July Album: The days are just packed

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: 

1. 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!