We love summer

...the water park...


...playing with friends...


...sunblock smears...


...ponytails that corkscrew up...


...hanging out in the hammock...

"DUCK! C'mere! C'mere, duck!"

Katie seemed to think she could bully the ducks into eating her hot dog buns. Not that they really needed the encouragement. Greedy things.



The ducks reside at a lovely little park at their public library. All pics courtesy of Colleen.

The Beach 2010

Jared and his brothers decided to go deep sea fishing this weekend, so Katie and I tagged along for the camping.



Wildwood Park was pretty nice. And rather empty on Sundays.

Katie is a little beach bum. Couldn't keep her out of the ocean.







She was so excited that she tripped and fell in the water that she tried to do it again on purpose.



Finally dragged her out and pacified her with a shovel and pail. This is Long Beach, WA. It's a lovely beach, and it wasn't terribly crowded.



Sunday, the boys went fishing, and Katie and I drove up to Ocean Park, then bopped around Long Beach. Then, we didn't take a nap...



But we did make three laps around the campground looking for treasures...



Played a little b-ball...



And spent two hours digging in the sand pit.



Little girl had a hard time being away from home. She cried to be in her own bed, despite the fun she had during the day.

We also had a couple of wonderful visits with Dennis and Colleen, who hosted us Friday and graciously took us in on Sunday night as we escaped from the (potential) storm on the coast. We also stopped at Multnomah Falls. Katie liked the water, but I'll be really honest and tell you that what thrilled her was the train that went by as we were passing under the rails. She stood there cheering and "Choo choo!"ing it as it went by. Unfortunately, I threw the camera down in the car (accidentally, I swear!) and jostled it so there are no pictures. However, I will leave you with this parting shot, that I like to call Girl Giggling at Campfire.

Bedtime reading

Katie loves books--she just doesn't like to read them! She's not quite interested in the story. In fact, if she thinks I might be reading to her, she'll cover up the words with her hands! I'm actually impressed that she knows that the words mean something.

But this afternoon we bought Thomas the Tank Engine's ABCs, and she let me read it to her cover to cover--twice! And she took it to bed with her! Will this be her Panda Bear's Paintbox?

Good news!

I don't know why I haven't been updating the blog lately. There's been plenty of stuff going on. I kind of think it's because my keyboard has been sticky, but that's really no excuse for withholding the news.

May 2nd, I presented my special project for my master's. I am done! More years on it than I wish to consider, but I am done, done, done!

The next Friday, Jared received the letter that accepted him to CBC's nursing program! We are so excited for this! It's a two year program, so it's going to be hectic around here, but so worth it.

Endings and beginnings.

The Hokey Pokey Man

Our neighborhood is, apparently, worth the ice cream man's time. Apparently the retirees and families-with-high-schoolers are a good client base. Who knew? We don't usually patronize the hokey pokey man, but he was pretty persistent one day last month.



Katie is into Dora the Explorer right now, so we decided to buy a Dora ice cream bar. Despite Dora's chocolate looking hair, it's banana flavored ice cream. And I have no idea what those things that made her eyes were. Katie didn't eat them, whatever they were.

9 miles

A measely 9 miles this week. Including a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5k walk.

Brings the training total to 24 miles.