesday, he went and got it! I personally think it's pretty cool, but I know that there are some of you who aren't interested in tattoos. We, as a couple, don't mind them at all and, in fact, I'm planning my next one, too! So, anyway. There they are. The one on the left of the picture says "serve" and the other one says "protect". You know, Nigel's starting police academy in a couple weeks and this goes perfectly with his job. Plus, he says that more than that, to him, it means serve God and protect my family. Either way, it's fine. It's in Runic writing, which is the old alphabet that the Vikings used, because you know, Nigel's part Viking :) We also went back to Blue Lake on Wednesday. We rode our bikes there, rented a paddle boat, and then rode our bikes to El Pollo Loco for lunch and then finally went home. We had a blast! Caden wasn't so sure about the paddle boat at first, but then he warmed up to it and he was leaning over the edge to look for fish. We're having a great time with Nigel while he's home. We're trying to soak up as much of him as we can because we know that our time is limited.