Sherpa

On Friday, the weather was amazing, so Sarah, Grace, and I hopped in the car and rode up to Mt Rainier National Park. We had borrowed a kid-carrier from our neighbors (thanks Kevin & Cindy) so that I could be a modern day sherpa for Grace, and planned on hiking around the Paradise Lodge area.  Paradise is the step off point for many climbers intending to summit Mt Rainier.  I have been there many times in late July and found the trails near there quite nice.  What I forgot was that we had a La-Nina year, so lots of snow - and even though it's nearly August, Summer has barely peaked it's warm head into the Pacific Northwest.  This resulted in the trails at Paradise being still covered in about 5 feet of snow.  We were in need of a quick plan B.

As it tuns out, our plan B worked quite well.  We stopped by Reflection Lakes, which weren't reflecting much that day, seeing as there was a nice breeze. 

 After the photo shoot, we headed down to lower elevation where the snow had melted clear.  From Cougar Rock Campground, we hiked along the Wonderland Trail for over a mile before stopping for lunch and then heading home.  

 Grace seemed to love the kid-carrier, as long as she was on my back.  Once I set her down, she quickly grew frustrated and wanted out.

This was our first (that's right, FIRST) time hiking sine Grace has been born.  It was a delightful experience for all and I think we all look forward to doing it again sometime soon.  

A Walker is on the Horizon

When Scott brought home a walker toy for Grace a couple months ago she didn't seem interested at all in it. She'd stand, holding onto the bar, but the second you tried to push her to take a few steps she either fussed loudly or simply sat down and crawled away. It's lived in our basement on the carpet, and Grace hasn't had much practice since we are never down there. Recently she started walking with us holding onto only one of her hands but is still rather wobbly and slow. Well, the other night I had Grace downstairs as I was loading and unloading the endless laundry and decided to give the walker another try. To my surprise, she took two laps around the couch and furniture. For those of you that haven't seen our basement or our couch, it's a pretty large space. Over the past couple of days she's really gotten a hang of it and frequently lights up and giggles at her new ability.

Water Park Fun

We spent this past Sunday afternoon after I got off work at Wright Park and its new water attraction. First time we took Grace and she was a bit overwhelmed. I think it was a combination of hoards of screaming kids and splashing water. She got used to as we were there and we are excited to take her back...if the sun will ever come out around here longer than a single day every couple of weeks. The Pacific Northwest has certainly had a poor summer, although compared to the rest of the nation's heat wave I suppose I should be happy. But I can't help it, I love the hot sun. The trip to the park would not be complete without Grace having a turn in the swing...her favorite. I also included an updated pic of the baby bump. Sure shows much sooner the second time around! I'm now almost 15 weeks pregnant and feeling really great for the most part.

Un-breaking

Just how did Grace get those in there in the first place?

Breaking Stuff in New Ways

When you have children you have to be mentally prepared for things to get broken. The hard part is in un-breaking them when you needed to be out the door 5 minutes ago and if you don't it means you leave the home unlocked.

Bear Crawl

Grace loves to bear crawl. She bear crawls all over the house and the yard. Specifically, she bear crawls to go get the strawberries that are ripening in our flower bed. She crawls there over and over again. Earlier this summer, she beat us to the strawberry plant and tried to pick the strawberry and eat it. Unfortunately for the plant, Grace picked not only the strawberry, but most of the plant as well. Since then, we've been much more diligent about getting to her before she gets to the unpicked berries.

Day Trip to Sequim

Donna, Grace and I took a short day trip to Sequim last Wednesday. The plants were just starting to bloom in the lavender capital of North America and it was quite a site to capture on camera. Grace took her two naps of the day in the car taking up most of the 2 hour drive there and back and she loved the farms. Not surprising since the one thing that soothes her when she's grouchy or fussy is to just simply be outside no matter the weather. We decided to go during the week instead of battling the crowds during the official festival weekend. We had most of the farms to ourselves, able to visit with the farm owners, not to mention browse all the many fabulous smelling lavender made products in the gift shops and enjoy a nice lunch at a local cafe complete with lavender soda and lemonade to drink and lavender white chocolate cheesecake. Yum. More pics on our Picasa page: https://picasaweb.google.com/scott.templin/LavenderFestival71311