Today was a good day

Today was a good day. It doesn't get much better than sitting in a firetruck and getting to watch a plane take off at the airport. After nearly 25 days of below normal temperatures, we finally hit a day above 70 degrees and we were going to take advantage of it with a little picnic down at Sunriver. It just so happens that the Sunriver FD was practicing wild land fire suppression at the time, and and had four fire trucks parked right near where we were eating.

We walked Kieren over to check them out and before long the captain came over and let Kieren climb into the cab and showed him the JAWS of Life, hoses, etc. Kieren even had his red hat on for the occasion. Very cool stuff.

After the firetruck experience we went over to the Sunriver Airport, which is a small private airport, but seems to have lots of planes taking off and landing. There was a herd of elk hanging out near the runway, but after the pilot cleared them off, we were able to watch a plane take off.

Welcome Baby Maren

The newest little Labhart has arrived! Maren Elise was born on April 6th weighing in at 6lbs & 15oz. and a whopping 21" long. Papa has already given her the nickname "Twiggy" courtesy of those long chicken legs and I must say she has some pretty long monkey toes already, too. We all love her so much, including her new big brother, who loves to give her hugs and sweetly talk to her. Jeff

Easter 2011

You might have thought it was Black Friday at Walmart instead of Easter Sunday. I dropped Juli and Kieren off at the Inn at the 7th Mountain for a mid-day Easter egg hunt, while I tried to find a place to park (needless to say, with a newborn and two year old we were running late). We were all very excited for this year's hunt, considering we had the wrong day last year.

As Juli and Kieren were moving toward the gathering, the hounds were released and hundreds and hundreds of swinging baskets and rambunctious parents stormed towards two people who very much hate commotion and lots and lots of people. Juli managed to jump into the bushes as the initial wave poured past. After a minute or two she was able turn Kieren around and get him out on the grass. He managed to snag four plastic eggs filled with candy before the thousands of eggs were all snatched up. Literally, in FIVE minutes. I observed some larger kids with 20+ eggs, while some smaller kids had none. Yes, the planning wasn't that great.

Since the fun was over so fast, I wanted to give Kieren a bit more of a hunt, so when he wasn't looking, I snagged his four eggs out of our bag (still haven't got the basket yet) and scattered them about in our immediate area. You would have thought I was throwing pieces of gold out on the ground. One little girl made a mad dash towards us as I readied by camera to snap a few photos of Kieren. I had to explain to her (and her parents) that these were our eggs and we were just doing some photo ops. The next time I tried this little trick several moms spotted me tossing a few eggs into the shrubs and they were quick to hurry their children over to us. Once again, I had to explain the situation, TO THE PARENTS.

The third time I snuck out a few eggs from our bag, Kieren spotted me and told me, "Hey, those aren't your eggs, we already found those."

It looked like Kieren was having fun, but I don't think we will be doing any more public egg hunts. A good egg hunt at home is a guarantee of success, you don't have to fight aggressive little kids and parents.

We hopped into the van for ride home and a good nap. Kieren peered into his brown paper bag, "Hey, where are the other ones?" "What other ones?" "My other eggs?" I guess we can't fool this kid.

Jeff