Jared's Third Birthday

Jared isn't officially three yet (Monday), but we decided to have his Birthday party on Saturday in Jim & Kathie's garage (it was 49 degrees outside). The garage was a safer bet then inside the house because candy, kids and sticks don't mix for inside activities ;-P

Jared's friends Mason, Natalie, Simon and Trenton came over for his party. They played a whole bunch of games, decorated train and cupcake shaped cookies and hit a pinata shaped like a truck. After that everyone had pizza and then a piece of Jared's Thomas and Friends cake.

Jared has been so excited for his birthday party ever since his cousin Caden was out visiting this last summer and he had a birthday party at Popie and Nana's house. Since then he would list out all the things he wanted at his party; cake, ice cream, balloons, and he would name all his cousins that he wanted there too.

Laura did a great job organizing and getting everything together for the party and thanks again to everyone for coming. Jared loved his party and wish everyone could have been there.

Ok so we suck with this Blog thing lately

So while we were not blogging, some of these things happened; Jared got his first haircut at Little Clippers where they play a movie for the little ones so they don't pay attention to whats going on. Highly suggest the place.



Jared was a Lion for Halloween and we loved it because he likes to roar like a lion too. Jared absolutely loved going trick o' treating of course with people handing him candy left and right whats not to love right?!

Jared was really excited to carve pumpkins, until I opened it up and it was time to clean out the insides...then it was "yucky, yucky, bowl, bowl" (Jared's way of saying get it away from me and put that junk in the bowl Daddy).

One of Jared's new favorite things, Daddy puts this blanket across his legs and Jared jumps in like a hammock and reads his books!

Laura turned 30!

We went camping at Silver Falls...that may be the last time for awhile, Jared for some reason would not sleep very long (ok to be fair it was freezing and even I was a bit cold) next time I'll buy a tent heater, or just use the new camping trailer :-)

Grandpa Elia came and visited Jared and was teaching him how to play a nose flute with out the nose flute. We had good times, come back soon Grandpa Elia!

Jared and Grandpa Elia spending some quality time. Jared loves stubble, he will rub his hands all over your face for 20 mins if you let him.

Well thats what we've been up to in the last few months and your all caught up now mostly, except last thing Laura is back to teaching she teaches half a day all week at Waluga Middle School in Lake Oswego. She loves it.

Fourth of July Weekend

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Sunriver, its becoming a little bit of an Elia Family tradition. Jared loves the Pet Parade they have every year (people dress up their dogs, cats, ponies, horses, rabbits and goats or at least decorate a wagon and pull them in it). After the parade every one moves down to Drake Park and there is live music, arts and crafts booths, clothes, jewelry and food booths as well. This year Jim and Kathie came with us as well as Lynda, Todd and Terri Zenger. It was fun times. The highlight every year of course is at 10pm, there is this big cinder cone in the middle of Bend and they do a huge firework show from the very top so that you can see the fireworks basically from any point in Bend, and probably further away than that.


We go to this spot on the Deschutes river every time we're in Sunriver with Jared so he can feed the ducks and throw rocks in the water. This kid would throw a dump truck worth of rocks in the water if you let him!

Jim has had this cedar log swing in the garage at Sunriver for at least 10 years he said, we finally put it together on this trip. It is really nice and Jared loved swinging on it.

Jared's most recent battle scar, he jumped from a concrete pad that a big electrical box sits on onto the sidewalk and as you can see he didn't keep his balance. If you could see any closer you could see the distinct lines of the sidewalk in his scab. It looked like a mini version of a Ruffle potato chip.

Jamaica - finally a new post!

We took a family vacation with my parents, sister and her family, and my brother and his family to Jamaica ya mon! It was fantastic and we had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Beaches Boscobel all inclusive resort in Ochos Rios. It was hard to want to leave the resort it was so beautiful as you can see by the pictures. The pools were great with a ton of water slides and all water activities were included. We were able to go snorkeling, banana boat rides, glass bottom boat rides, among other fun activities.

Most days we spent days relaxing by the pool drinking virgin Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris, going down the water slides or playing in the sand on the beach. We did take two day excursions which were a lot of fun. One day we went to Dunn River Fall's which is a cascading water fall that you can actually climb up to the top. You hold hands in a big long line and help each other up to the top of the falls, Ronald carried Jared all the way up the falls. It was a lot of fun and very refreshing. Our last day there we went to Dolphin Cove where we had a dolphin experience. We didn't get to swim with them, but we were able to touch them give them kisses. Jared loved it and gave the dolphin a huge kiss and hug. It was very cute we will have to post the video later.

An interesting Friday

Laura left last night with her parents to drive to Utah for Cindy Zenger's (her first cousin) wedding. Its the first time Laura has left Jared for more than an overnight. I was planning to take Jared to daycare and pick him up after work. However right after I had gotten Jared all dressed and ready for the day and I was just putting on my shirt, I catch a glimpse of Jared running full tilt out of the bathroom and just as he gets to the door way he stubs his shoe on the metal strip that separates the linoleum from the carpet and he takes a header into the foot of our bed.

Now the impact was cause for concern by itself, however as I go to pick a screaming Jared up off the floor I notice the corner of his left eye is already swelling and purple and he is bleeding down his cheek and into his eye as well. Now it may sound cruel but I had to leave him there so I could take off my dress shirt so he didn't get blood all over it but once I got it off I picked him up off the floor and tried taking a look at his eye.

He wasn't having any of it, he would barely hold still for me to look but I could see that he had split his skin next to his eye and that if weren't for the swelling he would be bleeding all over the place! At this point I am thinking to myself 'I can't believe Jared just did this, now Laura will never let me take care of him while she is gone :-) So I call Laura to let her know what happened, luckily she is still sleepy so she didn't freak out too much.

Jared took his header around 7:30 am and I know he needs to go to the Doctor to probably get some stitches because his eye is still bleeding and it was a pretty nasty cut. So I called the pediatricians office and they said the doctor would be in at 9am and we could come in then. We showed up at 9am and of course waited for a bit. While in the waiting room this lady made a comment about Jared getting his first black eye, I let her know that this was actually Jared's third black eye (and actually not even close to the worst one).

The nurse came out and took us back and she used some gauze to clean up Jared's eye. Jared was so brave, he just gave the nurse his leary look but he let her clean it up and he never cried or winced once. The Doctor came in a bit later and took and look and luckily she said it wasn't too bad after she took a look and said that she could just glue it shut instead of doing stitches. We had to switch to the procedure room and the nurse had to clean Jared's eye with beatadine and saline solution. We had to take off his shirt and wrap him in a blanket so we could keep control of him since he was squirming like a fish out of water and kicking me like a mule as well. Then the Doc came back in to glue his cut closed which took everything the nurse and I had to keep Jared still so the glue didn't get in his eye. He of course screamed during this whole time but when the Doc was doing gluing his eye and he was still screaming I sang Rock a Bye Baby too him and it calmed him right down but he looked so sad that Daddy felt so bad for my little guy.

When we were all done Jared got to pick a prize and he decided on a dinosaur. Later I told Laura that he got a dinosaur as a prize and she in her sleepy state says "did he get a real one" next thing out of my mouth and Kathie's of course is "yes Laura they gave him a 'real' dinosaur, a real live T-Rex!" Of course she meant a big one like he has at home but Kathie and I enjoyed teasing her about that one. So of course at this point its 10am and I just can't take him to daycare, I felt so bad for him so I stopped in at work since it was close to the doctors office to let them see that I didn't make it all up ;-) and then Jared and I went home to hang out the rest of the day.

Utah Trip

Okay so it was back in March but hey its all good right...So we had good times, it snowed a ton on Saturday night and Sunday, don't miss the snow so much. We went to Utah for Michele and Jordan being sealed to Julie Beth and for Julie Beth and Kaisleigh's baby blessings. Good times seeing everyone and watching Julie Beth starting to walk, and falling down as well.

Of course we were all bummed Dad couldn't be there but happy that he is doing better :-)

Sunday

Dad is doing good, he no longer has any IV's going, he only has oxygen when he sleeps because he has sleep apnea so his oxygen levels get a little low. Other than that he seems to be doing good, no doctors today since its Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow holds good news, but I go back to Oregon tonight. My Mom and I are exhausted since sleeping in a hospital room can only be so comfortable and the nurses come in and out all night but I am glad I came home to see my Dad.

Aging is a natural process but the medical stuff starts to catch up. Makes me want to move home but I know Laura would struggle with it but I'll eventually need to figure it out. So it seems that my Dad is doing much better, he just needs to take it easy and rest (while still getting some exercise) and actually manage his diabetes so his kidneys last longer:-)

We are all sad that Dad can't be in Utah this coming weekend for Juju B getting sealed to Michele and Jordan and for Juju B and Kaisleigh's baby blessing but that's okay. That is why I am glad we are an eternal family!

Once again thank you for all of your prayers on our Dad's behalf, and all that you do for our family. Its been a scary experience but its always nice to know how much Ohana one has in the islands and through out the world.

Love and Aloha,

Ronald