Got a bunch more pictures here, hot off the presses. Some of our recent summer excitement and adventures.
Here’s one from Milo’s first backpacking trip. A short section of the Lewis River called, aptly enough, the Lewis River Trail. It’s up outside of Cougar, WA, SE of Mt. St. Helens. A very nice walk in the woods. We got an excellent camping spot right on a beautiful, calm bend in the river. Got all set up, spent the afternoon swimming, had a nice dinner, turned in early and then found out Milo was just coming down with a fever that turned out to be a weeklong crazy virus! Not fun! But in retrospect, it was memorable if nothing else, and I think Milo really did enjoy his first backpacking trip.
More excitement…Anna’s fourth birthday! To say she was excited would be an understatement. She’s four and wants everyone to know it. We had a nice day…Nicki stayed home from work to have birthday breakfast, then I took the kids to the children’s museum. We spent most of the morning/early afternoon out there which suited both Anna and Milo just fine.
Anna and Kadin had their birthday party at Mt. Scott Park (same place as last year at both kids’ request). A bunch of their friends showed up and a good time was had by all. Once the cake came out the kids were all business. Here they are right before they blew out the candles.
Anna of course was very excited to open her presents and cards. She got many (but thankfully not too many) very, very thoughtful and wonderful gifts from her wonderful friends and family. Nicki and I got her and Kadin matching little hopping things. Anna wants everyone to know that she blew hers up with the pump all by herself! (she is four now you know).
Another bit of excitement…Nicki’s soccer team, “The Muddies” won their division, with a 10-0-2 record! Nicki is having quite a bit of fun with this team, and it seems like a really great group of folks. Since the soccer season has ended, Nicki recently started on a futsal team for the fall. That team is doing quite well too!
We had some very hot weather…the garden suffered, but has since rebounded. We just had our first big tomato harvest. Nicki froze 12 quarts on Sunday! We also picked a huge bucket of basil, a bunch of onions, some other stuff too. We cleared a spot of some spring stuff to make way for the winter garden. We’re working our way up to a four season garden to wean ourselves our (admittedly awesome) CSA share.
A big cabbage! We harvested some things early that could have really gone a little longer, but we needed the space for our winter garden. We’ll plant some more cabbages in a few weeks.
Milo likes himself some tomato! Our little boy is becoming quite the eater!
A couple photos from a city park in Vancouver, WA, just down the street from where I work. Nicki brought the kids up one day last week for a lunch picnic, which was such a treat for me ( I think the kids had fun too). There’s a little fountain where kids are always splashing around. Milo and Anna both dove right in fully clothed.
Here’s some more funny photos from that day.
And just to round out the post, a recent video of the kids running around in the living room. Anna just learned how to do somersaults, and Milo is definitely trying to figure it out for himself.
August is over half over but depending on the day it still feels like there’s a lot of summer left. Hope you are enjoying yours wherever you might be!