Seafair

From August 7th

One of Forrest's co-workers was turning 60 this weekend and decided to throw himself a birthday party. When Forrest first told me we were going to the party, he didn't tell me anything about it. As it turned out, the party was on Seafair weekend at the Oh Boy! Oberto house! In case you aren't from the Seattle area, Seafair is a big deal. The Oh Boy! Oberto house is right on Lake Washington with an amazing view of the H1 Unlimited races and the air show.

The only downside to the day was that it was cool and a little rainy so we were under tents all afternoon.

Ephraim sat with our friend Reshma to watch the air show. He would say "fly!fly!"

The Blue Angels are amazing. We have seen their show from the other far side of Lake Washington, but having them fly in formation right over our head was so cool!

Do you see the circle of air around the plane? It is pushing the sound barrier. So cool.

Selah enjoyed the festivities. I love her little raincoat and she has only been able to wear it once.
The I-90 bridge. (Just so you can see how close we were)

The hydroplane races. So stinking fast. They were averaging 130 miles per hour. The Oh Boy! Oberto boat. It won this heat and then ended up winning overall on Sunday.
The birthday boy.
Forrest and Ephraim watching the races. Ephraim kept saying "boat! ook it(look at)!"
Ephraim playing around under the tent. I am not sure that we will get the chance to see Seafair this close again, but I hope we do. It was so neat to see the races and the Blue Angels.

Anticipating September

As I am trying to get caught up on posting about our summer (the Family Fun Center, SeaFair, and boating all need to be written) I am trying to get prepared for September. We have a lot of things going on in September. Ephraim is going to start potty training, he and I are going to do preschool 3 days a week, MOPS starts up, I am going off of sugar (trying to lose those last 5 pounds) and hopefully a trip to Wyoming. If it takes me a bit longer to get caught up on blogging - know that it is because I am enjoying these last few days of summer before a busy fall gets started.

Cooler Fun

From August 3rd,

After spending the previous day on the boat, I had a cooler full of drinks and water in the kitchen. Ephraim took all the drinks out and proceeded to play in the water for about half an hour.

A Little Big...

From August 3rd

We bought Ephraim a Britax Marathon at a great price and have loved it. It was my plan to keep my eye out for marathon deal for Selah too. One of my friends alerted me to the fabulous deal at FAO Schwartz for a Britax Boulevard and I couldn't pass it up. I paid 135 for this carseat and it is normally 329. It is basically a Marathon on steroids, with the extra padding. Hopefully Selah will enjoy it in a few months when we move her out of her infant carseat.

Tide Pools

From August 1st,

We woke up, ate breakfast (delicious again), checked out of our hotel and went to the jetty to check out the tide pools. Ephraim had fun scrambling on the rocks and touching a star fish with Nana.
We overturned some rocks and found these little crabs.
Forrest picked on up for Ephraim to touch.
Ephraim was pretty sandy and needed to wash off with Nana's help.
We parted ways with my mom and went to the Brownlee's beach house for Hannah's birthday party. I took absolutely no pictures, but it was a lot of fun!

5 Months

Dear Selah - At 5 months old:

~you can roll over from back to front. You have only rolled over from front to back once (July 31st to be exact - the same day you learned how to roll back to front).

~you no longer sleep through the night. We had a rough week once you learned how to roll but didn't like sleeping on your tummy, but now you like it. Mommy refuses to feed you until 4 AM, but you seem to like to wake up around 1. (and then 4 and are up for the day around 7)

~you want to be on your tummy all the time

~you have discovered your toes

~you have found your tongue (and make silly noises)

~your favorite person is your brother. Momma and Daddy are a close 2nd and 3rd

~you have developed a preference for Nuk pacifiers (which is fine, but Momma misplaced all of them yesterday and you threw a fit - don't worry, I bought more today)

~you love the boat

~You fight going down for naps, but still take 3. The first and third are about 45 minutes long and the middle one is around 2 hours if you don't get interrupted.

~you enjoy being carried

~you hate being left alone

~you eat every 2.5-3.5 hours

~you get called "Sister" way more than you get called "Selah"

~you are a very happy and easy baby. (You make momma want more and have daddy thinking about it - keep up the good work!)

Following the Brownlee's

From July 31

After a short stop at our hotel to swim and see if the kids would take a nap (they didn't) we met up with the Brownlee's at their rental house for dinner.

Ephraim and Grace goofed around on the bar stools.
The Brownlee's were having family pictures taken by a friend at Twin Rocks so we tagged along. I was trying to get Ephraim to sit next to Selah, but he kept inching away from her.
Ephraim wanted to be with the Brownlee's (and probably would have gotten in the middle of their pictures) so we brought out the frisbee to keep him occupied.
We then followed the Brownlee's to the beach for some more pictures.

Ephraim loved the sand and finding sticks.
After pictures the Brownlees came to our hotel for some swimming (and eating - the kids put away a ton of pork sliders, crackers, cheese, and salami). Nana joined us right as we were getting out of the pool and we headed our separate ways for bedtime.

Tillamook Cheese Factory

From July 31,

Next stop: The Tillamook Cheese Factory. They were packaging Pepper Jack and Ephraim thought it was pretty neat.
The cheese samples.
Ephraim has recently developed a love of cheese and really enjoyed the samples, until the last taste - pepper jack. He thought it was way too hot.
Selah sleeping thru lunch.
We of course had to have ice cream. Forrest got huckleberry, Ephraim got marionberry pie and I had French Silk.
I think you can tell that the ice cream was a hit!

Blue Heron Cheese

From July 31,

Our next stop was the Blue Heron Cheese Factory. My main goal was to have Ephraim see the animals at their petting zoo. Ephraim had fallen asleep on the way there and when he woke up he immediately said "ook! Horse!" (They had horse rides, but they were way too expensive)
Checking out the sheep.

I think this is an alpaca, but I can't ever tell.
There was a little sheep in this pen that kept baa-ing. Ephraim would yell "more!" and then when the sheep did he would softly say "wow!"

Nehalem Bay Winery

From July 31st

We headed out to the Oregon Coast for the weekend. Our friend Hannah was having her 30th birthday party at Rockaway Beach on Sunday and we decided to stay at the beach all weekend, rather than drive there and back home on Sunday. If you find yourself staying out by Rockaway Beach, the Garabaldi Inn and Suites is FANTASTIC! The food really makes it worth it. The breakfast was delicious, but the happy hour Pulled pork sliders were amazing. And they have an indoor pool. We arrived Friday night, but were ready to see the sights on Saturday morning.

First stop - Forrest and I headed out to the Nehalem Bay Winery. It was a beautiful drive from our hotel. We didn't know it, but they were having free tastings - perfect! Normally Forrest and I will buy one wine when we go tasting.
We bought six! And we could have bought several more, but decided our checkbook probably needed a break. All 6 wines are different. We love dessert wines and bought a reisling, a gewurztraminer, peach wine, blackberry wine, a muscat and a mead.
We have already enjoyed one and look forward to drinking the rest.

The River

From July 18th

The Brownlee's and the Moody's came over in the afternoon for a little lunch, camping planning, and jumping in the river.

Ephraim loves Grace. LOVES her. He talks about her all the time. He always has fun playing with her.
Grace giving Ephraim a ride.
Ephraim struggling to give Grace a ride.
Merrick and Grace
Forrest and Ephraim
Ramie and Judson
Merrick doing a cartwheel into the river.
Sunbathing
Jump!
Hannah and I went in at the very end.

Indoor Picnic

From July 15th

I have been working on recovering and painting our kitchen chairs. Our table and two chairs are from Forrest's college days and the other four chairs are from my college days. They don't match. My chairs are cushioned and have been taking quite the beating from our 2 year old. I painted the chairs white (I have 2 left to do) and recovered the cushions in a laminated cotton fabric. The spills don't sink in - it is fabulous. I only wish that I had done this 2 years ago.

While I was painting the kitchen table, I laid out a blanket and we had several indoor picnics. Ephraim thought it was pretty cool to be able to eat on the floor.
Four of the completed chairs.
This was also the day that Ephraim decided he liked sandwiches. Yummy PB&J!