Happy Birthday, America!

A Beautiful Summer Day on the Water

Last Friday (July 3rd) we decided to take the boat out on the Sound with Jeremy, Sandy and their boys, Dylan and Evan. It was kind of last minute, but it turned out to be one of the best times we've had in a while. It was really hot, but the breeze from the boat ride made it feel so nice out.

Our bathing beauty...

Dylan drove for a while - I can't believe he's so old now!

Then the most exciting part of all... We saw some porpoises out by Johnson Point. It was so exciting. There were at least 4 of them.

So I looked it up online and learned that there are Harbor Porpoises, Dalls Porpoises, and a hybrid of the the two in the Sound. (And slight possibility they were Pacific white-sided dolphins.) Here are some links to a couple interesting articles and a video:

http://news.theolympian.com/specialsections/Critters/20020312/123019.shtml

http://www.whalenerd.com/PORPOISES.html

http://au.video.yahoo.com/watch/1801075/5949080

Sophia wanted to lasso one of them.

Griffin still enjoys his tongue.

Then we parked the boat by the Oyster House restaurant and took a break. We walked over to the water fountains to play and had hot dogs, popsicles, and gelato. What a great day!

A Cute Little Tongue

Griffin at 12 weeks.

He has discovered his tongue and his hands. He is also starting to really chew on his fists and is drooling a lot. Most of his size 3 month outfits are too small and he's in 6 month stuff now. It's really going by much quicker than it did with Sophs. I try to remind myself that I will always have housework to do and errands to run, but I won't always have babies to enjoy. So I take as many moments as I can squeeze in to just play and talk with my kiddies.

I will be signing Sophia up for preschool this fall. She'll go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00-11:30. We went and checked it out and she seemed to like it. I think the socialization and structure will be good for her. So that is our exciting news for now.

How Beautiful!

I believe this is a Swallowtail Butterfly, which I rarely see around our house, so I was so excited I was able to notice it from the kitchen window (doing dishes...) and run out to take a pic with our awesome camera! The plant in the pic is one of my astilbes. They are good for attracting butterflies.

Our Big Boy

I don't know who taught him this...

And Sophs doing her chores in her "working clothes,"

an ensemble she came up with on her own.

The Many Sides of Sophia Rose

Ariel

Dora

Plain Silly

In her own words - "Wicked Stepsister"

Also in her own words - "Sweet and Kind"

A Busy Father's Day Weekend

We decided to spend Father's Day weekend at Ocean Shores this year. We left last Friday after Kyle got home from a long day at work and arrived around 7:00. It was so beautiful, but pretty cold and very windy.

Sophia is posing as Ariel on her "rock" in the condo.

Joe and Janice decided to join us and drove out really late. They arrived a little before midnight. The next morning we had breakfast and then headed out for some time on the beach.

Don and Deniece and Kora joined us for our second night. It was nice and relaxing. Sophia was able to do the bumper cars and go-karts for the first time. She loved it. On the way home we stopped in to visit my dad. Grandma Karen got Angel the donkey out for a little ride.

Then we stopped by our house and unloaded the car and pretty much reloaded and headed up to Kyle's parents' in Olympia for a yummy seafood dinner. Kyle's Grandpa Dick was also there.

It was a fun weekend, but it always feels nice to come home. We weren't home for long, though. We got home around 10:00 Sunday night, and got up first thing Monday morning to head up North to Bremerton to my Grandma Rotter's memorial service. Needless to say, by the time we arrived home Monday evening we were all sick of being in the car. The kids were great all the way to and from the beach and to and from Bremerton, but I made a point to stay home all day Tuesday and not go anywhere!

Griffin's 2 Month Birthday

This pic was on June 7th

Happy 2 Months, Baby Boy!!

Cheers!

Sometimes we need to remember to celebrate the little things in life. Things like when both kids take a 2 hour + nap at the same time - TWICE in a week! Or things like being able to enjoy the glass of wine you'd craved for 10 months.

5 Years!

Kyle and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on June 5th. Time really does go by so quickly. We left Sophia and Griffin (for the 1st time) with Grandma Deniece and went to dinner. We didn't want to go too far since my little guy likes to nurse so often, and we were in the mood for Mexican so we ended up at El Serape on Martin Way. We sat in the bar since we had no kiddies. The food was pretty good. We played our song (Fools Rush In by Elvis) on the juke box and I made Kyle dance with me. There was a really nice older couple at the bar that bought us a round of drinks (well 2 for Kyle actually) and he played us some other songs, including Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me by Mel Carter which is one of my favorite oldies that I hadn't heard in forever. He also played a country song for us by Josh Turner - I think it's I'm so Lucky to be Your Man, or something. I really like that one too. The bar tender also treated us with dessert on the house. It was a nice evening spent with my husband. :o)

And one day I'll look like this again... Ha!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Our Pretty Girl

Well, I just got tears in my eyes even just thinking about what to type... So maybe I'll keep it simple. SHE'S THREE! I can't believe it. Her birthday is May 29th, which fell on Friday this year. Just our little family went and celebrated with dinner at Anthony's Hearthfire Grill. We really like it there, and Sophia likes the big windows. After dinner we went out on the rocky beach and let Sophia open a gift. New "glass" slippers!

She's so into princesses right now. We did a Cinderella party on Saturday complete with a castle cake. We kept the party small this year with just family, but that's really not that small at all! It was a beautiful, hot day. We put everyone to work building Sophia's new stuff. It was fun. Thank you to Kim & Deniece for getting the playhouse together, and Nick & Kora for getting the little gazebo thing up. I really do appreciate it, and so does Kyle!

A Real Pony!

So I'm a little behind - sorry! Lauren had her 4th birthday on May 17th. She was lucky enough to be surprised with a pony at her party. All the kids took turns having rides - but Lauren loved it the most. She even rode all by herself without anyone leading! Sophia was just like me - nervous. She enjoyed it - but she's definitely not as daring as her cousin Lauren!