All in a Month

Reverse Chronological Order.

This one loves the piano. Can play for 30 minutes on his own.
Sounds surprisingly like modern jazz.

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Mistake in the Lake 2013: 2 mile swim, 15 mile bike (up and over Juanita Drive), 3 mile run.

Beautiful weather for it.

Most of the finishers. Any girls want to join me next year?

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Sleepover with Betty Kate. In which Nory did Almost No Sleeping At All and was cranky for days afterwards. Next sleepover: 2020.

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Enjoying clear October skies.

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Taking the kids to the dentist. This one had a cavity :(.

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BK's half birthday. Just because.

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4/2 Wellness Checks! Better late than never. 

Nory: almost 40 inches, the report says 25-50% but the doctor told us it was more like 27%. Weighs 35 pounds.

Elliott: 34 1/4" - That's right 11%!! First time over the 10% mark in his entire life. Great growing Elliott! Weighed about 28 pounds.

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Preparing for ski lessons.

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Adventuring at the unexpectedly cool Gates Foundation visitor center.

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Making bread.

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"Push Fight" 

(in which the kids shove each other back and forth laughing like crazy while mama goes nuts trying to get them to stop)

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First dress up costume that isn't a sister's-hand-me-down tutu.

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Boating to Bainbridge to visit Amara (and her parents).

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At the zoo: Baby Jaguars

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Saying goodbye to the best intern we ever had (back left).

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"Sleep Training"

In which we teach Elliott to fall asleep without laying on top of a grownup.

And, in which Elliott surprised us by being totally fine with this setup,

and reduced bedtime from 1 hour to 15 minutes.

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At the Puyallup Fair

Abby and Julie

Nory Elliott Susanna and Lydia

Milking a cow

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Happy birthday to me.

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Biking with Auntie Elsa and Uncle Lindy

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These girls.

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School lunches. 

From back when I used to pack them the night before instead of the morning of.

(That phase lasted 2 weeks)

Lavender Festival

Minivan adventure number 2: Lavender Festival in Sequim, WA.

We waited in line for about 4000 hours to take a ferry across to the peninsula, and then sat in traffic for a while, but finally got to the festival.

And...it was average.

But then we had the afternoon to run through lavender fields and play on the sandspits of the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge. And that part was awesome.

And I just couldn't resist adding this token moment of not-perfectness. Because everyone knows that vacationing with kids... is a trip, not a vacation!

Miniventure

A couple months ago we sold dear old Subie...

Bought a minivan...

And drove straight to Canada.

Where we spent a wonderful day at the Vancouver aquarium.

Splash!

Our first of many minivan adventures!

Seaside

Dan's in London this week - and he left the laptop behind.  WAHOO! I can catch up on the blog.

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Over labor day, we joined my parents at the beach in Seaside, Oregon.

It was lovely. Perfect weather, perfect little town, the perfect amount of fun packed into each day, two happy and exhausted kids (and four EXHAUSTED but happy grownups) at the end of each day.

We left at 6:59am on Saturday and arrived at the beach at 11am - and had our toes in the water by 11:05. Our family was still wearing pajamas.

 Have you ever flown a kite at the beach? It involves this much effort: hold kite away from body, let go. The constant breeze made kite flying doable even for Nory.

Beautiful sunsets, happy children. What more can you ask for?

One day we went to Indian beach which is in the Ecola State Park between Cannon Beach and Seaside. Possibly the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Which is saying a lot since I've lived in Santa Barbara.

Catching a sun ray.

Hang loose, papa.

The only thing really missing from this post is a picture of the whole family driving bumper cars. Which might have been the funniest thing I've experienced in years.

Or maybe a picture from when the 6 of us crammed into a 4 seater paddle boat and paddled upstream against an extremely strong current using all of our collective strength at about 1/2 mile per hour. 

Anyway. Thank you little town in Oregon. The perfect little weekend getaway for our family!