16 pounds 9 ounces AND 25 1/4 inches

If only he'd worn sunscreen more often...

A couple months ago I 'forced' Aaron to schedule his yearly physical. (I use the word 'force' because Aaron NEVER goes to the doctor.) Begrudgingly, he scheduled an appointment and his doctor suggested that he go to the dermatologist to get his moles checked out. "Not, another appointment!" he exclaimed. Surprisingly, Aaron called and scheduled an appointment, but it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that they could get him in. The doc looked him over and was only concerned with one mole on his cheek. He said it was probably nothing, but did shave some surface cells off to test for anything suspicious. A couple days later the results came back and the dermatologist informed Aaron that he had the beginning stages of MELANOMA. For those of you who do not know what this is, it is skin cancer. The only way to get rid of this when found early is to remove the infected area, and hope that it has not metastasized (spread). If metastasized, then one would need chemotherapy, radiation and etc.

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Well today, Aaron had an appointment with the plastic surgeon at OHSU and was under the impression that he was there for the small, simple removal of the mole. In actuality, he was there to not only remove the mole, but all of the surrounding tissue. Poor Aaron... Not exactly what we were expecting, but the hope is that they have removed all of the cancer cells. Aaron will be fine, but he does have to make sure that he is NEVER exposed to direct sun-light, which means ALWAYS applying sunscreen and wearing hats. He looks a little funny all bandaged up, but we are so happy that this was found early. In this we have learned the valuable lesson of staying current with physical check-ups, the importance of dermatology appointments, and the necessity of sunscreen! We love you Aaron!

Outgrowing her highchair?

"Malia! You are growing too fast!"

I never imagined the day she would be sitting-up by herself in these bar stools. It is just too crazy!

Just Married!

Malia went to her first wedding this weekend! Our good friends Jen and Mike were married in the chapel at the Academy in downtown Vancouver; it was beautiful! I went to hygiene school with Jen, (which is also where she met Mike), so their wedding was kind of like a dental hygiene reunion with old friends and instructors! It was so much fun to show Malia off to those who had not met her yet.

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After being INCREDIBLY happy during the ceremony, this is how Malia was the majority of the evening...

...which was really nice because it turned out like this when she woke up...

Congratulations you two!!!

"I'm a big girl now!"

Enjoying the last bits of warm weather...

On Friday, Malia and I went to Horseshoe Lake with some families in our neighborhood. We couldn't have asked for more BEAUTIFUL weather! Malia had a lot of fun playing in the water, eating the sand, and worked on getting rid of her farmer's tan.

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Then, later that night, Malia went to her first football game! "Go Chief's Go!" It was the annual rival game between Columbia River and Skyview. Aaron and I both graduated from River and while we were in school, our team NEVER lost to Skyview. We've tried since we have been married to make it to this game each year, but so far, have been quite disappointed since River has now lost THREE times to "Skypew". Oh well, maybe next year River can make a comeback.

Labor Day Weekend

So, I guess we did what more than half the population does on Labor Day... Yup, you guessed it... We went camping! It was soooo much fun! We went with some great friends, Katie and Steen, and their two adorable redheads, Megan and Daniel. We stayed three nights at Mossy Rock campground and just enjoyed being away from every day life. Malia had a blast spending so much time outdoors and had no problem sleeping through the night despite the noise of loud campers by their crazy fires...

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Here's the fam outside of our humble abode.

Malia loved this little camping chair.

Getting our foil dinners ready. (As you can see, we put Steen on baby duty...)

This picture looks like daddy is having fun playing in the lake with Malia, BUT, the real story behind this is that Malia just face-planted the sand, (which was actually more like little pebbles), and the poor thing had rocks up her nose and in her mouth.

Aaron and I had never been to Mt. Rainier and since we were only about an hour away, Steen gave us a tour of some beautiful waterfalls and ancient trees. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day, so we did not get the chance to actually see a view of the mountain. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun!

Here we are standing in front of the enormous root system of a tree that has fallen.

When we got back from our drive to Mt. Rainier, we all needed to stretch out our legs, so had fun playing with the kids in the park. This is Megan... she had so much fun keeping Malia entertained!

We decided that we need to buy one of these swings since Malia loves them so much.

On the last night we got a little carried away and lit this ginormous box on fire! In the background you see the culprits... the evidence proves that Aaron and I were not involved... :)

Thank you Jensens for the great time! We hope to make this tradition!