~Happy Birthday Ashton~

3 YEARS ago I pushed for nearly 3 HOURS before our sweet Ashton was born, and man was it worth it!

Ashton is the middle of three boys. He is the middle child just like me. Surrounded by siblings of the same sex. He is lucky to be the middle child I think. Having older AND younger siblings.

Ashton is so passionate about life. He is up for anything and always so excited about it. I hope you never loose that passion and excitement. I hope the world does not damper that.

Ashton is a typical newly 3 year old who wants to do everything himself - "My do it!" He is strong willed and does everything on HIS terms. Including using the toilet. He is still in diapers full time. He loves his brothers and ever since Jordan starting 'crawling' around he can't get enough of him.

Ashton loves his Daddy. He is always so excited to see him, even if it is for the 5th time that day. When Dad is gone he is still always thinking of him and making sure one side of his pillow is left free for Daddy at snuggle time.

Our Ashton is one of a kind and we are so blessed to be his parents. He turned 3 on June 19th. We had a birthday party for him on the 13th so that Jeremy could be here to help celebrate before he left town again for work (it will be one week so far on Sunday).

I love this picture of Ashton and I because I feel like I never get pictures of myself with the kids because I'm always the one taking the pictures. He is so cute. He has the squishiest cheeks I just love to kiss them! Many times I get this reaction: "No, don't kiss me!" Sometimes I just look at him with his red hair, pure blue eyes and milky white skin and can't believe how beautiful he is. He is not a big snuggler, so when he is up for a good snuggle I cherish ever minute of it.

Since we already had his birthday 'party', I still wanted to do something fun on his actual birthday. I stole a great idea from my friend Elizabeth and took Ashton and Kevin on the Amtrak train to Portland. We have watched the trains down at the train station MANY times, but never rode on a 'real' train before. It was a great adventure...

The horn on the train was pretty loud!

The real life conductor punched our tickets just like they did on the Polar Express movie!

Getting cozy. It was so quiet on the train. I think everyone on the train had been on it all night and were still waking up. I felt like we had to be really quiet. The man in front of us even moved seats so he didn't have to be near two excited little boys. He must have not gotten a good nights sleep :{

Union Station in Portland was just a few blocks away from Jamison Square park in the Pearl district. We had a couple hours before our returning train ride, so we walked there for some fun. (another great idea from Elizabeth). I knew there was water there, but didn't know how much. I intended to bring a dry pair of pants for the boys just in case, but I of course forgot. So we rolled up the shorts and I tried to encourage them to not get TOO wet since I didn't have a change of clothes for them. Yeah right, that waterfall is so fun I wish I could have gotten in it! I did roll up my pants and got my feet wet however. As you can see below, they started out with good intentions, but ended up fully submerged in water. It was one of those moments where I had to just let go and realize they would survive, even if they had to go home in wet clothes. Sometimes you just have to let go. Let your children be children. And let go yourself! That is something I hope I can continue to get better at.

After their 'swim' they climbed around the sculpture and we played a little soccer...

Before heading back to the train we stopped at a near by coffee shop for a treat...

We ended the day by going to Red Robin for dinner with both sets of grandparents. The preschool gives the kids a free kids milkshake there for their birthday, so it was a good excuse to do something fun and different for his birthday dinner.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ashton!

Now stop growing, because I know I'm going to miss this sweet little toddler face when you are all grown up!

I will leave you with this cute video of Ashton when he was first walking at 13 months old. I just love those squeaky shoes! I can't believe this will be Jordan in 6 short months!