In case my anonymous readers are unfamiliar with the title, it refers to Dean’s newly acquired interest in Matthew’s old
Calvin and Hobbes’ books – and it rings true in our case. My, oh my. July was quite some time ago!!! It’s rather busy in our little house – and inside the fort that Matthew just finished constructing outside – so, I’m far behind on blog posts. (See
the reason why I don’t post.) A few great things happened this month:
- Ayme, Matthew’s sister came to visit us and help us take care of Leo. We had many, many adventures such as picking berries and visiting the zoo. And we read lots of stories. Aunt Ayme has an endless amount of energy for reading books (unless it’s the Berenstein Bears and she’s in the back of the van…)
2. Leo turned four months old!
He has mastered rolling onto his tummy, and he even started to become mobile with scooting, wiggling and rolling. Our new rule in the living room is: No small toys! Leo’s world is expanding with all of his movement.
Luckily, Dean and Fiona love to play with all of Leo’s toys, and Leo loves to watch his brother and sister.
He has also recently grown fond of his fingers. Such a cutie pie!
3. Dean and Fiona started having a great summer.
Now I have to geek out and wear my urban designer hat for a moment. Remember this
amazing park from last December’s album? The same but completely different and incredible playspace transformed for summer (just add water). In this case, the setting for a five-year old’s birthday party. Nice.
4. We returned to the Oregon Dunes for a family vacation!
Last summer, we spent some time out at the Heceta Beach with dear friends of ours, who, sadly, live on the other side of the country. This year, we wanted to share the experience with our friends Scott and Jenn and their three kiddos. Vacations are so much better with friends.
Of course, to kick the whole thing off, we stopped over at the
Oregon Aquarium in Newport.
We walked through the ‘Shark Tunnel’ and we felt sea anenomes and sea stars in the touch pool. So awesome!
We even took our friends back to the Hobbit Trail – which couldn’t be found if it weren’t for my
previous blog post and my iphone. Oh technology.
These were beautiful days at the beach. To be clear, the water was startlingly frigid – this is no Gulf of Mexico. But try to convince my Oregonian kids that the water was too cold for swimming! (My husband didn’t need convincing…)
Our children had a blast! Here’s a quiet moment of eating cantaloupe before dinner…
We took sunset walks to the beach.
We also visited the Oregon Dunes National Recreation area. So much sand, so many dunes - this landscape was sublime. It was perfect for rolling down the hills and well.. simply frolicking. The backdrop is a wooded upland forest and the might Pacific Ocean beyond. Incredible.
On the way home, we stopped for a picnic in Lincoln City which happened to be celebrating a kite festival.
Exuberance!
I think about this riddle especially as I am about to embark on a flight to Denver next week. Matthew and I decided to take advantage of the Labor Day holiday in combination with the kids' school in-service day. I'll have the opportunity to visit my sister Gina and family in her new house while allowing Matt some time alone to work on the completion of our second bathroom without worrying about the noise and mess. Granted, it is a nonstop flight - with Matthew on one end of the flight and my sister on the other end. But three hours inside an encapsulated steel tube with the fox, chicken and bag of seed is a bit daunting. One successful run to Costco with these three last Friday, and now we're going airborne? Really? 
%5B3%5D.jpg){kind=link}