Thomas and Dad went whale watching on the "Glacier Spirit." Dad got sick for the fist half and we didn't see anything, but after a stop on the San Juan Islands dad felt better and then we saw some orcas!
We got some caterpillars from a mail-in kit and after they turned into butterflies we let them go. This is Suzie trying to get one off her finger onto the flowers.
A closer up on the butterfly who is reluctant to let go of Suzie.
The Owen Boys!
My little princess - she even has princess Leia hair!
The drool King!
Cool drool!
Our prayerful baby
Thomas sliding down the slip'n slide at the stake pioneer day activity.
He loved it!
We went to Foxberry Farm where we picked raspberries and blueberries, and got to see and pet some calves.
Suzie also got to help hold the bottle to feed one of the calves.
Our hot Mama (wow! Did she really just have her 3rd baby?) displays the fruits of our labors.
After a visit to the zoo, where we got to see new tiger cubs, we went to Owen beach. Its cool to have a beach with our name on it, but it is a very rocky beach and hard on the feet!
This was the first 4th of July that we stayed in Washington instead of traveling to see family. We discovered that we could actually see quite a few fireworks from our house. Angie got a cool picture of the fireworks behind our house.
We had a blast picking strawberries at a local farm. Suzie picked some really green berries and a few dirt clods as well.
We had a chocolate anniversary on July 13! We toured the Theo chocolate factory in Seattle, and took David along. It was way cool, we learned a lot about chocolate and got to eat lots of yummy and bizzare samples of their 100% organic and fair trade chocolate. We had chocolate with bread crumbs in it, chocolate with fig & fennel in it, and chocolate with basil (this was the only one we didn't like). We also had more normal stuff like just milk or dark chocolate, and chocolate with almonds and cherry, or mint.
These two are from our visit to the Northwest trek. It is a zoo/wildlife preserve with animals from the Northwest. The predators are in cages, but all the prey animals roam about in one large area that they drive you through in an open-air shuttle. It was a lot of fun and the animals were out and very visible for us. Thomas would get so excited and start screaming "mountain goat! There's a mountain goat everybody!"
Angela Woke up Thursday night around 1:30 am with contractions and timed them until about 2:45 when she woke me (Ken) up. I had a choir trip to a festival planned that day, so she said "I'm afraid you'll have to send the choir without you." I had planned for that possibility so we didn't worry about it any more. We got ready, and our neighbors came over to be with Thomas and Suzette when they woke up. We checked into the hospital at 4:00 am and Angie was already pretty far along. It looked like things were going to be as quick and easy (relatively speaking) as they were with Suzette, and we were feeling good.
Things did go well, but it wasn't as quick and easy as it had been with Suzette. Angela labored for quite a while longer and it seemed like she was so close for so long. It was difficult and discouraging, but she hung in there and still did it completely naturally - no drugs or epidural. She was amazing!
There was a little concern over an unusual looking placenta again. Thank goodness, it wasn't anything like the problems she had with the placenta when Thomas was born, but they did check things out and make sure everything was okay.
Angie and David came home the next day, Saturday, and Angela's mom arrived Saturday night. Everyone is healthy and happy. David is a good baby. He eats a lot (all night long, it seems to me), but he doesn't fuss much as long as he's well fed.
Life is good!
Mom and the kiddies on the Merry-go-round
Thomas and Suzie love to ride their bikes
They both love to get dirty. This picture of Suzie is particularly northwestish - gray skies and cool temperatures, playing in the sandbox = playing the mudbox - fun!
Daddy singing!
Dad and his school choir
Mom in her ten virgins fireside
Thomas performing at his piano lessons' sharing day
Suzie at gymnastics
Thomas at the drums - have mercy!
This is the plan: Dad rakes the leaves, Thomas jumps in and throws the leaves, Mom takes pictures of it all, and Suzie just doesn't quite get it.
I guess I should say most of us enjoy having leaves to play in
Sad sister Suzie eventually caught on and started having more fun too.
Many of the nearby farms do pumpkin patches, with games and fun activities for the kids and, of course, lots of pumpkins to choose from.
The wheelbarrow ride is the funnest part of all!
Then comes the carving fun. Suzette tried it, but didn't really enjoy touching the pumpkin guts.
Thomas, on the other hand, really got into it - literally!
Though we enjoy going to the pumpkin patch, we tried growing our own pumpkins this year. It was our first garden ever, so we were proud of our little crop, even though it was mostly good for lessons learned in gardening. We did have 3 pumpkins, but they were very small and still mostly green. We proudly displayed them, uncarved, out alongside our jack-o-lanterns and still have them on our porch as fall decorations (they last much longer when you don't cut them up and pull the guts out). The corn stocks in the picture are also from our garden. Angie wrapped them with the bow and hung them on the post.
On Halloween day we discovered that the Tacoma Philharmonic was having a concert. It wasn't as cool as I had hoped, and only featured 3 instruments (trumpet, trombone, and tuba) accompanying a couple of women who do a children's music program. You know, the kind of thing where they dress up like rag dolls, sing little songs and try to get the kids (and uninhibited adults) to sing and move (wave, sway, stomp, march etc) with them, all while punctuating each others statements with "yeah," "ooh" "that's right" or just plain repetition in a patronizing voice. "Come on now everyone, do it with us." Though frightening, it wasn't what I expected for Halloween.
We wore our costumes: the matching Scottish family who are chased by the Loch Ness Monster. The best part for Thomas was the joy of chasing Dad (me) around. I'm sure we made a bit of a scene in a public square in downtown Tacoma - a guy running around in a kilt being chased by a plush lizard, who was in turn chased by a tiny girl in a kilt.
That night we went to the ward trunk or treat in the rain - hatchbacks can come in handy!
On Sunday at a beautiful park overlooking the sound
Grandpa and Suzette on the ferry coming back from
Bainbridge Island on Monday
Grandma and Grandpa getting a little windswept on the ferry
caught kissing at the park!
Row, row, row your boat
gently 'round the sound
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
we went round and round.
We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa when they came up to bring us our car. They arrived late Saturday. On Sunday, after church, it was very hot at home so we went for a drive in the air conditioned car and visited a beautiful little park that overlooks Puget Sound. A train runs right along the edge of the sound below a drop-off at the edge of the park.
On Monday we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island where we at lunch at a trendy little bakery and had the most delicious ice cream at this little Argentine ice cream parlor. Then we went down to the water, rented a boat and paddled around for a while. The weather wasn't too hot, and everything was perfect - except for when the bird pooped all over Grandma's back, but she got a new shirt out of it.
After church my parents said "do you realize what a beautiful drive it is from your house to the church?" and I had to admit that I had stopped noticing. Their visit provided a nice little reminder to realize all the beauty that is around us here in Washington - especially while there is sunshine!
Smiley baby!