Happy Half Birthday, Baby J!

Julia turned 6 months old today...wow! I cannot remember life without her. She is the most amazing and treasured addition to our family.

At 6 months she has her two bottom teeth, can sit up, can roll over both front-to-back and back-to-front, loves to smile, giggles most readily at her brother when he makes barfing sounds, likes tummy time and pushing herself up with straight arms, can predict when Scout is coming in for one of his famous chin to scalp licks, is beginning to experience the joy of eating and is very strong willed (enough to resist sleeping for any decent length of time).

Unfortunately for us all, sleep training begins tonight. Wish us luck...

Her birthday cake...sweet potato, banana, rice cereal and her least favorite peas.


And today she got to chew on a watermelon rind for the first time...


...and sit in one for the first and probably last time. Why you might ask did I do this? To make Oli and Brett laugh...it worked.

Poorly focused photo but captures a typical evening in our backyard. I love our backyard. I love our summer evenings.

The Dog Days of Summer!

Think we enjoyed the sun this weekend? Photos to prove it!

The Tooth Fairy made another visit last week! Last night, we grilled corn on the cob and only Oli would have been determined enough to eat not one but two ears of corn!

He is quite the driver!

And so is Dad...(with Oli's remote control boat).

The bigger the silly face, the more smiles you get (from Julia and from anyone else in the pool)

Saturday night Oli and Cody were in one tent in the backyard and Brett and Scout in another. One might think that I would have gotten the better night sleep inside but Julia had other plans. I asked Brett to leave the tent out for me to sleep in it the next night. I was serious but I guess he thought I was kidding.

Scout'ism #1:

Setting: Friday night and Wendy is out running her 200 mile relay race.

Scout: Where is she? I am sure she will come home soon. She is never not home. I will just wait out here on my day bed for her. Need to greet her when she comes in.

(he stayed there till 3am and then gave up on me and went to bed.)

Scout'ism #2:

Setting: Saturday night and Brett, Oli and Cody are gearing up for backyard camping.

Scout: What is going on? Why are they sleeping outside? Hmm, what to do...sleep inside next to Wendy or outside with the guys?

(after going back and forth and settling in to both locations as we were settling in ourselves)

Scout: Guess the right thing to do is protect the greatest number...so outside I will go. Looks like Brett brought one of my beds in his tent. Way to hook a brother up!

Scout'ism #3:

Setting: Hot sunny days means that we leave Julia's nursery window open.

Scout: I love it when they leave that baby's window open. That way when she naps, I don't have to come inside (which I always do when she is napping). I can sleep underneath her bedroom window and hear her perfectly!

Scout'ism #4 (Part 1):

Setting: Sunday night, Wendy just got back from some errands. Brett had Julia in the Bjorn and Oli was gathering his things to go to the park.

Scout: Park, Park, Park!!! Woof!

Scout: Oh, Wendy just got home. I miss her. Didn't come home Friday night and then I slept outside (the only decent thing for a dog to do) last night. I miss her. I will stay. They can go to the park without me.

(Scout stays, even with a lot of coaxing from Brett and Oli and shoo'ing from Wendy. And then Scout leaves but comes right back)

(Wendy runs down the street and gives Oli a piece of cheese to coax Scout)

Scout: Ahh, come on! Cheese? She knows I cannot resist that. Oh well, I will go to the park and see her later.

Scout'ism #4 (Part 2):

Scout: And since I am here, might as well make the most of it! Oli is hitting tennis balls with his bat, Brett is pitching, Julia is giggling and I am fielding the balls. They are very impressed with my fielding and the more they say how fast I am running, the more I want to run. I love my family and I know they love me.

Now these are the dog days of summer....

I completed my 10th relay race last weekend. This has been an annual event I love to do and 10 years ago was the motivator for me to start to run, my favorite hobby now!

A team of 12 of us started the 188 mile Ragnar Relay on Friday morning at 9:30am and finished on Saturday at 12:02. Funny how I have a night away from Julia and I decide to stay up all night and run. Hmm, no wonder people say runners are insane!

My van was 6 guys and me. All college friends so it was as much a reunion as it was a race. And one of them said it best, "boy, you are going to be so happy to go home to Brett". And I was!

Momyer, Steve, Maloy, Kriens, Petersen and McFarland...oh, and little me there in the middle. I ran a total of 15 miles and felt surprisingly well at the end.

Go Petersen Go! He was inspiration and my coach when I first started to run 10 years ago. He is a phenomenal runner...has run a marathon in under 3 hours. An inspiration!

Along the way, they found somewhere to stop and buy a souvenior. Nick and Nick hit pause and came over for the photo in the middle of running their portion of the relay. Only these guys...

Ahhh, an afternoon nap never felt so good!

And where was the rest of my family? Brett was kind enough to take the year off and stay home with the kids. Since he was in charge so you can just guess where they spent their time. I love this video!

Bye Bye Grandma

Oli said it best, "Grandma, next time I want you to stay for 50,000 weeks!"

JoMum, your company has been an absolute pleasure and your help to take care and spoil the kids with your love and attention has been a tremendous help. Not to mention that both Oli and I will miss having our laundry not only done but folded for us!

Brett's Triathlon

Brett did fantastic in today's Seafair Triathlon! While he did not have the time to train this year he surprised himself by only adding 30 seconds onto his time from last year (when he was really trained up). I am so proud of him! And boy was Oli proud!

Brett woke Oli up at 5am so that we wouldn't be late for the start of the race (he was given the choice to stay home and sleep but there was no question in his mind...he wanted to cheer on Daddy!).

When Brett woke him up, he wouldn't open his eyes and then he mentioned the race and he popped open his eyes and sat up. Brett said, "ok, now you gotta get dressed." Oli replied as he swayed like a drunken sailor, "but Daddy I am SO tired, can you please get dressed for me?"

Tired guy but still ready to cheer Daddy on!

Brett is in the yellow cap finishing the 1/2 miles swim.

"Oh, I see him, there he is!". (was a 50 year old female but I appreciated his enthusiasm)

12 miles on the bike done! Now just a 3.1 mile run...

The finish line is in sight! You did it!

A day on Whidbey Island

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Whidbey Island -- ahh, what a fantastic day! The Walsh's have a beach house rented for this week for their extended family's vacation (including their Texas relatives) and we were happy to be invited to spend the day with them all. It is a lovely little spot they found and we had a very enjoyable day with all of them.

Before we hunkered down to watch the World Cup, we took an exploratory walk down the beach. There are only 3 days a year that have a tide as low as Sunday's. This allowed us to find a HUGE sea snail, a gooey duck (yeah, doubt that is how you spell it...), little fish that nudged your toes (well mine more than anyone else it seemed) and many many sand dollars.

Oli's first sand dollar...later in the day, he convinced us that he found a sand quarter and a sand dime too.

A huge sea snail that Oli bravely picked up. Fresh Sushi anyone?

Maro and her grandson Beckett exploring.

And after the World Cup, we got out the kites and all took a turn. Surprisingly fun (as a team activity, or solo as shown below)!

Yae (the Walsh's Japanese daughter) casually flying her kite.

Maro playing keep away from Oli. Oli's pants? They got too wet so he just took them off giving us all a good laugh. It was hours later until he put them back on...what a hoot! As Maro said, "everything is more fun with Oli around."

Don't ask... (it seemed that Charlie wanted to take his pants off & run around in the surf too)

Pre-pants-taking-off-time, as you can see the 'holding them high' technique really wasnt working that well. This high knee running was cracking us all up.

As the tide came in later in the day, Oli found so much joy in the 'islands' that were created (hence the soaking wet pants (are you seeing a theme yet?)..)

One of my favorite parts of the day was going to an Organic U-Pick Farm. We picked broccoli, spinach, kale, edible flowers, zucchini, onions, garlic and sugar peas. It was fun picking and fun cooking with the different veggies so far this week.

Julia doing her part to pull & pick the sugar peas.

Oli'ism #78:

(setting: Julia slept in this morning till 9am)

Oli: I think Julia is still sleeping in because she is having a really great dream and wants to see the end of it.

Staying Cool

We have been VERY thankful that we have a boat to go out on to cool down in this heat. Yesterday afternoon we got out there as soon as Brett was off work and had dinner anchored out in the middle of the lake.

And today, Brett took Ed's kids out for 4 hours of doughnut'ting. It is Chiara's 12th birthday today and she said, "this is the BEST way to spend my birthday". We were so happy to make her day special!

We are exhausted from the socializing and the heat so just a few pics and off to dreamland we go...



Happy Birthday, Chiara! She is one mature 12 year old!

Giancarlo (Ed's son) and Oli...which muscles are bigger?

We enjoyed a nice BBQ at Ed andVicky's in honor of Chiara's birthday tonight.

During all the huh-bub at the BBQ, Oli did the sweetest thing. He went over to Grandma and said, "Grandma I am so happy that you are here.".