Great Grammy

At the end of June we had a wonderful visitor come and stay with us for a few weeks to get her baby fix. Great Grammy cam up from So. California!! Isabelle and she had a marvelous time playing and getting to know one another.

This baby alpaca was only one hour old. Isabelle and Grammy loved seeing the new baby at the neighbor's farm.

Isabelle loves her books!! She kept bringing them to Grammy to read them to her.

While Grammy was with us, we also took a 3 generation girls weekend trip to the Salish lodge in Snoqualmie next to the falls.

Dinner with a toast; new tradition to have a girls weekend once a year and it MUST have some sort of natural water feature to view.

Our room... well... not the best. There were some issues. Probably the biggest one was that though there was balcony that we could go out on and enjoy... it over looked the parking lot and worse yet, it was directly over the dumpsters. I mean you could step over the raling and with a tiny hop, be on top of the dumpster. A smaller issuse was that they gave us a fridge key. Unfortunately, we couldn't use it: we had no fridge in the room.

Now the funny thing about this room was the view from the window, but looking in... See that window by the chair. It opens right into the bathroom.

The next morning we had a beautiful view of the waterfall during breakfast.

Grammy's next visit will be for Chirstmas! We can't wait to have you here!!

Under Construction!

No pics here, just the notice that some will come.

First, the back yard is a turned over pile of dirt for as far as the eye can see... hopefully no wind will come, if it does we will be in a major dust bowl. We are having a neighbor come over and help using his tractor tilling machine dig up, turn the soil, dig some more... eventually level all the soil and then roll it out to flatten it. After all is said and done with that, we are going to seed the back and have a grass back yard instead of a dandilion backyard.

Second, 2 of the 3 flower gardens are done... one more to go.. the rose garden. This one is taking its sweet time to get ready. Of course with the other two gardens, I am hoping they don't get eatten like my strawberries.

Third, there is a hole in the living room where a wall used to be. More specifically... we took out the wall where the fireplace was (took it to the dump--you can't believe what a huge monster that thing was), and opened up the corner. That is all so far. We still need to finish a platform and get the walls covered in dry wall before the middle of Aug. That is when the installers come out with our new wood burning stove. Now we will be warm and cozy this winter if we loose power for days on end. :)

Forth, is a bathroom remodel. Currently it is in working order, but kinda in a torn up condition.

Anything else? Probably... but this is the current big stuff.
More to follow. . .

Bonk

Pool Time

Our first trip to a real pool. Isabelle LOVED it... it was like a gigantic bath tub that she could splash in and better yet, walk in. She went under many times, and had a hard time getting back up. Good thing she had on her life jacket. The lesson learned for mommy ... make sure she always either has something on her feet when she goes in a pool (socks, shoes, whatever). Her feet were all cut up by the rough floor of the pool. Poor sweet baby.

My first swim suit.

This was a fun afternoon. Grammy was here and we met with Kristy, Sophia, Vicki and Karen for lunch and swimming.

Shadow Love

Sweet Portraits

Summer Moments

This summer has been fun so far, and great to take Isabelle out and practice photos on her.

Look, No Hands!!

See all those beautiful strawberry plants... Well, sadly they are no more... last night elk or deer or something ate them all, leaving the roots only of a couple of the plants. Gotta find a way to protect them before planting new ones.

See my Flower!

Here I Go!

Happy times with Daddy and Cousin Sophia!!

Feed Me

Kiss!

Cheese...

Learning to Color...

... and not eat the crayons. :)

It is a process ... She liked the rollie-pollie aspect of the crayons more...

Raining in July

HAPPY 4TH EVERYONE!!!

Our 4th was great! My Grandmother is up from California, spending three weekss with us and getting a fill of her Great Grandbaby. Isabelle loves playing with Grammy and loves to pass out kisses. She is also walking everywhere, hardly crawling anymore at all.

Our 4th was very nice, we headed to a neighbors house for a BBQ, and some play time for the kids. I wasn't thinking when I dressed Isabelle... 'Mud, why would there be mud? It is July, I will dress her in a cute outfit. If it gets dirty, wash it... no problem.' Well, there was mud, and she loved playing in 'Tonkatown' which our neighbors little boy has built. It has bridges, and a river with an aquaduct, and so much more. I started playing in it too. :)


There is dirt on my hand...










See!













So that's what you are supposed to do.






I figured it out.













This is so FUN!








My mom needs to not put me in white pants when we go play...





I love Tonka Town!!





















After a fun afternoon of playing in the mud, and then a hose down to clean off prior to the bath, She fell straight asleep and didn't wake once during the fireworks. I headed to a nearby lake to a friends house to watch a magnificent show of fireworks, right off the lake. They bought close to $2000 worth of big ones and set it up the day before. It seemed professional and went for 40 minutes. GORGEOUS!!! Daddy and Grammy missed it, they were tired after playing in Tonka Town. ;) Next year I will try and get some pictures of the fireworks.

Celebrating 5 Years

Wow, I can't believe it has been 5 years already that Eric and I were married. It has gone by so fast, with so many great memories. With at least 55 more years to come, I guess this is still just the beginning, the honeymoon. ;)

Since it is the traditional 'wood' anniversary, our big present to eachother was a cast iron WOOD burning stove. Yes, this means construction, and I will post all that when August arrives. But the good thing is that the heating bill will be MUCH less!!!

After that, we went to a movie, the new Indiana Jones, (good entertainment), then for a walk down by the White River and then to a very nice dinner at an Italian Restaurant. It was perfect romance.

I LOVE YOU!!!