Family Visit, and Car Visit

Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty rolled into town this week, on the last leg of an extended road trip from Washington.

It was great to spend time together, as always. Spending time with them grew even better for Stace when Bill let him drive his new car.
Sure, flying is quicker, but why be quick when you have something as fun to drive as a Mercedes convertible?

Uncle Bill and my mom went to visit their other brother in San Pedro this week, and needed a more roomy car. Stace was more than willing to let them take his CR-V, especially since it meant he could take the SL500 to work. Wow. He couldn't stop talking about it!

We hosted a family barbecue this week, which was a lot of fun, and tried to go to the Aquatic Center.

But I forgot that our favorite water park was closed because of a special event. So, Aunt Patty and the girls and I went to get a new water toy at Walmart, which we played with at Grandpa's house.

Violet loves Jake and Pepper, the doggies, and shows no fear of them at all.

Now, Uncle and Aunt are back on the road, and Nan and Pop are on their way here!

Gotta love spending time with family in the summer - such a blessing.

My little princess

Hard to believe that two years ago, Cora was a tomboy who preferred trains and cars! She often dresses up during nap/rest time, wearing either her princess outfits or her own dressy dresses. Here, she said she put on her knitted gloves because princesses wear gloves.

Some recent Coraisms: "Mum, does God have nipples?" and "Someone took my braveness" (when explaining why she performed poorly at her swimming lesson).

And, a story/Coraism: A friend on Facebook posted that her son Harvey was horrified to learn that the chicken on his plate came from a real, well, chicken. He was had tears in his eyes, threw down his fork, and said, "Let's go."
Since I was with Cora when I read this, I asked her if it made her sad that the meat we eat comes from animals. She said no, it didn't make her sad. She then asked how they kill the chickens - "With a gun? Or do they break their heads off?"

I guess we won't have a Cora-the-vegetarian phase at our house!

15 months

Our Violet is now 15 months old and enjoying her summer very much!

We cleaned up the outdoor toys, much to Violet's joy. She loves playing on her slide and pushing around the ride-on cars. Today, she was inside the house pointing to the slide, saying, "Wheeee!"

Violet loves going to the pool and playing in the water this month, too. She is very confident in the baby pool, and therefore needs a close eye on her at all times!

Violet is nursing twice a day, in the morning and evening, and, I'm glad to say, has started to drink other types of milk (cow, soy, almond, whatever we have around). She has her two top one-year molars coming through, and the four front teeth are in. (She still has just two on the bottom.)

She has grown more impatient at feeding and changing time, and more prone to fussing and screaming. But, she also is pretty good at obeying simple commands. She still is generally easy-going and happy.

You can see a cute pottying photo here - we have toilet time in the morning before breakfast, when she generally is successful, and a few other times during the day. She always cheers and claps for herself when she goes.

In the photo with the kitty, I was cleaning in the kitchen when I happened to overhear Violet offering Spencer a drink.

I'm happy I was close enough to a camera to grab this photo, but I wish I'd been able to film her saying, "Alguie? Alguie?" as she put the cup on the cat's face.

The last photo shows Violet with her friend Owen. Owen is so good with Violet! He always asks for her when we all get together. And Violet is all smiles for Owen, whose name she tries to say. She also says "Ave" to Owen's big sister (but I haven't heard her attempt to say Johnny).

Violet can identify her eyes, ears, nose, mouth and feet, and say the sounds that kitties, doggies, cows, sheep, horses and goats make.

Friends and swimming

I'm just loving summer! More good times with friends, more playing in the water, and some deep house-cleaning thrown in for fun.

Daryl, Juliana and their girls came out Friday night for dinner, and the weather was lovely for a dining al fresco. The girls played well, and the margaritas hit the spot.

We four adults, and the two babies, sat around the table while the 4-year-olds dressed up, played croquet and then went in for Tangled and some coloring. It's great as they get older and we can trust them to run their own activities.

Natalia is now 9 months old, and was so excited to play with the kitties! She was squealing with joy.

On Saturday, after some window cleaning and gardening and Violet's morning nap, we went off to the Aquatic Center as a family. It was great fun, of course!

Sunday, after church and talking to our family in England, we spent some time working on the house.

The week ahead would be busy with family coming into town, so it was time for a bit of beautifying in the yard. New mulch, a few new flowers, cleaning the outdoor toys, etc.

VBS week

This week Cora enjoyed Vacation Bible School, where she was in the same little group with her good friend Johnny.

She was very into it, wanting to participate in the "theme" days, like crazy socks and silly hair. The silliest hair we could agree to was the pigtails you see in the top photo, where her group had the chance to sing and dance in front of all the others.

On Friday, I volunteered as a fill-in crew leader for a leader who was absent. Friday featured the closing family lunch and water play, with a giant water slide and slip 'n slide. Cora, Ave and Johnny enjoyed all this together.

While Cora was at VBS and Violet was napping, I had high hopes of getting a lot of work done on my 2009 blog book. In the end, I got some work done, but not as much as I'd hoped. It's amazing how quickly those three hours go by.

Also this week, Cora and I took the boys to Dr. Rebecca for a well-check. It was nice to see her again, and she was so pleased for us that we now have new kitties. She said they look very healthy, and we just need to be careful to remember all 24 (!) of Sebastian's claws when we're trimming them. They were both in the six-pound range, but Seb was about a half-pound heavier than Spencer.

I scream, you scream...

...Violet screams for ice cream!

We've had a Tuesday night tradition, off and on, for a couple of years now to head up to Baskin Robbins for their $1 cone night.

For most of Violet's first year of life, she didn't really notice what we were doing as we ate our ice cream. And, as she got older, I could bring yogurt for her to feed her, to distract her from what we were eating.

But this week, we've entered a new era. Violet ate her yogurt, sure, but in between bites she fussed and even screamed, wanting more of Big Sister's ice cream. Cora was nice enough to share it with her when we first sat down, and that was that. Violet wanted - no, needed - more.

So, next time we go, maybe one of us will get a vanilla frozen yogurt, for Violet to freely share. Or, maybe we'll make the leap and get Violet her own cup.

Summer weekend fun

We've been enjoying barbecues with friends the past few weeks.

Last weekend, we went to Daryl and Juliana's, and this past Friday, we dined at Colleen and Rigo's.

Violet enjoyed playing with Puma and King, Colleen and Rigo's kid-friendly dogs: "Here, Puma, it's for you."

Stace played some tunes on the guitar, and we toasted marshmallows on the fire. We think we'd like a fire pit of our own, now. It was the perfect end to a great evening of food and friends.

Earlier Friday, the girls and I did Stroller Strides at the mall, where Violet had fun at the kids' play area.

We spent Sunday at Hurricane Harbor, which was a birthday gift from my parents to Stace. My mom went with us, and helped with Violet while Stace and I rode a waterslide.

We had planned to go Saturday, and Cora had a swimming lesson beforehand. Unfortunately, she was very scared and uncooperative during her lesson. This was a huge turnaround from her last lesson, when she was brave and eager. We tried to encourage her, and I said she had to try to listen to her teacher if she was to go to Hurricane Harbor. This turned out to be a big mistake. Suffice to say, we didn't end up going Saturday. Thankfully, it worked well for us to go Sunday, and it was a great day out.

Silly girls!

A few funny things Cora and Violet have done lately:

Photo one - a little mouse got into my cheese after I got it home, before I got it into the drawer!
Violet is a cheese fan. I'm glad about this, since she won't drink other types of milk even though we offer them. She can say "cheese," too.

Photo two - Cora had earned a movie, and she watched part of it while having her lunch Tuesday. I set up a towel, upon which Violet immediately sat down, and then looked expectantly up at Cora with her mouth open. Where did she learn this?

Photo three - nothing needs to be written here.

Photo four - The movie Cora watched Tuesday, and over the weekend for family movie night, was Tarzan. On Thursday, toward the end of Cora's nap/rest time, she frantically called me to her room.
"I broke my curtain!" she was shouting.
Sure enough.
She said she was hanging on to her curtain, swinging down from her low bookcase.
When I asked about Tarzan, she said yes, she was trying to swing like him. It might be hard to see in the photo, but the 2-inch-thick wooden rod was shattered, split in two.

Lucky for Cora, we had another white wooden rod in the garage, all brought over from the condo. Stace had a stern talk with Cora, and she was very apologetic. Never would have thought I needed to tell Cora not to jump off her bookcase, hanging from her curtain.

Cora lifts the economy

We've started a paid-chore system with Cora, where she can earn money for a few of her jobs, like helping me fold Violet's diapers, and putting away the clean silverware from the dishwasher caddy.

She gets five dimes (50 cents) for each job, so it's easy to divide into saving (20 cents), spending (20 cents) and giving (10 cents). We took a trip to Target Wednesday, and she used her own money to buy new tape - one of her favorite art supplies - and her own Icee. I had coupons for the tape, so it cost her 40 cent.

On Thursday, we had lunch with Jaimie, Mackenzie and Luke. The kids had a great time together, even though Violet had missed her morning nap and Luke was overdue for his nap. The girls got along really well, and we all enjoyed Thrifty ice cream after our lunch.

The next two photos are from Lowes - Cora and Violet shared the special two-seater kids' compartment in the cart, and Cora grabbed the camera for a goofy photo showing Violet's new tooth.

Also this week, we visited Melanie and her new baby, Heather Olivia. We had a nice lunch visit, and it was fun to hold a newborn again. Not that I miss holding a baby yet - Violet is definitely still my baby!

And, finally, we've been happily eating grapes from our vine this week! We planted the vine over two years ago, and this is our first crop. They are really sweet, and on the clusters that Stace thinned earlier in the year, a good size, too.

A decade well lived

"The days are long but the years are short."

We live our day-to-day lives, taking one day at a time, the good ones with the bad. And suddenly, you realize that a lot of days have gone by...

I had one of those moments this month, when it hit me that it's been 10 years since JT and I made our first fateful trip to England together.

We were one year out of college, emailing constantly and getting together whenever we could, to plan a "once in a lifetime" trip with guidebooks and Web research and lofty plans and dreams. We were to fly in July 4, 2001, to spend a few days in London together, before these two British blokes from the countryside came out to travel with us.

JT was kind of dating Jim, and I thought his friend Stacey was just great. Not that we were going to start any sort of romantic relationship - we knew how silly that would be, with 6,000 miles in between.

Still, he was smart, funny, talkative, a great tour guide, and adorable. The best traveling companion I could hope for.

From the cozy confines of a youth hostel, we four saw London together - that's my 22-year-old self posing with a couple of London bobbies. I made Stace ask them for the photo, figuring his accent would make it come across as less corny. The hat-sharing was the officer's idea.

Then it was on to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick Castle (pictured) and Cambridge, staying the nights in a tent. We then went down to the boys' homeland of Somerset, before going further west to Cornwall. (The final photo, forgive the blurry scan, is of the Men an Tol, an ancient stone arrangement in Cornwall that took us ages to find.)

It is a beautiful country, and we had an amazing time together. It was perfect!
Parts of it I can remember like it was last week, though other details have slipped away. I wish I could go back in time and relive certain moments - if only we all could have known how that 12-day trip would change all of our lives.

Lots of emails. Lots of trips (including Paris, Barcelona, the English Lake District, and a Venice proposal). Lots of phone calls.

A near-deadly car crash, followed by a big realization. Proposals, wedding plans, visa applications. A huge move. Many tearful good-byes; some of them permanent.

A wedding! Another wedding (JT and Jim, days after us)! Another big move, as JT went to Martock.
New jobs, new homes, new babies.
A lot of life.

And for all of this, we are so deeply thankful.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11