Luke and Victoria's Expert Flower Girl

Back in May, when the bride of Ally's cousin, Luke, asked her to be the flower girl in their wedding, Ally responded in a confident voice, "Oh, sure. You know I've done this once before, for Matt and Megan. Remember? So, you don't have to worry about a thing with me. I've got experience." 

She sure did a fabulous job, and was so beautiful doing it!  Its such a special thing to have you child in a family wedding. I loved the way we were able to be just a little part of their special day, and support them in our own way. Congrats, Luke and Victoria!

Watch Out World, We Have a Two Year Old In The House!

August 21st was a great day to celebrate our little two year old. Ryan is such a tremendously fun and sweet boy. He is an incredible gift to our family, bringing so many laughs, and snuggles, and fun. It is a treat to watch his personality develop along with his individual relationships with each of us (Dada, Mama, Susus, and Lala). He is such a laid back, happily kind of guy, excited most often these days by trucks and cars, and anything that has a motor, really. The bigger the better. I love the way he imitates the motor or a motorcycle, particularly.
He's a man of few words, but is incredibly adept at getting his point across with expressions, grunts, pointing, nodding, shaking his head, etc.
So, it was such an easy treat to celebrate Ryan on his birthday. He didn't need any big deal made of his day. He just loved playing with his new Thomas the Train set from Grandma Rosie, and other toys, and then we took a picnic to the beach with a few friends. It was just right. And with that,  our littlest sweet boy with those wild blond curls, ventures into the world of TWO.

Just a Little Summer Fun

We have been crazy busy with Eric's summer house painting business in full swing, and doing our best to ignore the fact that a new school year is just around the corner.  

We've been blessed by two new families on our block who are from Australia. We all got together one Saturday to get to know one another. We learned to play cricket, tasted Vegemite sandwiches, and Max and Ally had their first ever BOTTLED Cokes. Who would've known that in Mexico, Australia, and elsewhere, they use sugar instead of the corn syrup to sweeten these things! 

 

We seem to have had few beach days this summer. It seems to be too cool, and often foggy before noon, and our napper, doesn't cooperate with that kind of a schedule! A few Sundays ago, however, we packed DINNER to take our to Bowman and loved every minute of sun and fun. We are very happy to have the Haines family back from China to stay. They make great beach buddies

Blackberry season is in FULL swing. Gretchen and Luke took us to their favorite secret picking spot, where we picked to our hearts content. Ryan was particularly delighted with the infinite berry options. The big kids explored the forest and lost themselves in all manner of spy/ninja fun. A perfect August day. 

I'm 38 Now, Really...

I guess it may be time time to start thinking about growing up one of these days!

My family took me on the perfect little camping adventure to celebrate my big day. We played HARD, so hard, it took a few days to recover.

We left Sunday afternoon on the Pt Townsend ferry and camped at Heart of the Hills, just inside Olympic National Park. I'm so thankful, by the way, that we live so close to that fabulous part of the world. We explored glorious Hurricane Ridge, and hiked Hurricane Hill. Much to Max's and Ally's surprise, it was uphill the entire way up...

After our hike, we enjoyed our hatch-back-prepped sandwiches, and headed back to camp. Later that night we headed back up to the viewpoint to watch the stars, which turning into watching for lightening, and checking out the huge moon, and fending off a 3 point buck!

The next morning we woke to thunder and rain, and managed a quick pack up so we could head off to breakfast at Granny's Cafe (complete with backyard petting zoo!) We walked and played on the beach at Dungeoness Spit and dreamt of what it'd be like to live on a few acres near Sequim. Ryan napped like a rock star on the way to Port Townsend where I was dropped off at a fabulous knitting store for 2 hours... all by my self! Bliss....  Eric and the kids went to Ft. Warden to play while I was adventuring in fibre heaven. Afterward, they picked me up for dinner, and our ferry ride home.  I loved the time away just the 5 of us. I loved how simple it felt just to gather our things and go.

April 13 Nutshell Report

 

Baby's first bike ride! It took constant vigilance to keep that helmet out of his face, but Ryan enjoyed every minute on the bike! He is such a trooper!

A bouncing bowling ball landed Max his first black eye - youch!

Knitting progress

Grandma snuggles!

Solid food, anyone?  YUM!

Max caught a frog at the neighborhood park and we kept it around for a few days (took it to visit first grade, etc.) before returning it to its happy pond life.

Ryan is getting better with this Tummy Time business. Proof here that he even sometimes smiles about it!

Bouquets from the garden, compliments of Ally

Identifying plants on our weekly walking date

Ally loves picking the tea pot, inviting her most special friends, and dreaming up the snacks to go with our teas...

Swinging in the sunshine. This guy LOVES to swing!

Ally and Uncle Brad learning to skate at a post hockey free skate

Baby Plank!

Tulip time!

How he likes to be put to sleep, still...

Our BIG girl at Kindergarten Round-up,

A Friday night ice cream destination walk with Gretchen and Luke.

RHUBARB love

Another GREAT roller hockey game!

Boys and their toys. Max and Eric with the fighting RC helicopters Max saved up for!

We've got an unassisted sitter! An he's pretty thrilled with himself!

Fohawk!