Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A perfect day

Well, almost perfect. Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, was the Bite of Bellingham. Logos gave all the employees 10 tickets to spend at the event and a co-worker gave Ed his 10 since he wasn’t going to be attending. So down to Bellingham we went and it was an incredibly gorgeous day! I think it was quite possibly one of the most beautiful days we had this summer! The only bummer was that Ed’s aunt & uncle were in town and had been planning to go with us, but his aunt ended up being too sick to join us for the day. We felt so badly for her, but went anyway and had a great family day! I have no pictures from the Bite of Bellingham, but basically a bunch of the downtown restaurants had booths on a roped-off street and served small portions of their most famous menu items. We sampled Man Pies (think gourmet shepherd’s pie), Rocket Donuts, gourmet mac & cheese, pizza, shredded pork buns, iced coffee, ice cream sandwiches, and more! It was really fun.

Since it was such a nice day, we decided to head to Boulevard Park and enjoy that sunshine! We walked, climbed trees, played, and soaked up Vitamin D. Well, except for Ed, who forgot his hat and stood in the shade every chance he had.

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See what I mean? Perfect.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Happy Anniversary and belated Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my father-in-law’s birthday! He’s in Texas and we haven’t seen him in a while, but he’s building an awesome cabin down there on his property. My favorite recent picture that he’s sent us is of some detail work above the front porch:

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I just think it’s so pretty. Hope you had a great birthday, Erik! We love you and we miss you lots!

And today is my parents 42nd wedding anniversary!

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I took some pictures of them up at Silver Lake on Sunday, but I wasn’t super happy with my shooting that day – I had the wrong lens on and it just messed me all up, but at least my subjects were cooperative!

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad! We’re so thankful for both of you and for your amazing marriage.

Monday, August 29, 2011

There once was a bat

There once was a bat,

Whose name I forgat.

He flew in the night

And flew toward the light.

Too bad for him,

The light was my van.

And that was the end of the bat.

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Here’s those pictures!

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My favorite 3 year old at the lake!

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Yesterday for my dad’s birthday we hung out at Silver Lake for a while. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we did some kayaking and exploring and playing and catching up (since my parents have been gone for two weeks visiting my brothers). It was a great day together!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Happy Birthday to two great guys!

Today we celebrate my dad's birthday and also the third birthday of my sweet nephew in Michigan! (I'm not gonna share pictures at the moment because I'm hoping to steal one of my nephew off my dad's web album since he just got back from visiting that boy. And since I'm seeing my dad today, I'd like to get a new picture of him today and I'll share that one later.) In the meantime, just join me in being thankful for these two guys that make our lives better.

Friday, August 26, 2011

iPhone Camera Dump

Sometimes I take pictures with my phone. I have all kinds of cool camera apps that I hardly ever use. I think I don’t use them because of the reasons I use my phone to take pictures in the first place. I find that the reasons I take pictures with my phone are either because A: I want to post that picture on Facebook, or B: I want to email that picture, or C: I want to take a picture really fast, or D: I don’t have my good camera with me. And if those are true, I don’t have either the time or desire to use my cool camera apps that make the picture look old or histagramish or whatever. I really should try to do it, however, because it does give some pretty cool effects.

At any rate, I decided it was time to share some of those photos…some have already been shared via email or Facebook, but some of you faithful readers aren’t on Facebook, so I’m just gonna share them again, so here we go! (Captions follow pictures)

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Back in June I took this shot on my walk with my honey. It was such a pretty evening.

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Becca had a playdate with a friend and they made casts for their American Girl dolls. So fun!

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Elise and her friend made casts for their arms and legs!

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This fabulous shot was obviously taken by a child who got her hands on my phone…

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As you can see from the slot machines behind the girls, this was in Las Vegas. We were at the rental car center and I thought our girls on this pile of luggage looked pretty funny amidst the gambling…

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Ah. This was on our trip. A great little vintage American-Mexican hole in the wall restaurant in Richville…or Richfield…or Richmond…something like that…in Utah. Loved that place! I wanna serve chips in a tin bucket! How cool is that?

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Yes,definitely. Drink Coca-Cola in bottles…

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…or in a big giant can from a gas station somewhere on the drive to the Grand Canyon.

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Elise’s nap on the drive from Grand Canyon to Redlands. Boy, did she need that!

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The outside temperature in the Mojave Desert at 7:00 p.m. on our drive to Redlands…it actually got up to 113, but my phone was charging, so I didn’t take another picture.

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Pizza & Chipotle for dinner with the CA DeJong cousins in the hotel in San Diego. Good memories.

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Oh that sweet little ice cream face…miss you, little guy!

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All the Ball’s at Disneyland!!!

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Ball cousins by the fountains at Irvine Spectrum.

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We were surprised to come home from our trip and find raspberries still being picked! We got to make jam after all! Many thanks to my mom who took all the girls out picking…again!

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Ed & I had a great anniversary dinner out at The Fork at Agate Bay in south Bellingham. This was my drink…a raspberry wine cocktail. So yummy.

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Ed’s was prettier, but his was more fruity, which he likes, but I don’t. We’re ok with that.

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I ordered this soup…broccoli cheese with spiced popcorn. Yep, you read that right. When the waitress described it, I said, “What? With what on top?” And she said, “Spiced Popcorn.” I HAD to try it. You know what? It was perfect. You could totally taste the popcorn, but it was the perfect additional taste to the soup. I never would have guessed!

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A couple days ago the girls & I took a spontaneous walk to the river. Mostly because I had been working on GEMS stuff all day and was going pretty much insane, plus they were driving me crazy and I was thinking about locking them out of the house, but decided a walk might do me good, too. It ended up to be really fun at first, but didn’t end so well…we picked a few blackberries on our way and then set the bucket down where we entered the riverbed from the road so that we could find out spot again. When we got back there, the bucket and the berries were gone (and yes, we’re sure we were in the right place). Also, on our walk back along the road, Sarah was picking a few more blackberries, but accidentally rubbed up against some kind of stinging nettles and managed to break out in painful hives on the back of her leg. Thankfully, she’s like me and has very sensitive skin, but a little Benadryl and she was much better very quickly.

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A new favorite past-time anywhere there are rocks is to build rock sculptures…I think that stems from our trip, but it’s pretty fun.

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Oh boy. Recently an American Girl store opened up at the Alderwood Mall just north of Seattle, so of course we made a trip. It was a big girls’ day out, with a couple hours here and lots of back to school shopping. We had SUCH a fun day together and made great memories!

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Getting their dolls’ hair done at the doll salon in the American Girl store.

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And we’ll end with this attractive photo of Becca’s feet up on the back of the passenger seat in the van. Which of course she is NOT supposed to be doing. Why she decided to document her sin, I’ll never know…

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sum sum summertime

A couple weeks ago, on a beautiful summer afternoon, some friends came over. The kids swam & played, us mama’s chatted, and we all soaked in a bunch of that natural Vitamin D. While I sat back & relaxed, Sarah grabbed my camera…

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LoVe days like that one…

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Somebody had a birthday…

It was a while back, but it was fun!

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The party theme was Hawaiian Luau…so we decorated cupcakes with umbrella picks…and had grass skirts, leis, and tropical flower clips for all the girls…

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They had lots of fun with the games Bethany planned, and this sequence of pictures makes me laugh every time:

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Looking at their faces – especially the girl on the left – so fun that they can still be little girls even though they’re going into 6th grade!

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Only about half the girls we invited could come, which is the problem with a summer birthday, but these are 5 of Bethany’s good friends:

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They also had some fun on a homemade slip-n-slide:

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And she blew out her candles:

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We have changed our family tradition to going out for dessert on one’s birthday, rather than going out for dinner…trying to save money, you know…anyway, she chose Cold Stone and it was definitely a yummy treat!

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