Babies at the Beach

We did it. We continued our tradition of an annual beach trip with our friends plus babies. It was a little different (waiting around for naps to be done) but it was wonderful! We enjoy every second with our friends and even with clouds and rain, the beach is fun.

We did the usual things.. starting with the Ilwaco Saturday Market.

Trying to get a family photo (with their camera.. which is why they aren't looking).

Whitney and Lincoln!

I love Lincoln's face here! And as usual, EJ is much more interested in something else during picture time... in this case the big red building next door. 

Mommies and babies. Lincoln is 5 months and EJ is almost 3 months.

We also continued our tradition of going to Adelaide's and picking out a book. We chose We're Going on a Bear Hunt as our first children's book from the beach. I think we'll add to the tradition and try to get a picture of the kid(s) reading on the porch with one of us.

Reading with daddy.

She does make some effort to look at the pictures.

So serious ;)

Then we headed back to the cabin to make dinner.

The guys doing guy things.

Mr. Lincs checking out what his daddy is doing.

He LOVES exploring textures and this deck was too tempting to resist!

Babies playing

Saura's turn to make dinner.. I enjoyed putting my feet up :)

Supporting the Cougs.. they won!

Trying to get some giggles

What!? We're out of chocolate!?

:)

And the traditional end of trip group shot... in the rain. This was the first time at the beach that we didn't have at least one nice day. Oh well, you can't win them all!

Summertime

This summer has been a strange (but good) one. First, it's been ridiculously hot, which means we've stayed indoors in the air conditioning with blankets. Second, there's something about having a baby that makes summer go by very quickly and very differently than previous summers. And third, we were gone six weekends in a row which also makes time fly by. Here were some of the things that filled our weekends.

There was Emerson's first beach trip and our fourth anniversary.

Emerson's great grandpa C. finally decided she was big enough to hold her (he was sweating bullets though!)

Then there was my family reunion and my grandparents's 60th wedding anniversary:

She pretty much steals the show ;)

My dad (and EJ), my uncle and Blake.

Ladies talking

My grandpa and my dad (and EJ again)

My uncle, my dad (he was sharing the baby at this point) and my grandpa

My aunt (my mom's sister), my mom and my grandma holding Emerson

She did sleep quite a bit.

Celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary!

Cutting the cake - my great aunt Dorothy (left, my grandpa's oldest sister) made that beautiful cake!!

I got a turn with her ;)

Chatting with aunt Sandy

After the reunion, Emerson and I stayed at my parent's house for the week. It was fun (but busy with wedding prep) and there was no shortage of hands ready to snuggle miss EJ.

Getting ready for bed.

There was a lot of this... people sitting around adoring our little girl :)
This is Blake's grandma and mom

I never get tired of her sweet sleeping face :)

We love sitting up! Not that she's doing it by herself by any means, but
she tries and if you're holding her, she'll pretty much demand that
you hold her upright so she can look around.

Mommy and Emerson

Then there was my brother's wedding.

Then we went back to my parents' house so Blake could go Tuna fishing. They caught 20 Albicore Tuna (five each)! That's a LOT of tuna! In a few weekends our project will be thawing and canning most of it.

Blake's friend Brian, my dad and Blake.. with just one little Tuna

Emerson and I met our friends Whitney and Lincoln in the mountains and took a little day 'hike' to Franklin Falls (I hesitate to say hike.. it was only 2 miles round trip). It was so fun to see them and spend the day on a blanket with a picnic lunch, the falls in the background, lots of people watching and momma to momma conversation. I think we're going to try to do this again at least once before the weather turns on us. We had great weather the whole day, and just as we were getting in our cars it started to poor rain!

Nice little falls with WB I-90 in the background. It was really a great little 'hike' -
great for kids and we even saw a few somewhat elderly people. 

We set up our spot, sat down, I snapped two pictures and then my
phone died (aka the only camera I brought) 

Fortunately, Whitney's phone had plenty of battery. I love how Lincoln is trying to grab (and then eat) Emerson.
Blake saw this picture and said, 'hey there Lincs, watch it!' ;)

On our way home Emerson got the hiccups (happens at least three times a day) and something went wrong which triggered a vomit reflex (also happens at least once a day). I know some people say that milk coming out of a baby is spit-up.. but this is true gut-heaving, stomach-acid-filled vomit. It kills us to watch her to it (but rarely fazes her), and usually we both end up soaked (over 4 ounces one time! I weighed our clothes wet and then again after washing and drying and that was the difference). Our doctor says that the only reason to worry would be if she wasn't gaining weight - which she clearly is.. so we just have to wait for her to out grow it. Anyway.. This was a major one and it soaked her shoulder to ankle and soaked the bottom of her car seat to the point of filling up the base under the car seat! I had to pull over and change her, poor thing... and I had to snap a couple of pictures too.

'I don't know how it got there mom'...

Looking guilty.. and a little hungry now.

And finally, we wrapped things up with our Labor Day camping trip!

Whew! What a summer! Now we have to spend the weekend catching up with all the weeds in our garden and flower beds.. hot weather, automatic sprinklers and no weeding leads to full-blown weed take-over!

Stay tuned for our annual beach trip with the Sauras next weekend, eventually I'll get an update up on how I'm adjusting to and loving mommahood and soon I'm going to start a 30 day blog post challenge to maybe keep this little space updated a little better!

Garden Update

We've been enjoying our garden and all the produce it provides us. So far the harvest includes: zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce varieties, kale, beets, carrots, radishes, potatoes, green beans, snap peas, tomatoes, jalapenos and other hot peppers and more tomatoes. Still to come are: winter squashes, onions and tomatillos.

We've also grown a ridiculous crop of weeds. Every kind imaginable and a much greater variety than last year. Oh my! We pulled hundreds.. if you recall that was how I spent the morning that I was in labor.. but alas, when you just have a baby certain things just slide and weeding the garden was one of them. We eventually resorted to essentially mowing them with the weed eater but now we've all but given up and are resolved to just wading through them.

Can you believe the before and after:

Before..  you can hardly see the 30+ tomato plants because they're so small..

Now you can't see the tomatoes because the grass completely hides even their cages! The beans are
looking good, and the cucumbers have been generous.

The dark green 'bush' is our purple kale plants! They're huge! 

I haven't taken many produce shots but just today I decided to dig up some
potatoes to see how they were doing.. I'd say we might be a little late on harvesting these!

We will definitely miss this garden space next year. Our house sitting/rental term is up when the owners get back from Russia at the end of May. Hopefully there's room for a garden whenever we move to. We've enjoyed the fresh produce (and obviously haven't been too bothered by the weeds)!