Archive for the ‘Relatives’ Category

July 1st, 2013 by sara

Phoebe Visits!

And she’s old enough to really play now.  So much fun and cuteness!

The kids had fun playing in their rooms – building train tracks, playing with dolls, and just being silly.  It was great to watch Phoebe ask Nora to play and have Nora go off down the hall with her, and they would just figure out stuff to do together.

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There were also a few rounds of popsicles, since it was basically in the 90s for most of the visit.

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We went to the park to ride bikes, but Phoebe was suddenly not interested in biking.  No worry, Jonah, Uncle Jonathan will race you!

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There was a lot of sndbox playing as well.  Phoebe helped with a bunch of scooping and stirring for Nora’s ‘recipe’ and Nora baked it up on her legs.  Nice job, Nora…

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Jonah and Phoebe worked together to make “the biggest mountain ever.”

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And of course, the obligatory cousin photo shoot which mostly ended in pretty hilarious combinations of expressions.

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January 8th, 2013 by sara

Seattle Trip

Two days after Christmas, we took a trip up to Seattle to visit with our family up there.  All sorts of relatives! We stayed with Lisa, Jonathan, and Phoebe, which was fun for all the kids.  On Friday, we met up with my Uncle Johnny, Aunt Karen and cousin Riley to explore the Pacific Science Center.  While the whole place was fun, Jonah and Nora were most excited about the space part of the exhibit.  Surprise.  :)

 

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Sitting in the space capsule.  Which buttons to push, switches to flip…?

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Nora and Phoebe check out the honeybee colony.

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My favorite part – the butterfly room!  We walked around and got to get a close look at all sorts of beautiful critters.

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Cousins!!  On a caterpillar!  The cutest.

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Nora was interested in touching some anemones.  She also liked the sea star.

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Another favorite spot was the large funnel where little balls can roll around in circles until they drop down the hole.  They loved how Riley could get a huge handful and put a whole bunch in at once!

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This picture cracks me up – it looks like Nora’s trying to take down the Space Needle with her water cannon.

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Later, Riley was a great source of entertainment for all the kids – puppet shows and baseball silliness.

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We also got to see Aunt Jeanne at Gran and Grandad’s house.  She was visiting from South Carolina and enjoyed seeing the kids.  Nora gladly sang a few rounds of Take Me out to the Ballgame with her.  It’s pretty much her favorite song these days, and she knows all the verses.

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“…three strikes you’re out!”

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And Jonah played his first full game of Scrabble at Lisa’s place.  He said, “Mom.  I just love Scrabble so much that I think we should play it every single day!!”  And while we haven’t played a whole game every day, I’m pretty sure we’ve played at least part of one.  He loves coming up with the words by himself, and after a few games even started counting up all the points and taking over the scorekeeper job!

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Um…  hey there, Bean.

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December 29th, 2012 by seans

Uncle Larry!

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July 22nd, 2012 by sara

Monkle and a Lake Hike

At the beginning of the month, Monkle Ricky came to visit us while he was out in this part of the country. We took him to a park and our new favorite frozen yogurt shop (as we’ve been doing with pretty much all our summer guests), and on his second day we all drove about an hour to Clear Lake for a hike.

The lake was beautifully blue and clear.

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And extremely cold.

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The trail went through old-growth forests…

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…over bridges…

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…and through lava fields!

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Jonah happily hiked every bit of this five mile(!) loop around the lake.  Everyone, including Jonah, was amazed and proud.  Well done, little hiker!

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We stopped for a nice picnic lunch in the woods.

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Nora got a nice ride for pretty much the whole hike.

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Even still, she was exhausted by the end. :)

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Jonah also got a special monkle haircut while Ricky was in town.

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The kids absolutely loved having their crazy uncle here! Lots of laughing on this visit!

July 3rd, 2012 by sara

Uncle David!

We were so excited to have Uncle David come to visit us for a few days near the end of June.  We took him to lots and lots of parks.  I think we made it to five altogether, despite having only one rain-free day during his visit.  Uncle David knows how to have a good time at a park.

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On our sunny afternoon, we went to the spray park in our neighborhood. Somehow Jonah’s favorite thing to do is stand on a fountain when it’s off and then wait for it to surprise him and spray him in the face. Crazy.

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So of course, Nora liked it, too.

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After we were done, Jonah was thrilled to discover that there was a softball game to watch while we dried off.

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The kids read lots of books with Uncle David.

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And on Saturday, the Eugene forecast looked cold and rainy, so we decided that if we were going to be cold and rained upon, we might as well do it at the beach. So we drove out to Florence, and to our (great) surprise, it was a sunny and not painfully windy day on the coast. Thanks to winter hats and windbreakers, we enjoyed a nice long walk on the sand.

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Jonah found a stick that was perfect for drawing in the sand. He was making a line for Nora to follow.

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But wait! If you can draw lines in the sand, shouldn’t you really be using those lines to make a baseball field?

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And finally, people who have come to the beach before us have made some pretty serious driftwood structures. Here are the kids looking cute in a stick house.

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