Park with friends

Our weekend was full of fun...our anniversary, wine party with neighbors and a park playdate with some great friends.  The latter is the only one with pictures, thanks to Natalie!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/11403089@N00/sets/72157646582675075/

Thursday Night Concerts

One of my favorite things about summer are the various ways we can spend time together as a family.  A weekly tradition is the Thursday Night Concerts at Marina Park in Kirkland.

Here is just one of the many reasons I love going. 

Backyard Camping

Backyard camping has been a tradition that we've done with our kids starting at age 4.  They love it, Scout doesn't.   He doesn't sleep a wink.  He doesn't understand how to protect the family when some of us are outside and some of us (ok, just me :)) are inside.

Tough Guy

Tyler is a 'dude' most of the time...rough and tumble.  Which makes his spiky helmet a perfect fit for him...until he insists on riding the purple and pink Dora hot wheels bike.

He's his own individual and we love him for it.

We tackling pottty training this week with a vengeance so think 'dry undies' for us.

A day at the Zoo

We took the opportunity to go to the zoo when Grandma was here.  Us adults all said we saw more animals on this visit to the zoo than on any other zoo visit.  The highlights were the giraffes, the lion, the hard-to-find elephants, we saw monkeys swinging branch to branch and howling at each other which was amazingly entertaining.

Not a lot of pictures taken...prioritized being 'present'. 

"hmm, who are you?"

"I cannot quite hear you."

"Fine, if you're not going to talk to me, I'm going to ignore you, too."

token (live) animal photo

Picking Blueberries

A fond summer memory I have from the last couple of years is picking blueberries at a local farm.  I assumed this year would be no different and was glad that JoMum was here at the time that blueberries would be ripe.  Well, it was about 10 minutes of fun and then Tyler was super whiny and asking to go home.  Our parenting style is not to give in too easily and we figured he would just start eating blueberries which would cheer him up. Not so...so we all put up with the whining long enough and headed home.  Maybe it will be fun again next year.

Wait up, Grandma!

Park day with Grandma

Grandma was here for her annual summer visit in July and we all had a great time.  Here are just a few pictures from a fun afternoon at Waverly Beach Park.

Julia is any grandma's dream right now.  She wants to color, do puzzles, try on grandma's coconut lotion, listen to stories. 

Tyler, while having none of Julia's desire for quiet moments found his way into Grandma's heart just the same.  Even though his favorite thing to do is play pirates, which looks as if he is winding up to slug you, he also is incredibly affectionate...his favorite part of Grandma was to stroke her arms and was a clear sign he was getting tired.