Summer 2010 Recap

Despite my best intentions, I somehow failed to post much of anything regarding the Breckenridge summer. This was not necessarily due to lack of activity around here, but maybe due to too much (or at least I can blame it on that, rather than my procrastinating tendencies!).

Anyways, fall is here, and I realized it's now or never with the summer postings. So, here goes, the all-in-one, Breckenridge-summer-bonanza blog post, a recap of many of the great adventures the four of us had this summer. Oh, and sorry, these are definitely not in chronological order -- with three months worth of pictures, that's just asking too much!


Larson Wedding -- Pender Island, BC:

We were thrilled to attend Jean-David and Brenna Larson's wedding this summer at Poet's Cove Resort on Pender Island, British Columbia. It was a beautiful event at a gorgeous spot, with perfect weather and great friends. Sammy loved the ferry ride, swimming in the pool, and getting rides around the resort on the staff's golf carts. Here are a few more pictures from the weekend.

Whidbey Island:

We spent a great weekend with Jake, Aurelie and Julien McKinstry at the McKinstry's cabin on Whidbey Island. Sammy and Julien were buddies the whole weekend, we had great weather for walks on the sand flats, and lots of time to barbecue and relax.

Vashon Island:

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip with our friends to Vashon Island and the Leonardson cabin. With the kids outnumbering the adults this year, it was certainly a more active trip than the pre-kids days, but still a great time. Sammy got to go on her first boat ride with Pete, Paul, and Frankie, and the kids had a great time checking out all the creatures on their beachcombing walks. Here are a few pictures from Vashon.

Sunriver, Oregon:

We were happy to join the Savages and Flosis once again for our annual family trip to Sunriver. It was really great to get the cousins together again, and we kept very busy with lots of swimming, biking, and trips to the ice cream store. Sammy showed no fear on the tunnel slide into the pool this year -- probably because she had her cousins Jake and Becca to show her the way! It was also Nina's first official pool experience -- she splashed around a bit, but seemed to prefer sitting on the towel! Here are a couple pictures of Sammy with Jake (age 5) and Becca (age 3) on the slide.

4th of July:

We spent the 4th of July this year with the Sousleys at the Breckenridge home in Kenmore. Paul and Justin thrilled the kids with a fireworks display and Sammy tried her first sparkler. We capped off the weekend with a hike in the woods at St. Edwards State Park -- making it all of about a half mile!

Safeco Field:

We did make it to a couple Mariners games this year -- here are Sam and Gramps at one early in the summer...

Capitol Hill:

Sammy and Paul camped out in the tent in our backyard one night. Sammy had a great time trying out her new headlamp and sleeping bag...

Lots of "pajama walks" this summer in the post-dinner, pre-bedtime hour -- notice the contrast in state of wakefulness here?

Sammy

With all of the monthly Nina posts, I want to be sure to give equal blog time to the big girl. Sammy's had an eventful summer, and there will be more photos to come, but here are a few fun ones in the meantime:

9 Months!

Nina is nine months old!

Here are a few of the recent happenings with our big 9-month-old:

• Movement! Nina is crawling! She has finally mastered the forward crawl, sometimes with a little kick hitch out to the side to add a little flair, sometimes trying to get up in a bear crawl. I had forgotten how fun it is to be able to watch and see where she wants to go, rather than just deciding that for her. We'll try to get a video up soon.
  
• Hair! Nina's hair is finally growing and so far, it is curly on top, more curls than her sister had at this stage.
  
• Teeth! Nina's mouth has gone from 2 teeth to 6 teeth this month, with four top teeth coming in all at the same time. Needless to say, there have been a few more middle-of-the-night awakenings -- who could blame her with that going on in her little mouth?
  
• Attitude! We're not sure if it's the teeth, the newfound independence with the crawling, or maybe the curls, but Nina is showing a little more spunk these past couple weeks. Most surprising is when this appears in the form of loud shrieks -- when she's not getting the toy she wants, when her sister is a little too much up in her grill (add this to her list of sisterly love defense mechanisms, along with the always-effective hair pull), or when she's waiting in her high chair for those spoonfuls of oatmeal that can't come quickly enough. We find it quite amusing, though also wonder, where'd our mellow baby go?

Here are a few more pictures of Nina this month. The family picture particularly cracks me up, as it is horrible of all of us but Nina, who couldn't be more perfectly posed!

Big Girl News

Guess who's potty trained?

Greening of the Thumbs

We are very proud of our vegetable garden.



Maybe it's not anything all that glorious in the big scheme of things, but for us, with no vegetable gardening experience to speak of, we're pretty happy with the way our raised-bed-veggie-gardens have turned out this summer. Here is what we've tried so far: radishes, lettuce, arugula, snap peas, rainbow carrots, herbs, potatoes, strawberries, pumpkins, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The snap peas were a huge success, as they provided instant gratification -- pick it and eat it, as Sammy would say. The lettuce has made us far more likely to eat salads this summer, always a good thing. Jury is still out on the tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins and cucumbers. Oh, and the strawberries -- well, let's just say that we've really enjoyed the two we've had, but it's not easy sharing a single strawberry three ways...



Maybe the best thing about the garden, though, is the constant excuse it provides us to be outside, and to be doing some sort of physical labor. Whether it's the zen experience of watering the garden each night after the girls have gone to bed, or the constant weeding as we try to protect our precious bounty, or the thrill of seeing a snap pea on the vine after months of waiting, the garden, we've decided, is a very good thing.


Oh, and it's kind of pretty, too...

8 Months!

Nina is eight months old!

This month has been so busy, (evidenced by how behind I am on this blog...Nina is actually about 8 1/2 months old now, but oh well), that I realized we have very few good pictures of Nina at 8 months. Alas, the life of a second child. So, I thought I'd post this video instead. This is Nina at her Grandma's house, enjoying the new swing in the front yard, with some help from her dad and her big sister. Clearly, she loved it! [I apologize in advance if it makes you a bit dizzy to watch!]

I feel like a broken record, but Nina continues to amaze us with her happy, mellow demeanor. The perfect example of this is her morning routine. It is rare that Nina makes any "peeps" (Sammy's word) in the morning, let alone cries, and often we decide we'll need to wake her up so we can get ready for school/work. When we finally enter her room (Sammy leading the charge, of course), there she is, usually wide awake, propped up on her tummy, giving us a huge smile. It's as if she's saying, "Oh, there you all are, I was just hanging out here but gosh, it's great to see you!"

Nina is now officially a backwards-scooting, log-rolling baby, able to cover some ground, but still chomping at the bit to get some forward motion mixed in. It really seems like a matter of days, not weeks, before those legs start moving her closer to the elusive toys, not farther away. In the meantime, we're relishing these last days of relative immobility -- babyproofing, here we come!

Sisters

Family Photo

The whole family, spring 2010, on Vashon Island.

Friends

From our Vashon Island trip this spring: Nina, Sammy, Anna Jane Leonardson, Jill and Nate Sousley. Thanks to Molly Sousley for this picture!

7 Months!

Nina is seven months old!

This was a huge month for all of us, especially Nina, as she started at her new "school" -- the same daycare facility where Sammy has now been for over a year. Though of course this transition is never easy on us as parents, we are comforted by the fact that Nina's transition couldn't have gone more smoothly. From Day 1, she has been taking bottles from her teachers like a champ, making abundantly clear that she knew all along how to take them, just preferred not to! She sleeps and eats well at school, and seems to enjoy her new surroundings.

Nina continues to be an extremely happy, mellow baby. This month she impressed us with her super jumping skills in the baby jumper (she gets practice at school as well), and she is now quite the strong sitter-upper. She is also perfecting a little backwards wave when we say "Hi Nina!" She smiles and laughs regularly, and still loves to watch her sister's antics. We're loving this stage!

Here are a few more pictures of Nina at around 7 months. The first one below captures her mid-wave. And yes, at last she is starting to get a little bit of hair!