Perhaps you're wondering why I have been so lax in my blog updating?
Perhaps you've thought to yourself, "Hmmmmm. Maybe Mt. Rainier finally exploded."
Or, "Hmmmmm. Seattle IS on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Maybe there was an upheaval of the earth causing calamity and total loss of power."
I would have to answer: No.
I just find that I need more sleep as I get ever older.
OR
I could blame it on Katie's budding interest in the voodoo arts.
Please see picture below......
Anywhoooooo.....
Let's start with July 4th, shall we?
Here's Mikey on JULY 3RD (you read that right) selecting the best spot for
us to watch the local parade. You have to scout out
your spot the day before.
And here he is on the day of. Ready to ride
in the Children's Parade with our preschool.
Katie, too, enjoys "marching" in the parade.
But, what she really likes the best is the CANDY.
Nut-free, of course.
After we made our way down the parade route, we veered right
and parked it on our pre-placed blanket. Surprisingly,
no one had moved it! There were people sitting about four deep next to it, but no one
had moved it. Nice job, peoples.
WEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
MO' CANDY! MO' CANDY!
Daddy and Mikey enjoying a little snack. Lollipop and nectarine.
We actually stayed until the END of the parade. Which is quite a feat considering it
was about two hours long and had a total of TWO marching bands.
After some play time at our friends house in the afternoon,
we headed home for a little R&R before heading out to dinner
at Panera.
Bet you didn't know Panera was open on the Fourth of July?
After enjoying Mikey's favorite restaurant, we came back home to join
in the neighborhood BBQ and old school do-it-yourself fireworks show.
Katie has kept herself busy this summer with various camps.
Here she is pondering the adventures that await on her
first ever canoe ride.
Cast off, matey's!!
AVAST, AHOY, AYE-AYE!!!!!
The only reason I was there to take pictures was because they were
also having a big picnic. I gotta be there to police for nuts.
The allergy thing is never far away. Sigh.
While Katie was out sailing the lake, Mikey
was onshore making friends with bugs.
Please say hello to "Buggy" the beetle.
He and Mikey are good friends.
After everyone arrived safely back from canoeing, it was time for lunch.
And then after lunch, it was time for......
S'MORES!!!!!
"Um, Mom? Why is this the FIRST time I am
experiencing a s'more? We should eat them EVERYDAY!"
I went all out for this post. I've even got videos!!!
Here's a video of May all the way up to Mid-July.
Let's see. We've got playing, Mikey's preschool end-of-school day, silly dancing,
some Kindergarten singing, and canoeing.
Usually, our summer begins on or right after July 4th. Right on cue,
we got our nice weather.
It was pool and sprinkler time.
Mikey likes the pool. And he likes the sprinkler.
But, it can't be up too high. He doesn't like the water
blasting - just trickling out of it.
Here's what happens when the sprinkler is not
to his specifications......
The kids have also decided that it is MUCH better
to wear goggles running through the sprinkler.
I don't quite get it, but it makes for some funny
pictures.
And if the kiddie pool and wacky sprinkler isn't enough, there's always
Lake Washington to take a dip in.
"Mommy? Ders rocks in here."
Sometimes, I like being the one that takes all the pictures.
I usually end up getting less wet that way.
Remember I mentioned summer camps?
Katie went to an awesome wilderness camp run by lots of woods lovin' hippies.
When you walk up to a dude at 9am and he's barefoot in the dirt, super friendly and
smells of B.O.......it means you are surrounded by Granolas.
This camp was all about learning about woods and getting dirty.
They went for hikes everyday, talked about things you could eat in the woods,
tracked animals, played games and worked on team work and respect
for each other and the wilderness.
I will leave you with this. They made fern crowns and Katie had a wilderness name:
Katie Fox.
It was time to go back to civilization.
Or should I say, Portland.
Here we are in Portland, AGAIN, waiting
for Huzbend to finish his one-day Seattle
to Portland ride.
"ALLEZ, ALLEZ!"
"YAAAAAAAYYYYY, DADDDDDDYYYYYYY!"
He made it. Took about 12 hours or so, I think. You gotta ask him
for specifics.
After the kids ran like crazy through the spray pad they
had at the finish line, everyone collapsed in exhaustion.
I'm thinking that Huzbend MIGHT have been tired from his ride.
I'm not quite sure what was up with the kids. They sat in the truck
most of the day.
Maybe it was acting like a bunch of loonies when we
first entered the hotel room. That must have been it.
When they jumped on both beds, slammed the bathroom door a million times, played with the mirrored closet doors and then both hid behind the curtains sprinting out of them and ripping them a bit....
Yeah. That must have been it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The next day we headed to the Oregon Zoo.
Don't you hate it when you get your kid this delicious-looking cup
of chocolate ice cream and all he wants to do is stir it around
to make "soup". Ugh. What a waste of good ice cream.
After a bit of animal viewing, monkeying around and bongo playing it was
time to hop back in the truck for the long ride home.
And right after we got home, it was Huzbends birthday.
He's old.
He wanted cherry pie for his special treat.
Although everyone had a piece, the kids weren't thrilled with the pie and so Huzbend
agreed to finish their pieces.
So, I would have to say that Huzbend actually ate this missing half of pie.
(My piece wasn't that big).
He then opened his gifts
(insert obligatory Thank You here because husband forgot to say it)
and got to play Legos with the kids.
Back to summer camps.
I mentioned Flower Fairy and Frog Dance Camp, right?
Oh! I didn't?
Well, here it is!
Around this same time, we had some visitors.
A granma, an aunt and some cousins came out our way.
Sprinkler time!
Even Joey knows the whole "wear your goggles
in the sprinkler thing." It's a bi-coastal phenomenon.
Meet Sophia.
If she could talk she would say,
"Oh please, Auntie? Won't you look at my arm? I am dripping wet. Right here.
When the breeze blows just so, I am EVER so cold!"
Or maybe she would just say, "Wet."
I love this picture. It's hilarious.
It was a so-so weather day and we couldn't hang
at our house due to construction so we
headed to our local zoo.
One can never get enough zoo.
It had rained earlier in the day. Like, massive tropical downpour rain.
There were puddles everywhere at the zoo.
Mikey decided that he was going to soak up ALL of them
with his butt.
By the time we stopped for a snack in the zoo cafeteria, Mikey had decided that he had had
enough of sog-buttitis.
He disrobed.
He was much happier sans pants.
The weather turned back around the next day.
Huzbend and Granma were in charge of the kiddies.
They took a walk to the park and played and played and played.
For some, it was a little TOO much playing.
Where was I and sis, you ask?
We were off with some of my Mommy friends.
We played and played and played too.
In the mud.
Running and climbing and crawling and jumping and stuff.
But mostly playing in mud.
Sister likey the mud. Total thumps up.
Besides the chance to hang with a bunch of awesomely fun ladies
and get a bit muddy, I got to eat GRANOLA WITH NUTS IN IT
and enjoy a huge-ass turkey leg.
It was a good day.
Then sis and company had to leave. Bummer.
But, we'll see them again real soon.
Stay tuned for our next adventure.
Back to July......
Oh the kitchen. Yeah.
It's still being worked on.
The week after our visitors left, our floors had to be refinished.
We opted for a lighter color. Here it is before
being finished - just sanded down a bit.
And we picked green as a wall color.
Getting the floors refinished meant that we had to camp out
at a hotel for a few days.
Wouldn't ya know it. That same week President Obama came to town.
Him and his peeps ate up ALL (and I do mean ALL) hotel rooms
within a 15 mile radius of us.
WTF Obama? First, he closes down the Magic Kingdom
the day we decide to visit it and and now he takes all our hotel rooms.
Mitt would never do that. He'd just buy up a couple of mansions in the area
to house all his followers.
Hmmmmm.......
We ended up finding a room far, far away. So far away that
Huzbend had to ride his bike for an hour and a half just to get to work.
To distract the kiddies and keep them out of the hotel all day,
we went to a famous Washington farm.
The same farm that made the pie we ate for Huzbend's birthday.
What? You didn't think I baked it, right?
They have lots of U-Pick pastures.
Here we are in the raspberry field.
Mikey would eat two handfuls and then put one in the basket.
Just like Mikey,
Katie has a penchant for making friends with bugs too.
Good enough. Time to go get lunch.
Grilled cheese for Mikey.
French fry pieces for Katie.
They have rides at this farm. Like a teeny-tiny amusement
park. You pay one price and can ride allllllllll day.
It was HOT. We rode only MOST of the day.
This is how Katie would explain it:
"At this farm, you can ride poooooonnnnies.....
....ride your owwwwnnnnn canooooe......
.....get in a ferrrrrrris wheeeeeellll........
....and even drive your own car!"
What a better way to end our farm/amusement park trip then with a
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