Wildwood Park

Wildwood Park in Puyallup has this gorgeous little spot with a playground next to a shallow stream. We were out there a couple of weeks ago and loved it, so we went back with some Primary friends (from church) and took the camera.



Andy tip-toeing into the cold water.



The bank on the other side of the stream has this cool network of exposed roots (lots of erosion from years of climbing children, I'm sure). The whole place just makes a lovely setting. It actually reminded me of a cross between Korea and John Bryan State Park where I grew up in Ohio. (But without the humidity.)



Getting some help from Daddy.



Kate had a bit of seed fluff (like the kind you'd get from a milkweed plant) that she was playing with, and she was quite distraught when she dropped it and couldn't find it.





Andy, framed.

I ended up taking more pictures of the other kids than of my own. Here are a few:






We took along some lunch. I've discovered that it's difficult to get the kids to stop playing long enough to eat. Maybe next time we'll have them eat in the car.

Take a picture, it'll last longer.

Life's odd little moments. We seem to be having more of those, with Kate home from school. Here's a little frozen-in-time memory from today:  Kate goes out and plays in a dirty puddle with the neighbors.  Kate comes in and has a bath.  Kate eats lunch.  Kate asks me to take a picture of her yogurt.




Why am I taking a picture of Kate's yogurt?  She spotted a dinosaur skull in her spoonful.  Can you see it?  I've been taking a lot of pictures of food lately, by request.  Interesting pancakes and other things. 



How many seven-year-olds will eat plain Greek yogurt?  (Even if it does have dinosaurs in it!)

Cousin Margaret Rose

My brother Peter and his wife Karen welcomed their third daughter, Margaret Rose (they're going to call her Megan for short), July 23 at 1:06 pm, 8 lbs 6 oz, 21.5", with red hair like her sister Lizbeth. Baby and parents are doing well!

Growing up, Peter occasionally lamented being the only boy in the family. Now he has three girls!

Crabs at Kopachuck

We don't have a big trip happening this summer. I've had the feeling that the whole summer could get away from us if we don't make the effort to seize the day. Doug and I both tend to be kind of homebodies, and not really good planners, so it can be an effort to get the family out of the house and doing things. Doug picked up a Discovery Pass for us a while ago (good for all state parks!) but today was the first time we used it.

We took the kids out to Kopachuck State Park in Gig Harbor. I'd heard about it but hadn't ever been there before. It's a very cool beach--the water is sheltered and shallow, and there are lots of creatures. (It was a nice day for it, too. Not too sunny. Is that weird? I actually do better if it's not super sunny.)



Doug points out the little crabs in the water. Kate thought the crabs were great fun. (That weird thing sticking out from behind Kate is a large plastic dinosaur that she's holding. Just in case you're wondering why she's sprouting chicken feet.)



My camera battery died right after this (whoops!) but we did get some video. You can see a pretty good view of the crabs in the water, and at the end you can see Andy making letters with his fingers.



Lots of fun!  We'll have to go back again.

pretzelus giganticus

We went to the Indian buffet in Lakewood for lunch, and stopped by the Hess Bakery to pick up some pretzels. (Not that one needs anything else to eat after a lunch like that, but these pretzels are always worth getting.) They come in large and VERY LARGE. Kate opted for the super-sized variety.  So of course we had to get some pictures..





How long do you think it'll take her to eat that?

(Halfway) Across the Bridge

Wednesday was the kids' half-birthday.  We commemorated the occasion by walking halfway across the Narrows Bridge.

The walking/biking lane is actually connected to the bike path that goes by our house, but we didn't feel like walking that far, so we parked by the War Memorial and walked from there. It was a sunny day (not too hot) and windy on the bridge, as I'm sure it always is. 





Looking south toward Days Island.



The half way point.



Picture with Mom!



Time to head back.



My view of Andy.  He kept trying to pull himself along on the bars. 
 


Looking over the fence--what's down there?



"If we even had a wheelbarrow, that would be something."



It's a long way back up that hill to the War Memorial.



"Take a picture of me, Mom!"



Lunch at El Sabor. Yum!

And now we have a seven-and-a-half-year-old and a three-and-a-half-year-old. What fun.

In which Helena engages in some fangirl flailing

I had something happen this week that turned out to be pretty exciting.  Iain MacKinnon (of Isle of Lewis, Scotland) wrote this fabulous "Rainbow Connection" parody for The Grimm Podcast.  As soon as I heard the song I thought, "This needs to be a video!"  I could just see the whole thing in my head, listening to it.  Now sometimes I get ideas that may take me months (or years) to implement, but every once in a while I get struck with something that I just have to do RIGHT NOW.  This was definitely one of those cases.  I started working on the video that night, in a frenzy of concentration, and had it all finished and uploaded by early afternoon the next day.

Response has been great and just so fun. We got a re-tweet from actor David Giuntoli (which gave me a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights moment), and he also made a nice comment on Iain's absolutely perfect Kermit voice).  And we got a mention from Akela Cooper (one of the writers on the show), who said "We all got a big kick out of this this in the writers room today."  The video got 1,000 views in less than two days.  I kept coming back and refreshing and squeaking in amazement. 

Of course the video is entirely peripheral to Iain's awesome song,  but it's just been fun to be involved with something like this that made a bit of a splash for a couple of days.  I was riding on an adrenaline high for a while there. 

When I finished the video I was in a hurry to share it, and after I got it uploaded I realized there's a stray frame that I missed.   Of course now it drives me nuts every time I watch it  (my Engineer Dad genes keep poking at me).  I must keep this in mind the next time I get over-excited about something.



I have to share these LEGO minifigs that I put together recently.  (Yep, I'm obsessed.)  Kate has been playing with them.  We had to explain--"This is Nick and Monroe.  Nick is a police detective, and Monroe is... ummm.... He's a clock maker."  (She's a little young to watch the show for a few years yet, I think!)

I also finished my review of Season One on Amazon.  50 more days till Season Two,  Oh, the torment.

The End of First Grade!

It's the last day of school! (Yes, our district got out pretty late. I think they added a week on because of the strike.)



Last year I got a picture of Kate coming out of school on the last day of Kindergarten, with her dragon costume on. I think she remembered this, as she has been wearing her dragon costume all week. I didn't try to replicate the picture this time, because it was raining, but I did get a shot of Kate coming into the house after Doug picked her up.



I also got a photo of Kate with her teacher, earlier this week. Awww! Kate has had a couple of great teachers in her school career thus far.  It takes a special kind of person, I think!

It's been a good year. We had a bit of a rocky time early on, but once she settled in it was great. She's done really well with her reading and math, and enjoyed some fun science lessons. When I asked her, "What was your favorite thing at school this year?" she said, "Oh, just about everything!"

Father's Day Fun

Father's Day was just as sunny as Mother's Day, but we didn't take these in the shade. Doesn't everyone look sunny? *squint*



This was Andy's first Father's Day in Primary, so he got to go up on the stand with the other kids to sing in Sacrament Meeting. He was pretty stage-struck, and didn't actually sing, but seemed to get a kick out of the experience.

Kate had a present for Dad that she made at school:



Yep, ice cream, Toys R Us, and playing Wii.  That's what Dad's all about. 

Happy Father's Day!