Open Road

Addy has been working on learning to ride her big girl bike over the last few weeks. Last night we hit the open road and did the mile loop in our neighborhood. Addy did great! She was alternatively giddy and dead serious, concentrating on turns and peddling.

She made it 99% of the way and then got off her bike and walked the remaining 50 yards. She's training for the pet parade and she did awesome on her first training ride!


Here is a little video of her demonstrating the very exciting "loopty-loop ":

Phase 2

This last weekend we got phase 2 of project "outdoor living" done.

Wow, there are always more parts then I can possibly anticipate in these boxes. And directions that appear to be completely unrelated to the assembly at hand.

We made it through and got it together.

Here is the pretty much final product. We have a sun screen for one side we haven't put on yet. Want to ensure we determine the best spot for it.

I had to go get cement blocks last night, as the wind picked up and the poor thing was about to topple over. :)

Can't wait to finish the project (yucky, third phase left - clean up all the junk on the patio) and then time to enjoy it!

Angry Pen Face

Who knows? I don't get it either. I guess I would be angry too if the pen went crazy and drew all over my face like that.

WW

Niki, Addy and I had a girls day at Wild Waves on Sunday. Sunshine, water, the smell of suntan lotion, fun with the girls . . . I couldn't ask for more.

A new view

Here is an obvious sign that shows how busy I have been. For Mother's Day and my birthday (a little early) I got two amazing gifts about 3 weeks ago. One is still sitting in the box, waiting for the glorious moment when I actually have enough time to open it, find a place for it and use it- and what a glorious moment that will be. More on that later. (Its not a grasshopper!!)

The other gift was a super nice, much coveted, SLR camera. Woo Hoo!! I finally have gotten it ready and today I actually took it on an outing to try it out. (Is it weird that I actually was scared to take it out of the house and use it?) Addy and I got to spend the morning at Lattin's with our friends Hillary and Lexi. We had such a great time!

We got to eat apple fritters (yum) and see all the animals:



This was so funny. They have this rigged so you can pull down the bucket, fill it with food and then the goats know how to pull it up again and get the food out of the bucket. It was so funny to watch. The goat could barely wait for you to put food in before he'd be pulling it back up. The girls (actually us mom's more then the little ones) were pretty impressed.

Here are the girls pulling down the bucket:

Filling it with food:

Here the goat is, pulling up the bucket by tugging on the rope with its mouth:

You can see the bucket getting closer:

Victory!


Some riding:


And then we played a game of hide and seek. How cute are they?

Clearly good times had by all! Thanks for coming with us!

Addy's Computer

Addy got this new computer. She spends all her free time on it playing her games.




She is so intense when she is playing it. Too cute!!

I am so excited that I have started work on project "outdoor livability". Part one includes this guy:


We got a new patio set. A little bigger table with more chairs. I can't wait to try them out with company and dinner!!

While we were putting them together tonight we were telling Addy about getting to eat dinner outside and so as soon as it was together she wanted to try it out. It was past her bedtime but I couldn't resist letting her set up a first meal for us. I had cheese and she had a turkey, yup the whole turkey all by herself, she wasn't interested in sharing.


We've had a table but the big problem is that it was small (that was the little problem) and sits on our patio that gets all the bright afternoon/evening sun - all of it. Too much of it. Even sunglasses don't really help. So, to fix this problem here is part 2 of project "outdoor livability".


I can't wait to get this together and put it up over the table. Heaven!

Oh, yeah. I guess there is this stupid part 3. Clean up all the misc. stuff off the patio so it looks pretty. This part isn't as much fun. But worth it in the end! (How does this happen?)


And a big thanks to my parents! This would not have been possible if they weren't the best parents ever. I was so sick last weekend when both the gazebo and table were on sale so I could actually afford them. I saw them but couldn't go back and get them because I was feverish and miserable. Scott was out of town and I was resigned to missing the sale and hoping for an end of summer clearance chance. But then my parents went and got them for me!!!!!! THANK YOU!! I know who is going to be first over to enjoy the new "outdoor livability" project results.

Wendy's Girl or Pippy Longstocking?

A Visit

I am still getting caught up from a crazy month, including a terrible flu bug. Scott's brother Chris came for a visit and of course I am on the couch with a fever the entire time. I didn't get hardly any pictures. But the boys got to hang out a ton and I got a couple shots. The cousins send along cards. How cute is that?
And Trevor really made a statement, check out his on the inside:

And they even sent along a gift for Addy. Its this ceramic puppy you paint and grow grass inside. Addy studied the picture and then came up with this. Shortly after the eyes we covered in the black and brown themed paint too.

Here is the final product with the grass growing - this was two days ago, I swear its a foot high now. :)


Chris - thanks so much for coming! We really enjoyed your visit. Missed Tara and the kids. Thanks for the cards and present!!

Explorations without visuals

So, of course I forgot my camera, but we did some exploring today . . . we can check off:

• Elma
• Raymond
• My friend Amber's home town of Menlo, and a trip past her childhood home
• Lebam (funniest name I've seen yet, apparently Mabel spelled backward)
• Pe Ell
• Francis
• Biosefert
  
• Curtis
• A random attempt to get the Rainbow Falls State Park that led to two different unpaved gravel roads

And I am sure many other small towns along the way. It was fun to see a part of the state (and actually pretty darn close to us too) that we haven't really seen before. My favorite part was the pavement ends signs and off- roading it in the family minivan. Addy's favorite part was the ice cream cone in Raymond at the DQ.