The Fourth

Our fourth of July weekend started Friday morning when we drove out to Seaside to join Ryan's family at a beach house they rented for a week. We stayed for three days in the house. It was HUGE, right on the beach, complete with an ocean mural in the kitchen, marble showers, hundreds of dvds, pool table, poker table (unused this trip), telescope, full size barbecue, and plenty of room for all of us.



This swing set was about 200 yards from our door, and right on the beach. I don't think we could have come up with a better combo for Kate: water, sand, and a swing set all in one place. She was in heaven. It was so nice to walk out the back door and right on to the beach, we didn't haul anything back and forth besides a little sand, I loved it.
Here Kate is wearing the Fourth of July oufit that Grandma sewed and I embellished. I thought it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

Kate squeezed every last moment of swimming and wading into those three days as she could. Ryan loved playing in the water with her, how convenient because I thought it was pretty chilly. We had to force Kate out of the ocean periodically so she didn't over-chill.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa-Grandpa for a great trip, wished we could have stayed longer!

Where skies are always blue...

Since I'm pretty sure my family are the only people who understood what this post title was referencing, this is a post about my trip to Montana with Kate. If I could sum it up in one word, I'd say "decompressing." I love my home. Stress recedes just to imagine warm nights on the hammock, every star visible, the lake shimmering in the moonlight, frogs croaking, and no other people within eye or ear-shot. That sort of living is healthy and I miss it. Our visit filled a void and I feel rejuvenated.

Saw lots of "deeries."

Even saw a buffalo. Kate asked if we could kiss it, I'm not sure that's a desire anyone in all of history has had.

Went on walks with grandma. They talked all about the people who lived in the houses below, the tractors doing the work, the horses in the fields, the dogs in the yards, the grass growing so tall, the mailman delivering the mail, the best kind of stuff to talk about in the world if you're little.

I wish I had more pictures of the swimming. Kate had the time of her life and nearly learned to swim on her own in the pool of my youth at my parents condo on Flathead Lake.

When I watched Kate, I reminisced my trips to the condo as a little girl. The 25 min drive included Audrey and I doing our best to fill every bit of silence by belting the words to Whitney Houstons singles tape playing in the minivan while my dad drove. We also swam to exhaustion. But we almost always got to stop by the little grocery store and enjoy fudgesicles for the drive home. You cannot know, until you are a parent, what sort of commitment and work those things require. Thanks dad for spending the 3 hours periodically to take the little girls of the family for these outings, they are some of my favorite times.

Thanks mom and dad for choosing to raise me in the most beautiful and simple place on earth and thanks for letting me return.

Cruisin

Gabe and Dave provided a fabulous date night for the family when they took us on a ride down the Willamette River. But I wished my Dad could have been there, it was a trip just up his alley.

For non-portlanders, the Willamette runs right through downtown portland, so we got to see the city from a totally different perspective and as we traveled out of city limits our dream house observing appetites were certainly filled by taking in all the gorgeous houses on the river. It was one of the best nights we've had in a long time, so relaxing, beautiful, and very romantic. Not to mention we got to see a fisherman pull an eight-foot sturgeon out of the river, that was nuts. Mid trip, we docked our boat right on this restaurant's dock, stepped out of the boat, and sat down to a great seafood meal.
I satisfied my pregnancy induced desire for all things chocolate with a mini chocolate pudding dessert. No ordinary chocolate pudding though, I'll tell you that much. I savored every bite.

berry baby

As you can see Kate had a great time picking strawberries. Mom picks 5 berries, Kate eats two. She loaded her little belly with all the fresh berries she could stand. After every berry selection Kate asked, "this a yucky one or a good one?" Kate was our QC woman this trip. Isn't Oregon beautiful?

I'm ready to go!

I asked Kate to pick a toy to bring in the car. This is what she came down the stairs with. Apparently she's beginning to pack like a female already.

Go on the potty, get a sucker?

This is the common phrase on our house nowadays. Maybe the incentive is overshadowing the actual objective of learning to go on the potty. But we're making progress and that's pretty exciting! Kate loves showing me her colored tongue after the treat.