Friday, August 29, 2014

Nineteen Months Old

I'm a little late with my post, but here are some pictures of our dear little boy.



Parents 40th Anniversary

We celebrated our parents' 40th anniversary a little early.  I surprised them with a wedding cake, decorated (badly) to resemble their original.  This evening they used their own wedding cake server to cut the cake and feed it to each other.  The rest of the family enjoyed looking at the wedding album.  It's not every day you get to see bridesmaids in floppy hats and groomsmen in yellow tuxedos!





Happy anniversary, Mother and Dad!

More family get-togethers



 Pasty Night

 Concert in the Park


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Family Vacation 2014

Grayland, Washington, just South of Westport.  We had a five-bedroom house right on the beach.  Levi and Micah got to share a big room with two twin beds and its own bathroom.  Andrew and Mary Robert slept with Ella, and Claire and Paige shared a double bed in another main-floor bedroom.  Since my parents were paying the bill, they had the massive third-floor master suite with the amazing views.  Nathan and I had a double bed down in the cold basement.
 
We had such a good time!!!
 
We drove over on Thursday afternoon and stayed until noon on Saturday.  The kids got along really well.  The adults enjoyed spending time together around the table after the kids had gone to bed.  The weather was wonderful the whole time we were there.  Chilly enough to be comfortable in pants and the occasional sweatshirt, but sometimes warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.  No rain.  Just what you'd hope for in a summer-time visit to the Washington coast.
 
Thanks, Stephanie and Steve, for this awesome backpack!

Micah's first time in the ocean

Getting cleaned up before coming into the house

My happy guys!

Let the sand castle building begin!

Grandpa had brought this five gallon bucket and a real shovel.

King of the castle?  I think later on Levi was calling himself the queen of something.  What was that?

Calire is a natural runner, like her mother.  Levi is running at a distant second, like his mother.
(That's Andrew in the background.)

Oh, Micah!

Mother and Mary Robert did the majority of the picture-taking.


Levi didn't really appreciate the waves.


Family portrait


Otter Pops must be eaten outside.


Sweet baby Ella!

Levi loves Ella!

But I think Ella's not so sure about Levi.


I loved how Claire and Paige never hesitated to get wet or dirty.  They were having so much fun!


Walking hand-in-hand on the beach with my littlest one

Way to splash, Claire!


Levi had more freedom to be alone than usual.  He really enjoyed being able to walk away and do
his own thing.  Since there were virtually no other people on the beach the entire weekend,
 I felt perfectly comfortable letting him wander as far as he wanted.




Our rental house

The path to the beach

Micah's sunglasses don't fit very well, so he's always looking over the top of them.
I think he looks very professorial.

A brief visit to Westport.

Nice, Nathan.  Nice.

That's better.

Where do you think you're going, Micah?  We're on the top floor of the observation tower!

Climbing on the huge rocks.

I climbed up there, too, to help Levi and Micah.  I discovered I'm an old woman: it was scary on those rocks!

A last picnic lunch before heading back home