This summer the kids and I have been trying to stay busy while Josh works and then make sure we are ready for weekend adventures when he's not working. So when Josh is at work the kids and I have played in the backyard a lot in our little wading pool and swingset, gone to the beach or a park. When Josh isn't working we got to go to the Olympic Game Farm, Ellensburg (lots of swimming in grandma's pool), the zoo, a few Seattle Sounders games, downtown Seattle and the farmer's market and to an air show at Joint Base Lewis McChord. I ran the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in Seattle in June and Josh ran the Warrior Dash in July and the Survivor Mud Run in June too. The kids are growing like weeds, Marisa has reached 4 ft and Jensen, well he's growing and just hit 34 inches (he's our peanut). Marisa is reading well (even though she loathes it daily) and Jensen is speaking a lot more putting together 2 and 3 words at a time. I even caught him trying to sing his ABC's, but he always sings "B, S" and it makes me crack up.
Zoo
Olympic Game Farm - we love feeding the llamas.
Hanging in the back yard waiting for dad to get home on a hot day!
Yep, this is how we roll in our back yard on a hot day in the summer.
Smores faces! Roasting hot dogs and eating marshmallows in our back yard = best night of the summer!
A friend of ours is always bugging us to go to the canal, we finally did and then we went again the next day we had so much fun! The water is warmer there, Marisa could catch beach crabs all over the place and collect lots of oyster shells, and Jensen just wanted to play in the water and dig until he figured out he floated in that life jacket. Can't wait to hit up the beach again soon!
Our day trip to downtown Seattle that included seeing the King Tut exhibit at the science center. It started out rainy, but ended fairly nicely!
Jake and Josh after the Warrior Dash in North Bend - a good muddy mess!
We took a kid free vacation to Las Vegas, thanks to Josh's parents for watching our two munchkins .These two monkeys were never more than an inch away from their pool from the way it sounds and the waythey look, they are quite tan. :-) We stayed at the Luxor (first time at that particular hotel), ate a lot of good food, read our books by the pool, Josh played some cards and I pulled some one-armed bandits, and cruised the strip in the heat daily for some exercise (okay, I admit it, I hit up the fitness center each day too).
Josh has been working on keeping up our grass in our yard, I have been trying to keep the deer away from our plants that are supposed to be deer resistant (note to self...merrigolds are not deer resistant, but lavendar has done the trick I do believe). The yard is a definite work in progress, but is looking good. Did I say that I love having automatic sprinklers? I feel spoiled, but I don't miss moving the sprinklers around all the time at all.
I've been trying to keep up my running this summer and trying to teach Marisa to ride a bike without training wheels. So far, no luck. She's terrified of falling. I continue to run and hold the bike with her when I can get her to try. At this rate, Jensen will be riding a two wheeled bike long before his big sister. Jensen's always pushing his luck and takes a lot of hard falls as we believe in natural consequences and he goes from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds which leaves him with lots of bumps and bruises. He is however a trooper and as long as there isn't blood all he needs is a quick love and to brush it off and he's off again chasing his big sister around the house or yard and jumping off tables and running down the slide.
We are headed to Seaside in a week after Josh goes back to work for a bit, so we are looking forward to some more sun and beach time along with lots and lots of saltwater taffy for Josh and ice cream for me and Marisa. :-)
Here's a few more pics of our summer....enjoy!
We love the ferry!
Hood Canal and Marisa's oyster collection...no worries, we have about that many on our back patio that she brought home too.
They always say they aren't tired when I tell them it is time to leave when we are at the beach, but every day about 5 minutes after we leave this is what I see in my rear view mirror. Two tired, sunkissed kids.
Josh and the Eifiel Tower at the Paris Hotel on our walk home from Treasure Island on our first night in Vegas. We haven't been there in 3 years and it has already had so much change. I wonder what it will be like the next time we get there?
