Family in Town

My friend's son's birthday was last week, which gave us the great opportunity to get together with two of my favorite families and theird kids that we have been friends with since the day we moved in 19 months ago. I'll skip the group photo of everyone, but we loved setting up for his surprise birthday and spending some much needed time with friends we haven't seen regularly in four months. I will miss these families so much. 

 I was so happy to ahve my mom and sister and two nieces come visit for the last four days. There's something special about having family come to your house so you can show them the places you love. My kids loved having their cousins here. They played so hard. We went to the beach and went hiking and played on the trampoline and in the yard and watched movies and went to Menchies and my mom and sister and I chatted and chatted and chatted and generally loved being together. We will get to see lots more of them when we move down to SLC in ten days, but this was special to have them here on our turf in this place we love so much before we have to move.

 Watershed Park.

 Chloe loves Bella so much. She and Aaron and Bella played so well together.

 Chloe loves to hang out with Grandma.

 Aaron and Bella are friends for life after this weekend. They've not had the opportunity before now to develop a friendship, so I'm so happy it blossomed this weekend.

We have just a few veggies we're harvesting from our garden we planted back in April before we had any idea we'd be leaving. This purple carrot was a winner.

 Lake Sammamish at Idylwood Park. We had such a great time kayaking and playing in the sand and swimming.

 Did a bit of crafting Sunday afternoon. Some string art with Genevieve.

 And Perler Beads with Chloe. That's an elephant we made together.

 And in preparation for possibly going back to school this fall I'm testing out mask sizes to see what fits my kids. I made one of each size and they're in the wash now, so we'll see how much they shrink and then I can pick the sizes to make for everyone and attach ties. I'm planning to make at least five masks a kid. I'm sure they'll lose them and we'll want one for each day of the school week.

Adventuring

We did lots of fun things this week and it was lovely. 

Chloe said she was going to eat all of this watermelon. She loves fruit so much. 

 She came out dressed and ready to go to Grandma's house. Who lives 900 miles away from here. hahaha!

 Ready to go kayaking with friends!

 Went out on Lake Washington with these lovely ladies. I love them so much. I have the best friends here. These are just a few of them.

 Aaron turned six! We had fun celebrating him.

 Money from Grandma.

 We went camping with friends to celebrate Aaron's birthday and it was so fun. We went to Ensign Ranch, which is one of my favorite places in the world. I've been going there since 1995 but took a 15-year break when I lived far away.

 We brought cake and sang to Aaron plus two of our friends' boys who also had birthdays this week.

 We went kayaking on the Yakima River. At least I think it was that river. It was windy and beautiful.

 Watching Aaron paddle his own kayak around just impresses me so much. He's six and yet so capable at life.

 The drive home. We tuckered these girls out. Even Spencer snoozed, which is unheard of.

 And all the Seattle cousins together possibly for the last time before we move. This last 18 months here has been so wonderful. We thought we were going to stay here forever, but it looks like there are other plans for us that aren't clear yet. I'm glad we got this time but sad we have to leave all the family and friends we love so much.

Family Time

My nephew got baptized last weekend and so we had Bill's parents in town and it was so delightful to spend time with them. We had a great time, didn't take hardly any pictures, which I kind of think is the best kind of time even though I don't have much documentation. Good times.

We spent Fourth of July with a couple friends from church that we haven't seen in four months and it was the nicest thing ever. I never realized how much I would enjoy social interaction. This Covid-19 pandemic is the worst.

 Cousin time watching Captain Underpants. Nobody was complaining, despite how jammed together they were.

 I built this tabletop for a friend. It's on a base with a hydraulic lift, so you can put it at table height or coffeetable height or anywhere in between. Pretty cool. She has it as a table on her porch. We got to use it for Fourth of July at her house. It worked so well.

 Grandma Genevieve here. She swiped Suzanne's glasses. Foreshadowing. I guarantee she'll need glasses in not too many years, based off of me and Bill's eye history, lol.

Happy birthday, Chloe

This week Chloe turned four. It feels like a huge milestone. No more carseat, preschool starting in the fall, and just everything remotely baby is gone. She's pretty awesome, so it's all good. She's a firecracker and I love her so much. 

 Opening a gift from Grandma Jones.

 A new puzzle we gave her.

 Birthday cake.

 New swimsuits.

 And a little pedaling practice for Aaron, who is struggling learning to ride his bike, but maybe this will help. Whether it does or not, all the kids love it.

 Family game night playing killer bunnies