A Summer Smattering

I'm so backed up on blogging about our summer exploits! I could do whole posts about so many of the things we've been up to, but you'll have to settle for the super condensed version. So here you have it, a summer smattering...

I should probably start right back at the beginning of the month. For the fourth of July the girls rode in a very cute little parade with Gabriella's playgroup and we enjoyed a BBQ at our pastors house with friends.

A few weeks ago we enjoyed berry picking (raspberries, marion berries and blueberries) at Sauvie Island. We love going to Sauvie for our pumpkin each year and it was fun to make a summer visit.

We left just as the light was starting to get good. I really wanted Gabriella to stand in this glowing golden wheat field, but she would have none of it.

Our church enjoyed a beautiful day of baptism down at the riverfront. Afterwards we enjoyed spending time together with some food and games at the riverfront park. You can see more pictures I took at the baptism here.

This is Becky. She has a pretty amazing story. She inspires me with her faith and courage. It was wonderful to be able to stand with our friends as they professed the change that Jesus has worked in their lives.

We made it down to the Lake Oswego library to see a free live "Reading Between the Lions" show. Reading Between the Lions is a show on PBS that focuses on early literacy (phonemic awareness etc..). It is super cute, but Gabriella hasn't watched it on tv in a long time because Caillou is her current choice when she gets a tv show of the day. It was a great live show and we were able to meet and chat with the characters and their voice actors/puppeteers.

Leona!

Jonathan chatted with this guy. He was super nice.

The kids were totally entranced.

This lady does both Leona and a few other minor characters like this "Dixie Chimp". She was also super nice, but she looked totally different than I would have expected from her voice.

Gabriella had her first trip to the Portland Art Museum. She was pretty excited to see the Monet they have. The museum was actually celebrating the acquisition of a new sculpture of Ganesha so they had free admission and lots of Indian cultural activities. Gabriella was able to do a sand paining. Juliana pretty much slept through the whole trip in her stroller.

We were hoping to see "Sand in the City" in Pioneer Square after we finished at the museum, but we made it just in time to see them tearing down the sand sculptures. Gabriella was a little bummed she missed the kids sand play area, but tt actually ended up being pretty entertaining so we grabbed some food at Taco Del Mar and watched them work.

So there you have it. Just throw in my work, Jonathans internship, some pool trips, playgroup dates, creek splashing, visits with friends, library trips, birthday parties, church community get togethers and art projects and you have our July in a whirlwind. We've kept busy, but enjoyably so.

Mama vs. Poultry

Yesterday I came home and Jonathan informed me that Juliana's new phrase of the day was "I like it." He told me that he had given her chicken stir fry for lunch and that she said, "MMMmmm I like it." After hearing this, I turned to Juliana quite proud and said, "Oh, sweetie did you say, "I like it?" Juliana replied... "I like chicken." So I said, "Yay! You like chicken. Good job. Can you say... I love Mama?" and Juliana responded, "I loooove.... chicken."

That, my friends is why you should never ever try to coax small toddlers to say anything.

Denver Zoo

Never fear, Denver zoo pictures are here.... and in a slideshow no less. You thought I forgot, didn't you?

I have to say, it was quite a fabulous zoo trip with several up close encounters of the animal kind. It was so much fun to be able to go with Grandma and Grandpa Whisler (Jonathan's parents) as well as Aunt Lindsay and baby Ethan. You'll see in the slideshow that Ethan throughly enjoyed his first zoo trip ;) Gabriella was a whole lot more excited than she was on her last zoo trip. She didn't even ask if anything was going to eat her. Juliana was totally in her element. That girly LOVES animals. Loves them. Be sure to note the picture of her little check firmly pressed up against the glass and the one of her starting endlessly at the lemur that she fell in love with. That sums up the trip nicely.

The best thing about Grandmas....

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :)

I'm pretty back logged on my personal photo editing. I have whole days of pictures from the Colorado trip that I haven't even touched! Our summer is off to a great start, but it just seems to be whizzing by. Gabriella and Juliana seem to have fallen into a groove of getting to bed late (probably a combination of staying light longer and us being busier in the evenings etc...) and then sleeping in. Jonathan, who is home with the girls in the mornings now, doesn't mind the sleeping in so much, but the later bedtime means less time for grownups to have to themselves in the evenings. While their bedtime has moved back, my bedtime has moved up. I'm up at 6-6:30am to get to work these days and I'm a need my 8+ hours of sleep kinda girl.

Speaking of sleep, I'm off to bed.

Italics

I love the inherent drama in almost everything Gabriella says. Today I bought Gabriella an American Girls book at the consignment store. We already had a few "Kirstin" American Girl books from Goodwill and today we happened across one we didn't have so I bought it for $1.50.

When we went to read the new book for a bedtime story Gabriella said to me, "Mommy, I'm so very glad we got this book because the old Kirstin books we have are just great, but this one is going to be wonderful! So, thank you. Thank you Mommy, for getting this book for me.

You are so very welcome, my dear

Gabriella and Ethan

Gabriella looooves her new cousin Ethan.




and I have to admit, after watching her carefully hold him and pat him and reflecting on what a great big sister she is... I got a small twinge. I mean, Gabriella really is a great big sister. Maybe, just maybe, someday, in the future... she should have another baby sibling to help love on. Or maybe not, because that would involve me having to actually be pregnant again. And have morning sickness again. And I'm pretty sure I would never make it out of the house with three children to get ready. Either way, we are definately good for now. I'm content to hold other people's small babies. Ones I don't have to be responsible for at 3am.



Ethan seemed to be pretty fond of Gabriella too. He loved watching her and as you can see, she was able to put him right to sleep.

So what did Juliana think of this small cousin? Lets leave it at the fact that she wasn't much impressed. Sure, she liked to pat him and say "niiiiiiiice," but when it came down to it she was not so thrilled with the attention that he pulled away from her small cute self. Especially when he pulled away her Mom and Dad's attention. And especially when her Dad dared to call him by our family pet name for babies..."bubba." Indeed, Juliana was quite ready to remind us that she is still our Bubba.

We're Back!

We're back from Colorado. Did you miss me? Ok, now certainly someone will feel the need to point out that we have in fact been "back" from Colorado for nearly two weeks. Details, details. Anyhow, we enjoyed a great week long stay at Jonathan's parents' home. While we were there we hit up the Denver zoo, Garden of the Gods, climbed up part of Castle Rock, did some shopping and I took some rockin pictures of Jonathan's little sister and her new little guy Ethan. Oh and somewhere in all of that I did a lot of new baby holding. You know me, I never pass up a chance to hold a new baby.

I could give a lot of reason's for my two week post-trip blog haitus like... the start of my summer programs at work, trying to get the kids out of the house and into the sunshine,
all the editing I've been doing on Ethan's pictures... but I suppose that really isn't necessary. Instead, I'll just offer one lone picture of the girls at the Garden of the Gods.

I promise they weren't really perched precariously on a really big rock only inches away from a steep chasm. It just appears that way. Or maybe they really were... It was two and a half weeks ago after all, I can't really remember.

I'll probably have lots more Colorado pictures up in the next week or so. Unless of course I drop off of the face of the earth again.